Your $5, Please

There are so many free resources cropping up for entrepreneurs I can hardly keep track of them all.

Here's one that lists a whole bunch of services you can get for $5.

Really? I haven't purchased anything for $5 in - I can't remember how long. I thought the $5 purchase had gone the way of the .05-cent ice cream cone, which was the going price at my local Sav-On Drugstore (Sav-On!) when I was a tiny child. (It was quite a shock when the single cone went up to a dime. What was the world coming to!?)

Anyway, it's obvious that most folks offering something for $5 are hoping to up-sell you into a contract that's just a tad more lucrative. So take these for what they're worth (which would be $5, actually).

But maybe it's not such a bad idea. Experts are always advising small business startups to heavily discount - or even give away - their services to strategic early clients. FiveRR may just be the logical extension of that principle.

Absolutely Free!

I mentioned "Hit the Ground Running," the book authored by the expert I interviewed this week on my podcast, Jason Jennings. It's the story of how top CEOs quickly make a big, positive impact on their companies.

They sent me a copy and I've read it, so I'd be happy to give it to a blog reader who can benefit from it.

I think it'd also be interesting to read the opposite book, the one about how quickly new CEOs can run a company into the ground and why. Sort of a cautionary tale.

Jason and I talked about this and he said he's pitched a couple of books from the "lessons learned" side of things, but his publishers never go for it. I guess they think the public can only handle happy endings.

I think they're selling Americans short, frankly. People love to read about how others screw up, especially if they can avoid mistakes as a result. The Los Angeles Times used to have a regular feature on personal finance that chronicled how people got into debt, how much trouble they were in and what they could do to dig themselves out.

I never missed it!

Email me with your address if you want Jason Jennings' book and I'll ship it out ASAP. You can get my email address by clicking on "view my complete profile" in the right-hand column under my picture.

Freebies

My podcast guest a few weeks back was Nathan Egan, formerly one of the early execs at LinkedIn.

He talked about how social media isn't going away, so small business owners had better learn to use it. Their competitors certainly are!

He's now got a new resource online called Freesourcing.

It's a business directory for free, online resources for small business owners (and others). Search on a term such as "sales" and you'll get a list of related free services and products, what they do and what others think of them.

The site is just getting started (it's in beta mode) but it could be really terrific if it takes off. I've often noted that there are loads of great freebies online but it's not easy to sift through them all and find the truly useful - and truly free - ones.

Global Info

One of my best international sources is Peter Zapf, of Global Sources. His firm has worked in Asia nearly 40 years and it specializes in facilitating international trade.

Now, he tells me, the company is making its print magazines available for free download in .pdf format.

Entrepreneurs who want to source manufacturing or product in China, and U.S. firms that want to begin exporting, often feel like they face a bewildering morass of treaties, laws, cultural dissonance and language barriers.

These magazines would no doubt be a terrific resource for companies who need to research the international market.