65 Indispensable Websites for Business Owners

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

Planning a Start-Up? Help and Advice Abound

Laid off in the recession and thinking of starting a business? Or just tired of working for someone else?

It’s hard to start a business alone. Aspiring entrepreneurs must tackle an onslaught of questions like what and where to sell, how to effectively market their product or service, how to structure their business — even whether going solo is the best option for them.

There’s no shortage of advice and resources for fledgling entrepreneurs. In fact, the biggest problem is figuring out whom to trust and what resources will be most useful. That involves scouting out what’s available and judging what is worth pursuing. Yes, it’s time-consuming. But one good piece of advice or personal connection can make or break your chance at success.

Here’s a look at some possible places for new entrepreneurs to turn.

Development Centers

Partially funded by the federal government, Small Business Development Centers provide free counseling and help on a full range of issues such as business planning, financing and site location. There are about 900 SBDCs, spread across all 50 states.

The centers employ full-time business counselors, typically former entrepreneurs or M.B.A. graduates, who are well-networked and meet one-on-one with entrepreneurs or direct them to other services and professionals that can help, says Don Wilson of the Association of Small Business Development Centers in Burke, Va.

“Sometimes the most valuable service we offer is telling someone their idea isn’t going to work,” he says.

Many SBDCs host courses, such as FastTrac, an entrepreneurship exploration and planning program developed by the Kauffman Foundation, an entrepreneurship research and advocacy organization. Some SBDCs partner with local business incubators that offer free and low-cost office space and resources.

To find the nearest SBDC, go to asbdc-us.org on the Web.

Score

Need a business mentor with very specific experience or expertise? You might try Score, a nonprofit group of volunteer business executives who counsel entrepreneurs; it’s loosely affiliated with the Small Business Administration.

There are about 11,000 Score volunteers nationwide and 389 offices. The volunteers mentor entrepreneurs long-term or just help with a specific question or need. People who don’t live near a Score chapter can pose questions to a counselor via email at Score.org.

A search tool on the homepage lets users find counselors in their geographic area or with a specific area of expertise. You can read detailed descriptions of the counselors’ professional backgrounds to pick one that suits your needs.

Campus Help

Universities are eager to give students real-world experience in a host of entrepreneurial exercises, including feasibility analysis, business planning and market research. They do so by providing free and low-cost help to local entrepreneurs.

For instance, law students at the University of San Diego advise local businesses pro bono on legal matters such as business incorporation and getting licenses and permits. For $500 to $1,500, student teams at St. Louis University will conduct a feasibility analysis or help write a business plan. Local entrepreneurs also can get their product or service ideas evaluated in the school’s Idea to Product Competition.

Call your local universities’ entrepreneurship programs or business schools, or check their Web sites, to see what services they offer local businesses.

Other Entrepreneurs

An often-overlooked resource for new entrepreneurs is other successful business owners in their fields. Someone looking to start a business should compile a list of the five “smartest” minds in the industry and try to meet with those people face-to-face, says Bo Fishback, vice president of entrepreneurship for the Kauffman Foundation.

“If you think you’ve figured out a place where you can leverage some great value, go to talk to people in the space,” he says. These entrepreneurs — assuming they’re willing to meet with you — can answer questions about the industry and what it’s like running such a business. “The best things that come out of this meeting are introductions to other people who might be interested in helping you,” Mr. Fishback adds. “It’s a very self-directed kind of school.”

Networking Groups

Starting a business can be a lonely experience — if you do it alone. Meeting other entrepreneurs who are in your town, or have similar experiences and problems, can be both therapeutic and educational.

Pretty much any city or small town in the U.S. has a Chamber of Commerce or other business group that hosts networking events, seminars and other resources for entrepreneurs. You also can find groups of business owners in your area on Web sites like MeetUp.com.

More and more business networking is actually taking place online. Though you might not form as close a relationship that way, you are more likely to find people in your industry to share experiences with.

Social-networking sites for start-ups include Sta.rtup.biz, StartupNation.com and Biznik.com. Other sites, such as MicroMentor.org, IdeaCrossing.org, PartnerUp.com and GoBigNetwork.com, can help match entrepreneurs with a business mentor, or even a potential investor.

[via WSJ Small Business] by Kelly Spors

Top Ten Jobs for 2009

In 2009, the job market will be full of contrasts: some industries will be eviscerated while others face shortages of workers. The good news is that despite the recession, there are still real jobs to be had. The bad news is that you may have to change fields to find one.

The trick to job hunting in 2009 will be to figure out how your skill-set can translate across industries, says Elaine Varelas, a managing partner at Boston-based outplacement firm Keystone Partners, so that you’re not confined to searching one sector of the economy. “People are frustrated because it’s taking them a while to assess the job market,” she says. “They’ll have to figure out other things they can do and want to do.” Successful job-seekers will be the ones who can figure out how to take skills learned in one kind of job and translate them into assets in others.

Here are the top eight areas where work can be found in 2009: read more

Start-ups in a down economy

Nobody loves a recession*. But many successful entrepreneurs say that, in retrospect, they were lucky to have launched their businesses in tough times.

Case Study No. 1: How Method Weathered the Dot-com Bust

* A recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters during which the country’s gross domestic product shrinks. It is too soon to say whether the economy is in a recession now.

When they look back on the early days of their start-up, Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan remember that a lot of potential investors laughed at them. The Bay Area, where they were living, was awash in Internet start-ups. Each week in 2000 brought another glitzy launch party or news that the scantest of business plans had attracted venture capital. Even office landlords were demanding equity from their dot-com tenants. Lowry and Ryan, who wanted to start a company to make — of all things — humdrum household products, were decidedly out of step with the times. “You had the sense that there was this real historical thing going on in the region, even if it was not going to end well,” says Ryan. read more