Check out these great online web tools for small business shared by Inc, Magazine. Great ideas here.

Find Out Who is Visiting Your Website

Demandbase lets you know when those blue-chip customers are knocking at your virtual door. Its free real-time ticker analyzes your visitors’ IP addresses and compares them with information from sources such as Dun & Bradstreet and LexisNexis. With those data, Demandbase can tell you the names of the companies at which many of your visitors work. Click on a company name, and Demandbase will sell you the name and contact information for a lead at that company. Demandbase has been called the iTunes of CRM, and it’s almost as affordable: The average cost per lead is just $1.80.

Calendar, Meet Social Networking

LuckyCal aims to make it easier for you to meet up with friends or business contacts. The free Web tool, which launched in December, integrates your work and personal calendars with those of your employees, friends, and business associates (as long as they give you permission). The main benefit could be for road-weary sales teams; LuckyCal will scan your colleagues’ and clients’ Outlook calendars and Facebook profiles and e-mail you when they are in your area. LuckyCal plans to charge for an enterprise version that launches later this year.

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

Three new software programs can help companies cut carbon emissions. Edison (verdiem.com/edison), CO2 Saver (co2saver.snap.com), and Carbon Control Software (carboncontrolsoftware.com) all use Windows power settings to reduce the energy consumed by computers while they are idle. All the programs provide information on how much carbon you have saved, and Edison estimates how much money you have saved as well. The personal versions of the programs are free. Carbon Control Software’s business version costs $10.50 and up per license per year and Verdiem, the maker of Edison, has a corporate version that sells for $20 per computer per year. It may be worth the price: Globally, IT infrastructure emits as much carbon as the aviation industry, according to research firm Gartner.

Ditch That Phone Tree

Fonolo.com has mapped out the automated customer service phone trees of 200 companies. Log on, click on the department you want to reach (reservations at American Airlines, for example), and Fonolo will make the call, navigate the system, and call you when it has reached your desired department. When we used it to call Citibank, it connected us with a rep in less than 20 seconds, compared with two minutes when calling directly. Fonolo has an iPhone app as well.

Save Money on Travel

When you cancel a flight, you are entitled to a refund of the taxes and fuel charges you paid — even on a nonrefundable ticket. For 25 euros ($32), MissRefund.com will get that money for you. The company has secured refunds as large as $262; the average is $101. If you don’t receive a refund, you don’t have to pay. Meawhile, Vayama.com is an airfare booking site focused on routes and destinations that aren’t generally available online, like Seattle to Denpasar, Bali. But it doesn’t always have the best prices, particularly on run-of-the-mill trips, so make sure to shop around. Airfarewatchdog.com scours listing sites such as Travelocity and Orbitz to find the best deals, even on small airlines like Allegiant. And Yapta.com will alert you when a good price appears on the flight you want. If the price falls after you have bought the ticket, Yapta will, for $15, try to get you a refund or credit for the difference.

Name Your Price for Coding Help

The world’s largest community of software developers and graphic designers is now ready to serve small companies. Since 2001, TopCoder has been holding coding and design competitions to help companies like ESPN develop new software tools, websites, and logos. Late last year, it launched TopCoder Direct, a do-it-yourself version that allows small and midsize companies to get in the game. Log in at topcoder.com/direct, describe what you want, and determine how much money you will award the first- and second-place finishers. When the submissions come in, you pick the best. A prototype for a simple website might cost $1,200.

Skype on Steroids

Chances are you have a cell phone, a work phone, a home phone, a couple of e-mail accounts, and maybe an instant-messaging program. With free software from VoxOx, you can keep them all in one place. Import contacts from all of your e-mail and IM accounts. Then, e-mail, IM, text, or call anyone you know, all through VoxOx. Every user gets a phone number, which shows up in the caller ID of the person receiving the call. If someone uses the number to call you, you can pick up at the computer or have the call forwarded to any phone. But there is one drawback: VoxOx gives users only two free hours of calls. Then, you can either pay a fee or get more free calls by watching ads.

[via INC MAGAZINE]

In 1988, three young guys in New York City — an acting student, a magazine researcher, and a software producer — were so happy to see the end of the 1980s, they held a funeral for the decade. They painted their faces blue and led a procession through Central Park; they burned a Rambo doll and a piece of the Berlin Wall. Although they couldn’t have known it, Chris Wink, Phil Stanton, and Matt Goldman had launched what would grow into an entertainment juggernaut. Since opening in New York City’s Astor Place Theatre in 1991, the Blue Man Group has played in 12 cities across the globe. More than 17 million people have seen its shows, and today, tickets go for $43 to $132. Goldman, the onetime computer geek turned impresario, tells the Blue Man Group’s unlikely story.

The Blue Man character is about universal human truths. When we got bald and blue for the first time, we knew instantly that we were on to something really special. It’s not like we sat down and came up with a business plan and followed it from Point A to Point B to Point C.

We played P.S. 122, La MaMa, all these hip, arty venues before we opened at the Astor Place Theatre. So some in the downtown art crowd thought we were selling out. But the work didn’t change. In the beginning, the house was half empty, and we were undercapitalized. We’d show up at the theater expecting a padlock on the door. I set up my office — a telephone, pen, and pad — directly opposite the box office. When I saw someone leave the box office without a ticket, I’d run out and start chatting him or her up. I wasn’t going to let him or her walk away without buying a ticket.

We made all the props ourselves. We found PVC pipe on Canal Street and turned it into musical instruments. But the Jell-O in the show cost $880 a show to make. So our producers said, “Lose the Jell-O.” Phil and Chris were working at the time for Jean-Claude Nédélec, who co-owns Glorious Food, the catering company. We told him our sad story, and he said, “We’ll make the Jell-O.” For three years, Chris and I would take a cab to the Upper East Side to pick up giant Jell-O molds and never paid a cent for it.

We went from six to eight shows a week and did 1,285 consecutive shows. We were sold out eight weeks in advance, but our producer got panicky at the thought of one of us getting sick, so we had one understudy. We never canceled a show. But then Phil cut his hand, and Chris Bowen, our extra, got bald and blue for the first time. It was fine. He’s now our senior performing director.

We realized that if we wanted to grow, we’d have to replicate ourselves. We cast three Blue Men, opened in Boston, and assumed it would go well. But there was no script, no musical score. It was a case study of the wrong way to grow. We realized we had to articulate our vision, so we locked ourselves in a room and spent several days writing the Blue Man manual.

The Blue Man is part innocent, hero, scientist, shaman, group member, and trickster. He doesn’t speak, but he communicates with vaudevillian slapstick humor. He drums and catches gumballs in his mouth that are filled with paint, which he spits onto a canvas to make art. It’s interactive, with music, lights, and lots of colorful liquids that get sprayed on the stage and into the audience.

The whole show is about connecting with the audience — to get to that heightened gestalt when someone scores a goal at a soccer game. That “AHHH!” There’s no intellect involved at all, just chemical secretions through one’s brain and body.

Three is the smallest unit where you can have an outsider; two guys win the third over, or the third guy wins the two guys in. It can go either way, and that tension makes for good theater. It also makes for good business partners — it takes the ego out of it. To this day, we’ve never made a decision based on the majority. All decisions are consensus. It takes longer, but we find if you keep talking things through, you reach a better choice.

We decided to open in Chicago. Before the show, we realized we had no idea how much money we needed. We called the general manager of the Boston show, who is now our CFO, and she did the numbers. To make payroll, we had to open three days early and do two shows a day. We figured, no one is going to know that the whole set could fall apart. They’ll just think, Oh, the Blue Men; they’re crazy. From Chicago we moved on to Las Vegas and later Orlando.

Vegas was a gamble. The theater had twelve hundred seats. We did 10 shows a week, but for the first six months, the theater was half empty. Lots of companies had come to us, wanting to do Blue Man ads. We turned them all down. But when Intel asked for the fourth time, we said, “Let’s talk.”

They said, “We want to get across that Intel is innovative, intelligent, and fun.” We liked that but said, “The ad agency is going to do lame storyboards.” So they gave us signing-off approval. Then we said, “The music is going to be really bad,” and they said, “You can make the music!”

That was in 2000. It was one of the biggest ad buys at the time: The ads were shown at the Grammy Awards, the basketball playoffs, the World Series. Every month, a new one aired. We went from 10 shows a week at 50 percent capacity to 14 shows at 100 percent.

Then we went international. Germany is the second-biggest entertainment market in the world for theater, so we started there. It felt appropriate, because when we did the funeral for the ’80s, we burned the Berlin Wall, and then it actually came down. So we felt personally responsible. We’ve had shows in Amsterdam and London. Today, we’re in Stuttgart and Tokyo.

We have about 70 Blue Men on the payroll. They’re hard to find. A lot of them trained in theater or are good drummers. We have a casting director and hold national auditions. Our Blue Men train in New York before we ship them out to our shows in other cities.

If you invent your own instrument, you’re automatically one of the top three musicians in the world on that instrument. We have made up more than 30 instruments, like the tubulum, the drumulum, and the piano smasher. I can barely hold my own musically, and yet I get to be a rock star. We made several albums; one was nominated for a Grammy.

We created a school in New York with an arts-based curriculum. It’s called the Blue Man Creativity Center. We have 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds. Next year is our first kindergarten. We’re growing a grade a year. This year, we had 200 applications for 30 spaces.

Some people think that when we get bald and blue that we’re just hiding behind a mask. But we think it’s the opposite. When you get blue, you’re left with just the purest, most vulnerable humanity. And so, about halfway through the show, people start to go, “Whoa, I’m the Blue Man.” And once you get there, you wonder, Are there actually three different characters, or is it three aspects of one personality, so together they’re one character? Those are exactly the questions we want people to be asking.

[via Inc Magainze] by Matt Goldman

For marketers, Web 2.0 offers a remarkable new opportunity to engage consumers.

If only they knew how to do it.

That’s where this article aims to help. We interviewed more than 30 executives and managers in both large and small organizations that are at the forefront of experimenting with Web 2.0 tools. From those conversations and further research, we identified a set of emerging principles for marketing.

But first, a more basic question: What is Web 2.0, anyway? Essentially, it encompasses the set of tools that allow people to build social and business connections, share information and collaborate on projects online. That includes blogs, wikis, social-networking sites and other online communities, and virtual worlds.

Millions of people have become familiar with these tools through sites like Facebook, Wikipedia and Second Life, or by writing their own blogs. And a growing number of marketers are using Web 2.0 tools to collaborate with consumers on product development, service enhancement and promotion. But most companies still don’t appear to be well versed in this area.

So here’s a look at the principles we arrived at — and how marketers can use them to get the best results.

Web 2.0 tools can be used to do what traditional advertising does: persuade consumers to buy a company’s products or services. An executive can write a blog, for instance, that regularly talks up the company’s goods. But that kind of approach misses the point of 2.0. Instead, companies should use these tools to get the consumers involved, inviting them to participate in marketing-related activities from product development to feedback to customer service.

How can you do that? A leading greeting-card and gift company that we spoke with is one of many that have set up an online community — a site where it can talk to consumers and the consumers can talk to each other. The company solicits opinions on various aspects of greeting-card design and on ideas for gifts and their pricing. It also asks the consumers to talk about their lifestyles and even upload photos of themselves, so that it can better understand its market.

A marketing manager at the company says that, as a way to obtain consumer feedback and ideas for product development, the online community is much faster and cheaper than the traditional focus groups and surveys used in the past. The conversations consumers have with each other, he adds, result in “some of the most interesting insights,” including gift ideas for specific occasions, such as a college graduation, and the prices consumers are willing to pay for different gifts.

Similarly, a large technology company uses several Web 2.0 tools to improve collaboration with both its business partners and consumers. Among other things, company employees have created wikis — Web sites that allow users to add, delete and edit content — to list answers to frequently asked questions about each product, and consumers have added significant contributions. For instance, within days of the release of a new piece of software by the company, consumers spotted a problem with it and posted a way for users to deal with it. They later proposed a way to fix the problem, which the company adopted. Having those solutions available so quickly showed customers that the company was on top of problems with its products.

Give consumers a reason to participate.

Consumers have to have some incentive to share their thoughts, opinions and experiences on a company Web site.

One lure is to make sure consumers can use the online community to network among themselves on topics of their own choosing. That way the site isn’t all about the company, it’s also about them. For instance, a toy company that created a community of hundreds of mothers to solicit their opinions and ideas on toys also enables them to write their own blogs on the site, a feature that many use to discuss family issues.

Other companies provide more-direct incentives: cash rewards or products, some of which are available only to members of the online community. Still others offer consumers peer recognition by awarding points each time they post comments, answer questions or contribute to a wiki entry. Such recognition not only encourages participation, but also has the benefit of allowing both the company and the other members of the community to identify experts on various topics.

Many companies told us that a moderator plays a critical role in keeping conversations going, highlighting information that’s important to a discussion and maintaining order. That’s important because consumers are likely to drift away if conversations peter out or if they feel that their voices are lost in a chaotic flood of comments. The moderator can also see to it that consumer input is seen and responded to by the right people within the company.

And, of course, it’s important to make a site as easy to use as possible. For instance, there should be clear, simple instructions for consumers to set up a blog or contribute to a wiki.

Listen to — and join — the conversation outside your site.

Consumers tend to trust one another’s opinions more than a company’s marketing pitch. And there is no shortage of opinions online.

The managers we interviewed accept that this type of content is here to stay and are aware of its potential impact — positive or negative — on consumers’ buying decisions. So they monitor relevant online conversations among consumers and, when appropriate, look for opportunities to inject themselves into a conversation or initiate a potential collaboration.

For example, a marketing manager of a leading consumer-electronics company monitors blogs immediately after a new-product launch in order to understand “how customers are actually reacting to the product.” Other managers keep an eye on sites like Digg.com and Del.icio.us that track the most popular topics on the Web, to see if there’s any buzz around their new products, and whether they should be adjusting, say, features or prices.

In one case, a company found a popular blogger who had spoken highly of the company’s brand. Just prior to launching a new product, the company sent the blogger a free sample, inviting him to review it with no strings attached. The end result: The blogger wrote a favorable review and generated a flood of comments. So the company got nearly free publicity and feedback.

Peter & Maria Hoey

Resist the temptation to sell, sell, sell.

Many marketers have been trained to bludgeon consumers with advertising — to sell, sell, sell anytime and anywhere consumers can be found. In an online community, it pays to resist that temptation.

When consumers are invited to participate in online communities, they expect marketers to listen and to consider their ideas. They don’t want to feel like they’re simply a captive audience for advertising, and if they do they’re likely to abandon the community.

The head of consumer research for a leading consumer-electronics organization created an online community of nearly 50,000 consumers to discuss product-development and marketing issues. One of the key principles of the community, she says, was “not to do anything about marketing, because we weren’t about selling; we were about conversing.”

In short order, community members not only identified what it was they were looking for in the company’s products, but also suggested innovations to satisfy those needs. The company quickly developed prototypes based on those suggestions, and got an enthusiastic response: Community members asked when they would be able to buy the products and if they would get the first opportunity to buy them. They didn’t have to be sold on anything.

Don’t control, let it go.

In an online community, every company needs to find an effective balance between trying to steer the conversation about its products and allowing the conversation to flow freely. In general, though, the managers we interviewed believe that companies are better off giving consumers the opportunity to say whatever is on their minds, positive or negative. Moderators can keep things running smoothly and coherently, but they shouldn’t always keep the conversation on a predetermined track. The more that consumers talk freely, the more a company can learn about how it can improve its products and its marketing.

One marketing executive recalled the first time she let an online community created for a client interact with very little control or moderation, resulting in an animated discussion about the look of the company’s product. The client, with great concern, asked. “Who told them [the consumers] they could do this, that they could go this far?” Of course, when this process resulted in totally new packaging that helped boost sales, the client was ecstatic.

As another executive of a company that creates online communities for clients told us: “You have to let the members drive. When community members feel controlled, told how to respond and how to act, the community shuts down.”

Find a ‘marketing technopologist.’

So who should direct a company’s forays into Web 2.0 marketing? A number of managers identified an ideal set of skills for an executive that go beyond those of a typical M.B.A. holder or tech expert. We coined the term marketing technopologist for a person who brings together strengths in marketing, technology and social interaction. A manager said, “I’d want to see someone with the usual M.B.A. consultant’s background, strong interest in psychology and sociology, and good social-networking skills throughout the organization.”

Foot soldiers need to be carefully selected as well. One large technology company weighs employees’ proven skills to choose writers for blogs that are read by consumers. The company has long used blogs internally to help employees discuss technical issues, products, and company and industry topics. When it decided to use blogs to raise its profile online, it recruited those who had shown the most skill at blogging within the company. The company currently has about 15 employees who blog publicly, mostly on technology trends, and is recruiting more the same way. Meanwhile, the bloggers plan to meet occasionally to share the lessons learned from their experiences.

Embrace experimentation.

One Web 2.0 strategy does not fit all, and sometimes the best way to find out what’s best for a given company is to try some things out and see what happens.

Blogs, wikis and online communities are among the tools that companies are most commonly using for marketing, but there are other ways to reach consumers. Some of the companies we talked with have gotten their feet wet in the online virtual world Second Life, where millions of users interact with each other through avatars. Companies can sell their goods and services and sponsor events in Second Life just as they do in the real world; one sponsored a contest for the best avatar.

Others are considering new ways to use more-familiar tools. For instance, many companies have long used instant messaging on their Web sites to allow shoppers to chat with customer-service representatives. One executive we spoke with said he would like to experiment with allowing consumers to chat with each other as they shop on his company’s site.

[via WSJ Small Business] By SALVATORE PARISE , PATRICIA J. GUINAN and BRUCE D. WEINBERG

For the above entrepreneurs, wearing pajamas for a day at the office isn’t far from reality. From pet care to virtual assistants and even online dating, we found entrepreneurs who are not just enjoying work from their living rooms and bedrooms, but they are also making a good living at it. In one case, a business owner grossed $10 million in a year, and cleared half that amount. Here’s a look at the hottest industries for home-based entrepreneurs — illustrated with some fun CEO self-portraits.

Pet Care — Paul Mann, Fetch! Pet Care

Virtual Assistant — Tawnya Sutherland, VAnetworking.com

Bargain Hunting Website — Karen Hoxmeier, MyBargainBuddy.com

Accounting Services — Melissa Nash Andrews, Accounts Receivables

Technical Staffing — Bill Foster and Ruben Santana, XRoads Consulting

Home Improvement and Organization — Allan Young, ShelfGenie

Green Construction — Nic Darling, Chad Ludeman, and Courtney Ludeman, Postgreen

Graphic Design Services — Sam Feuer, Mindsmack.com

Resume Writing — Kathy Sweeney, The Write Resume

Corporate Educational Services — Joseph Pickett, Experts Briefings

Online Dating Site — Markus Frind, PlentyofFish

Get your business going, keep it going strong or take it in a new direction with this compilation of web sites for entrepreneurs.

At last count there were approximately 10 gazillion websites out there. Where’s a business owner to start when looking for valuable information? If you’re reading this, it means you’re on Entrepreneur.com, which is a good start. Read on for 64 more vital online spots you should know about.

Accounting Terminology Guide
http://nysscpa.org/prof_library/guide.htm
If you need to know what a specific accounting term means, no matter how obscure, this is the site for you. Hosted and maintained by the New York State Society of CPAs, nearly 500 accounting terms are defined on this site, all sorted in an easy-to-use alphabetical list.

AccountingWEB
www.accountingweb.com
Updated daily, this site offers accounting industry news, information, tips, tools, resources and insight–everything you need to prosper and interact with other accounting professionals.

Adweek Online
www.adweek.com
This is the online edition of Adweek, a popular print magazine focusing on all things advertising and marketing. This site features the inside scoop on what’s going on in the marketing departments of high-profile companies and corporations.

American Association of Franchisees and Dealers
www.aafd.org
This organization represents the rights of both franchisees and dealers. Here you can learn about upcoming events, read some free publications online, order other publications from the bookstore, and become a member.

Backpack
www.backpackit.com
Backpack is a web-based service that makes organizing your company’s information easy. Backpack lets you make pages that can contain any combination of notes, to-dos, images, files and so on.

Better Business Bureau
http://us.bbb.org
Browse or search for a business or charity’s reputation. Included are instructions for how to file a consumer or B2B complaint.

BizBuySell
www.bizbuysell.com
Looking to buy a franchise? There’s a good chance you’ll find one here. From restaurants in California to auto shops in Florida, you can search more than 25,000 businesses currently for sale, many of which are franchised.

Bizwomen
www.bizwomen.com
Bizwomen is an online community for women business executives and entrepreneurs to connect, support one another, learn and grow. You can share and explore ideas with women across the United States or in your neighborhood to help grow your business.

Business Owner’s Tool Kit
www.toolkit.com
With an emphasis on problem solving, this site features more than 5,000 pages of free cost-cutting tips, step-by-step checklists, real-life case studies, startup advice, and business templates to small-business owners and entrepreneurs.

Business Owners Idea Cafe
www.businessownersideacafe.com
Managed by successful entrepreneurs and the authors of several guides on forming and running a business, this site includes numerous award-winning resources, along with practical advice, business news and humor.

BrandChannel.com
www.brandchannel.com
Run by internationally acclaimed brand consultancy Interbrand, BrandChannel.com provides a global perspective on brands and the art of branding. Site features include in-depth feature articles, conference announcements, career resources and access to white papers.

Brandweek
www.brandweek.com
A leading source of news and information for the branding industry, it’s also the only online trade magazine to offer saturation coverage at all levels of the brand-activation process.

Catalyst
www.catalystwomen.org
Catalyst is a leading corporate research and advisory organization that works with businesses to build inclusive environments and expand professional opportunities for women.

Chief Marketer
www.chiefmarketer.com
A content-rich website, Chief Marketer provides marketing executives with insights into key marketing issues, innovations and practical solutions.

CPAdirectory
www.cpadirectory.com
When April rolls around and you find yourself scrambling to find a CPA, this site will help. Billed as “the largest online database of Certified Public Accountants,” here you can search for CPAs by ZIP code, name, industry or area of specialty.

Customer Service Group
www.customerservicegroup.com
New Jersey-based Alexander Communications Group (ACG) uses this site to provide practical information free of charge to customer service professionals. If you work in the customer service industry, be sure to sign up for Service Starters, ACG’s free customer service industry eNewsletter.

Customer Service Manager
www.customerservicemanager.com
If you work in customer service, this website is for you. Here you will find an active community of customer service professionals, along with daily news, reviews, articles and resources aimed at improving customer service.

Customer Service Zone
www.customerservicezone.com
Customer service expert Robert Bacal’s website for customer service professionals, The Zone offers information to help businesses of all sizes and their employees provide efficient and effective customer service.

Direct Marketing Association
www.the-dma.org
The Direct Marketing Association is the largest trade association for businesses that are interested and involved in direct, database and interactive global marketing. Here you can learn more about the DMA, become a member and access its services.

Electronic Frontier Foundation: Intellectual Property
www.eff.org/issues/intellectual-property
EFF works to preserve balance and ensure that the internet and digital technologies empower consumers, creators, innovators, scholars, and average citizens. This section of the EFF website spotlights current challenges and solutions facing the intellectual property rights of everyone.

Entrepreneur.com / WomenEntrepreneur.com
www.entrepreneur.com/ womenentrepreneur.com
Published by the same people who bring you Entrepreneur magazine, this is an excellent site for entrepreneurs, featuring a solid collection of articles and tips from experts, plus hundreds of links to other entrepreneurial resources on the web. WomenEntrepreneur.com offers additional articles, blogs and resources specific to women for starting and growing their businesses.

Entrepreneur Connect
econnect.entrepreneur.com
Entrepreneur‘s social networking site is a gathering place for thousands of business owners. Take part in discussions, join like-minded business owners in groups, and give and receive valuable advice from the trenches.

Entrepreneur.com’s Trade Publication Directory
www.entrepreneur.com/tradepublication/category/index.html
Don’t miss one of the internet’s largest searchable databases of trade publications. From agriculture and biotech to purchasing and procurement, Entrepreneur.com has your industry’s trade publication listed here.

Fambiz.com
www.fambiz.com
Fambiz.com is the internet’s leading website for owners and employees of family controlled companies. Managed by Northeastern University’s Center for Family Business, here you will find insight on every family run business topic imaginable.

Federal Trade Commission: Franchise and Business Opportunities
www.ftc.gov/bcp/franchise/netfran.htm
This site has lots of information, including an FAQ section, Guide to the FTC Franchise Rule, consumer alerts, Before You Buy pamphlets, and state disclosure requirements.

Franchise.com
www.franchise.com
Learn more about available franchise opportunities or advertise your franchise to potential buyers at this site, which aims to connect franchise buyers and sellers, as well as anyone thinking of starting one.

Franchise Expo
www.franchiseexpo.com
If you’re thinking about buying a franchise, do your research here; you’ll find detailed information on nearly every franchising opportunity known to man.

Franchise Zone by Entrepreneur.com
http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises
Dedicated to linking enthusiastic entrepreneurs with the top franchises, this site provides all the information you need to find the best franchises and become a successful franchisee. How-to articles, advice from experts and lists of the top franchises in various categories make this the first site to turn to for those considering the purchase of a franchise.

FreshBooks
www.freshbooks.com
FreshBooks is an online invoicing and time-tracking service that helps businesses of all sizes save time, get paid faster and look professional.

Fundability
www.fundability.com
Fundability is a marketplace where entrepreneurs and investors can find funding success. Founded by entrepreneurs and investors, Fundability’s Company SnapShot, Deal Search Engine, and DiligenceRoom provide intelligent online tools for the savvy entrepreneur.

Glide
www.glidedigital.com
Glide is a complete mobile desktop providing a secure and scalable platform for personal and collaborative computing.

Google Checkout
www.googlecheckout.com
This online payment system works alone or as an alternative to systems already in place. Customers don’t have to share credit card information with merchants that use the system, and identity protection is increased.

Google Docs
www.google.com/docs
The folks at Google deliver a free web-based word processor and spreadsheet, which allow you to share and collaborate online. Google Docs accepts most popular file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, PPT, and more.

Hoover’s
www.hoovers.com

Hoover’s gives you access to up-to-date information about industries, companies and key decision makers. Great for professionals working in sales, marketing, business development, and others who need intelligence on U.S. and global companies, industries, and the people who lead them.

Idea Locker
www.bkfk.com
One of the best invention/patent sites on the Web for novice innovators of all ages, this site is specifically designed for kids. It provides information on how to invent, famous inventors and discoveries.

Internal Revenue Service
www.irs.gov
Business owners can get all of their federal and business tax information–not to mention forms–directly from the source. It’s also a good place to stay current on tax laws that affect business owners.

Jobfox
www.jobfox.com
Started by the former CEO of CareerBuilder.com, Jobfox walks you through creating a skills inventory and then tells you which employers are looking for people with those exact skills. The Jobfox site also provides a free trackable resume and career web page to showcase your skills, experience and work samples.

Kauffman Foundation
www.kauffman.org
The Kauffman Foundation delivers an up-to-date and relevant website dedicated to furthering our understanding of the phenomenon of entrepreneurship and to advancing entrepreneurship education and training. Check out the Resource Center for getting started information on business operations, sales and marketing, human resources, finance and accounting, and the like.

LinkedIn Jobs
www.linkedin.com/jobs
Whether you’re looking for a new job or trying to help someone else find the perfect job, LinkedIn can help you find and get in touch with the people you need to contact. Create a profile and click the Jobs tab to get started.

Microsoft Small Business Center
www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness
A vehicle for selling various Microsoft small-business products, this site also provides plenty of excellent information and advice entirely for free. If you’re starting or running your own small business, Microsoft’s Small Business Center is an excellent place to learn from the experts.

Mint
www.mint.com
Entrepreneurs can get help with the personal finances, money management and budget planning. In addition, Mint offers free financial planning software.

National Association for the Self-Employed
www.nase.org
The NASE provides its self-employed members with support, education and training. The organization conducts surveys relevant to the needs of the self-employed and posts articles business owners can use.

National Association of Women Business Owners
www.nawbo.org
NAWBO is a fierce advocate for women business owners, providing resources and support. It can help women get access to government contracts that most business owners don’t know about.

PayPal
www.paypal.com
Perhaps the best-known payment system, PayPal allows web sites to receive and send money electronically. Business owners and customers find PayPal easy to use–and secure.

Salesforce.com
www.salesforce.com
Easy-to-use web-based customer relation management tools for your entire company, including online solutions for sales, service, marketing, and call center operations.

Small Business Administration
www.sba.gov
Here you can learn how to start your own business and finance it. The site also provides information on business opportunities, local SBA offices, laws and regulations, and much more.

Survey of Current Business
www.bea.gov/scb
The monthly Survey of Current Business is the definitive source of information by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis about its economic accounts. Monthly updates present the latest national, international, regional, and industry estimates, and keep business leaders up to date on relevant BEA issues and initiatives.

Survey Monkey
www.surveymonkey.com
Put your finger on the pulse of your customers with this free basic service. Create and publish custom online surveys to gather data you can use.

TradePub.com
www.tradepub.com
If you’re looking for a trade publication, you’re likely to find it here. This site features an extensive list of free business, computer, and engineering trade newsletters and magazines, all of which you can subscribe to for free.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce
www.uschamber.com
Find your local branch, figure out how to start, learn about new taxes and much more at the national Chamber of Commerce site.

U.S. Copyright Office
www.copyright.gov
Find all of the forms, publications and information you need to copyright your original work.

U.S. Department of Labor: Office of Small Business Programs
www.dol.gov/osbp
The OSBP promotes opportunities for small businesses, especially disadvantaged businesses, women-owned businesses, HUBZone businesses and businesses owned by disabled veterans.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
www.uspto.gov
Official site for searching the U.S. patent database. Includes international treaties, statutes and patent news.

VentureDeal
www.venturedeal.com
Easy-to-use database with the latest information on U.S.-based venture-backed technology companies, senior management, company financings, and M&A transactions. Updated daily, this site offers a convenient way of accessing critical information related to business development, funding searches and venture capital investment goals.

VisualCV
www.visualcv.com
VisualCV reinvents your resume using technologies that transform the way in which resume data is presented, accessed and shared. VisualCV allows you to easily build and manage online career portfolios that come alive with informational keyword pop-ups, video, pictures and professional networking.

Wesabe
www.wesabe.com
The site offers financial advice, analysis and planning for business owners.

Word of Mouth Marketing Association
www.womma.org
Official website of WOMMA, where you can find the latest thinking on a variety of Web 2.0 marketing strategies, including word of mouth marketing.

Work.com
www.work.com
The small-business owner’s manual on where to go, what to know, and how to get the most value from the ever-growing array of web resources for business. The site features more than 2,000 how-to guides written by business experts and organized by common business tasks and challenges.

Women’s Work
www.wwork.com
Women’s Work is dedicated to helping women move from standard 9-to-5 jobs to flex careers–telecommuting, small business and other options. This site is packed with articles, advice, how-to guides, flexible career choices, and success stories to inspire and motivate.

Wufoo
www.wufoo.com
Wufoo is a web-based application that removes inefficiency and tediousness from the form-building process. Wufoo reduces what used to take trained professionals days (if not weeks) into something that can be done by anyone in minutes.

Yelp
www.yelp.com
Yelp provides a fun and engaging website for “passionate and opinionated influencers to share the experiences they’ve had with local businesses and services.” Watch out because “yelping” can be quite addictive.

Zimdesk
www.zimdesk.com
Zimdesk provides all the features and functionality you would expect from a standard desktop PC. The difference is that Zimdesk runs from an internet browser, allowing you to access all your applications, files, games and accessories from any computer.

Zoho
www.zoho.com
Zoho offers a suite of office productivity tools online, including a word processor, spreadsheet program, invoicing tool, presentation creator, web-conferencing functions and calendar organizers.

This list was compiled by the Entrepreneur.com staff, with a major assist from Mikal E. Belicove, author of the 2009 Internet Directory: Web 2.0 Edition.

[via Entrepreneur]

“It’s time to bail out the people and the planet,” says Van Jones [1], author of The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems [2]. We agree, and this guide to to sustainability-focused career paths will help retrofit and solar-charge your work life.

The TOP TEN GREEN JOBS FOR THE NEXT DECADE:

Farmer

America has only two million farmers, and their average age is 55. Since sustainable agriculture requires small-scale, local, organic methods rather than petroleum-based machines and fertilizers, there is a huge need for more farmers — up to tens of millions of them, according to food guru Michael Pollan. Modern farmers are small businesspeople who must be as skilled in heirloom genetics as marketing.

Schools: University of Vermont: Center for Sustainable Agriculture; Stone Barns Center For Food & Agriculture in New York State; University of Oklahoma: Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture; Evergreen State College: degree in Sustainable Agriculture.

Related careers: urban gardener; farmers market and CSA coordinator; artisanal cheesemakers; and other food producers.

Forester

Modern forestry is a complex combination of international project finance, conservation and development. According to the World Bank, a staggering 1.6 billion people depend on the forest for their livelihoods. Foresters help local people transition from slash-and-burn to silviculture–teaching cultivation of higher-value, faster-growing species for fruit, medicine or timber, for example while carefully documenting the impact on the environment. Deforestation, which causes around a quarter of all global warming, is also likely to be a leading source of carbon credits worth tens of billions of dollars [3].

Schools: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies; Duke University: Nicholas School of the Environment; University of Michigan: School of Natural Resources & Environment.

Companies/organizations: The Nature Conservancy; New Forests Inc.

Solar Power Installer

Making and installing solar power systems already accounts for some 770,000 jobs globally. Installing solar-thermal water heaters and rooftop photovoltaic cells is a relatively high-paying job–$15 to $35 an hour–for those with construction skills. And opportunities are available all over the United States, wherever the sun shines. Currently over 3,400 companies in the solar energy sector employ 25,000 to 35,000 workers. The Solar Energy Industries Association predicts an increase to over 110,000 jobs by 2016 — even more if anticipated tax credits are accelerated [4].

Companies: Akeena Solar; Sungevity; Sunpower; Full list at SEIA.org.

Energy Efficiency Builder Buildings account for up to 48 percent of US energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. LEED, the major green building certification, has over 43,000 accredited professionals [5]. But the cutting edge in efficient buildings goes far beyond LEED. Buildings constructed according to Passivhaus and MINERGIE-P standards in Germany and Switzerland, respectively, use between 75% and 95% less heat energy than a similar building constructed to the latest codes in the US. Greening the US building stock will take not only skilled architects and engineers, but a workforce of retrofitters who can use spray foam insulation and storm windows to massively improve the R-value (thermal resistance) of the draftiest old houses. A study by the Apollo Alliance recommended an $89.9 billion investment in financing to create 827,260 jobs in green buildings — an initiative supported by the Obama stimulus package, which specifically mentions energy retrofits [6].

Schools: Arizona State University School of Architecture: Energy Performance Climate-Responsive Architecture; University of Michigan: Alfred A. Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning; The Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Wind Turbine Fabricator

Wind is the leading and fastest-growing source of alternative energy with over 300,000 jobs worldwide. Turbines are 90% metal by weight, creating an opportunity for autoworkers and other manufacturers to repurpose their skills. According to the American Wind Energy Association [7], the industry currently employs some 50,000 Americans and added 10,000 new jobs in 2007. Their job board [8] is an excellent place to start looking for opportunities.

Companies: Vestas; Siemens; GE Energy.

Conservation Biologist The granddaddy of diversity, E.O. Wilson, famously called conservation biology — a discipline with a deadline. The urgent quest to preserve the integrity of ecosystems around the world — and to quantify the value of — ecosystems services — leads to opportunities in teaching, research and fieldwork for government, nonprofits, and private companies. The forthcoming economic stimulus package from the Obama administration offers the prospect of increased federal support for science and research [9].

Schools: Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington and the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. At the small College of the Atlantic [10] every student gets his or her degree in human ecology; it’s been called the most sustainable college or university in the world.

Green MBA and Entrepreneur

The concept of the triple bottom line [11] has migrated from the margins to the mainstream of the business world. A recent report by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Mayors Climate Protection Center found that business services like legal, research and consulting account for the majority of all green jobs — over 400,000. This includes everything from marketing to the LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) segment, to serving as a VP of sustainability within a large company, to piloting a green startup like Method or Recyclebank.

Schools: Stanford School of Business; San Francisco’s Presidio School of Management; Leeds School of Business; University of Colorado at Boulder — Deming Center for Entrepreneurship; the Bainbridge Graduate Institute in Wash.

Recycler The total number of recycling jobs in the United States is at more than 1 million, according to recent reports [12] (PDF, right click to save). Although the market for paper and plastic has slowed down recently due to the economic downturn, demand for steel is still strong — 42 percent of output came from scrap in 2006 — and recycling remains the economical alternative to high disposal fees. Worldwide more than 200,000 people work in secondary steel production, and the US is a major center of production. New laws and regulations [13] are also creating a need for specialized companies that can close the loop by recycling and repurposing e-waste, clothing, plastic bags, construction waste, and other materials.

Companies: Rumpke; Greenstar North America.

Sustainability Systems Developer The green economy needs a cadre of specialized software developers and engineers who design, build, and maintain the networks of sensors and stochastic modeling that underpin wind farms, smart energy grids, congestion pricing and other systems substituting intelligence for natural resources. Coders with experience using large scale enterprise resource planning have an edge here, as well as developers familiar with open source and web 2.0 [14] applications.

Companies: IBM, V2Green, WindLogics

Urban Planner Urban and regional planning is a linchpin of the quest to lower America’s carbon footprint. Strengthening mass transit systems, limiting sprawl, encouraging use of bicycles and deemphasizing cars is only part of the job. Equally important is contingency planning, as floods, heat waves and garbage creep become increasingly common problems for metropolises. Employment in this sector is projected to grow 15 percent by 2016, and the jobs are mainly in local governments, which make them a slightly safer bet for the downturn.

[via Fast Company] by Anya Kamenetz

Fortune Magazine put together a list of the top 10 companies that have never laid anyone off. Great idea.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/fortune/0901/gallery.no_layoffs.fortune/index.html

Tony Hawk is rich and chief executive of his own company, but that doesn’t mean he’s changed all that much from the skateboarding kid with a junk food diet. In fact, it’s something he says makes him a better C.E.O.

For Hawk, it’s always been about being true to one’s self, or at least his constituency—the skaters.

“You have to be approachable and identify with your audience,” Hawk said. “I never forgot where I came from. I still continue to skate with the kids and see what they’re up to. I still eat at McDonald’s.”

Sky High

Tony Hawk on Authenticity

Watch more interviews with Tony Hawk

Hawk has never lost touch with that audience and doesn’t want to. And that may be the key to the success of his Tony Hawk Inc., a privately held business with 30 employees working from an office park 40 miles north of San Diego.

“(I want to) actually experience it and not hire a marketing group to do it for you and then you’re out of touch and you’re relying on whatever their vision is,” Hawks said.

Hawk started skating at the age of nine and three years later he gained his first sponsor.

Two years later at 14, he turned professional and in the following two years, he was considered the best skateboarder in the world. Over the next 17 years, he won enough contests–enough to think he was set for life.

He launched a skateboarding company, Birdhouse Projects, but it struggled as pubic interest slumped. Hawk slumped, too, financially. But when skateboarding and extreme sports began to grab the spotlight, he seized the opportunity.

His defining moment could be deemed when he went to the 1999 X-Games in San Francisco and completed the first “900″ in skateboarding competition. (A 900 is a jump of two-and-one-half rotations, 360 degrees + 360 degrees + 180 degrees = 900).

“I didn’t really anticipate making (the 900) that night,” Hawk said. “I told myself that night that I was going to make that trick or get taken to the hospital.”

That kind of determination served Hawk in business, too.

“I go with my gut feeling,” Hawk said. “Is this is something that is truly connected with what I do.”

He trusts his instinct because “I do live in this world. I didn’t learn about it through videos or books. I actually did it and struggled with it.”As a businessman, Hawk now has racked up unusual success.

His video game series with Activision has sold more than 30 million copies and the newest releases are frequently among the top 10 sellers in the business. He’s done a direct-to-DVD movie, a clothing brand that’s sold at Kohl’s and last year, the Tony Hawk Big Spin roller coasters made their debut at Six Flags’ Amusement Parks.

That’s all in addition to his skateboarding business and an extreme sports tour called Tony Hawk’s Boom Boom HuckJam, which he started in 2002.

Hawk also founded the Tony Hawk Foundation, which is designed to promote and help finance public skate parks in low-income areas.

The foundation has distributed more than $2.3 million to non-profit groups building skate parks everywhere from Homer, Alaska to Needles, Calif., to Greencastle, Ind., to Livermore Falls, Maine.

[via Conde Nast Portfolio] by Phillip Lee

A joint venture between three movie studios has yet to land any sort of cable distribution deal for its original programming, but it will at least launch online, offering access to some 15,000 movies. But without a TV deal, the audience will be limited.

Small companies are finding that almost everything is renegotiable these days.

The economic downturn is prompting business owners — by necessity or by opportunity — to re-examine contracts with suppliers, vendors or landlords and come up with creative deals. And in many cases, they are saving a substantial sum of money.

“Most of us grew up knowing that once you agree to something, you don’t back out of it,” says small-business consultant Bill Bartmann of Bill Bartmann Enterprises in Tulsa, Okla. “That rule doesn’t apply anymore.”

In a survey released in September of more than 1,000 small-business owners and managers, about 15% had recently renegotiated long-term fixed-cost supply contracts, according to the Small Business Research Board, a Buffalo Grove, Ill., publisher of the Small Business Confidence Index, which tracks overall business confidence and issues of small-business owners and managers.

One thing that certainly helps is having the cash to pay your bills on time. “If you’re a fast payer, you can negotiate lower rates with your vendors to help the other company, the company you’re paying to, with their cash position,” says Carl Gould, president of CMT International LLC, a small-business consulting and advising firm in Riverdale, N.J.

Atlanta Refrigeration was able to negotiate new jobs for four employees with a supplier. Above, a service manager checks on a pressure gauge.

Tom Long, an Oak Park, Ill., small-business consultant, said 10 of his dozen or so clients have negotiated discounts of 1% to 5% with at least one vendor for paying with cash or personal check, and usually within 10 days of a product or service’s delivery. Most have negotiated these deals in the past 30 days, he says.

“Conversely,” says Mr. Gould, “if you’re an extremely slow payer, sometimes you can get your monthly obligation lowered because of the financial position you find yourself in. The vendor will often accept that because they’re getting paid as opposed to writing off the entire obligation.”

Mr. Bartmann adds that “sadly, there are not many small-business owners flushed with excess cash right now.”

1800Diapers Inc.’s Diapers.com, which sells baby products, was able to use the fact that it had available capital to secure a better deal when it negotiated new leases for two of its warehouses. The Montclair, N.J.-based company was able to shorten the term of the new leases to two years from five, received more space and got conditions on flexibility that would allow it to lease more space if needed. The company wouldn’t disclose how much it saved in operating costs.

Sid Jaridly, chief executive of The Original Mr. Cabinet Care, an Anaheim, Calif., kitchen-remodeling company, saw the market contracting last year and decided to trim supply costs across the board.

Mr. Jaridly talked to about 40 or 50 vendors with the goal of getting a 10% to 15% price reduction from each. He said he got about 25 to 30 to agree to a discount or new deal, saving the company about 15% of total operating costs, or about $400,000 to $500,000, last year.

“We’ve been loyal with some of these vendors for decades and obviously, during an up cycle, we agreed to certain price increases,” Mr. Jaridly says. “During a down cycle, we expected them to also lower their costs.”

Thinknicity Inc., a San Francisco recruiting firm for the technology industry, in May set out to renegotiate its lease as part of an effort to slash overhead costs. In July, it worked out a new three-year lease with its landlord, reducing the space it leased to 3,000 square feet from 4,000 square feet.

But in the third quarter, Thinknicity had to cut back some more, so management decided to go back to the landlord for another round of renegotiations. Helga Grayson, chief financial and operations officer, says she told the building manager that her company’s revenue was down by 50% and it was prepared to walk away and find a smaller space.

A few weeks later, Thinknicity secured a new three-year lease for 1,700 square feet with rent of $3,500 a month, compared to the $5,100 per month it was paying for the 3,000 square feet.

Some small businesses are even negotiating on behalf of employees, as was the case with family-owned Atlanta Refrigeration Service Co. Dave Brautigan, chief operating officer, in November approached a major supplier, Heritage Food Service Equipment Inc., asking it to take on four Atlanta Refrigeration employees whose job it was to acquire parts for the commercial refrigeration and air-conditioning company. In return, Heritage would become the only supplier for Atlanta Refrigeration, which also would be willing to pay more for parts like thermostats and motors.

The result: Atlanta Refrigeration was able to save more than $250,000 in payroll and benefits costs. And Heritage, of Fort Wayne, Ind., was now poised to gain $1 million in business from Atlanta Refrigeration.

“It has made our relationship with that contractor better,” says Mr. Brautigan. “Because these people used to be employed by me, they know the unique urgency and the systems that we have in place.”

At first, Dave Morris, vice president of Heritage, wasn’t sold on Mr. Brautigan’s presentation, but was convinced when the talk turned to how much more business Heritage could get. “As they grow their core business, as their supplier, our volume goes up with them,” Mr. Morris says. Atlanta Refrigeration generates $12 million a year in revenue and has about 100 employees.

Some companies have found that negotiating better terms sometimes isn’t enough, however. Take New York-based Proximo Consulting Services Inc., an information-technology consulting company in New York that has been feeling the cutbacks from its large clients.

“Being a small company, there’s a lot less fat to cut when you’re looking at making cost cuts,” says David Ricciardi, president of the 25-employee company. “It’s not like I can lay off 1,000 people.”

In April, Proximo was set to stop outsourcing hardware and network support and bring the work in-house. But the vendor, New York-based Perry Technology Group Inc., a technology consulting-services company that monitored servers for Proximo for about four years, came back with another suggestion: Keep us on until the end of the year, but for monitoring of only half of Promixo’s 32 servers. That would lower the contract’s cost to $1,400 per month from $4,000.

Proximo agreed and internal staff began monitoring the other servers. Perry “understood the situation and were very willing to work with us to do that,” Mr. Ricciardi says.

Still, in December Proximo ended the provisionary contract altogether because the company couldn’t afford it anymore. Mr. Ricciardi says when business swings up again, he’ll definitely consider bringing back Perry as a vendor.

[via WSJ Small Business] by Raymund Flandez at raymund.flandez@wsj.com