Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Hi John, Great list, thanks! Hewlett Packard also has a bunch of great resources for start up companies. I went to a conference they hosted this year where they previewed their services. They have really invested some money and focus toward women owned businesses and entrepreneurs over the past few years via acquisitions and joint ventures with other companies (like Logoworks). Definitely worth a look at www.hp.com. There website also includes a wealth of great templates that small business owners can download for free!

Angie A. Swartz
www.sixfiguremomsclub.com

Glad to see you recommend SCORE ... I found them enormously helpful when I was at the very beginning of my career. I'm still in touch with the gentleman who advised me, and continue to treat his advice with great respect.

Vator.tv is another good resource. Mindfrenzy.com is further back in the idea stage of a business.

Great list. I would like to add the SME Toolkit created by IBM and IFC. I wrote about the toolkit earlier this year. It was first created for third world nations but it is available in the US. The toolkit is online at

Stephen Jackson
Minority Business Matters

Thank you John for the list! Looks like you've compiled a great source of information with these sites. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can learn from these sites.

Thanks for the list. Good resource to keep and recommend to others :)

Even though DARE ( www.dare.co.in ) is India specific, focusing on Indian Entrepreneurs and their ecosystem; it does have resources in terms of articles, case studies, and columns that may prove useful to start ups in general.

Cheers,
Binesh Kutty

ActionCOACH Business Coaching has great free business tools on their site, as well, if you go to http://www.actioncoach.com/free-business-tools.php . The have a library of business forms, free e-book business, marketing & advertising guides, profit & productivity calculators, podcasts and more. ActionCOACH also has a directory of business coaches around the world who write ActionBLOG: http://www.actioncoach.com/actionblog.php

Good post John and excellent resources. I think one of the things people don't know about SCORE is that they will match you up with someone that has the experience you are looking for. And I believe, it does not even have to be local.

However, I encourage a person to consider the entity that they are dealing with to make sure they get the results that they want. Example: Don't go to Resource Nation if you want someone local. SBDC is a lot about funding, not consulting. SCORE is great for small and large businesses but if you have a high tech, web base start-up, well by now you get my point.

Start-ups are a different animal, so are Turnarounds. I encourage anyone in either of those positions to talk to someone that has been there, done that. Telling someone that they need a business/marketing plan is a lot different than implementing one.

I forgot to add these resources to answer the next question for a small business person after help...Where can you find the money?

Zopa is a lending community that facilitates private loans.
Prosper is another lending community that allows private loan investors to bid on loan requests.
Superior Financial Group offers express business loan programs.
Count Me In provides micro loans for women business owners.
The Small Business Administration offers a variety of loan guarantee programs that work in conjunction with a traditional lender (bank).

This was derived from Small Business Growth Strategies, and written by Stephanie Chandler.

Have you checked out PlanHq.com? It's a business planing tool which is based around the evolving business plan.

Ahem... Don't forget about your local public library. In the Age of Information, do check out what the information wizards in their sensible shoes can do for you.

www.spokanelibrary.org/business

Nice post and helpful comments. Dont forget your former college prof(s) and the local universities. Both are potential sources for easy/effective access to the latest research trends AND Advisory Board candidates!

I agree with the SCORE recommendation, but make sure you go into SCORE with a solid idea of what you want from the meeting. If you just go in and say, "help me" you're going to be disappointed.

Also, for raising money I'd look at a peer lending site like http://www.lendingclub.com - I'm a lender there, and if you have a solid idea, and over 640 credit, it's a great way to get your business the funding (up to 25K) it needs to succeed.

@Peer - probably a good lesson when you go into a meeting with anyone!

Thanks John -- talk about impeccable timing. Some friends and I are firing things up and this is just the checklist we needed.

I just use some of them but full list is great for me and my friends. Thanks.. Especially SBA resources are great.

I am from Brazil and I have been living in Canada for almost one year. I am doing my internship at Bekhor Management as a marketing intern. One of my projects was to research technologies that help small business like the technology you reference in this article e.g. Go To My Pc, skype, google talk, yousendit, dadamail etc…Here is a link to the article Toronto Marketing Blog:
http://torontomarketing.blogspot.com/2008/09/ul...