Resources for Small Business Owners

Some useful links:

A great tool for testing out a business idea, or for identifying areas that might need attention in your existing business, is Strategyzer’s Business Model Canvas.  On their site, you can watch a short video that explains the concept, or dive deeper with a wide variety of free downloadable resources.  Start here: https://strategyzer.com/canvas

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has a rich site with free information on many subjects in many forms, including text, video, online courses, statistics, and other resources.  Start with their small business area and dig into whatever topics you need help with: https://www.sba.gov/starting-managing-business

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) also has some useful information, though less comprehensive than the SBA. Although there is a tax focus, there is a lot of good stuff on business management practices too.  https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed

SCORE is a great organization that provides terrific resources for small businesses, including free mentoring and free or low-cost workshops.  One area to review is their gallery of financial worksheets: https://www.score.org/resource/business-planning-financial-statements-template-gallery

If you’re doing market research and need consumer or business statistics, two good sources are the SBA and the FedStats site.  Among other statistics (https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/how-start-business/business-data-statistics), the SBA regularly puts out summary information on U.S. small businesses: https://www.sba.gov/advocacy/small-business-profiles-states-and-territories-2016.  And the FedStats website includes a collection of links to all kinds of statistical information from many agencies within the federal government: https://fedstats.sites.usa.gov/.  Of course, finding exactly what you need can be a challenge, but it’s likely somewhere on one of these sites!