But still, over here the US crisis, is what we see on TV or hear elsewhere. So I’ve heard that many of the (younger) professional use the crisis time to complete their studies and be better prepared next time the company gets back on track. If you are looking to take some business & Entrepreneurship courses, Christina Laun has prepared an excellent list: 100 Ivy League Business & Entrepreneurship Courses You Can Take for Free.

She says: “Just because you don’t have the deep pockets or stellar grades it takes to get into top tier schools doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy some of the same resources these establishments offer. Through open courseware programs, you can access course materials from a wide range of top universities. Whether you decide to take these courses on your own time or just skim through the information, we’ve compiled a list of 100 places to start looking for great business and entrepreneurship information.”

From the list, I’ve selected a few that seem interesting for a small business owner:

• Entrepreneurial Marketing: Gain some new perspective on your business’ marketing from this course. You’ll be able to analyze to whom you are trying to sell products and the best ways to do so given your resources.
• The Software Business: If you have an interest in starting a software company, this course can be a good place to get some introductory information.
• Introduction to Marketing: This basic marketing course covers the 5 C’s: Customer needs, Company skills, Competition, Collaborators, and Context.
• Listening to the Customer: Communication isn’t just about conveying ideas within your office but with your customers as well. This course will help you learn to better get feedback from your customers about your products and services so you can create more effective marketing plans and products.

The complete list is here.

The Yahoo Boostrapers Group is for:

1. The bootstrapping entrepreneur using a variety of personal or other available resources to start a new venture without the benefit of external funding

2. The bootstrapper already operating a business and using bootstrapping techniques to grow his/her venture

3. Anyone who is planning or has ever dreamed of starting a small business but believes it will require too much money or hard-to-get external investment to make that dream a reality.

4. Those friendly to the efforts of bootstrap entrepreneurs either with experience and background in business or some related field who can offer help, support or advice to those starting or growing a business with little or no financing or outside investment.

The group is open for anyone to join here: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/thebootstrappersgroup/

First thing, I tried to see what it does and got the answer from the opening press release: “Instead of going to MySpace to scour through teenagers and goth queens, the casual business owner can now have a home among his peers. Sta.rtUp.biz is a small business social network where networking and resources intersect.”

So I’ve decided to sign-up to see what is what. First, you can build your profile – no surprise here, and if you invite 5 more people you get access to the eBusiness library with over 165 ebooks (let me know if you want an invitation from me).

Also you get access to the discussion forum – and most importantly the discussions are moderated by 3 experts: a corporate lawyer is there to answer any legal question. The “Search Guru” guides your website up the Google rankings with the free search engine optimization, and the veteran serial entrepreneur acts as your mentor on all business management and strategy.

A section you definetively don’t want to miss is the Motivational Video Clips area – like this video about a 5 years old entrepreneur – who did well. Looking at the Ask an Expert area – plenty of action there – good sign.

Starting a Business had never been easier! Well, have a look and let me know what you think.

• Be Professional. People usually find it difficult to maintain the same level of professionalism at home as they do at a 9-5. But believe me, professionalism is key to your success as a home business owner.

Correct! The thing that usually happens is that because you are small, you tend to do some things on a lower level, some sort of “well, it’s going to work this way as well” in which “this way” is not very good. Of course, in some cases, you simply can’t perform better, but if you let this add up, you will get a messy business. You will have not so good contracts, not so good offers, not so good customer care, not so good supplies and then, you’re not so good either.

• Separate Business from Pleasure. You have to be able to separate your business hours from your personal time. Take it from me, getting the two of these mixed up is both very easy and very costly.

Balance in life is probably my biggest issue right now. So yes, you should separate business for pleasure, even if you work with your family. Ok, you are colleagues at work, but as soon as the work is over, don’t forget they are your family. Or other way put, don’t bring your business into your family, but you can bring your family into your business.

• Location, Location, Location. If you do not have an office in your home, I suggest that you at least get a computer desk and arrange all of your business valuables around that. This is important because it helps to keep you focused on your tasks. You can be a lot more professional if you are not constantly reminded that you are at home.

Agreed. If you are working from your couch, your commitment, way you solve things and everything else goes down. Also, usually, home, means your private place where you can feel safe away from any outside dangers. And this is going to modify your perception about the outside world. Not sure if you become lazy or something, but for sure you develop some sort of autistic behavior.

• Demand Respect. Don’t sell yourself short. The minute you pay your incorporation or DBA fees, you are officially a legitimate business in your industry. You must demand the respect of your competitors as well as your customers.

Moreover, in some parts of the World you can’t do business without incorporating. Also, you need a name to put on your business cards.

• Spend Less, Make More. Be frugal with your spending in the beginning. I guarantee you that hard times are coming and you will want to sell that $300 chair and $4,000 laptop when they arrive.

I have approached this subject on several occasions. There is a saying: “if you buy a BMW from your first year, it’s a sure sign you will get down sooner or later”. Don’t make any investments that don’t have a direct result in the production. Better invest in something to grow your business.

• Build Relationships. Trust me, people are usually more loyal to people than they are to companies.You should be able to identify with the customer a lot better than the corporation that has 50,000 employees.

Well, yes. Word of mouth is a very important sales tool when you are small. It doesn’t matter what you do, but it always matter who you know.

• Separate Accounting. Be sure to keep your personal funds and your business funds separate. It is very tempting to get your companies money mixed up with yours(especially when they are kept in the same account).

I said that as well, in an article over www.boostrapme.com – Bootstrappers should keep finances separate

• Monkey See, Money Do. Success is duplicatible, so make sure that you don’t let your competitors leave you behind. Everyone copies everyone, so if you see a technique or practice that could work for you, copy it. Add it to what you are doing because I guarantee you that they will duplicate your next big breakthrough.

I don’t have anything against getting inspiration resources from your competition. In fact, the business that do well are business that do the same like all the others, just a little better!

• Business is Business. Oftentimes friends and family, who are all well-intentioned, will hinder your business from being successful. It is OK to allow your friends and family to benefit from your labor.

Fully commented on this over here.

• Visit “Ben Means Business”

Ok, a little nice self promotion You can read more stuff on Ben’s blog about interesting subjects: Choosing the Perfect Business Name, The Seasons of Your Business and many more

• Bootstrapping a green business
• Start a record store-without the records!
• Start a thrift shop for $900 (I wonder what is thrift??)
• Bootstrapping a print solution

and many more.

Got something to bootstrap? Write me about your idea, and maybe will find a way together!

They say: “I just want to share with you issues I dealt with starting out — and consequences of some I still have to deal with today. This is written with a Metro Manila, Philippines setting in mind but should be easily replicated elsewhere.”

Here are the 7 tasks in the article (with my comments of course)

• Unleash the Entrepreneur within

While they give plenty of external resources on this one, I think it’s missing a point. Money! The only reason entrepreneurs want to start a business is to make money. Of course, money can have different names like work for yourself, being your own boss, pride and recognition, or whatever reason an entrepreneur might have, but the real framework for anything you would like to accomplish is making money.

• Save at least 3 months worth of living expenses…

Even if they are talking about web start-ups which might require little or no initial investment, planing to earn a living from the newly started business in 3 months might be fullish. Unless there are some special conditions which allow you to get customers, deliver and cash money in very short sales cycle, chances are that it will take about a year to get the financial security you need (and that if you are lucky). But yes, you should save money, make a budget and be prepared to say what they say: “I used to buy nice clothes or shoes at least once a month or whenever I eye a sale; since starting our company, I’d buy a nice dress every quarter or so — and no new shoes!”

• Find 1 or 2 partners

I have started the same, with 2 partners. And while I know it was the only way I could start a company at that time, you should think very well about picking up your partners. Most likely is not very important who your partners are if things don’t work, but it makes all the difference in the world if it works and there are money to burn. Once again, an impressive list of external resources on this subject on the blog.

• Register your company

Interesting to see what it takes to start a business in Philippines.

• Have a common conducive workplace

(I had to look in the dictionary to find out what conducive means ). Basically the workplace should be a good enough environment to start a business and to sustain whatever you are doing. Of course I agree with that, but chances are that you might need a year or so to be able to rent a nice place to work. Usually if you start small, an office at home is quite ok, especially if you start an online business like they did.

• Raise funds from your own pocket and from family and friends

Unless you are in USA, is quite hard to find investors ready to burn money for just an idea. Everywhere else, be prepared to have a 7 figures turnover to get the investors attention. Once again, relevant articles are linked on the paragraph there.

• Focus your efforts

While they have a funny explanation about focusing on the business “I gave up my car and comfortable living at my parents’ to stay in a cheap condo so I can be near our office.”, most likely one of the early days issues is that because you have bills to pay, you can’t say no to customers or business lines that simply aren’t good enough to make you grow. You know that for this customer you will work more than you should, you know that on the long run, doing X or Y is going to slow you down, but you are simply too hungry not to take the job!

I would add an extra step:

• Make a business plan!

While some will not agree with this one, is absolutely fundamental to see what it takes to pay the bills. What are your expenses, how you are going to cover them and how long till you break even.Well, enough ramblings, you better have a look at the “7 Must-Do Tasks Before You Start Up” – there are plenty of resources there which you might find interesting.

Oh, and good luck to the people behind the blog and their venture!

• FSB Care
• Business Banking
• Telecom
• Deposit Account
• Mobile Terminals
• Financial Services
• Factors
• Legal Benefits Package
• Credit Card
• Insurance Service
• Finance for Business
• Medical
• Merchant Services
• Legal Information Online
• Delivery Service

Want to find out more about what these mean? Here is the site section dedicated to FSB members benefits. I think that also the library of documents might be interesting for small entrepreneurs in UK.

But what’s really interesting (and in fact the part that made me stop and have a look) is the FSB forum where you can find real questions and solutions from entrepreneurs on subjects like: Employing immigrants, Funding startups, or Bureaucracy gone mad!

Nice! I’d love to have a non-profit organization back here to help me with the legal aspects of running a business and all the rest! But there aren’t any – maybe we should do one?

I’m not sure about the printed magazine, but the blog is interesting because of it’s dual approach: it got interesting information about business environment in the Asean region and also general thoughts, ideas and articles on running a Small Business in general.

I had a look at the articles about Small Businesses, and I have to say that they are well targeted and easy to understand. Let’s take a look at a recent article: Common mistakes small businesses make – it’s short and well thought. The first point they approach is “Doing it all alone.” I think this is the most common pitfall in all small business start-ups! They have another good article called: “Simplifying Just In Time” – it talks about the Just In Time concept implemented first by Toyota: “The original practice of JIT involves a demand-pull system, which means customer orders prompt production so the company does not produce inventories for stock. Raw materials arrive at the factory floor just in time for production. Needless to say, JIT involves minimal to virtually zero inventories.” I didn’t know about this, and it seems there is more on the subject in the printed magazine.

Talking about doing business in the Asean region, there are plenty of articles about regional meetings, SAAS in India.

Here it is again: SME Insight from Philippine

I stumbled across this article: 99 Life Lessons Learned from Quitting Corporate America – some are funny, some are simple facts, but they all seem to be real! Here is one that is hard to understand for a Web Junkie like me: “13. Software and high-tech is not the only industry in the world. People become billionaires and millionaires making ketchup, selling hairagami or making dumpling.”

Anyway, you can have a quick overview of her writings by looking at the “Most Popular of EdithYeung.com” column in the right side. From the categories I can see that she writes most about success , something all entrepreneurs want to have. And here is the archive with all the posts so far.

I had an interview there a few years ago about my own entrepreneurship experiences and I’ve also did some guest-posting on several occasions. I’m adding below some links to some of the great posts – but really, they are highly irrelevant, you should get and read it all:

1.  Balance especially important for part-time entrepreneurs
2. Don’t mix personal finance with business finance (that’s one of my guest postings
3. How to make your business great

These have been said, I invite you to subscribe to Bootstrape RSS here so you don’t lose any of the writings!

His blog is about personal experiences, feelings, thoughts and facts in his everyday life. I would recommed it as a light reading as the blog seems to be quite new. Some of the topics are:

•  TURNING A MISTAKE INTO A SALE
• IF YOU DON’T TRY, THEY’LL NEVER BUY
• THOROUGHLY UNDERSTAND CUSTOMER NEEDS

Althought I don’t find the blog design particulary user friendly, the BizzBangBuzz blog is an incredible collection of resources for entrepreneurs – each post quotes a relevant article on the respective subject. It’s like reading 100 or more blogs into 1 – it has plenty of subjects (the blog starts in 2004!). Probably the easiest way to take advantage of the blog is by subscribing to it’s RSS Feed – and read the articles that interest you.

Here is a list of the most recent articles currently on the homepage – just to have an idea:

• Avoid Rookie Mistakes
• Outline of an Employee Handbook
• Top Ten Management Concepts

I know I don’t have time to write about all the 100 blogs in the list, but I will try. Let’s start bottom up.

 The Freestyle Entrepreneur blog

I believe that the most relevant way to talk about this blog is talking about it’s co-owners and their entrepreneurial path and contribution to the business world.

• John R. Ingrisano  says about himself: “I’m an SBO (that stands for Small Business Owner, just in case you were curious). Why am I an SBO?  My kids say it’s because I’m unemployable.  I’ve been outside the box way too long to go back to being a cubicle-dwelling wage slave.  Plus, I hate meetings with a passion and would rather change the whole course of my business on a two-mile walk with my dogs than spend six months sitting through dozens of meetings to form a committee to look into revising the lunchroom menu.”
• Jeff Hunsaker, co-owner of The Freestyle Entrepreneur: “Admittedly, I only aspire to be entrepreneurial…but I share in the excitement and believe it embodies the future of working in the United States.

The blog itself it’s a nice collection of stories from the day by day life of any entrepreneur, together with personal experiences that give hints on how entrepreneurs are runing their businesses.

But where are all these ideas come from? Well, in a twisted and un-expected strange way, the ideas come from…blogging. Yes, blogging is an outgoing process in which you share your thoughts with the world. But then again, blogging is an incoming process in the same time. Somewhere in the process of playing smart and write a blog, bloggers need to accumulate knowledge about the things they are writing.

They are reading other blogs, they receive comments from readers and maybe they do guest blogging. And for that, they start to know things. And if you know things (like why the banners don’t work anymore, or what’s the market status or anything else) you are getting smarter. Because you can have an opinion on things.

Sure, your colleagues might know the market as good as you know it, but you have an advantage. Because you are blogging, you know how to communicate your knowledge better, in the same way you are connecting to your readers.

He said: “You could help spreading the word of our growing network of entrepreneurial resources (all free) and encouraging many of your European contacts to sign up on our beta site www.clubenetwork.com. Then, you could include your blogging on our own site, in addition to your own, of course, so our viewers in America could learn much about the European perspective on entrepreneurship and what’s happening cross the world.”

I’ve also got some more details about Club E Network from Merlin Ward:

Club Entrepreneur is much more than just a network event. We bring together Entrepreneurs and small business owners from all walks of life, areas of business, and stages of development. We follow a policy of what we call “open source entrepreneurship” – the free exchange of ideas and experiences – which brings a much different culture to our events that a boring corporate networking spiel. Our members engage one another to share their passion and experiences to learn from one another. In turn we are developing aspiring entrepreneurs who are armed with the knowledge to succeed. They say only 1 and 10 business succeed in the US, and Club E would like to bring that to 5, then 6 then 9 out of 10.

We also partnered with a few organizations in the education sector. DECA, FBLA, Phi Beta Lambda, and Junior Achievement to bring entrepreneurship to students at young ages. Then we connect these students with the seasoned and experienced entrepreneurs so that they can learn from them and avoid many of the classic mistakes.

Every facet of Club E is designed around open source entrepreneurship. Building business better faster and more successful through the exchange of knowledge and ideas. Even the older entrepreneurs are learning things. As the aspiring entrepreneurs are coming up with new questions they are including the new technologies that are created everyday and coming up with issues some had never thought of before. Above all, our events include making business deals. We don’t just network to talk to people later, deals literally happen right there in the room. Its amazing!

I’ve made a quick registration (it’s free) and noticed that there are already some local chapters in USA. But will this work in Europe?

Number 1 on the list is my all time favorite, Dane’s Carlson’s Business Opportunities Weblog. I believe that if you would like to find out what these blogs are about, it would be a little hard to check all 100, so here is my shortlist of blogs I’m reading:

• Copy Blogger  – Copywriting tips for online marketing success
• Seth Godin – Seth has been called “the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age” by Business Week
• Bootstrapper – the most amazing resource on getting the last Tops of everything…
• Young Go Getter – targeted to young people
• Small Biz Survival – my old friend Becky McCray
• Go Big Network – nice network for entrepreneurs
• Young Entrepreneur -  Adam and Matthew Toren’s blog and forum
• The Small Business Blog – Stefan Töpfer blog on SME
• Boostrap Me – my fellow blogger Shawn Hessinger

Hope it helps!

I have to agree with most of the point raised:

• (entrepreneurs) “have unrealistic dreams of how they will develop and run their enterprises. They foresee employees running around following their orders, and lots of customers in the store.” Yep. I do however think that without the insanity and unrealistic dreams, most of the businesses would never start. Fame and fortune are the things that drive entrepreneurs around the World. They do what I called “day dreaming”.
• “Too much confidence can ruin the new” (entrepreneur). Very true, but statistically speaking, only bold entrepreneurs make it big. Entrepreneurs have to wear 47 hats to run a business as Bob Walsh says – they have to have confidence in wearing at least some of the hats.
• “People tend to give up even before they should“. True again, and no comments on that.
• “Break-ups among business partners” Sadly enough, I experienced that on my own. I simply got lucky enough to find a way to keep it going without my original partners, but I suppose in most of the cases it means death for a business.

This article is just one more example that Entrepreneurship happens all around the World and even if it has to respond a different set of business environment variables it has first to find answers to generic challenges before creating local values.

There are so many valuable thoughts, ideas and examples in the article, so here it is if you want to read it all: People who seek the satisfaction of running their own businesses need to do some hard-headed planning to make the dream come true

So far the best collection of lists I found is the Boostrapper blog (http://www.businesscreditcards.com/bootstrapper/) Let me get you to the most important lists and their content.

50 Tips To Reduce Your Office’s Waste
With the latest warnings on climate change, reducing office waste should become a reality for small business as well. Not to say that every action to reduce consumption is actually reducing costs and improve profits. This list approaches the following areas:

• Paper and printing products: Use both sides of paper, Print in draft mode etc, etc
• Transportation: Encourage employees to walk or bike to work, Encourage efficient vehicles, etc
• Equipment: Buy used furniture, Unplug equipment when not in use…
• Electricity: Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs, Turn off lights when not in use…
• Computers: Unplug computers when not in use…

100 Freebies for Bootstrappers

• Productivity Software
• Office Software
• Accounting Software
• Print and Web Design
• etc, etc

100 Foods to Improve Your Productivity

• Energy and Brain Foods
• General Productivity Boosters
• Improving Digestion and Sleep
• more…

100 Resources for Entrepreneur-Writers

• Blogging Platforms
• Design and Content
• Statistics and Analysis
• and many more

100 Daily Must-Reads for Entrepreneurs

20 Ways to Finance Your Business Startup

Please, please bookmark the Bootstrapper blog! I have the same feeling like opening a box of presents under the tree at Christmas!

• Entrepreneurship – Start-up
• Entrepreneurship – Success
• Entrepreneurship – General

Besides the categories, I stopped at several posts that are so familiar to the stuff I write. Like for example:”Why do Most Small Businesses Fail?“. I agree with the reasons given in the article, but I would add one reason that actually explains the others: “Un-ability to adapt”. Because all the other reasons come from the lack of adaptation to the market signals, requirements and challenges.

I also really enjoyed the “The Three Things You Absolutely Must Know About Starting a Business“. Wow, that’s good! And can be confirmed by reading my the interviews I’m making with Small business entrepreneurs – you will see how they started, what they did wrong and what they did great.

I think he has one of the regular worries of any entrepreneur wanna be: waiting for an idea to happen: “I am a Los Angeles native who more than anything else has wanted to own and manage his own company, though still has yet to find the idea for which I am willing to commit my heart and soul.”

Now, USA is really the place where Web 2.0 is really happening, the place where most IT ideas are waiting to start. That’s why I found his blog to be an interesting collection of stories, interviews and tales about new ventures in the post 2000 internet bust era.

I especially enjoyed his story about starting to work with his friend on ideas about “an entrepreneurial venture together and organized a trip back to our roots of innovation, a weekend away in the hills of Berkeley”. Isn’t this really entrepreneurship?

Here is the list

In the related posts (see the bottom of the page) noticed another piece of information: Top 10 Signs You’re Made to be an Entrepreneur, that actually comes from another interesting blog: The Lazy Way to Success

Here are some signs that really caught my eye:

• When you project future earnings, your spread sheet shows that by Year 5, you can buy Argentina and sell it to Brazil.
• You don’t see lack of money, lack of knowledge, and lack of experience as barriers to entry.
• You spend more time and energy looking for easier, faster, cheaper, more effective ways of accomplishing something than if you just did the task outright.
• You are always looking for and/or seeing economic opportunity everywhere and in everything. While at a concert, you occupy yourself by estimating the evening’s take and its gross margins instead of listening to the music.

Very good indeed.

I haven’t wrote anything lately on knowledge resources for entrepreneurs. I was in a complete void of inspiration, so today I’ve decided to write about an older subject: Internet activities by age group – a study completed by Pew Internet & American Life Project It seems that if you are going to open an online shop your clients will probably be between 18 and 70 years old. Now thats kind of generic information, therefore you should make some other correlations in order to obtain a meaningful idea on your target market. So lets see for each business:

Online music shop
It seems that after the age of 28, online music downloads are much more lower. I think that if you are planning to open an online music shop – put there some music for the early generation.

Blogging software
It seems that only younger people have time for reading or writing blogs. So if you are selling blogging software, your target is bellow 28 years old and you can reach it together with online games or instant messaging

Job hunting
Young people, at the start of their career are more likely to use Internet to search for their jobs.

You can find the full report here

So what makes the “Knowledge Resources for Entrepreneurs no 3″? It’s the Pew Internet & American Life Project site – the place to be if you are into developing an online business model.

You can find information on:

• Online Activities & Pursuits
• Demographics
• Internet Evolution
• Technology & Media Use
• Health
• Family, Friends & Community
• Major News Events
• Public Policy
• E-Gov & E-Policy
• Education
• Work

I know, its difficult to know everything but you have ti try!

So what is www.entrepreneur.com about?

How to Guides
Probably the first place to stop after reading the lively articles on the homepage is the How to Guides where you can find articles on: Starting Your Business, Running Your Business, Growing Your Business. Each Guide is actually made of few articles on the topic, so take your time to drill down the pages. If you are looking for How to Start an eBay Business, How to Start an E-Business or How to Legally Establish Your Homebased Business here is the place to be. Anyway you can find many more information here, have a look.

Start-up kits

Next place to go if you are considering to start a business is the Start up Kits page
These are “are quick, easy-to-read guides to starting the most popular businesses around” You want to start a Hair Salon, e-Business, or maybe a Internet Entrepreneurship business? Here is the place to start looking.

HomeBiz
For the work at home entrepreneurs you can get interesting insights on: Home office essentials, legal stuff, financial and marketing tips. And of course I’ve especially enjoyed the “25 Part-Time Businesses to Start Today” article

Franchise

Are you into Franchising? You can browse for Franchising opportunities on various categories here

Business opportunities
No matter what business are you planning to start, you should never miss the BizOpps page. Are you into Personal care, photo business or maybe business services? OK. you have it all there.

Money
Everybody knows that financing is really important for any start-up. That’s why you should take a look here and find out how to: Raise Money for Your Business, Get Your Business Ready for Funding and Reducing Your Overall Tax Bill.

Marketing
Its’ about: How to Develop and Run a Marketing Campaign, Building Customer Loyalty or maybe Building a Successful Advertising Plan. And it’s all here.

Manage
How to Hire an Employee, 100 Ways to Be a Better Entrepreneur, and Selecting the Best CEO for Your Company. Here

E-Business

That’s the part I really enjoy and is talking about: Starting an e-business, designing your site and e-commerce. Plenty of information here (and watch out for the “more” buttons – there is more to read than the cover stories).

Tech and work/life
These Tabs are really about the technological aspects of businesses and the entrepreneurship lifestyle…

Grow your business
If you are not into starting up but into growing your business, have a look at this section

But hey, this is just a simple review of the www.entrepreneur.com site. There are plenty of other things to learn there, I just highlighted the nicer ones. Bookmark this site, you will use it again and again…

OK, so let me start a new set of posts for what I hope to become a valuable list with information sites for the entrepreneur wanna-be.

If you are planning to start a business and you are just starting to look around for what starting a new business really means these days, you will probably realize that there are a lot of sources with a lot of information. This is not very user friendly, as it’s quite difficult to read enough sources and keep an overall view of the things. This is why probably the best place to start is the United States Small Business Administration and especially the Small Business Startup Guide.

The Start up Guide will provide you with the basic information on getting started:

• Is Entrepreneurship For You?
• Types of Business Organizations
• Business Plan Outline
• FINDING THE MONEY YOU NEED
• Legal regulations (USA)
• SBA ASSISTANCE program

I think this start-up guide is quite comprehensive, and provides you with valuable information in a easy to use format – so this is a good place to start.

For the more advanced users, you can find some other sections in the site, regarding various business opportunities, and financing and managing a business.

The “Business opportunities” section provides valuable and easy to understand articles on:

• Basic Contracting
• Regulation and Policy
• Bid and Proposal
• and others

As you can probably imagine, the “Financing” section is about:

• Basic Financing
• Financing Eligibility
• SBA Loans
• Equity Capital

“Managing” is about:

• Leadership
• Marketing and strategic planning
• Financing

While the site provides specific information for the USA entrepreneurs, even if you are living somewhere else it might help you understand what the Entrepreneurship is really about.

Welcome to the Dane Carlson’s blog

And I quote him here: “The essence of entrepreneurship is the ability to spot an opportunity and the willingness to go after it despite the risks”.