I’ve been a follower of Becky McCray on Twitter for quite some time, but only today did I begin following her website, SmallBizSurvival.com. I don’t know what took me so long, the site is awesome! It’s packed with great articles, tools, and tricks for small businesses. It has a rural focus too, which is excellent for my area. As a web designer who has had success finding a niche in a b2b market online (primarily being outsourced to do work from other consultancies) and having a bit of trouble translating that success into direct work with businesses offline (eliminating the middle man) I’m finding a lot of great advice on the SmallBizSurvival website that will hopefully get me on a good track in this other focus of my business.

Some of my favorite articles:

Next questions from starting your first business
Checklists for starting your first business
Five common mistakes

I also enjoy the weekly “brag basket” posts. Hopefully I’ll have some accomplishments to share in the near future!

SmallBizSurvival is a great blog and it’s highly recommended for any entrepreneur, big or small. It’s already given me some great advice and I’m sure you can find something valuable too!

I’ve been having an excellent time with the Grasshoppers, a networking group started by Chris Brogan. Grasshoppers asks the question “how can I help?” and gets you motivated to help others out (and ask for help if you need it). There are a bunch of great people in the community, it’s an excellent group.

One of this week’s goals was to “Donate up to $10USD (or whatever your currency equivalent is) to someone who needs it more than you.” I met this goal before Chris (brogan) posted his message (like 2 days before) so I’m considering myself set for this week on that front.

This post will fulfill parts 4 and 5 of the weekly goals. I’m inviting my readers (all 4 or 5 of you… hah!) to join Grasshoppers and get into the community. There are a lot of great networking opportunities that shouldn’t be missed.

Oh - if you do join, be sure to add me as a friend.

Chris