Educational CyberPlayGround ®

 

RAISE MONEY FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

AND RESOURCES FOR WOMEN TO RE - ENTER THE JOB MARKET

Grants: Book

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comic: How to lose your girlfriend

"Anything women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily this is not difficult."

FIRST OF ALL - ABOUT MONEY
The best response I have ever heard to this kind of assertion .... ["no business case"] is from a stock analyst friend of mine: a gravel pit can be a great business, and so is a grocery store. Great businesses are the result of great business people, and those who are looking for a business case are probably insufficiently lazy or creative to be successful at ANY business.

2) Second of all . . Make sure your credit report is clean.

Everyone is now entitled to receive 1 free copy of their credit report. No Not really . . .

TransUnion
report internet fraud or request your credit report
President Harry Gambill
2 Baldwin Place
1510 Chester Pike
Cromlyn, PA
Director of Customer Service Mary Lane 610-546-4600 EXT: 52636
Sales 610-690-3175 press 3 press 4
or call 1-800-888-4213 if denied credit

Request Report in writing:

Include : full name + address + date of birth - phone + ssn
sign request
$8.50 charge payable to TransUnion

Mail to:

TransUnion
PO Box 1000
Chester, Pa 19022

Fair Credit Reporting Act

 

2012 Experian Customers Unsafe as Hackers Steal Credit Report Data Experian Plc, the credit reporting agency with data on more than 740 million consumers. The incident is one of 86 data breaches since 2006 that expose flaws in the way credit-reporting agencies protect their databases. Instead of directly targeting Experian, Equifax Inc. and TransUnion Corp., hackers are attacking affiliated businesses, such as banks, auto dealers and even a police department that rely on reporting agencies for background credit checks. "Your regular reminder that Equifax still exists. Everyone who was running the company when 148 million Americans' data was stolen is still rich, and now their former lawyer is running the office at the Federal Trade Commission that's supposed to investigate them."

Choice Point

ChoicePoint provides public records information about a person, asset or location, a company spokesperson said. The information can include current and former addresses, property ownership records and bankruptcy, lien or judgment information. ChoicePoint hacked.

Who owns ChoicePoint
The first of these is Reed Elsevier Group plc, a UK registered company which owns the publishing and information businesses. This company is equally owned by the two parent companies, Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV.
The second is Elsevier Reed Finance BV, a Dutch registered company which owns the financing activities. This is 61% owned by Reed Elsevier NV and 39% owned by Reed Elsevier PLC. Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV have retained their separate legal and national identities and are publicly held companies. Reed Elsevier PLC's securities are listed in London and New York; and Reed Elsevier NV's securities are listed in Amsterdam and New York. Source

START UPS

Sing to the tune of I am woman.

Technical women
Hear us roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And we know too much to go back and pretend
We've heard it all before, The glass ceiling's now our floor
No one's ever gonna keep us down again


"Money Game" Where do Entrepreneurs Get Their Money?
Paul Kedrosky, Senior Fellow, Kauffman Foundation

 

Know How To Negoitate WITH THE ANGELS

Everything you ever wanted to know about advisors, Part 1

GET A JOB

The Job Ad phrases copied from posted job descriptions
Look for terminology which suggests:
1) that your colleagues are arrogant jerks who think they know everything worth knowing and thus cannot learn ("rock-star" "expert" "top-notch performers")
2) profound lack of work-life balance or overmuch thoughtless change in direction and lots of wasted work ("fast paced", "dynamic")
3) emotional dysfunction, emotional immaturity, verbal abuse, and lack of professionalism ("passionate")
4) rewards almost no-one gets, and a bar set impossibly high for you but not for mediocre men with the right friends, incentives for back-stabbing ("High achievers reap the greatest rewards.")
- Do not work anywhere without checking them on glassdoor.com first.

 

How Stereotypes Can Drive Women To Quit Science

Geek Feminism Wiki offers some suggested responses to sexist comments, as well as a resource guide (both below). *http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Good_sexism_comebacks* *http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Resources*

Women's Strength in Technology Is Greater Than It Seems
http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2012/07/31/womens-strength-in-technology-is-greater-than-it-seems/

CareerBuilding's channel on YouTube and it has many videos that provide phone interview "how-to" tips and "how-to address those uncomfortable questions.

2012 DESIGNERS WHO CAN CODE
are very valuable. So if you can translate your print design skills to being web design and then be able to code (in HTML and CSS), you'll be in demand. Add to that being able to do the programming to apply the design in a CMS (especially Drupal), you'll be well ahead of the game!

What IS a Dot Diva?

 

 

"Who Been Boss For You?" I been boss for myself! Genevieve Bell the ABIE Award for Leadership. Genevieve's acceptance speech is unforgettable. She is a "Non Technical" Woman. [ Youtube ]

YOU'RE NEVER TO OLD TO LEARN TO CODE

ANNONYMOUS ~ I was a 40-something mom when my son was offered an opportunity tolearn BASIC at our Science Center. Being under 12, he had to "bring aparent" so I dragged him there. I had always been intrigued but hadn't had an opportunity. This was BASIC on a cassette in a homemade machine, with saving being to paper tape, and one-dimensional arrays (assignment-- to make the game of LIFE!) in early 1970s. As soon as that class was done, I signed up at our community college for all the "DP" classes I could take. Ran away from "Accounting" so didn't get the certificate but learned COBOL and PL1 and other arcane things and moved on to the U of Washington for Pascal and then C classes. Python rocks, and we now use it for our intro classes at Seattle Central Community College... yes, I came back here to teach and am now the IT Director and have served as the dean for our IT instructional programs which include serious coding instruction.
Still doing it at the ancient age of 74-- and reminding myself that Grace Hopper didn't become an admiral till she was about this old. Still learning new languages and having a blast.
Son who went to the Science Center is a dot Net developer now. But he learned at 11, while I was 40 something, and we both did absolutely fine. Not too late for anyone! I do worry that kids are not getting the casual intro that my younger one and his friends had in the 80s... with BASIC right in front of them on every computer.

"Is Coding an Inborn Trait?"
Obviously, it's *optimal* to learn skills as early as possible. But there is no carnival sign next to your computer saying "you're too tall to ride this ride, don't even try." Everything changes, eventually. There is nothing wrong with anyone who can't learn how to code.
Everyone is different and have different skills. It's important for us to not get caught up in a narrative that tells us to not even try because the moment has passed, or because we don't have the right background, or the right chromosomes. We all have different skills and aptitudes and interests; some things will be easier than others. And that's fine. The tragedy is when people don't even try.
Exactly. This says it all. We all aren't the same. If we try, we might succeed. But not everyone will, and that's fine, too. You can move on to other things you *can* do, without being told there's something wrong with me for not continuing to try.
Answering the question "is coding an inborn trait?" can be a bit of a catch-22. As a younger person I remember being in a similar position wondering if the career path I wanted so badly to choose was just closed off to me because it was taking me so much effort and work to grasp programming concepts that seem to come so much more easily to all my classmates. I also wondered if this skill was something I just had to have an innate ability for. If someone had told me back then that some people just can't acquire the ability to write code, I would have been crushed.
Stepping back, of course there is no shame in it and I have many other skills. But sometimes such answers can be the spark that creates the motivation to try harder until proven one way or the other, or to give up entirely.
So I guess my answer isn't "if I can do it, then you can too". It's more like "don't expect that you'll be bad at all of it because it seems to take you more time/effort than some other people. It's not proof on its own that you just don't have the ability, or that the ability is something innate and not something acquired over time.

BROGRAMMERS AND THEIR STYLE

  • Fighting sexist jokes the geeky way
  • The following are a few of the laws of the jungle out there for Women Entrepreneurs.
  • Men Explain Things to Me By Rebecca Solnit captures how so many women feel that when in meetings where we suggest something, we are ignored, and then a colleague gives our suggestion, and he is praised and the suggestion is accepted. Sometimes it's subtle. Sometimes it isn't. The article is so much more, but it does tie into women and computing.
  • Brogrammers Wanted - describing a recruiting video for the company Kixeye - Appalling racism faced in work.
    Kixeye, the gaming startup that proves Silicon Valley's frat-house culture isn't going away anytime soon.
  • Equalitism
    http://equalitism.tumblr.com/post/46792643544/donglegate-why-the-tech-community-hates-feminists
    "I've heard it said that a chronic health condition is much harder to live with than something like a broken bone, because it affects your quality of life in small, unrelenting, negative ways on a daily basis, and there's no hope of one day waking up and realizing you've recovered. Microaggressions are a chronic ailment for women in tech."
    Original Wired Magazine Article http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/03/richards-affair-and-misogyny-in-tech/

GET BACK IN THE GAME

You can Get Back In the Game with Internships / Unpaid Internships
Do the circumstances clearly show that the relationship is for the purpose of generalized learning, education, and training that imparts to the participant significant knowledge of a broadly-applicable kind, or do they instead indicate that the idea is to have the person perform work?

Thoughtleaders: Where are the women in technology? Anita Borg Institute aims to shake things up

GET YOUR FREE EDUCATION TO RE-ENTER THE TECHNOLOGY JOB MARKET

Dick Bolles book, "What Color is your Parachute?" It's an updated guide for job seekers and career changers.

How much time does a recruiter spend reviewing a resume?

Recruiters spend about 6 seconds before they make the initial “fit/no fit” decision. That means prioritizing information is essential.

Does a professionally written resume make a difference in what a recruiter learns about the candidate?

In fact, the study found that, using a Likert-like scale** ranking of 1 to 7, recruiters gave professionally re-written resumes an average rating of 6.2 for “usability.” This was a 60% improvement compared with a 3.9 rating before the re-write. This finding supports participating recruiters' comments that the re-written resumes were “easier to read.”

Are online profiles effective?

No. Online profiles have pictures, and unfortunately, recruiters tended to focus on them for the simple reason that pictures naturally draw the eye. We found they kept recruiters from locating the most relevant information, like skills and experience.

GET EXPERIENCE:

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a global program that matches students up with open source, free software and technology-related organizations to write code and get paid to do it! The organizations provide mentors who act as guides through the entire process, from learning about the community to contributing code. The idea is to get students involved in and familiar with the open source community and help them to put their summer break to good use.
Accepted students gain exposure to real-world software development, and employment opportunities in areas related to their academic pursuits. Participating organizations are able to identify and bring in new developers. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all; all code produced as part of the program is released under an open source license. See Goals of the Program

Connecting to women in robotics.
If you are interested and available take a look at these SF/Bay Area events:

  • Robot Block Party at Stanford, April 11 2012- robots of all sorts on exhibition
  • Robots at Mega Startup Weekend at Microsoft, April 13-15 - largest Startup Weekend in the world, hosting over 300 attendees in 3 different verticals - robots, gaming and mobile.
  • Robot Startup Retreat at blackbox, April 27-29 - small group of movers and shakers in robotics rethinking robot business models for future using startup methodology

Etsy's VP of Engineering about their goals with women in tech: etsy-hacker-grants-supporting-women

Creative Cow Classifieds where all the Adobe video folks hang out.

If you work for the federal government--either as a fed employee or a contractor--knowing plain language principles is important. More info on plain language--and plain web writing--at www.plainlanguage.gov


If you intern to get experience remember

Former Unpaid Intern's Lawsuit Gets Approval For Class Action Status by John E. Thompson 7/25/12
A former Harper's Bazaar unpaid intern is pursuing a lawsuit against publisher the Hearst Corporation in which she claims (among other things) to have been an “employee” under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act who was not compensated in compliance with that law. A New York federal judge has now conditionally approved the case as a “collective action.” This means that the lawsuit will proceed as the FLSA's version of a class action, including that court-authorized notice of the complaint will be sent to potential class members to let them know that they may join the lawsuit if they choose to do so. [GOV PDF]

RETENTION AND PROMOTION

Once you have a job how do you make sure you keep it? Tutorials that educate employees and employers about unconscious prejudice Learn about how gender influences judges' evaluations. Maximize the likelihood that women and minorities will stay and thrive in the job.

Maternity leave for Ph.D. Students

- Who knows what the policy is?
A PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University has started a conversation about family leave policy for graduate students and has a great table outlining the policies at several major tech universities.

 

BEWARE: DISTANT LEARNING AND STUDENT LOANS

Grants & Resources for Women

SHOW ME THE MONEY

SHOW ME THE MONEY

2012 “Of the computer science majors graduating in 2013 from Harvard, women make up 41%. And although only 25% of science, tech, engineering and math (STEM) jobs are currently held by women, the numbers are beginning to shift. Between January of 2011 and 2012, the number of women in the IT field jumped by more than 28%,” boasts MBA Online.

2012 article: salary.com/close-the-gender-wage-gap/

2012 Gender Wage App closethewagegap.com/
Very comprehensive tool. Click on "Show Me the Money" and enter in occupation, location, etc to get the results.

Article: http://www.salary.com/close-the-gender-wage-gap /
Very comprehensive tool. Click on "Show Me the Money" and enter in occupation, location, etc to get the results.

WAPO IS WRONG SEE PINOCCHIO AT THE BOTTOM 2012

Highlights of Women's Earnings in 2011
U.S. Department of Labor U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
October 2012 Report 1038

WOMEN MUST NEGOTIATE

 

Salary Negotiations

"Negotiating isn't just one of several leadership competencies, it's the most important tool at women's disposal. A woman can work on being well networked or technically brilliant, but without the ability to ask she has nothing. Not asking devastates our promise. Negotiating on our own behalf however gets us far more than a material good. It's about having a voice, piping up and advocating for ourselves. Those women who choose to strengthen their muscles of self agency can expect a whole new world of possibilities to open. They might even gasp at their strength."
Obviously this is a throwaway, my employer would be far from happy to see me talking about this. I am not a researcher and can't offer and statistics, just what I see in my day to day job.
Today I finished interviewing my third new hire this month, two of which are women. They both are getting paid substantially less than the man I hired earlier this month, and to be honest I am getting tired of that. I don't set the wages, I just handle negotiations (HR has to approve every offer I make).
Our process, despite the pay gap, is identical for men and women. We start with phone interviews, and move into a personal and technical interview. Once a candidate passes both of those, we start salary negotiations. This is where the women seem to come in last.
The reason they don't keep up, from where I sit, is simple. Often, a woman will enter the salary negotiation phase and I'll tell them a number will be sent to them in a couple days. Usually we start around $45k for an entry level position. 50% to 60% of the women I interview simply take this offer. It's insane, I already know I can get authorization for more if you simply refuse. Inversely, almost 90% of the men I interview immediately ask for more upon getting the offer.
The next major mistake happens with how they ask for more. In general, the women I have negotiated with will say 45k is not enough and they need more, but not give a number. I will then usually give a nominal bump to 48k or 50k. Company policy wont let me bump more than 5k over the initial offer unless they specifically request more. On the other hand, men more frequently will come back with a number along the lines of 65k to 75k, and I will be forced to negotiate down from there. After this phase, almost all women will take the offer or move on to somewhere else, not knowing they could have gotten more if they asked.
At the end, most of the women I hire make between 45k and 50k, whereas the men make between 60k and 70k. Even more crazy, they ask for raises far less often, so the disparity only grows.

  • Don't be afraid to ask for more, it's not insulting or in any way going to affect your ability to be hired (we can always say no)
  • When you ask for more, give a number! If you let me pick, I will continue to lowball it.
  • Ask for raises, confident people get them more often than high performers in a heavy bureaucracy.

On a small sidenote, the one person who got the most out of us was a highly aggressive, very smart, very confident woman. She nearly doubled the initial offer, which due to how she marketed herself was already pretty high.

HOWTO negotiate your salary and benefits - for women

1) When faced with this question in the past, I've replied, "What is someone with my skill set and experience worth to your company?" That forces them to give the first offer (and you know it probably isn't the highest offer they could give). It's served me well. There were times I would have asked for a lower rate than they answered. I generally retort, "Oh, I was thinking more like $XX" (quite a bump up from their offer) and we land in the middle.

2) This HOWTO describes how to negotiate your salary and benefits when applying for a job, with a special focus on problems women face. Written from the perspective of a programmer, but broadly applicable. http://valerieaurora.org/howto_salary/

Ask A Manager has written about salaries quite a lot, and this link is to what she says about providing salary history

What to put as your Salary Requirements

The Wage Gap State by State: 2012 Fact Sheets Excerpt:
At the time of the Equal Pay Act's passage in 1963, women working full time, year-round were paid merely 59 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. Enforcement of the Equal Pay Act and related civil rights laws has helped to narrow the wage gap, but significant disparities remain and must be addressed. READ MORE:
*Note - State links featured at the bottom open PDF fact sheets. Interestingly, here in DC where I live, in 2010, the "typical" woman in the District of Columbia working full time, year round were paid only 91 cents to every dollar paid to a man working full time. Which is much better than the national average of 77 cents for every dollar, but still is not where it should be.

In the late 80s, a song by Laurie Anderson with these lyrics stuck with me:

"OK! OK! Hold it!
I just want to say something.
You know, for every dollar a man makes
a woman makes 63 cents.
Now, fifty years ago that was 62 cents.
So, with that kind of luck, it'll be the year 3,888
before we make a buck..."
--from "Beautiful Red Dress" on the "Strange Angels" album

So, maybe she wasn't exactly accurate on the pennies, but that sentiment stuck with me, and I believe helped shape my feelings about negotiating my pay thru the years.

Find FUNDING

An IRS 501(c)(3) is a charity and means that they had to go through certain procedures to be allowed to be classified that way. As a 501(c)(3), they are required to file a statement (the 990) with the IRS which is available for public viewing on line. A Good resource when assessing whether a charity is something you want to contribute to is charitynavigator.org Those charities that have been established longer will have been reviewed by CharityNavigator (and let me tell you ... some that I've always thought highly of, I stopped giving to after I checked out what CharityNavigator had to say). They also have a gateway to the 990 form finder... just type in the organization number and press search.

Need Money to Start - How to and where to get the first investors and Ask For Money

  • Women 2.0 PITCH
  • Kickstarter - how to monitize creative projects
  • Fundable - lets groups of people pool money for fundraising
  • IndieGoGo - provides tools for fundraising, promotion
  • ChipIn - How It Works: Create Tell us what you're collecting money for
  • Kiva - Make a loan to an entrepreneur across the globe for as little as $25.
  • http://www.gofundme.com for nonprofit

Founding CEO's Do It Better
The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business published an analysis of recent exits for high technology companies such as BlackBoard, BladeLogic, Concur, Danger, Liveperson, LogMeIn, and Netsuite. Looking across these nearly 50 companies, the study finds that founding CEOs consistently beat the professional CEOs on a broad range of metrics ranging from capital efficiency (amount of funding raised), time to exit, exit valuations, and return on investment. This phenomenon appears to extend beyond high-technology companies. [source]

The Failure Manifesto Wherein I get really f***ing real with you.

Finance / VC Orgs
Venture Capital Firms and Angel Investment Groups in the Philly Region.
www.fed.org
www.sbsc.org
www.nvca.org


Finance / VC /Grant Sites
http://www.smallbusinesscenter.com/
http://www.businessfinance.com/statmenu.htm
http://www.business.gov/busadv/index.cfm
http://www.slu.edu/eweb/
http://www.ideacafe.com/getmoney/financing.html
www.moneyhunter.com
http://FinanceHub.com/vc
www.vfinance.com

 

BIZ PLAN WEBSITES

 

"Because I'm a strong minded women, who rides a bycicle and wants the vote" ~ from Goodby Mr. Chips.

http://www.businessinsight.org/
This Internet tool is designed to provide you with a FREE sample analysis of a marketing strategy for your product or service. This online sample will ask 30 fairly generalized questions designed to allow the program logic to make inferences about how you would probably have answered hundreds of more detailed questions. When you are done, the software will create an industry model based on the inferred answers, apply thousands of rules against that model and return a high-level, summary analysis.

2006 Women CEOs for FORTUNE 500 Companies

Learn the Language - 20,000 business-related definitions.

Non Profit

 

 

Should you be a For Profit or Should you be a Non Profit Organization?

What is the 990-PF:
1. The annual tax return that U.S. private foundations file with the IRS

Public information Available:

2. Why important: May be only source where you can find complete grants list, particularly for smaller and mid-sized foundations - Larger foundations often issue annual reports and/or have Web sites which contain this information
3. Information included: Financial data, Application guidelines, Names of foundation's board/officers/trustees, Complete list of grants awarded
4. Currency: Typically one to two years behind
5. Accessibility via the Web in PDF format: Foundation Finder or 990 PF Search at http://lnp.fdncenter.org/finder.html
GuideStar at · http://www.guidestar.org/

Finding the information you need on a 990-PF:
Page 1, top section & line 25: Date, name, address, assets, grants paid
Page 6, Part VIII, line 1: List of board/officers/trustees*
Page 9, Part XV, line 2, a, b c, d: Application information*
Page 10, Part XV, line 3: Grants paid*
*Often you will be referred to supplementary pages at the end of the form for this information. For example, "See Statement 6, 8, etc."
7. Excellent tutorial at http://fdncenter.org/learn/demystify/index.html

There are very strict rules about the use of unpaid interns and the states and feds have announced a crack-down on companies that are not in compliance. An unpaid intern, where the internship is part of a bona-fide training program, may be possible. Most others - NO.

Bureau of Labor Statistics Women in the Labor Force: A Databook 2009 Edition For Example:

  • 18. Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by
    detailed occupation and sex, 2008 annual averages
  • 19. Median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers by
    industry and sex, 2008 annual averages
  • 25. Wives who earn more than their husbands, 1987-2007

 

BOOKS:

*Small Business Management: An Entrepreneur's Handbook by Megginson, Byrd and Messinson.
*Kim M. Bayne: Book: The Internet Marketing Plan -- a practical handbook for creating, implementing and assessing your online presence.

SOFTWARE:

Business Plan Pro by Palo Alto Software .
Their site, also has some example business plans to look at as well.


WEB SITES:

Note: some links won't work - they get old and go offline

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES



http://www.internettrafficreport.com/

3rd party certification that your company is a woman-owned business.


1) The small business administration
2) The Women's Business Enterprise National Council
3) Ellyn McKay in the Women's Business Enterprise National Council
ellynmckay@erols.com
Patricia White in SBA's Office of Federal Contract Assistance for Womens Business Owners patricia.white@sba.gov

BUSINESS REFERENCE, RESEARCH, PUBLICATIONS

Inc.Com http://www.inc.com/
Inc. Com's focus is providing information on how to start and manage small businesses. Their site content can be accessed through two main menus:

Company Functions: these address organizational topics such as marketing or human resources.
Business Challenges: these address specific tasks that are necessary to the success of the business such as Increasing Sales or Raising Capital.
A full listing of any of these content categories may be accessed through a site view menu located at the bottom of every Inc.Com page. A key word search engine to site content is also provided.

Entrepreneur Magazine http://www.entrepreneurmag.com/entrepreneur.hts
Entrepreneur Magazine is another publication with a website devoted to entrepreneurial and small business issues. The most current issue will be found on its home page. Each issue provides links to its feature articles as well as 7 other information channels such as Money, Technology or Management. Two drop-down menus are provided for locating past issues or cover stories. There is also a keyword search capability for site content.

Locating Other Business Oriented Online Media Content News Directory
(http://www.newsdirectory.com/ ) Browsable directory of over 16,000 links to online English content media such as newspapers and magazines. Relevant categories would be business newspapers and business magazines. The site allows searches for any publication by title and by area codes for newspapers only.

AJR Newslink http://ajr.newslink.org/
This site is sponsored by the American Journalism Review magazine and NewsLink Associates, an online research and consulting firm. It maintains over 9,000 links to online media content including newspapers and magazines. These sites can be accessed by browsing selected link subcategories such as Business / Professional magazines or by doing a keyword search of the AJR Newslink site. Searches of other news services or general search engines can also be done from the site's Search page.

NewspaperLinks.Com http://www.newspaperlinks.com/
This is a search gateway to U.S. based local newspapers maintained by the Newspaper Association of America. Searches may be done by browsing state categories or by using specific place or publication names.

Business Oriented Search Resources
Internet search tools that specifically focus on locating business information. Some of these are described below. As with any Internet search tool, reading the help files that are provided is highly recommended in order to gain maximum benefit from its capabilities.
LiveLink Pinstrip http://pinstripe.opentext.com/
This is a searchable database of business oriented webpages that is being developed by the Open Text Corporation. It can be searched in one of three ways:

Slice Search: Conduct a keyword search based on a selection of "slices" or specific groupings of web pages such as those relating to Construction, Manufacturing or Waste Management.
Quick Search: Searches are based on one or more key words.
Power Search: Search terms can be combined using logical operators and the location of the search within the web page can be specified (e.g. Page titles).

Dow Jones Business Directory http://bd.dowjones.com/
This is a directory of reviewed business oriented web sites that is maintained by Dow Jones & Co., who is also the publisher of the Wall Street Journal. Sites are organized within 12 main categories such as Financial Markets, Law and Small Business and are evaluated on the basis of content, speed, navigation and design.

LSU - Subject Guides http://www.lib.lsu.edu/weblio.html#Business
This is a well-organized webliography of business information sources compiled by the Louisiana State University Library into 10 subtopics. A nice feature is a detailed explanation of how the Business webliography was developed. Browsing some of the other LSU library subject guide categories is also highly recommended.

SBDC Research Network http://www.smallbiz.suny.edu/Research_Network/research_network.html
This is a browsable directory of over 200 recommended business web sites organized within 20 categories by the New York State Small Business Development Center.

ASAE Gateway to Associations Online
http://www.asaenet.org/Gateway/OnlineAssocSlist.html
Search engine, provided by American Society of Association Executive, for locating the web sites of professional and trade associations. A search can be done by entering the name of the association or a category key word along with a geographic criterion if desired.

Usgovsearch http://usgovsearch.northernlight.com/publibaccess/
This search engine, operated by Northern Light, is the public access site for locating information on Federal government and military web sites. Searches are conducted using one or more keywords.

State Web Locator http://www.infoctr.edu/swl/
This site, maintained by the Center for Information Law and Policy, is a directory of key state web sites. Selecting a state link leads to a page listing the links for the state home page as well as the web pages for the executive and legislative branches and major state departments and agencies. There is also a link to the Center's Federal Locator web site.

Biz Plan Mags
and Pubs

www.mbemag.com Minority Business Entrepreneur
www.wfs.org
www.fastcompany.com
www.tsbj.com
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/
http://www.marketingtools.com

Sources of Statistical Data Sites

http://www.spss.com/
http://www.internetworld.com/daily/stats/index.html http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/user_surveys/survey-1996-04/
http://www.loc.gov/global/Internet/inet-stats.html
http://www.nua.net/surveys/
http://www.duke.edu/~mccann/q-mkting.htm
http://www.inktomi.com/new/press/billion.html
http://www.census.gov
http://www.nielsen.com
http://future.sri.com
http://www.adweek.com
www.ai.mit.edu
www.roper.com

Statistical Sources

http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/Documents.center/stats.html

This site, which is managed by the University of Michigan Documents Center, is a comprehensive directory of Web accessible statistical data sources. These sources are classified into 24 categories such as Business and industry, Housing and Science. Clicking on any category link leads to a listing of links to specific statistical data sources along with brief descriptions of them. It should be noted that some of the listed statistical resources are available only to the University of Michigan users.

EconData.Net http://www.econdata.net/index.html
This site, which was developed by economic development consulting firms Andrew Reamer & Associates and Impresa, Inc., serves as a meta-index to regional economic data that is available on the Web. Information may be found in the following ways:
Two drop-down menus are provided for locating web sites based on either subject (e.g. Demographics) or data provider (e.g. Census). Clicking on a menu item leads to a page with appropriate annotated link listings.
A complete non-annotated listing of all links can be found under "Quick Links."
Link listings of sites with multiple data collections or the ten best data sites respectively are also provided.
A users guide to understanding and using regional economic data can be downloaded as a PDF file from this site.

FedStats http://www.fedstats.gov/
This is a Web based gateway to statistical data generated by more than 70 Federal agencies that is maintained by the Federal Interagency Council on Statistical Policy. There are several recommended research starting points:An A - Z listing of topical links to statistical data sources.A listing of data sources organized into 14 program areas such as Agricultural, Environment and Labor that can be accessed from the Programs navigation link.A drop down menu for locating state and county statistical profiles.There is also a site search capability based on title and keyword or full text searching. These searches can be restricted to a specific agency source.


Business Plan Organizations / Associations

www.wfs.org
www.usccsbi.com
www.tei.net/tei
Networking http://info.asaenet.org/gateway/OnlineAssocSlist.html


Revenue Management

Tax Information
http://www.irs.gov/
http://www.tax.gov/

Pricing and Rates
http://www.wageweb.com/
http://www.realrates.com/

Money Management/Accounting
MM/Acc. Assoc./Orgs
www.edgar-online.com
www.aaa-edu.org
www.aicpa.org

Insurance/Benefits
http://benefitslink.com/index.shtml
http://www.smallbusinesscenter.com/
www.iii.org


Transactional Management

eCommerce
http://sellitontheweb.com/ezine/opinion049.shtml
http://www.sellitontheweb.com/ezine/webstore101.shtml
http://sellitontheweb.com/ezine/opinion049.shtml
http://wilsonweb.com/
http://whatis.com/

Buying a Business
www.bixbuysell.com
Customers and Marketing
Marketing Resources Non-stat

Advertising

Advertising Assoc/Orgs
www.nasp.com

Advertising Sites
http://gmarketing.com/
http://advertising.utexas.edu/

Marketing Pubs/Mags
http://www.wdfm.com
http://www.adage.com
http://www.netb2b.com/
www.adage.com


Marketing Associations / Orgs

http://netpreneur.org/connect/am/webdevelopsummary.html http://199.171.55.3/womeninbusiness
www.the-dma.org
www.ama.org
http://www.aaaa.org


LEGAL RESOURCES

General Info

http://www.smallbusinesscenter.com/
www.ilrg.com
http://lectlaw.com/
http://lawsource.com/also/

Women's Legal Resources
http://www.womensbusinesscenter.org/

 

*** Legal Information for Small Business Get Sample Forms!!!

Copyright /Patent / Trademark / IP
www.ipmag.com
www.uspto.gov

Legal Assoc/Orgs
www.irs.gov

Web/Ecommerce Policies
http://www.cornell.edu/CPL/Policies/

Contract Writing
Contracts and Agreements
NDA Confidentiality Agreement
Memorandum of Engagement
Legal Resources

Organizational Behavior
http://www.prosci.com/index.htm
www.keirsey.com/cgi-bin/keirsey/newkts.cgi

Self-Employment/Small Bus Assoc/Orgs
www.uschamber.org
www.nase.org
www.idye.com

SMALL BUSINESS RESOURCES

Mentor Resources
http://netpreneur.org/advisors/dingman/default.html

Publications
www.wired.com
www.entrepreneurmag.com
www.inc.com
www.successmagazine.com

Women-Specific Small Biz Resources
http://research.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/links_net.html
http://www.businessjeeves.com/MoneyWomen_Peer.html

Work-at-Home Resources
http://www.gilgordon.com/
http://www.momsnetwork.com/

RESEARCH

Have you done an INTERNSHIP and know what you are getting into?

Forbes Women

Company Research:
Annual Reports
Brint Research

Ratings:
A.M. Best

Investing & IPO Research: IPO.com

Earnings Whispers: Whisper Numbers

Bankruptcy

American Bankruptcy Institute

Pro Bono Resource Locator
If you are not able to find an organization to assist you, consult the American Bar Association's Consumer's Guide to Legal Help at FindLegalHelp.org or try LawHelp.org

ABI members seeking to provide assistance may wish to consult the American Bar Association's National Pro Bono Opportunities Guide

Internet Bankruptcy Library

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