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Small Business Research Portal |
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Small Business Research Portal |
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Publications and Resources (Practitioner) |
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This page provides access to practitioner small business focused resources and more general practitioner resources. The portal also provides access to a range of academic focused materials. PRACTITIONER SMALL BUSINESS FOCUSED RESOURCES Addto.com provides advice on e-commerce solutions, small business startup and development, website development, website promotion and web-based affiliate programmes. The emphasis is on internet entrepreneurs, although some of the information will be relevant to other small business owners. Allabusinessneeds.com provides a list of services for small businesses including: "online stationery catalogue; Financial Advice, Mortgages, Accountancy, Training and Corporate Finance." Allsmallbiz search engine - mainly for owner-managers Biz Office provides practitioners with small and home based business links to reference, financing, services, news and franchises.Small and Home Business Links. Bizweb guide to over 40000 companies.
Brain is a website that offers business information and referrals for small businesses in South Africa. Business Bureau-UK Small Business Information Resource provides information and resources for start-up and more established businesses. It has sections on ecommerce, accounting and finance and law, as well as discussion and links sections. Businessedge is a NatWest bank service that provides details of its key services for small business owners. It has also developed a series of other sites, which give more detailed information including: Start-Up Centre that provides support to help the process of starting a new business and Legal Centre that looks at the Legal Issues. BusinessEurope is a business service that addresses the issues and needs of European small and medium sized businesses. They gather and filter news that focuses on events relevant to SMEs. They provide information and advice to help SMEs make decisions and compile guides for the management of new or unfamiliar events, legal and tax issues, finance and operational elements. Business Link (UK) is provided by the Small Business Service the central government agency for SMEs in the UK. It is aimed at small business owners and provides access to practical advice. Business Owner's Toolkit as the name suggests offers a range of tools and services for small business owners. BNET provides a range of business related guides, directories, case-studies, events and links. The information accessible via Bnet is produced by government departments, professional bodies and commercial organisations. Students and academics receive a free subscription. BT GetStarted provides start-up information for would be entrepreneurs. The site offers advice on business communications, obtaining funds, starting on the Internet, tips and hints, and local advertising suggestions. Clearlybusiness provides information and resources for people running a business or dreaming of setting one up. The site was launched in June 2000 and is 60% owned by Freeserve and 40% by Barclays Bank. The site provides the following links to services: accounting, auctions, banking, building a web site, managing people, sales and marketing. Click2think provides access to research links on Cambridge's and other high-technology clusters, the internet, venture capital, entrepreneurship and business academia. Cobweb Complete Business Website Information (UK) Company Leader provides articles aimed at owner-managers of start-up and growing businesses. The site is published by Express Digital Media, part of Express Newspapers. Many of the articles are from the Daily Express's Enterprise pages. Compendium of Entrepreneur Programs maintained by the Marshall School of Business Disabled Entrepreneurs Network is run by the Association of Disabled Professionals and supported by a Phoenix Award. It "aims to provide networking opportunities and information services for self-employed disabled people... The DEN will provide a variety of information for disabled entrepreneurs such as the provision of sign posting to other support, finance and training. We have identified a number of useful sites, but if you know of any others we would be grateful to hear about them." Entrepreneurmag.com provides a topical online magazine for entrepreneurs with access to tools, message boards etc. (US) Entepreneurs.com is a practitioner based site that provides access to news, links and interesting information on the history of the term "entrepreneurship". The site also reports on what it desrcibes as a legal battle over the term "entrepreneur." Entrepreneurs' Help Page (known as tannedfeet.com) provides a range of information and checklists for entrepreneurs. Resources include: checklist for starting a business, purchasing a business, insurance, tips from a angel investor, venture capital and legal forms. Enterweb provides a comprehensive set of links for entrepreneurs to internet sites across the world (Canada) Entreworld Resources for Entrepreneurs provided by the Kauffman Centre (US) Equality North East is a one-stop source of equal opportunities employment information relating to race, gender and disability and related issues such as Work-Life Balance, Recruitment and selection and Harassment and Bullying. It provides fact sheets, a search facility, news items, best practice examples and signposting to other relevant organizations both regional and national. Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® award. They explain that "In 21 countries around the world, Ernst & Young offers its Entrepreneur Of The Year® award to those who are the most successful and innovative. The winners are selected by an independent judging panel in each country." Field of Dreams offers a website designed for women who create, promote and develop successful businesses. It offers sections on tips to start a business, why do I work from home, technical help and telecommuting. Global Entrepreneurship Institute. This is a non-profit educational organisation that provides a digital think tank for global entrepreneurs. The Virtual Library provides helpful links to relevant articles around the web and there is also a free weekly email newsletter. Homebizbuzz is a "New Zealand home business portal crammed with information, advice, resources and tools to make your home business fun, easy and successful. Free directory listing. Free business tips e-letter. Active community. Survey opportunities." HomeBusiness Journal provides news and articles aimed at owner-managers running their businesses from home. There is also a useful set of home business tools and a search engine. Home Business Research online magazine and links (US) Itwales.com which "provides small businesses with essential IT news, reviews, interviews and features. We pinpoint the IT issues that are important to SMEs in Wales, and provide the right advice, information and guidance on those technology-related topics. We also profile cutting-edge Welsh companies, and we are about to launch an extensive database of IT companies in Wales. itwales.com is part of the IT Network Wales initiative that is financed by the European Social Fund.".
J4b is a business grant database providing free access to information on grants and soft loans available to businesses.(UK) Knowbiz provides practical information on setting up and administering a company. The webmaster introduces the site as coming "about as a result of the research we needed to do in order to set up and administer our company. At the time we were unable to find a UK site containing this information, although there are considerable resources on the internet, if you know where to look. To help others in our situation, we have attempted to collate what we consider to be particularly useful information into one site." LocalBusiness.com provides small businesses in the US with a local business news service. Local businesses are provided with access to small business tools, resources and e-commerce activity in each local market. The network is expected to grow to over 38 cities by December 2000. More Business online news and advice for entrepreneurs (US). National Federation of Independent Business provides a range of helpful resources including: MyBusiness Magazine and an emailed Newsletter (US) NewBusiness provides owner-managers with information and guidance through its web service and also their quarterly magazine. The website also has on-line services like banking, patenting, a list of suppliers and a list of HMI Custom and Excise business advice sessions. NewsDirectory list of Small Business Magazines available online. NFIB Small Business is a small business advice site provided by National Federation of Independent Business (US). This site allows small business related questions and answers to be posted by users. Real Deal website is provided by the Channel 4 to support the television programme of the same name. It has a self administered questionnaire to check whether 'you have got what it takes' and a section to 'road test' entrepreneurial ideas. Regulatory information provided by Northumberland Business Alliance. NBA "is a partnership of regulatory bodies, business support organisations and Local Authorities in Northumberland". The site provides information on current UK regulatory advice, for example, a search on the term National Insurance provided a helpful link to relevant Inland Revenue Information. In their own words they "are actively working to improve relationships between regulators and local businesses and to help businesses access advice and information regarding regulations affecting them." Relatedmatters, newsletters on family business from University of Massachusetts (Amherst), Family Business Centre Russian Baltic Market website provides "basic information on environment, legislation for SMEs in Russia, business-related information, text of official documents regulating business activities, analytical materials and more". SmallBizManager provides an online magazine to help individuals start and grow their businesses (US) Small Busines Administration’s Women’s Business Centers is a network of more than 80 Women’s Business Centers (WBC) that provide a range of services to women entrepreneurs across the US at all stages of business development. The website offers information on starting and growing a business, management, finance, marketing and technology Small Business Info Centre is described as a "one- stop small business portal, we, in conjunction with the Electronic Commerce Centre (Saint John, NB), aim to attract a large international customer base due to our extensive SME information database. The user can get quick answers to specific questions or learn more on the topics involved in the upkeep or process of starting or running a SME. " Small Business News Online (US) Small Business Survival Centre in association with The Business Journal provides owner-manager focused articles that cover topics such as adverstising and sales, starting a business, buying products and services, finance and employee issues. The articles are rather short but worth a visit. Smallbusiness.com connects entrepreneurs with advice and experiences of other small businesses to help them with decision-making. It offers advice on start-up, marketing, sales, accounting and tax. Smallbusinesstown.com provides access to 91 online guidebooks on entrepreneurial topics, a list of related links and various other resources. Their mission is described as: "the Entrepreneur's Guidebook Series is dedicated to providing you with concise, easy-to-read information and ideas to help you understand the essentials of entrepreneurship." Small Biz Planet. Provides links to practical articles on small business management issues e.g. accounting, finance, home business, human resources, marketing, sales and start-up. This service is associated with the Small Business Focus service detailed above. SMEnet provides information on export, law, training and consulting for Vietnam's small and medium-scaled enterprises by GTZ, German Development Co-operation. Click at top right of page for English version of the site. Startbusiness.co.uk provides information for the new and would-be self-employed. It includes sections on business planning, checklists, scary start-up tales, start-up statistics, classifieds, business names and a newsletter. Startups.co.uk is a free of charge website to help entrepreneurs start and grow successful businesses. It provides some briefing sheets on start-up issues, finance, franchising, technology, premises, working at home, employment and marketing. Startup2002 are providing a "series of exhibitions for new businesses and people thinking of starting their own companies. Free information and advice from support agencies, companies, business associations and suppliers." Surfs-up has been developed by the Scottish Enterprise Network (UK) to help small businesses take advantage of new technology. The site provides information on a range of SME internet issues including: why go online, getting started, chosing suppliers, marketing your site, design and security. The Biz is a UK Business-to-Business information resource that is designed to help owner-managers find, ask about and buy goods and services. They also offer three information zones: events, training and online forums. UK Online for business (UK) is the Department for Trade and Industry's portal for providing small businesses with advice on using Information and Communications Technologies. Usecolor.com is a small business information service. They offer free 30 day access to what they describe as all their "money and time saving business services". United States Postal Service provides a set of 'tools' for Small Business Owners including: "Get more Customers", "Meet Customer Demands" and "Keep Your Customers". Follow the link from the front page. US Small Business Administration's extensive series of articles on small business management and related issues. Venture Dome is an online news and information service for the European private equity industry- it provides information, comment and analysis of the UK venture capital industry. Registered users can post press releases, case studies and other information to the site and can search a database of funders and other advisers. There is also a email newsletter service. Wahmpreneur is "the news magazine for women who work where they live". The site offers news, a business directory and discussion forum. The editor Dawn Rivers Baker describes the inception of the site "As I continued to explore the web in search of sites for WAHMs, I noticed something else. There were certainly websites out there for us, places dedicated to the praise and encouragement of work-at-home moms. But they all seemed to consist of celebrations of WAHMhood -- isn't it wonderful that we are staying home for our children, because naturally our children come first. I didn't even have any quarrel with that sentiment, but it did not help my dilemma. I was looking for information, hard news, the kind of news one would expect a businesswoman to require in order to run her business, written with the special circumstances of the home-based working mother in mind. I couldn't find it anywhere. And thus was WAHMPRENEUR born." Women in Small Business Information Site provides information for women small business owners/managers including: business tools, chat groups, courses, exporting, grants, GST, industrial relations, professional organisations, management, finance, marketing, networking, occupational health and safety, quality assurance, risk analysis, self assessment skills tests, technology, teleworking, training, venture capital and women's organisations (AU). PRACTITIONER GENERAL RESOURCES 2GC are a management consultancy specialising in the Balanced Scorecard and Strategic Management. The research area of the site contains some papers on the Balanced Scorecard and other issues. Areadata provides consumer and business profile reports that cover census, demographic and market information for any UK location. There is a free-data section that has a range of reports, for example, spending profiles, whos buying on-line and pay profiles. Benchmark Index provides with links to national and international benchmarking sites. The Benchmark Index enables businesses of all sizes to compare themselves against data gathered from nearly 2,000 enterprises. There is a facility to compare a company with other companies using a benchmarking sampler based on the Index. Bird-online provides helpful business information and other general business links (UK) Bulgarian Business Adviser provides a helpful portal for Bulgarian business news and links. Businessam.co.uk "is the online arm of Business a.m., Scotland's business, financial and political daily newspaper." Business Times Singapore offers financial and business news with a focus on the Singapore region. Business Zone provides business related news, links, company data, directories of businesses and professionals, expert guides and tax facts. Competia.com is a portal and magazine for strategy professionals. It also containes a helpful list of industry specific bookmarks. CreativityPool.com which "is a global pool of creative ideas - people can browse through the database for original solutions and inspiration, or donate their unused creativity." Datamonitor provides analysis of a range of markets based mainly on primary research. Europages provides an online European Business Directory that is reported to cover 500,000 companies selected in 30 countries. FT.com is offering free access to its global archive of more than 10 million newspaper and magazine articles from 2,000 publications. This site is well worth a visit with more than 1,250 articles being added every hour. Global Idea Bank. This site provides access to socially innovative non-technological ideas and projects. This site is not specifically aimed at small businesses, but there are some relevant sections: Work and Unemployment, Taxation, Economics and Business. HR-eresource.com provides internet based information on human resource and related issues. Kelly's Industrial Directory is described as containing information "on over 118,000 UK companies which can be searched using our in-depth product and service headings." Knowledge@Wharton provides access to a range of business related sources and a bi-wwekly newsletter service. It is organised under 14 categories including innovation and entrepreneurship. The website as including "analysis of current business trends, interviews with industry leaders and Wharton faculty, articles based on the most recent business research, book reviews, conference and seminar reports, links to other web sites and so on. The web site presents information in layers so that users can pursue their interests to whatever depth they wish. An in-depth searchable database of related articles and research abstracts allows access to information through simple mouse clicks." Major Market Profiles provides information on a "wide range of consumer, industrial and service sectors" across the world. The website offers a summary of each market for free, but more detailed information requires the purchase of a report. Management Best Practice is a website offered by a the Department of Trade and Industry (UK) to provide data feeds that will help raise awareness. It offers guidance on general management, partnership with business, value management, National minimum wage, marketing, product and process development, supply network management and financial management. Some of the documents available require acesss to a portable data format reader. Managerwise.com provides articles, news, forums, book reviews and other resources concerning the theory and practice of business management. One stop internet stop for business is a site offered by the European Commission to provide a dialogue with businesses. It offers help with the European internal market, how you certified products, obtaining a business partner in a the European Union, information on bidding for public contracts and a source of information about the European internal market. Shortcutsforsuccess.com provides access to resources and e-books on life-skills, communication and coaching. There is an email news-letter and some free links. Strategicassets.co.uk. "This site is an information point for the resource-based approach to company management. It looks at some of the theoretical aspects of the approach..." Strategis.gc.ca provides access to business and consumer information and statistics. This provides information broken down into the following categories: company directories, trade investment, business information by sector, economic analysis, research technology, licences/legislation, employment/learning and consumer information. Taxup.com is an international tax portal including links to tax information all over the world. VirginBiz.net provides access to information on accountants, solicitors, specific sectors of business, company registration and wage calculations. The 'tools' section is perhaps the best part of the site to visit first. |
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Copyright © 1999-2001 Dr. Lew Perren. All Rights Reserved. |
