Small Business Resources

Government resources:

• Census pages provide loads of economic and demographic data, great for market research
• US Small Business Administration (SBA)

Organizations:

• National Association for the Self Employed (NASE)
• National Federation of Independent Business

Marketing

• Web Marketing Tool for various professionals

Magazines:

• Entrepreneur magazine
• BusinessWeek online has a considerable wealth of information you can access through their ‘small biz’ portal

Rabbit holes of small business resources:

• Yahoo! Small Business
• Startup Nation offers step by step exercises for every stage of starting, maintaining and expanding your business. Connect with forum discussions, read articles, access podcasts, so on and so on.
• SCORE call themselves “Counselors to America’s Small Businesses” and they have loads of useful resources.
  • Be sure to check out their library,
  • info on starting a business,
  • financing a business,
  • and managing a business.

Patent information

Free Patents Online

The site allows free patent searching, free patent PDF downloading, allows you to set up competetive intelligence alerts, and more. It's a great resource for patent searching, R&D, and market research.

And one book:

• I’m sure you’ve seen many do it yourself business books of, ahem, questionable validity. Business for Beginners, by Frances McGuckin is not one of those. You can expect intelligent and down to earth writing, effective organization, and realistic, encouraging and helpful advice. You can find Business for Beginners at Amazon.