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AllBusiness has a cornucopia of advice for entrepreneurs
and those trying to expand their businesses. The site explains all
aspects of leasing office equipment and what office supplies a new business
should stock up on. Ask the Experts section where you can submit questions
to people covering the areas of computers and technology, office operations,
finance, hope-based business, and more.
http://home3.americanexpress.com/smallbusiness/advice
American Express Small Business Exchange provides good
advice about starting, financing and managing new business. You ask
questions in any of 19 categories. Experts answer the questions within
five days.
This web site, sponsored by Palo Alto Software, offers
a sampling of downloadable business plans for industries ranging from retail
to service. It also offers advice for developing a marketing plan.
Samples and tips are available free. It also sells Palo Alto Business
Planning Software - commercial software designed to help entrepreneurs form
a business strategy, write a business plan, and decide on a marketing program.
The software includes: Business Plan Pro, Marketing Plus, Decision Maker,
Marketing Plan Pro, Business Plan Toolkit. Business Plan Pro 3.0
was reviewed positively in PC World magazine(September 1998,
p. 86). According to the article, Business Plan Pro 3.0 is very comprehensive
and flexible and well worth its $100 price. The first version of Business
Plan Pro was evaluated best out of seven business planning software programs
in the Journal of Business Strategy (Jan/Feb, 1997, p. 44).
Sponsored by CCH, Inc., publisher of business, legal,
and tax books, this site offers information on a number of useful topics
for the beginning entrepreneur, including writting the business plan. It
offers a pratical guide to starting, running, and growing a small business.
To access the wealth of infomation available you may choose one of three
easy ways to find topic areas in the SOHO Guidebook: select a topic or article
from the table of contents, use the index, or conduct a search.
The Center for Business Planning provides any business
manager or entrepreneur with a set of resources to help in creating a business
or managing a business. Information is provided on every area of planning
a business including: acquire venture capital, define new products, market
analysis, competitive analysis, production management, tax problems, legal
issues, prepare
financial statements, write a business plan and much more.
The Company Corporation bills itself as the largest incorporation
service in the world on-line and off. It says that it has formed well
over 150,000 corporations, limited liability companies and limited partnerships
in all states, and offers the most efficient, customer-focused service available.
It provides help with business plans.
http://www.corporate.com/cover_f.html
Corporate Agents recently merged with the Company Corporation,
but it still maintains a useful web site. According the the company,
this site contains everything needed to form a new corporation or limited
liability company in any state ... for as little as $11, plus state filing
fees.
http://www.islandnet.com/~relic/startup.html
The Entrepreneurs’ Business Start Up Page is dedicated
to helping individuals and organizations start up and run successful businesses
with little or no money. For more info on how to start your own business
on the net, and how to promote it, how to find and use Email addresses,
etc.
The Small Business Advancement Center at the University
of Central Arkansas provides a number of information sources available free
to entrepreneurs and small business owners. One of the services is to
make available papers on topics of interest. This paper was written
in 1997 and deals with incorporating a small business. The paper
is entitled "Small Business Clients Should Take Care--Accountants and Lawyers
May Not Understand the Advantages and Disadvantages of Incorporation" and
is written by Paul Dunn, Leo Cheatham, and Carole Cheatham of Northeast Louisiana
University.
The Small Business Advancement Center at the University
of Central Arkansas provides a number of information sources available free
to entrepreneurs and small business owners. One of them, the Small Business
Advancement Electronic Resource, has detailed information on various industries
in the form of profiles. This information provides the background of
an industry that a prospective entrepreneur may wish to enter. Many
of these profiles were developed by the SBA - others by various universities
and colleges around the U.S. Each profile describes the nature of the
industry, management details, owner profiles, how to buy an existing business,
marketing techniques, how to write a business plan for that particular industry,
financing, industry history, and trends related to the industry. Some
of the industries profiled are: child care, antique shops, farming, drug stores,
styping services, and street vendors, among others.
http://www.pcworld.com/cgi-bin/shareware?ID=48830
The magazine PC World has a web site, called FileWorld, which offers various kinds of shareware. Shareware are computer programs which can be freely copied for trial purposes. These programs are often written by knowledgeable people for their own use. They are willing to let other people copy them to try out the software, but do expect to be reimbursed (around $10 - $30) if a person decides to use the software program on a more permanent basis.
The above url is for FileWorld. Once there, select the category "Business and Office." Then select the sub-category, "Management." There are various shareware programs listed which may be of use to an entrepreneur/small business owner. Among them are various shareware versions (try before you buy) of programs for use in writing a business plan. These are:
BPlan Developer - Business plan workbook.
BizPlanBuilder - Templates for constructing a business
plan.
Business Plan Master - Prepares a business plan using
templates.
Business Plan Pro - Uses spreadsheets, charts, documents
to create business plans. (Discussed earlier under Bplans.)
B-Plan, Business Plan Pro, and BizPlan Builder, among other business planning software, were evaluated on 10 attributes in the Journal of Business Strategy (Jan/Feb 1997, pp. 42-45).
Other useful programs:
Small Business Advisor - Provides tax and legal
advice.
Attend - Tracks employee attendance.
Business Analyst - Analyzes a business to increase
cash flow and net profit.
Home Business Guide - Guide to starting a home-based
business.
Home Business Manager - Keeps tabs on customers,
orders, invoices, etc.
Integra Office - Time keeping, billing, scheduling
Personnel - Personnel management program.
PICS Lite - Inventory management.
Sold by Business Resource Software, Inc., PlanWrite
takes the user through the complete planning process. It assists the
user in constructing a credible and reliable business plan, including everything
from marketing information to detailed financials. It includes
tutorials. PlanWrite uses the question and answer approach to build
financial spreadsheets. It also provides sample plans. The software
includes access to internet sites to work with other software. Price
is $230. Very positively reviewed in Journal of Business Strategy
(January/February, 1998, p. 40).
http://www.entrepreneurship.com/
Based in Ottawa, Quebec, Canada, the Resource Centre has
useful resources to fully research and develop a business idea. Trained
and experienced staff are on hand to assist with all types of inquires from
basic start-up information to more complex questions. Most of the services
are free.
Smallbiz was developed as part of Microsoft's ongoing
initiative to make it easier for entrepreneurs to start, run and grow their
businesses. The site provides information about how information technology
can improve operations in the form of features, departments, technology resources
and interactive forums. It provides suggestions
for writting a business plan.
Small Business Development Centers throughout the U.S.
provide one-on-one, confidential, free counseling to individuals interested
in starting or expanding a business. This Iowa web site helps people
analyze their business idea and start them in the process of writing a business
plan. Warning: sticky site
http://www.sba.gov/gopher/Local-Information/Small-Business-Development-Centers/
This web site provides a complete listing of all the U.S.
Small Business Development Centers for every state in the union. Phone
numbers and key contact people are included. Each SBDC not only provides
free counseling to people wanting to start a business, but also helps them
write a business plan.
http://www.midnet.sc.edu/smbiz/smallbus.htm
The Small Business Homepage offers help to those interested
in starting a small business. It deals with topics such as Business
Ownership, Naming Your Business, Choosing A Location, Signing A Lease, Insurance,
Tax Issues, Licenses, Record Keeping, and Training Seminars.
http://www.courttv.com/legalhelp/business/
Court TV -- Small Business Law Center Access to: Forms
and Model Documents, How to Find a Lawyer Links and Other Resources, Seminars,
and Discussion.
SmartOnline.com is an online business center that can
help guide a start-up company in business plan, marketing strategy, and incorporating.
This web site offers some solid information on writting
a business plan. The Strategic Business Planning Company is a consulting
company which helps people write business plans. According to the
company, its executives and business plan writers have started, owned and
operated businesses in industries such as: Business Consulting, Mortgage,
Computer Systems Analysis and Design, Import/Export, and Health Care Administration
Systems.
The Venture Capital Resource Library offers free tax,
legal,and strategic information. A free business plan template is available
for downloading. The plan can be submitted via a form to obtain advice
from the web site operators.
Click here to return to Web Sites for Entrepreneurs Homepage
Page created by Dave Beatty for J. David Hunger. Updated by J. D. Hunger.
Send Questions and Comments to jdhunger@iastate.edu.
(Last updated 6/4/03 by J. D. Hunger)