BUS270-Entrepreneurship: Recommended Websites

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is a government agency that supports and promotes entrepreneurs. The SBA offers free or inexpensive pamphlets on a variety of business subjects. Some local offices offer counseling to small business owners through SCORE or the SBDC system.

This site, run by Zero to One Million author Ryan Allis, provides resources for young entrepreneurs, a networking list of contacts called The Entrepreneurship Directory, discussion forums, and links to articles and courses.

The Kauffman Foundation site provides a broad array of resources and information for entrepreneurs, as well as significant financial resources to support entrepreneurship education.

The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) is a federal agency that fosters the establishment and growth of minority-owned businesses. MBDA provides funding for a network of Minority Business Development Centers (MBDCs), Native American Business Development Centers (NABDCs), and Business Resource Centers (BRCs). The Centers provide minority entrepreneurs with one-on-one assistance in writing business plans, marketing, management and technical assistance, and financial planning to support viable start-up business ventures.

The Service Core of Retired Executives (SCORE) is a group of retired businesspeople who volunteer as counselors and mentors to entrepreneurs.

The National Association of Women Business Owners helps female entrepreneurs network. You can join a chapter of female entrepreneurs in your area.

The Internet Public Library is a fascinating site that is a good source for industry and market statistics.

InterNIC provides public information regarding Internet domain name registration services. It’s a good place to start when you are ready to look into registering your own Web site.

This site provides free counters you can install to analyze and monitor all visitors to your Web site.

If you create any art, music, or literary works that are important to your business, copyright them through the U.S. Copyright Office.

Download.com offers a lot of free software. Be sure to run all software through your virus detection program before installing it on your hard drive.

The E-Commerce Guide reviews the latest products for e-commerce Web sites, keeps track of industry statistics, and encourages networking among online entrepreneurs.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Web site details the regulations that employers must obey to ensure the safety and health of America’s workers.

The Business for Social Responsibility Web site reports the latest developments in global initiatives regarding ethical business behavior, including environmental impact and other guidelines.

This site provides short articles on sales training issues, such as gaining management support, demonstrating results, and coaching for skills reinforcement.

It’s important to be able to compare the financial ratios derived from the projected income statements for your business to industry benchmarks. Bizminer.com offers free samples of industry-wide financial ratios and benchmarks.

This comprehensive site, a product of Dun & Bradstreet, contains profiles of more than 14,000 companies in the US as well as articles, advice, and business tools on credit, careers, disaster planning, franchises, finance and accounting, taxation, green business, manufacturing, labor and employment, starting a business, and technology and law.

Use this fun calculator to experiment with factors affecting cash flow.

Bplans contains a large online collection of free sample business plans. In addition, it has helpful tools and guides to help you manage your business better. Bplans includes practical advice on planning, interactive tools and calculators, and publishes daily advice that will help you grow your business.

This site provides a free version for students of its software, which creates profit and loss forecasts, cash flow forecasts, balance sheet forecasts, and budgets for small businesses.

You can download any tax form you need from the Internal Revenue Service’s Web site, which also provides answers to many questions you might have about filling out tax returns for your business.

The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship's mission is to provide programs that inspire young people from low-income communities to stay in school, to recognize business opportunities and to plan for successful futures.

Gust is a global SaaS funding platform for the sourcing and management of early-stage investments. Gust enables skilled entrepreneurs to collaborate with the smartest investors and angel investor networks by virtually supporting all aspects of the investment relationship, from initial pitch to successful exit. The SaaS funding platform is endorsed by the world's leading business angel and venture capital associations.

Global Entrepreneurship Institute's mission is to spread wealth creation around the world by encouraging entrepreneurship and sharing knowledge to those who educate and support entrepreneurs.

American Society for Quality (ASQ) is a professional organization for those involved in quality assurance and management. It has considerable information
regarding ISO 9000 and other quality standards and measures.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) site provides information regarding ISO9000 and other quality standards and measures.

International Council of Shopping Centers, ISCS. The principal aims of ICSC are to advance the development of the shopping center industry and to establish the individual shopping center as a major institution in the
community.