I came across a very interesting website a few weeks ago. JumpUp.com has announced their official opening today. The site is sponsored by Intuit.
There are plenty of tools and tutorials to help you find the information you need to get started in business for yourself. You can read profiles of real people who have started businesses recently. Intuit has forums, which they call Community Conversations, on the site, although there is no link to them from anywhere on the site yet. I'm a little confused about why they have said they are waiting a month to add the links, unless they are thinking they can use the event as another advertising push. I would guess the conversations will become more active when people can find them.
What I find interesting, and hope that it works the way it's supposed to, is that members make a My JumpUp page similar to those found on other social networking sites. You write a little about yourself and your business, and the site matches you up with other people in the same geographical area or type of business as you. Of course, you can also add your own contacts to the page as you "meet" people. In theory, members can then mentor each other.
I'll be watching to see how this site pans out. I believe it's success will depend greatly on whether it can obtain a large enough member base in a short time period, so that business owners continue to return and share their trials and tribulations with others.
I wish Intuit much luck with the concept. It is one of the few sites where I was able to find practical advice for a small retail startup, and I'd like to see it stick around and offer even more resources.
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