Editorial Policy
Editorial Policy
The Fit Small Business Editorial Policy is driven by our
company mission:
“Deliver the best answers to people's questions.”
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: The best answers present information
objectively, 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?: Being an educational site for small businesses,
Fit Small Business offers 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. Our main goal is to provide accurate and current content, however
we urge you to use the information on our site as a starting point
and do your own research before selecting a product or service for
your small business. For more information check out our disclaimer page.
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 a case study where 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.