It is really not very hard, and if you simply follow the steps below, in order, it is not very difficult, either.
BASICS
Web Sites
Business Dictionaries from Your Dictionary.com
Business dictionaries containing information ranging from bankruptcy to commercial fraud. Over fifteen different dictionaries to choose from. The quick and easy way to find the correct meanings of terms as they pertain to business.
Business N@tion
"Small business center: how-to advice & ideas for starting a small business, 350,000+ web site links; 2,500+ small business articles, forms & letters, resources...." Read about business opportunities, news, polls, and additional resources.
Georgia Career Information System
Subscription database available in the Athens-Clarke County Library. Information covers starting a business, laws, market strategies, self-employment information, and financial needs.
Small Business Administration - Starting Your Business
Contains start-up basics, planning, financing, marketing, and employing. Also contains legal aspects and tax information.
Books
How to Start A Business in Georgia: With Forms, 2nd ed. Naperville: Sphinx Pub., 2001.
Call No.: BREF 346.758 ROBERTSO
This is a helpful book to use in getting started. It tells you what the State expects and where to get information within Georgia. There is also a circulating copy that can be checked out.
Inc. Yourself: How to Profit by Setting up Your Own Corporation, 9th ed. New York: Broadway Books, 1999.
Call No.: 658.1145 MCQUOWN
This book gives you a broader perspective on incorporation than individual state guides. McQuown explains basic law in plain language so it is easier to read and to understand than many other sources.
Small Business Sourcebook: the entrepreneur's resource, 14th ed. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001.
Call No.: BREF 658.022 Small (2 vols)
This 2 volume set provides 97 chapters dealing with specific types of small business. Each topical chapter contains associations and organizations, educational programs, reference works, sources of supply, statistical sources, trade periodicals, videocassettes and audiocassettes, trade shows and conventions, consultants, computerized databases, computer systems software, internet databases, libraries, research centers and incubators related to that business. There is also a state directory.
OWNERSHIP
Web Sites
The Business Link
Although Canadian, this site is designed to assist entrepreneurs as they begin and build their businesses. Included are links to pages that cover characteristics of successful entrepreneurs and self-analysis questions to evaluate entrepreneurial traits and skills.
Business Owner's Toolkit- Do You Have What It Takes?
Designed to make prospective business owners think through the process and the consequences of starting their own business. Includes an online small business advice column, links to tools including downloadable forms, checklists, model business plans, and a bookstore.
Georgia Career Information System
Subscription database accessible from the Athens-Clarke County Library. The Self-Employment section contains forms, laws, opportunities, ideas, and guidelines for owning and operating a business.
Small Business Development Centers
Describes SBA(Small Business Administration) services and offices. Includes development, financing, legislation, research, and employment information.
Typical Characteristics Of Successful Entrepreneurs
Site from the University of Alabama Birmingham, Small Business Development Center. Lists some of the traits that are characteristic of people who build successful businesses.
TYPES OF BUSINESSES
Web Sites
Georgia Career Information System
Subscription database accessible from the Athens-Clarke County Library. Under the Self-Employment section find business ideas, examples of self-employment opportunities, and information about buying a business or franchise.
Startup Journal- Wall Street Journal Center for Entrepreneurs
Articles on franchising to assist in finding a fit between the franchise and prospective owner. The Franchises for Sale section has a brief description of a variety of franchising opportunities and one can click to request more information via e-mail.
The Top 40 Homebased Business Resources
An article by Laura Tiffany in the August 2002 online magazine, HomeOfficeMag.com. Lists the best resources for home-based businesses.
START UP KITS & MANUALS
Web Sites
Start-Up Kits
Easy to read guides on how to start and run more than 40 different types of businesses. Follow links to the SmallBizBooks.com bookstore to order additional materials.
Books & Magazines
The Small Business Start-up Kit. Berkeley: Nolo, 2001.
Call No.: 658.022 Pakroo
Forms in this book are also on computer optical laser disk (CD) so you can print them out as needed.
Entrepreneur Magazine. Irvine: Entrepreneur Media Inc., 2001.
Publisher of a number of start-up guides to specific businesses such as automobile detailing, consignment clothing stores, herb farming, family hair salons, etc.
FINANCING
Web Sites
Counseling the Small Business Client in Georgia: How to Finance the Small Business
Information compiled by Scott Withrow for the National Business Institute in Atlanta on May 5, 1999. Discusses marketing and financing a small business. A list of various business loans is given along with an explanation of them. "This site includes a summary of certain legal issues facing small businesses today. This site does not, and is not intended to, give legal advice."
Small Business Development Center Gopher/ Financial Assistance
Takes user to text documents from the Small Business Administration on all aspects of financing a business.
Books & Magazines
Entrepreneur Magazine's Financing Your Small Business: How to Raise the Money You Need. Irvine: Entrepreneur Media Inc., 2001.
Call No.: BREF 658.02 Entre No. 1806
One of Entrepreneur Magazine's Business Management Series. Chapters cover topics such as start-up financing, various types of loans and financing, writing a business plan, equipment leasing and incubators. Appendices are directories by state of places to get more information.
LEGAL ISSUES
Web Sites
BusinessLaw.gov
"BusinessLaw.gov is an online resource guide designed to provide legal and regulatory information to America's small businesses. Because laws and regulations affect every aspect of business strategy, topics covered on the site range from the most basic and crucial, such as choosing a business structure, to the most complex and specialized such as e-commerce and exporting."
FindForms.com
A legal forms search engine that can help you locate both free and "Premium" (state specific legal forms) that can be purchased. The free forms are divided into such categories as wills, eviction, bankruptcy, powers of attorney, and leases.
FindLaw for Business
This site provides online articles and guides to all kinds of business information from finding space for an office to intellectual property issues. There are links to search a legal dictionary and for all sorts of legal forms, contracts, and cases and codes. In addition, you can register for a free newsletter.
Books & Magazines
Legal Forms for Starting and Running a Small Business, 2nd ed. Berkeley: Nolo, 2001.
Call No.: 346.7306
Provides a variety of basic business forms needed by small business. A computer laser optical disk makes it easy to print out nice looking forms.
Legal Guide for Starting and Running a Small Business. Berkeley: Nolo, 2001.
Call No.: 346.73
MARKET ANALYSIS & MARKETING PLANS
Web Sites
Georgia Community Indicators
"This is an interactive on-line resource where users can get information about their communities. The database for Community Indicators includes data for more than 450 Georgia communities. The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) has developed Community Indicators to assist users with understanding and assessing the quality of life in the State's communities."
Georgia 2000 Information System
"Georgia 2000 [is] a powerful decision-support tool geared for business owners, consultants, community planners, educators and researchers. This site for demographic and statistical information on Georgia is developed by the Office of Information Technology Outreach Services (ITOS)." Registration is FREE. Reports are available by counties, municipalities, states and other geographies. Report information includes education, rent, housing value, income, industry, mortgage status, and occupation.
SCORE - Counselors to America's Small Business
". . . a nonprofit association dedicated to providing entrepreneurs with free, confidential face-to-face and email business counseling .... From marketing advice to finances, sales and operations, SCORE counselors will help you find the answers. Just as important, counselors will help you develop and think through your business plan to make sure you’re asking the right questions."
SCORE Atlanta
These web pages provide information on the national organization, contact information for the Atlanta chapter of SCORE, and gives the satellite branches for counseling throughout Georgia. (One is listed in Athens)
Books & Magazines
Georgia County Guide. Tifton: Rural Development Center, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Georgia, 1981- .
Call No.: RREF317.58
The current issue of this annual publication is kept at Ready Reference in the Reference Area. The back issues are shelved in The Heritage Room.
Georgia Statistical Abstract. Athens: University of Georgia, Terry College of Business, Selig Center for Economic Growth, 1990- .
Call No.: RREF317.58
The 2000-2001 issue has a CD that makes searching much easier and the data can be copied and pasted, downloaded, or e-mailed.
The current issue of this annual publication is kept at Ready Reference in the Reference Area. The back issues are shelved in The Heritage Room.
Marketing Research, 7th ed. New York: Wiley, 2001.
Call No.: BREF 658.83
Basically a textbook, this source will help the novice in marketing to understand marketing research and how and why to do it. There is an excellent table of contents and a good index that make it easy to use to find specific information.
Rand McNally Commercial Atlas and Marketing Guide. Rand McNally & Co., c2001.
Call No.: REF 911
Revised annually this detailed, accurate and comprehensive tool has a wealth of information on the United States. The colored state maps are large and show both political and physical features. Statistics are given for counties and for MSAs (Metropolitan Statistical Areas). For the currency and quality of geographic information this tool is hard to beat.
BUSINESS PLANS
Web Sites
Finding Demographic Information
Prepared April 1997 by Cal Gough for The Ivan Allen, Jr., Department (Business, Science & Technology) at the Central Library of of the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library System. A pathfinder leading you through the process and sources to use so you learn how to locate demographic information in commercially-produced sources, federal government documents, state and local sources, and in periodicals. Although geared to Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, the sources can be found many other places and the steps for research are useful.
The Simon Selig Center, University of Georgia
This research division of the Terry College of Business at UGA, publishes a variety of information with some of the most valuable being major economic impact studies, economic forecasts, and data products, like the Georgia Statistical Abstract. The purpose is to help guide business decisions and public policy directions by making accurate information available for decision makers.
Small Business Administration- Business Plan Basics
Learn how to write a business plan and view examples. A breakdown of the business plan includes description, marketing, finances, and management. Available in Spanish.
Writing a Business Plan
Small Business Development Center, Georgia State University. This document clearly spells out why you do a business plan and even tells you how long each section should be and how to make it look good. The author of this document stresses the fact that a business plan should be developed unemotionally.
INCUBATORS
Web Sites
National Business Incubation Association
"The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) is the world's leading organization advancing business incubation and entrepreneurship. It provides thousands of professionals with the information, education, advocacy and networking resources to bring excellence to the process of assisting early-stage companies worldwide."
WOMEN & MINORITIES
Web Sites
SBA - Online Women's Business Center
"OWBO promotes the growth of women-owned businesses through programs that address business training and technical assistance, and provide access to credit and capital, federal contracts, and international trade opportunities." Available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Icelandic, and Arabic.
African American Women Entrepreneurs@ Home
The mission is to connect women of all colors to e-Business Resources through email, message boards, real-time collaboration and email groups. "Our goal is to ensure that you are kept abreast of major issues that impact the small business industry, create an online community where information is easily accessible 24/7 and to foster mentorship and networking opportunities among aaweh members."
Georgia Women ENtrepreneurs (GWEN)
"In 1999, the GSBDC began a statewide initiative for women business owners called Georgia Women Entrepreneurs (GWEN) that operates as part of the Georgia SBDC Network. This initiative has two major goals: to provide technical assistance needed to help women-owned businesses grow and become a even greater economic force in Georgia, and to provide sharing and networking opportunities among Georgia women business owners."
Governor's Small Business Center - Department of Administrative Services
"The Governor’s Small Business Center, works with state agencies, authorities, commissions, boards and institutions to provide the small and minority business communities with access to information and bid opportunities. In addition to providing information, technical assistance, and training, we aim to help you understand exactly how to do business with the state."
National Association of Women Business Owners, Atlanta Chapter
"The Atlanta Chapter provides monthly meetings to support and educate women business owners in the Atlanta area." Topics include owner certification, administration, procurement, financing, educational opportunities, and bid opportunities.
National Women Business Owners Corporation
"The National Women Business Owners Corporation TM, a national 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, was established to increase competition for corporate and government contracts through implementation of a pioneering economic development strategy for women business owners. NWBOC is a sister organization to the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) and the Center for Women's Business Research (CWBR)."
GEORGIA & ATHENS-CLARKE COUNTY RESOURCES
Web Sites
georgia.gov- Business Services and Employment
Includes information about starting and operating a business, doing business with the state, employment, licensing, industry, and consumer protection.
Georgia Small Business Development Center Network, University of Georgia
This web site describes the mission, services offered by, and information available to help small business owners from the GSBDC. There are links to publications and articles on a variety of topics. The Resources section is especially helpful with information not easily obtained elsewhere plus there is a fairly comprehensive list of useful links.
Local Information- Small Business Administration Services and Centers
Online list of types of SBA services and SBA Offices. Each service or office is then listed by state. The types of SBA services you can access include: Business Information Centers, Certified Development Companies, Certified-Preferred Lenders, Minority Enterprise Development Staff, Microloan Lender Participants, Public Information Officers, Service Corps of Retired Executives, Small Business Development Centers, Small Business Investment Companies, and United States Export Assistance Centers. There are also state economic profiles that you can choose by year to get historical information for research.
State Business Information - Georgia
Part of the Bankrate.com web site that includes business, consumer and financial information for each state.
Unified Government of Athens-Clarke County
"The Unified Government of Athens-Clarke County's Home on the Internet." Links to the Code of Athens-Clarke County, purchasing and bid requirements and procedures, and information on business workshops and other programs(under Human and Economic Development).
