Sources of impartial business advice...

No matter how good a business, it can always benefit from external advice from time to time.

This is particularly the case at key times in the business life cycle, and of course particularly at the beginning when the business is being set up the more advice there is on offer the better.

The question is, what are the best sources of impartial business advice and how do you go about finding them? Are the government bodies such as business link really that useful or do the people that work for such organisations actually have little real world experience?

It would be interesting to hear what business advice those on here have sought and how they have found it in terms of relevance and beneficial impact to their business.

Re : Sources of impartial business advice

Try and get a business mentor, they would be ideal at giving you useful but impartial advice... friends and family are good for advice too, though in that instance I guess it won't be impartial.

Re : Sources of impartial business advice

I've always found BusinessLink to be a very useful resource, however I know I'm possibly in the minority when I say that!

I've found some of my best business advice has come from networking groups - groups where you get together each month and have proper discussions around certain issues.

I'm not sure I'd always trust friends and family - unless they have direct experience in running a business; their advice will be given in the best of intentions, but might not always be the best advice.
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Re : Sources of impartial business advice

The problem with government agencies is that they are staffed by employees who will only give you derivative and sub-standard advice.

There are two better sources:

a) Other business owners - email other owners and ask. Some will reply. Cultivate that friendship.

But beware - alot of other business owners, though they have the right perspective, are running blind too. How much do they really know about, for example, strategy in the way that management consultants do? How many know what even a Value Chain or Ansoff's Matrix is? Virtually none. Which brings me to the other source:

b) Management consultants. The best are agencies like McKinsey but they charge fortunes. There are lots of other consultants - best thing to do is email and ask questions. Cultivate those that reply. Try support@clickok.org .

In summary, cultivate multiple sources.

Re : Sources of impartial business advice

Always nice to find someone else who is not enamoured with government agencies Nicely said, fortyton