The Internet has become more than just a critical tool for small businesses – for some owners, it’s a way of life.
A reporter’s very informal survey of several small business owners found that some of the most useful sites include those that help them network with other entrepreneurs.
They also favor sites that help their companies communicate, either internally or with other businesses, or that help get tasks such as teleconferencing done, sometimes at low or no cost.
The blogs that are growing in popularity in an Internet society are also being embraced by small business owners.
Marc Hedlund, chief product officer at Wesabe, a personal finance startup based in Berkeley, Calif., said blogs have been a great help as the company prepares to launch.
“For pretty much any kind of business, there’s someone who’s writing about getting that business to work and what works for them,” he said.
It was through a blog that Wesabe found a site to help it with project coordination and to set up an online chat room for its employees, through www.37signals.com. “It replaced e-mail for us,” Hedlund said.
Hedlund noted that Web sites, like any other service that a small business might use, need to be tried out and compared with one another. So while 37signals.com worked for his company, it might not be as helpful for another business that supplies similar services; some shopping around and perhaps some trial-and-error are called for.
Christina Carathanassis, president of New York-based ChristabellesCloset.com, swears by Web sites that help businesswomen network or that help business owners find resources.
One of her favorites is www.ladieswholaunch.com, which, like other business networking sites, allows owners to post profiles and connect with each other. “You can ask for advice from other women who have had a similar experience,” said Carathanassis, whose company is an online designer resale boutique. She also uses www.theswitchboards.com.
The beauty of networking sites and blogs is their ability to bring many business owners together from not only around the country, but around the world. So an owner in a small town or rural area isn’t isolated; the Internet can function as a sort of virtual chamber of commerce, continuing education resource and business-to-business matchmaker.
Carathanassis noted that portals such as Yahoo have what are called groups, sites that bring together people with similar interests and concerns. She’s used them to get in touch with other business owners.
Alicia Rockmore, chief executive of Buttoned Up, a New York-based company that makes products to help people organize their lives, likes Web sites that help get work done. She noted www.efax.com, which makes it easier to send and receive e-faxes. Again, there are other sites that can help you accomplish these tasks. She also uses www.freeconference.com, which provides conference calls at little or no cost, and www.tradepub.com, which helps professionals get free trade publications.
This does beg the question, what’s the best way to find sites that will do such tasks and help you run your business? You could search through Yahoo or Google, but, Rockmore said, “word of mouth seems to work the best.” In other words, find the right Web site for you in much the same way that you choose an accountant or human resources consultant – by asking other small business owners.
Here again, the blogs can come in handy. You can also find them via word of mouth, but Hedlund said he’s found them through search engines.
Obviously, this is just a smattering of the kinds of help small business owners can get. There are government and private sites dedicated to giving small companies information on running their companies and managing employees; the Small Business administration’s site, www.sba.gov and Inc. magazine’s www.inc.com are just two. There are many government and industry sites that supply information that can help with market research, including the Census Bureau’s www.census.gov and Advertising Age’s site, www.adage.com.
These sites are easy to find through searches, but again, if you want a sense of how helpful and user-friendly they are, ask around. Those blogs and networking sites can help you with that too.
Joyce Rosenberg writes about small business for the Associated Press.
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