Small businesses offer a lot of advantages big businesses
don't: the ability to make and implement decisions quickly, the opportunity to directly
control the success or failure of the business, and the incredible sense of personal
accomplishment when the business flourishes.
Unfortunately, small businesses have one big disadvantage:
Less money to spend on the information and help you need.
That's where the Internet can help.
The Internet is loaded with sites just aching to aid small
businesses. To save you the effort of finding them on your own, here are some great free
sites to get you started.
U.S. Small Business Administration (www.sba.gov)
The SBA offers a wealth of assistance. For example, if you
are just starting your business, the incredibly thorough Start-Up Kit explains how to
write a business plan, provides an introduction to marketing, discusses financing options,
including how to write a loan proposal, and offers an overview of regulations ranging from
business licenses and trademarks to federal self-employment tax and minimum wage.
There also is a dazzling variety of information for those
with existing businesses, including a library of shareware (software free for the
download) ranging from database management applications, project management applications,
and even financial calculators.
The Entrepreneur Network (http://tenonline.org)
TEN is a nonprofit corporation that provides free
counseling to inventors and entrepreneurs, ranging from craftspeople to freelance
scientists.
The most interesting part of this site is the series of
well-written articles.
Broken into two streams - one for inventors and one for
entrepreneurs - the articles discuss intellectual property law, how to acquire and defend
patents, as well as trade-show marketing, business record keeping, Web marketing and
finding operating capital.
Nolo.com (www.nolo.com)
This publisher of self-help legal books, software and
Web-based information provides legal information on wide variety of topics. In the section
for small business, you will find articles and frequently asked questions on topics such
as small-business legal structures, employing workers and doing business online. But for
those struggling to understand complex contracts, the handiest feature is a law dictionary
you can use to look up legalese.
SmartBiz.com (www.smartbiz.com/sbs/cats/startup.htm)
This is a good news/great news/bad news site. The good news
is Smartbiz.com provides a library of articles, resources such as links and forms, and
interesting profiles.
The great news is the two most interesting sections: Tech
Center and Network Center. Everyone who has ever wrangled with a particularly sticky
technology problem will especially appreciate the interesting "Throats to choke"
segment of the Tech Center. And for those who are looking for advice or at least some
empathy, the Network Center SmartBiz forums, which include management, marketing, public
relations and sales, will be most appealing.
Which brings us to the bad news: outside of one message in
one forum, both these sections are empty. So why was this site included? Beyond the
resources listed above, the hope is that, given time, these interesting sections on this
newly launched site will bear fruit.
Service Corps of Retired Executives (www.score.org)
Frustrated, in a bind, or just thoroughly befuddled? Then
welcome to SCORE where you can access free and confidential e-mail counseling and
mentoring from one of more than 1,000 counselors.
SCORE also offers a free, monthly e-mail newsletter,
information on how to find one of the nearly 400 SCORE chapters, and how-to articles
including "How To Choose a Web Hosting Company," "How To Understand
Commercial Leasing," and "Taming the Health-Care Monster."
Idea Cafe (www.ideacafe .com)
What does Idea Cafe offer? What doesn't it offer! Crammed
full of information, you can learn how to start a business, read hardware and software
reviews, find out about creative sources for financing, enjoy reviews of the latest
business books, and even learn how other entrepreneurs made their ideas work.
The best section of the site, particularly for isolated
single office/home office, or SOHOs, is CyberSchmooz. Here you can join forums ranging
from Start-Up Stew and Biz Ideas to eCommerce and Work@Home, as well as enjoy water
cooler-style chats with other entrepreneurs.
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