When asked for advice by someone who has recently started working on their own ’start-up’, I am hard pressed to pass along anything that you can’t find within 10 minutes of surfing the net.

But one concept that I like to talk about is something that was new to me and I hope to impress upon them how it has helped me over the years. That concept is slowly creating a lose connection of individuals that will formally and informally work as advisor’s on business decisions. I’d like to go into this concept in more detail another time, but today I wanted to mention one great way of getting started.

A website/networked called LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s approach is to take the popular social network concepts of facebook and myspace and apply that the the business world. Tapping into the idea that ‘relationships matter’ - even in business.

Their Philosophy: Your professional relationships are key to your professional success. Our mission is to help you be more effective in your daily work and open doors to opportunities using the professional relationships you already have. This isn’t networking—it’s what networking should be. Forget exchanging business cards with acquaintances that don’t know your work, or trying to renew professional ties when you need a favor.

So, whether you are just getting started or have been in business for years, I think that this is a great resources for several business opportunities.

But I do have one recent complaint about the network. Last week the site allowed for pictures to be added to profiles. I understand the reasoning for this. I think that pictures will increase traffic, a key component of any network. You need a large number of regular member’s to tap the intended potential of that network and establish that it can really connect people with similar intentions. ( in this case a professional interaction)

Unfortunately though, I think the pictures will distract from the sites professionalism. That by adding picture to compete with the number’s of members on facebook and myspace, the company will transition from a ‘professional’ network to more of a ’social’ network. I have to admit that I also really liked the concept of individuals getting job positions, referrals or call back based on several professional factors - but in a rare twist that opportunity did not result from how attractive they were.

But despite recent changes, I still think that linkedIn offers some great resources - so check it out.