Small Business Resources

by Paula Ward, Business Instructor
Seattle Central Community College

Note: This page is still growing. Feel free to send any links you feel should be added to pward@sccd.ctc.edu

General Small Business Resources back to top	U.S. Business Advisor www.business.gov U.S. Small Business Administration www.sba.gov Inc. Magazine www.inc.com Entrepreneur Magazine—also look for their free bookstore www.entrepreneur.com Business Owner’s Toolkit: complete Small Business Guide, and Toolkit containing checklists, sample forms and templates http://www.toolkit.cch.com Frequently Asked Questions and wealth of other topics about starting a business www.liraz.com/q&a.htm Council on Economic Priorities (CEP). A nonprofit, public interest research organization that evaluates the practices of U.S. corporations. www.cep.org/ Size Standards for Small Business [SBA] www.sba.gov/gopher/Financial-Assistance/Size-Standards/ Home Business Magazine. A resource site for home-based business owners www.homebusinessmag.com Independent Means - Organization devoted to supporting the economic empowerment of young women. www.anincomeofherown.com Digital Women – International online community for women in business www.digital-women.com Women’s Business Center www.onlinewbc.gov Center for Women’s Business Research www.nfwbo.org Women’s Business Ownership www.sbaonline.sba.gov/womeninbusiness/ Center for American Indian Business Development www.ncaied.org/ Business resource page from a colleague teaching at Highline CC http://flightline.highline.edu/jward/Jeff%20Ward%20Links.htm
Creating a Mission Statement	More useful info from bplans: http://www.bplans.com/dp/missionstatement.cfm
Writing a Business Plan back to top	A website of Business Plan resources includes SWOT Analysis, Cash Flow calculator, e-business plan: http://www.bplans.com/dp/ SBA - Business Plan Basics--Just part of the extensive SBA site devoted to helping small business. http://www.sba.gov/starting/businessplan.html American Express Small Business Plan Resources http://home3.americanexpress.com/smallbusiness/tool/biz_plan/index.asp BizPlanIt | Virtual Business Plan http://www.bizplanit.com/vplan.html Inc. Magazine provides lots of good narrative and guidance here on writing a plan http://www.inc.com/guides/write_biz_plan/20660.html Business Owner’s ToolKit: Researching Your Industry: http://www.toolkit.cch.com/text/P01_3500.asp About.com’s business plan outline: http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/businessplans/a/bizplanoutline.htm
Buying an Existing Business or Franchise	Franchise Zone by Entrepreneur Magazine http://www.entrepreneur.com/franzone/guide/0,3422,,00.html Business.com’s Small Business Franchising Information http://www.business.com/directory/small_business/franchising/
Financial Statements, Accounting, Taxes	Tax strategies for self-employed http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/0,4621,310808,00.html
Marketing back to top	Marcia Yudkin’s website—lots of free advice and a brief, useful newsletter http://www.yudkin.com/marketing.htm Writing a case study as a marketing tool: http://www.wordbiz.com/archive/steve_slaunwhite.shtml#part2
Human Resources	Directory to About.com’s Human Resources site—includes a great page of links to government agencies, etc. for quick lookup on legal issues (e.g., affirmative action, child labor laws, etc.) http://humanresources.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.humanresources.about.com/library/weekly/aa050502a.htm
e-commerce	From Entrepreneur.com http://www.entrepreneur.com/howto/e-business/0,6473,,00.html
Ethics, Community Service, Not-for-Profits back to top	Washington Community Alliance for Self-Help (CASH)-providing microloans, business training and mentoring to entrepreneurs, especially low-income women and immigrants (modeled on the Grameen Bank—see next link) http://www.washingtoncash.org/index.html The Grameen Bank—a groundbreaking effort begun in the ‘90s in Bangladesh, one of the poorest of countries, to provide tiny loans to villagers to finance small enterprises. The Grameen Bank now has franchises around the world. http://www.grameen-info.org/ Action for Change: advice on starting/running not-for-profits: http://www.actionforchange.org/getstarted/howto-mission.html Michigan State University’s Virtual Non-profit Library: http://www.lib.msu.edu/harris23/grants/znonprof.htm