Editorial Policy

The Fit Small Business Editorial Policy is driven by our company mission:

“提供最好的人的问题的答案。”

We tie every piece of content we produce back to that mission, with a focus on the questions and answers:

“People’s Questions”:We use our expertise and research to determine the specific questions people are asking; all of our articles are written with the goal of delivering the best answers to those questions.

“The Best Answers”:Our expert writers work through a comprehensive editorial process to produce deeply researched articles with information and recommendations on the knowledge, strategy, services, and products our audience needs to answer their questions and build their businesses.

We use the following parameters to define the “best” answers:

Accuracy:The best answers are accurate and up-to-date.

Clarity:The best answers are clear, easy to read, well written, well organized, and comprehensive.

Authority:The best answers are based on expertise and authority that are clearly apparent and trustworthy.

Objectivity:最好的答案现在客观的信息,and that objectivity is also clearly apparent and trustworthy.

Accessibility:The best answers present information in ways that account for varying levels of time and interest, satisfying people who want their questions answered simply in 30 seconds, succinctly in 3 minutes, or comprehensively in 30 minutes.

To ensure we’re meeting those parameters, we ask ourselves:

Who?:We identify who is asking the question, and what they need.

What?:We determine the specific question the audience wants answered.

What else?:We answer the question that was asked, and also present and answer any crucial related questions that the audience might not have known enough to ask.

Where?:We identify and address the goal or the journey the person wants to take — To learn? To take an action? To make a purchase? — and deliver all the information needed to meet that goal or complete that journey within an article or by sending them elsewhere.

How?:We offer recommendations on products, processes, and strategies that we assess to be both good and bad by highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. In every case, we deliver all the information we believe is necessary to answer the question and help our audience make good choices. That means we suggest and explain options we believe to be the best while accounting for audience members who need to make choices out of necessity that we do not recommend as the best. We explain how to execute those necessary choices as well.

Partners and Editorial Independence

We’re committed to editorial independence and objective assessment in the products we review and recommend. We also partner with product and service providers to make money.

Our readers’ trust is vitally important to us. When anyone reads an article on Fit Small Business, we want them to know they can trust that the article is accurate and objective, and the recommendations we make are based on the expertise and independent analysis of our expert writers — not just our partner affiliations.

How can we do that? We start by being transparent about how we make money.

Our Partners

We partner with companies that provide products and services that can be helpful to small business owners. We suggest or recommend thousands of products on the site, from partners and non-partners, and we often earn commissions when the audience clicks through to our partners’ sites. These commissions generate the revenue we use to build our own business and continue to deliver the best answers to people’s questions.

We’re committed to partnering with companies that provide quality products and services that we vet to ensure they meet our audience’s needs. In addition to making us money, we view this as a service, much like a store where you would ask for expert help on the best way to achieve a goal or complete a project, and then buy the items you need. We offer expert advice and access to products that answer your questions and help you succeed.

Here’s a list of our partners.

Editorial Independence

Buyer’s Guide Recommendations

The recommendations we make in our buyer’s guides are made independently, with no influence from our partners. Our recommendations are based on research and our writers’ expert assessments of the products or services they’re evaluating, and nothing else. Though we partner with a lot of great companies, those partnerships have no bearing on these recommendations.

We do evaluate our partners’ products to determine whether they warrant inclusion in buyer’s guides, but they are held to the same standards as the other products we’re reviewing. Any placement or recommendation is based solely on the product’s merit as determined by the writer and editor.

To evaluate accounting software in an unbiased and transparent manner, we developed acase studywhere all general-use bookkeeping software is evaluated on a consistent set of facts and criteria. The results provide an in-depth understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each software, which allows us to make recommendations based on business needs and wants.

Anecdotal Examples

In our “What Is,” “How To,” and “Ultimate Guide” articles, we often use anecdotal examples that feature existing products, including images or videos, to explain and show readers how a particular system or product works. These anecdotal examples can—and often do—feature our partner products.

Whenever we do this, we’re using the partner product as an example that we believe is representative of the types of products that users would typically use. These examples should in no way be confused with an FSB recommendation, and we’ll work to make that clear.

Plagiarism and Duplication Policy

Fit Small Business does not tolerate plagiarism in any form. The copying of other people’s work and/or ideas is not permitted.

Reusing one’s own writing — wholly or in part — on Fit Small Business is also not allowed.

Any acts of plagiarism and duplication will be met with disciplinary action up to and including termination.

Our Commitment

More than 4 million monthly readers trust us with their questions, and we are committed to delivering the best answers. Our audience relies on our content to make critical business decisions, and our partners understand that our commitment to editorial independence is what makes affiliation with us valuable. We ask questions and do thousands of hours of data-driven research for our articles. The more information we gather, the more effective we are at delivering on our mission.