You don’t need to read business blogs.

The title might seem to be shooting myself in the foot; however, I believe honesty is important. If you keep reading you will find that reading blogs can be a good thing.

Reading business blogs is good for business, unfortunately it is not always your business that benefits and if you follow advice without thinking it will also usually be to your detriment. I searched on ‘business blogs’ and this was one of the results that search returned; “100 business blogs that you need to start reading”. What! Who has the time to follow one hundred blogs? At five minutes a blog that’s eight hours and twenty minutes – a whole day out of the week if they post weekly. Some I checked out posted daily.

The link took me to an article on the resources page of the Quickbooks website which was headed, “ Starting up – 100 business blogs that you need to start reading”. Now you might think Quickbooks would know what they are talking about, but I was thinking far from quick, more like bogged down in blogs. The article did recover some credibility when it said “No matter where you are in your business journey, there’s a business blog for you. Instead of scouring search engines for the best blogs, we compiled our picks for today’s 100 best business blogs” Ah, so when they say 100 business blogs you should start reading, they actually mean here is a list, pick a few. They very helpfully list them by category, Starting up, Sales, Marketing, etc.

The article is on the Quickbooks USA website, so the blogs recommended are American and tend to be prolific. This is the listing for one blog in the Marketing section: Appcues – “Their blog is loaded with hundreds of posts on the nuances of onboarding new customers, which every entrepreneur knows is a real challenge. Let Appcues fill you in on the nuts and bolts of making your customers happy and successful.” I think many small businesses wouldn’t have enough customers to need hundreds of nuanced onboarding techniques.

No, you don’t need to read business blogs, especially when you first start in business. It is a good idea to read some basic business guides. There are plenty available from trade bodies like the Federation of Small Businesses, the Government, or your bank. Then get on and work on your business.

The time for reading blogs is after you have had plenty of experiences, then you can blogs for inspiration, getting confirmation you are going in the right direction, having a different perspective and for firing up the creative process. One of the 100 blogs, James Clear’s Blog, has a post about this, drawing on the small, but exceptionally good 1965 book,  A Technique for Producing Ideas which says:

“creative thinking is not about generating something new from a blank slate, but rather about taking what is already present and combining those bits and pieces in a way that has not been done previously”

So, you combine your experience with stuff in blogs and hey presto up pop some great new ideas.

There are some useful articles on the James Clear website neatly arranged in the following categories.

• Creativity
• Decision making
• Focus
• Habits
• Life Lessons
• Motivation
• Productivity
• Self-improvement

Some of the articles, for example ‘For a More Creative Brain Follow These 5 Steps’, appear in more than one category. My favourite one so far is The Ultimate Productivity Hack is Saying No.

Honesty Box

The seed of an idea for these business blogs has to grow and I nurture it until it is ready to harvest, then I prepare it so you can digest it. If you found the content useful please consider popping some money into the honesty box. Unlike buying eggs at the farm gate, you cannot put the cash in a box because you are reading this online. You can click on the Buy Me a Coffee link below which will take you to a page where by magic (nifty software) a small amount of money will disappear from your account and appear in mine. Don’t worry you are in control all the time. If the post wasn’t helpful, please leave a comment suggesting how it can be improved.

If you like what I say you can buy me a coffee if you want to.

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