Resources For Entrepreneurs
Toolbox for starting your own business
The San Luis Obispo Entrepreneurial Support Team (doc)
Internet Research Links For Business Information & Research
Newspapers & Periodicals
American City Business Journals – www.amcity.com
Virtual Reference Desk – www.refdesk.com/paper.html
New York Times (today’s edition only) – www.nytimes.com
Washington Post – www.washingtonpost.com
Newspage (industry news) – www.individual.com (portions are fee-based)
Wall Street Journal (fee) – www.wsj.com
Harper’s Magazine – www.harpers.org
Business Week – www.businessweek.com
Nonprofit Times – www.nptimes.com
Inc Online – www.inc.com
Fast Company – www.fastcompany.com
Newsbot (Wired news service) – www.newsbot.com
Zap Data – www.zapdata.com (access to Industry reports & market analysis by state, metro areas)
Crain’s Small Business – www.chicagobusiness.com
Links to media, newspapers & magazines – www.lii.org/search/file/newsmedia
US Government
Bureau of Economic Analysis – www.bea.gov
Consumer Information Center – www.gsa.gov/staff/pa/cic
Exporting - www.export.gov
Federal Grants – Small Business Innovative Research Grants - www.sbir.gsfc.nasa.gov/SBIR/othersbir.htm
Federal Trade Commission Franchise & Business Opportunities – www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-fran.htm
Federal Reserve Bank – The Biege Book (anecdotal information on current economic conditions) – www.minneapolisfed.org/bb
Federal Reserve Board Guide to Business Credit – www.federalreserve.gov
Free & Secure Trade Program – www.cpb/gov/xp/cgov/import
First Gov for Businesses & Non Profits – www.firstgov.gov/Business/
Government Printing Office – www.gpo.gov
Index of state & local govts online – www.loc.gov/rr/news/stategov/stategov.html
Library of Congress card catalog – www.catalog.loc.gov
Online Women’s Business Center – www.onlinewbc.gov – www.sba.gov/women
SBA’s online training (Short, self-paced on-line courses on numerous topics from Starting a Business, Marketing, Employee Management to Government Contracting, etc) – www.sba.gov/training/courses.html
SEC’s Edgar database of corporate info – www.sec.gov/edgarhp.htm
Small Business & Self-Employmed Tax Center (Access to tax information useful to small businesses with assets of $10 million or less.) – www.irs.gov/businesses/small/
US Bureau of the Census – www.census.gov
US Patent & Trademark Office – www.uspto.gov
US Small Business Administration – www.sba.gov
US Treasury Customs – www.customs.ustreas.gov
Spanish:
Empezando un Negocio – www.irs.gov/espanol/article/0,,id=185478,00.html
Información y Recursos para Pequeñas Empresas – www.irs.gov/espanol/content/0,,id=162902,00.html
California Government
California Business Permits Made Simple – www.calgold.ca.gov
California Professional & Business License Handbook – www.commerce.ca.gov/ttca/business/licensehandbook.pdf
California Business Portal (help with deciding on form of ownership) - www.ss.ca.gov/business/business.htm
Private
The Kauffman Business EKG (free business financial benchmarking service) – www.businessekg.com
Building Wealth - www.dallasfed.org/ca/wealth/index.html
Dun & Bradstreet – www.dnb.com
Biz Stats – www.BizStats.com
Thomas Net – www.thomasnet.com/index.html
Small Business Advisor isquare.com (links & resources by state)
The Internet Public Library - www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/bus00.00.00
Virtual Library Business Webliography – www.lib.lsu.edu/weblio.html#business
Individual phone & address lookup service – www.whitepages.com
Business phone & address lookup service - www.yellowpages.com
Find associations – www.ipl.org/div/aon
Find Wholesalers – www.toptenwholesale.com
Directory of Associations & Institutes -www.library.vanderbilt.edu/law/acqs/pubr/asso.html
Regional/Metro
Citysearch – www.citysearch.com
Yahoo! Metro – www.yahoo.com (see bottom of yahoo.com)
Excite Travel – www.excite.com/travel
Newsgroups and Listservs
Directory of email discussion groups – www.liszt.com
DejaNews (search newsgroup archives) – www.dejanews.com
Listserv List Reference – www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html
Search Tools
Google – www.google.com
Yahoo! – www.yahoo.com
AltaVista – www.altavista.com
Infoseek – www.infoseek.go.com
Hotbot – www.hotbot.com
DogPile – www.dogpile.com
Other
Find California Businesses for Sale – www.Bizben.com
Business to Buy and Sell – www.bizbuysell.com
Start Up Checklists – www.toolkit.cch.com/tools/strtch_m.aspwww.startupnation.com/pages/start/10steps.asp
Private databases (available at the Mission Business Information Center and some libraries, but not via the Internet)
The Federal Technology Funding Guide 2005 published by the Los Angeles Regional Technology Alliance
Business Dateline CD-ROM (full-text articles from 100s of regional publications)
ABI Inform CD-ROM (citations/abstracts from 800+ business and mgmnt periodicals)
Wall Street Journal Ondisc
New York Times Ondisc
