How to Get Free Advice from a Business Guru
As a consultant, I receive many frantic calls from micro entrepreneurs who want to obtain some immediate and free advice from me.
It’s usually a friend of a friend or a student that I’ve taught somewhere in the past who wants my help with some aspect of their new venture. Most of the time I find myself coaching them on how to ask me to help them before I ‘m actually able to give them the first piece of “free business advice”.
Here are the common mistakes these guys make and how I recommend solving them:
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Being vague about your concept. If you should be fortunate enough to speak to an entrepreneurial wizard for free, don’t be vague in your description of your concept. You should be able to articulate your business idea and what it is you intend to do with it in two or three sentences. This is NOT the place to start talking about why you came up with the idea, how long it took you to get to this point, or all the other people in your network who can’t help you. Wizards and gurus are busy people, and they tend to like specific information so they don’t have to sift through scenes of drama to figure out what it is you want from them or how they can help you. Get to the point quickly with professional courtesy, with purpose and intentional respect for their time. You may get more of it as a result of your conscientiousness.
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Not knowing what problem you want help with. Know specifically what is it you want from the entrepreneurial wizard and get to that point as efficiently and quickly as possible. Study your business obstacles and problems so that you can communicate the type of help you think you need with ease and clarity. Often the business wizards will be able to direct you in multiple areas, but before they do, they need lucidity from the entrepreneur.
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Rambling on and on or over talking your free expert. When you are able to communicate your problem to a business superstar, it tells the business leader several things about you:
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It says that you are working towards being a serious business owner;
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It says that you respect their time;
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It communicates your business maturity – having this lends you credibility to the mentor so that they are more willing to help you;
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It focuses the conversation, which in turn focus the mentor in a specific direction so that they can guide you towards more of what it is you want.
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Have one or two things you’d like help with, thank your expert, and then get off the phone. If you can establish a professional rapport, you can always call again at another time, but if you wear out your welcome, then this will more than likely be the final conversation.
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Being argumentative or defensive. If a business resource tells you something that causes you to offer an explanation – don’t. Successful or knowledgeable business owners will typically call things as they see them. If they happen to mention something to you that they see as a mistake, just suck it up unless they ask why you made a particular decision. One of the reasons that it’s good to just suck it up is because business resources are just resources, and they can offer objective opinions on things. It’s not personal. Process your decisions (right or wrong) with your peers, not an unfamiliar business resource. Also, your defensive position could shut the resource down, and they could begin to view you as un-teachable or too sensitive to accept their advice.
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Not being willing to invest or pay for the good advice. It is well understood that young businesses don’t have much money, however the young entrepreneur should be willing to invest in their own education and understanding, even if it’s just a book. If your guru advisor is an author, purchase a copy of their book as good measure and as a token of your appreciation for the investment they just made in you. You could also send a gift card to Starbucks or make some other appreciative gesture that is not convenient. Doing this simply gives a nice warm feeling to the person who took time to invest in your situation and is a small way of giving back.
Rhonda Novak