Less venture capital and more 'mentor capital'

Enhance and complement products and services the customers use. It's tough to convince customers to dump the leading product for one from a start-up, but small companies make that mistake all the time.

Finally, in a bad economy, you can still grow your customer base. Butterfield said, "This is the time to hone in and look for strategic partners, better marketing, maybe even acquisitions. When things get better, you'll be in that much better shape."

SageCreek asks for a retainer and some equity, not a big management consulting contract. They benefit when their client companies succeed.

The same day I talked to Butterfield I received a newsletter from Chenault Systems, a Dallas-area custom development company focusing on oil and gas clients. I called Tom Chenault because his newsletter mentioned how they've added management consulting because some clients needed help streamlining their business processes before he can start creating databases to improve their business. Companies need to maximize their teamwork and streamlining, said Chenault, "so they don't just make the mess go faster." Sounds like good mentorship advice to me.

Can you ignore such advice and go it on your own? Of course, but it's worth thinking about asking for help now and then. When you learn from other people's mistakes, your company gets smarter and stronger. When you learn from other people's successes, and apply some elbow grease, you increase your company's chance of success.