Small Business Association

There is no more complete site on the Web for small business information than the official site of the Small Business Administration (SBA). The SBA has been around since 1953, when it was established as an independent agency of the federal government. The SMA is designed to help and protect the interests of small businesses in order to make the overall economy of the U.S. stronger. The stated goal of the SBA is to help people start and grow their businesses.

Its website is well-designed and easy to navigate. It is divided into four main categories, which can be accessed from the homepage: Small Business Planner, Services, Tools, and Local Resources.

The Small Business Planner section is organized into four “steps.” The first describes how you should prepare yourself to start a business (checklists, is entrepreneurship right for you? Etc.) and offers advice and advice and examples for writing a business plan. The second step is about actually starting a business, how to find a mentor, how to decide upon the structure of the business, licensing and permitting, finding a market niche, and the all-important topic of financing a startup. The third step describes how to manage your business, addressing how to manage employees, making decisions, marketing and selling, understanding fair practices, taxes, insurance, and how to finance the growth of your business, among other topics. The fourth step discusses how to exit the business and covers issues that include selling a business, transfer of ownership, liquidating business assets, and filing for bankruptcy.

The Services section covers loans backed by the SBA, opportunities for getting government contracts, disaster assistance, and training programs. This section has links to information about financial assistance, including grants and loans; contract opportunities, including how to bid on government projects; disaster assistance for businesses, homeowners, and renters; online training opportunities; counseling and assistance, including SCORE and women’s business training centers; special opportunities for groups like Native Americans, youth entrepreneurs, and women; laws and regulations; and compliance.

The Tools section offers information via monthly chat events, e-newsletters, podcasts, and other resources. This section is broken down into topics that include a library with links to an excellent business glossary, statistics and research, various reports and publications, and stories of people who have succeeded in business; audio and video resources; monthly web chats that date from May 2006 to April 2007; and small business and federal forms.

The Local Resources section offers links to counseling, training and business development specialists who offer free or low-cost services in your particular area. You can search for these experts by state or zip code, and you can search for the SBA’s district, regional, and disaster field offices.

If you only consult one small-business website, this is the one. There’s enough information here to keep you busy and thinking for a long time!

http://www.sba.gov/

SCORE

SCORE represents the top source of free and confidential business advice for small-business owners. The organization is a resource partner of the Small Business Administration and a nonprofit designed to help with the formation, growth, and success of small businesses in the U.S. It was founded in 1964 and has 16 employees and 10,500 volunteer counselors. These counselors are either working small-business owners or retired business people who want to share what they’ve learned in the trenches. SCORE touts the fact that it has helped companies like Vermont Teddy Bear and Jelly Belly Candy become the major successes they are.

One of the site’s best elements is its “Ask SCORE” feature. With “Ask SCORE,” you can search online for a counselor by keyword, expertise, or state. You then get a list of counselors that meet your criteria and their areas of expertise. Each listing also has a link to the counselor’s biographical information. When you find the right person, you can click on the name of the counselor, fill out another form where you can ask your question, and submit it then and there. The counselor will then contact you via e-mail. Finding expert advice doesn’t get any easier than this!

The site also has how-to articles about starting, financing, growing, and managing a business. There are also useful articles designed to “demystify” technology, which cover topics like firewalls, technology planning, LANs, and how to print on-the-go. There are also business columns that cover timely topics.

The website provides “60-second guides” that address topics such as business planning and management, financing, human resources, and marketing. These guides offer quick and practical steps to help you get answers or develop action plans in these areas. The guides are available in both English and Spanish.

The 60-second guides and the Ask SCORE features make this site a must-see for small-business people.

http://www.score.org/

Business.gov

This site is the official business link to the U.S. federal government. It is managed by the Small Business Administration in conjunction with other federal agencies. It is well-organized into the main areas of Featured Topics, Taxes, Human Resources, Compliance Guides, and Audiences.

The Featured Topics area covers grants and loans, employment and labor laws, home-based businesses, restaurant and food businesses, and how to purchase surplus government property for your business. The Taxes section provides small business and nonprofit tax guides, links to filing taxes online at both federal and state levels, help for estimating taxes, and a place where you can ask tax questions. The Human Resources area addresses employee benefits, employee vertification (I-9), OSHA requirements, and information about hiring and managing employees.

Compliance Guides are offered in business areas such as emergency and disaster planning, environmental compliance, franchising, government contracting, information security, intellectual property, licensing and permitting, international trade, and workplace health and safety. Guides are also available in the industry areas of aerospace and defense, agriculture, construction, energy, financial services, food and beverage, health care, mining and drilling, printing and publishing, and telecommunications and media, among others.

There are also guides available for specific audiences, including minority-owned businesses, nonprofits, the self-employed, businesses owned by veterans, and women-owned businesses.

An especially useful feature on the site, which is currently in beta version, is an online search capability for finding what licenses and permits you need to operate your business. You can search for these by state or by business/industry.

The site offers answers to common questions about regulatory compliance, gives links to compliance contacts and experts so you can get help from government agencies, links to federal forms, and workplace posters. Links are also provided to business information and statistics, economic and industry data available from government agencies, and state compliance resources.

http://www.business.gov/

flyte: Web Marketing Strategies For Small Business

I stumbled upon this excellent blog focusing on marketing strategies for people like you and me today. It is updated frequently and chock full of good content. The topics covered include:

Business Blogs and Blog Marketing
Business Philosophy
Client News
Email Marketing
Entrepreneur & Small Business
How-To Web Marketing Videos
Ignore It!
Off Topic
Podcasts
Search Engine Marketing
Web Copywriting
Web Design & Development
Web Marketing
Web Site Launches
Web/Tech
Weblogs

Rich Brooks writes engagingly and honestly as evidenced from a recent post that tells the sad tale of a break in at his office and the theft of a laptop computer. This is a writer who is honest enough to share the good and the bad with readers and I think that says alot about the quality of the blog!

flyte: Web Marketing Strategies For Small Business

Home Biz Blogger

Eve Lester has a gem of a blog. She writes in a friendly fashion, uses humor, covers important topics and updates regularly. What more could a reader want? Some of the topics covered by Eve are:

Blog Promotion
Blogging
Business Ideas
Entrepreneurism
Finance
Sales/Marketing
Technology
Time Management 101

I give Eve and Home Biz Blogger two thumbs up!

Fortune Small Business

I adore the print version of Fortune Small Business and I just realized they have an online version as well. When I receive this magazine each month I immediately stop what I’m doing, get a cup of coffee and start reading. The magazine is full of good advice, stories about small business, mistakes to avoid and more. The website for the magazine is at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/ and I also recommend you sign up to receive the print version as well!

Article Writing Super Secrets Review

Liz Tomey provides a comprehensive, in-depth look at the article marketing process in her e-book Article Writing Super Secrets. In this e-book, appropriately sub-titled Learn How You Can Build A Complete Business Empire By Writing Articles The “Profit Pulling” Way, she offers a practical solution for generating exposure and increasing revenues, without breaking the bank.

A successful e-book author and online marketing entrepreneur in her own right, Liz draws from her own personal experience in article marketing. Her e-book Article Writing Super Secrets reduces the article marketing process to a practical no-cost or low-cost or marketing solution that can give your business the advantage you deserve.

Article Writing Super Secrets, by Liz Tomey, features 6 chapters, with each chapter containing sub-chapters, and covering the topics outlined below:

Chapter 1 – Article Marketing
* The Expert Use of Article Marketing in E-Commerce Today
* How Article Marketing Works
* The Pros of Article Marketing
* The Cons of Article Marketing

Chapter 2 – How to Write Your Own Expert Articles
* The Principle behind Your Articles in E-Commerce
* Formatting Your Winning Article
* Age-Old Question: How Many Words per Article
* Types of Articles You Can Write
* Article Writing Tips
* Common Article Writing Mistakes You Must Avoid
* Creating Your Resource Box

Chapter 3 – Creating Articles without Writing a Single Word
* Outsourcing Article Writing to Ghostwriters
* Using Shortcuts via Purchasing Private Label Rights
* Making Use of Interviews
* Other Known Ways of Churning Articles without Writing

Chapter 4 – Distributing Your Articles for Maximum Exposure
* Conveying Free Reprint Rights to Your Articles
* Submitting Articles to Article Directories
* Submitting Articles to Popular Membership Sites
* Compiling Free Reports for Viral Marketing
* Using Blogs as Distribution Vehicles
* Gaining an Edge with Forums in Article Marketing
* Looking out Directly for E-zine Publishers
* Other Effective Article Distribution Strategies

Chapter 5 – Exploding Profit Centers in Your Articles
* Offer Re-Branding Rights to the Articles
* Selling Private Label Rights to Your Articles
* Compile Your Own Paid Digital Product with Your Articles
* Compiling Short Reports as Bonuses
* Other Profit Centers You Can Build into Your Articles

Chapter 6 – In Closing
* Article Marketing Tips
* Is Article Marketing for Everyone?

What I Did Like:

Article Writing Super Secrets is a valuable resource for those who are new to the concept of marketing with articles. Liz includes a Table of Contents, which lets readers see immediately what they will find covered. Although I’m not a fan of e-books written primarily in paragraph form, I do like that Liz provides a breakdown of each chapter. This makes her e-book much easier to follow, especially since most readers will not have the time to do a complete read-through in one sitting.

What I Didn’t Like:

In the second sub-chapter of Chapter 2, Liz offers good advice for the most part; however, she tends to de-emphasize the issue of grammar. There are numerous issues that most spellchecking software simply doesn’t catch. I highly recommend hiring a professional proofreader and/or editor to make sure that your articles are grammatically sound. At the very least, you should enlist the help of a friend or colleague to proof the article for you.

You can purchase Article Writing Super Secrets Review (with master resale rights) by clicking the button below.

Supercharged Website Traffic Strategies Review

Internet marketing expert Liz Tomey has harnessed the power of the web to become a successful online entrepreneur. In one of her latest e-books, Supercharged Website Traffic Strategies, she shares a wealth of information about the importance of generating targeted web site traffic versus simply generating random hits from visitors who may or may not be, interested in buying your products and/or services.

Liz explains at length that it’s not the amount of traffic your site generates, but the amount of targeted traffic that tells the tale in dollars and cents. For instance, if you’re selling ballet slippers, you may get lots of visitors interested in shoes, but how many ballet slippers do you think you’ll actually sell to people interested in running shoes, golf shoes, cowboy boots, etc., the list goes on and on … see the difference?

The title of the e-book, Supercharged Website Traffic Strategies, stays true to its name by presenting readers with the concept of actually plotting a course to generate traffic from targeted clients/customers. Liz covers the essentials in 10 chapters, in which she outlines as a 10-day plan that covers these steps:

Chapter 1/Day 1 – Outline Your Business Plan and Realize the Importance of Getting Targeted Traffic

Chapter 2/Day 2 – Get Your Auto Responder – Find Incentive for Opt-In List

Chapter 3/Day 3 – Write Some Short Articles and Submit Them for Free

Chapter 4/ Day 4 – Write and Place Some PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Ads

Chapter 5/Day 5 - Register Your Product with ClickBank

Chapter 6/Day 6 - Find Related Blogs and Forums and Post in Them

Chapter 7/Day 7 – Place Some Relevant E-zine Advertisements

Chapter 8/Day 8 – Find Related Link Exchange Partners

Chapter 9/ Day 9 – Get Yourself a Press Release

Chapter 10/Day 10 – You Need to Plan for Your Business to Continue to Grow and Thrive

Liz also includes a “Recap” section at the end of Supercharged Website Traffic Strategies, as well as a list of resources with links readers will find helpful.

In her e-book Supercharged Website Traffic Strategies, author Liz Tomey provides readers with details about why each of the 10 steps is critical, rather than offering the steps from a “just do it” perspective. This presentation lets readers know the reasoning behind the concepts.

You can purchase Supercharged Website Traffic Strategies by clicking the button below:

http://7dollarbooks.com/scyws/

Blogging To The Bank 2 Review – Full Disclosure

Blogging to the Bank 2.0 or Blogging to the Bank 2 is the latest blogging ebook to hit the shelves of the internet market. A book written by master blogger Rob Benwell for bloggers, this book is poised to rock the whole blogging fraternity. Is the ebook worth buying to read? We will review this new book Blogging to the Bank 2.0 and see what is in store for anyone hoping to monetize their blogs.

By now, blogging is not new to us especially to online marketers. It first started innocently as a tool to share our thoughts and opinions. In short, it is an online diary. With time and increasing popularity, marketers saw the potential to make use of blogs as a free method to drive traffic and to promote products. Needless to say, Rob Benwell is one of them and after making a tidy fortune from blogs, he decided to share his system in the first book Blogging to the Bank in 2006. It was a home style success as many of the techniques he used were never seen or heard about elsewhere. Blogging to the Bank during this time had helped many struggling internet marketers including myself to finally see great breakthroughs in our income levels.

Soon, the blogging techniques taught in Blogging to the Bank became obsolete or no longer work just as effective. It was time for new changes and killer techniques to be ushered in. This was the reason why Blogging to the Bank 2.0 was birthed. So bloggers who have bought his first book would see something totally revolutionary in this new blogging system.

What Can You Expect From This Blogging to the Bank 2.0 System?

Blogging to the Bank 2.0 is a systematic blogging system that offers bloggers a full-proof plan to work on. Written in the same manner as Blogging to the Bank , Rob Benwell once again deliver clear and concise steps that are straight to the point. The secret tricks and techniques are explained in an easy to follow manner so that even newbie bloggers can get started in profiting immediately.

What Are Some Tips And Tricks Revealed In Blogging to the Bank 2.0 System?

One section of Blogging to the Bank 2.0 shows you a case study of how a simple blog nets the author close to $4000 consistently every single month. The book also reveals a unique step-by-step blueprint that you can apply for the long term success of your blogs so that they keep cranking money like ATMs for you. If time is a big hurdle to you, learn another trick in Blogging to the Bank 2.0 that teaches you how to create blogs within minutes and not hours or days. The book also exposes the truth about free traffic and how you can tap into Web 2.0 and other effective techniques other than Google Adwords to pull in hordes of targeted visitors to your blog.

Frankly speaking, this new ebook is well worth more than its price tag. Compared to the first book, Blogging to the Bank 2.0 packs a heavy punch and delivers a well-thought system and valuable tips for anyone hoping to make residual income for years to come. Read up my Blogging to the Bank 2.0 System review lens for more information.

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

 

Davion is a successful blogger with dozens of cash-cranking blogs that make him money while he sleeps using the secret blueprint in Blogging to the Bank 2.0. To find out more, you can also read this hot Blogging to the Bank 2.0 Review at his popular lens and start building your blogging empire today.

Blogs: Small Business

The Blogs: Small Business site is a blog directory and only accepts blogs like the one you are now reading. The categories of small business blogs are:

Accounting & Cash Flow
Advertising & Sales
Affiliate Marketing
Business Networking
Email Marketing
Entrepreneurship
Hiring & Outsourcing
Home-Based Biz Tips
How To Blog
Internet Marketing
Legal Issues
Local Marketing
News & Notes
Operations & Management
Publicity & Media Relations
Search Engine Optimization
Security & Fraud
Tools

Each blog listing includes the title, description, date the blog was added and relevant category. Check out the tab “What’s New” and you’ll see the most recently added blogs.

This blog directory is my personal favorite and a must bookmark resource!

http://blogsforsmallbusiness.com/directory/

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