This is a guest post from BizSugar Community Manager Shawn Hessinger. BizSugar is to Small Business what Sphinn was to SEO. I am asking bloggers to join me in being active there.

Small Business Resources

Being a small business owner is exciting. It gives you the opportunity to bring all of your wildest dreams to fruition, to service customers on your own terms, and to create a working environment that’s based around your preferences. But just because it’s full of opportunity doesn’t mean it’s always easy. In fact, owning your business rarely is. One of the most difficult parts of being a small business owner is how disconnected it can make you feel. When you go out on your own, you’re often doing it at the expense of coworkers, mentors and a team that once served as an in-house resource center. How do you replicate that when you leave the corporate nest? Are there any resources available to small business owners to still share and build knowledge?

You bet there are. And they’re actually pretty great. Below are six types of knowledge hubs for SMB owners to take advantage of and get answers from.

1. Blogs

Industry blogs (like GrowMap, for instance) are a great resource for online business owners who feel disconnected from their industry. By participating in blogs, you not only get to benefit from the shared experience and insight that comes from the community, but you also get to build relationships with other bloggers and increase your company’s reach. By creating those personal bonds, you open the door to guest blogging opportunities, partnerships, or even a great mentoring relationship. Pretty soon you’ve built a stronger support system you can use not only to stay informed, but to keep yourself sane.

2. Personal Networking Sites

When we talk about personal networking sites, we’re talking about the Twitters, Facebooks, LinkedIns and MySpaces of the bunch. These are the sites where you create profiles as yourself (as opposed to your business), and where you can meet other people with whom to network and share information. Want to see it in action? Hop onto Twitter any random evening and you’ll find Twitter Chats and even more informal conversations taking place where business owners are asking questions, sharing tips, and putting their brains together for a common good. Personal networking sites give SMBs an opportunity to create relationships they can use to earn social capital and network with influencers.

3. Industry-specific Sites

The great thing about the social media boom is there is now certain to be a social media site aimed at whatever it is you do, regardless of how oddball you think it is. For example, I’m the Community Director over at BizSugar, a social network focused around connecting small business owners, and it’s become a really warm place for online entrepreneurs to share information, swap war stories, and build relationships. Some other great places for online business owners may be Startup Nation and CoFoundr. The great thing about industry-specific social networks is that you can tap into the community’s collective intelligence and experiences. For that reason, these sites often make the best resources for online business owners.

4. Question & Answer Sites

You want to hear a secret? Social question & answer sites are the gems of the Web that most of your competitors are completely ignoring. It’s true. Sites like Business.com Answers, LinkedIn Answers, Facebook Questions, and OnStartup Answers all provide a goldmine of information for small business owners to wade through. You’ll find business owners just like you getting recommendations on the best tools, the best way to handle common business problems, where to find legal documents, etc. Every question you have about your business has probably already been asked and answered by someone else. And because these sites tend to attract a more professional audience than Twitter or MySpace, the quality of the answers also tends to be much higher.

5. Bookmarking Sites

Bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon and Mixx allow small business owners to search for content by tags or keyword. You’ll also have the chance to build your own authority by sharing content you find useful (or that you’ve created) with your network. This can be an effective way to establish authority, stay top-of-mind, or build relationships with customers.

6. Review Sites

Review sites are another goldmine for small business owners. You can use them to help you save time researching different products, doing background checks on potential vendors, or even for competitive research by seeing where a competitor is getting criticism or accolades. Sites to befriend include Google Places, Yelp, TripAdvisor and many others.

Just because you work for yourself doesn’t mean you have to live without the information network you were privy to at a large company. The Web is filled with great resources specifically designed to help, connect, and educate small business owners. You just have to know where to look.

Shawn Hessinger is the Community Director at BizSugar.com, a social bookmarking and networking site for small business and medium-sized business owners and managers.