Resources
LOCAL RESOURCES
Alabama Small Business Development Consortium
Birmingham Chamber of Commerce
Birmingham Business Resource Center
Innovation Depot (Previously The Entrepreneurial Center & OADI)
Central Alabama Women’s Business Center
Minority Business Opportunity Center
South Regions Minority Business Council
ONLINE AND/OR NATIONAL RESOURCES
Free Entrepreneurship Webinars and Teleclasses brought to you by Scott Allen at entrepreneurs.about.com:
I’m starting a new weekly feature today in which I’m going to list upcoming free web seminars and teleclasses that you can take advantage of to further your education. I’ll try to stay away from ones that I know are a hard-sell, but I can’t promise to have vetted all of them in advance, either. This is just intended to be a centralized source to help you determine where you might want to take an hour or two out of your week to learn more about a topic you’re interested in.
I’ll publish the list every Friday for the following week so you have a little bit of advance notice to plan your week, or at least know that you can stop by and check it first thing Monday morning.
The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Web 2.0 via avivadirectory.com:
Are you doing a good job meeting the needs of your small business? Keeping a good handle on finances? Networking? Do you have a system for organizing your marketing strategy? Do you even have a marketing strategy?
If you are running a small business, you know that to be successful you need to be a jack-of-all-trades. The smart way to manage everything from company finances, to client relations, to marketing, is to use the right tools – tools that are simple enough that they won’t require you to spend a lot of time and money you don’t have setting them up.
In this guide we cover the 25 best web2.0 applications for entrepreneurs who are looking for simple, cheap, and effective solutions to solving some of the tasks facing their small business or startup. The 25 applications selected were chosen both on the basis of their usefulness for the individual small business manager as well as their effectiveness in providing community support and networking opportunities for users.
Entrepreneur.com: Starting a Business
Tools of note are: Countdown to Startup, Stop Procrastinating!, and
75 Secrets to Startup
SBA: Small Business Planner: Get Ready
The interactive Checklist and the Starting a Business FAQs are great. The Startup Guide organizes its content in an easy to read format by topic area.
JumpUp: Steps to Start a Business
Pay particular attention to the step concerning Business Planning as they have made their version of the planning process very efficient.
Startup Nation: 10 Steps to Open for Business
Articles, audio intros, templates, and resource links. They stress to first develop a Life Plan and then fit your Business Plan within it.
Business.gov - The Official Business Link to the U.S. Government
The National Federation of Independent Business - NFIB.com
Business Networking International - BNI
The Business Blogging Toolset: 100 Resources for Entrepreneur-Writer
Alpha Dogs: How Your Small Business Can Become a Leader of the Pack
Download Executive Summary - Be a market leader! New York-based writer Donna Fenn has written the first in-depth book on the new superstars of small business: local retailers, service companies, consultants and manufacturers. She’ll explain how market leaders win customers for life, turn employees into true believers, re-invent their industries and transform through technology. Don’t miss this dynamic, motivational session.
Sell Yourself First
Download Executive Summary - Ditch your Pitch! Michel, an experienced coach and copywriter will convince you to throw away your “elevator pitch” and create a powerful positioning statement that will make qualified prospects beg to know more.
Buzz Marketing on a Budget
Ben Yoskovitz, Web Design and Marketing Consultant
Download Executive Summary - What are the most effective guerrilla marketing techniques for small businesses today? Montreal software entrepreneur and marketing consultant Ben Yoskovitz tried every trick in the buzz-marketing book - over a three-week period. He will reveal the best low-cost marketing tools in this powerful workshop.
How an Advisory Board Can Increase Your Profits
Michel Nadeau, Director of the Institute for Governance of Private and Public Organizations, HEC
Download Executive Summary - Having a good board of advisors is one of the smartest moves a business owner can make. With the right board, you get practical feedback and insightful advice on managing your business more profitably. With years of experience seeing every kind of board, Michel knows how to form a board that will make a business a lasting success.
How to Hire the Best People
Richard Thomson, President, HR on Call Inc.
Download Executive Summary | Download Presentation - To get better results, your business needs better employees. Longtime HR coach and consultant Richard Thomson offers the best tactics for finding, wooing and hiring skilled, enthusiastic and loyal staff.
Tutorials for Developing a Website
Whether you’re a novice just starting out in Web development, or an accomplished HTML hacker seeking to broaden your range, the WDVL Tutorials have something for you - Internet, HTML, CSS, CGI, ASP, PERL, PHP, graphics, Java, JavaScript, DHTML, database, XML, etc… Multiple tutorials in each topic should get you up to speed in no time!
Free Keyword Research Tool By WordTracker
This TOOL is a free keyword suggestion tool where you enter a starting keyword to generate up to 100 related keywords and an estimate of their daily search volume.
