VTKW Library

Social Media & Your Brand
Learn about the benefits of using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr for your business!

Pitching Resources
Tighten up your 1, 3, 10 & 20 minute pitch by reviewing this Pitching Resources overview.

SBIR/STTR Resources
Discover what the Small Business Innovative Research Program (SBIR) & Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) is, and how to develop SBIR & STTR strategies to improve your funding potential.

Business Law & Entity

http://www.expertlaw.com/library/business
ExpertLaw.com was founded in 1997 to provide a free mechanism by which attorneys could locate expert witnesses in a wide variety of fields, without cost. As much as possible, we wish to remove the "middle man," allowing attorneys to retain experts without paying finders fees or referral fees. This site provides free legal information and a directory of litigation support services and private detectives, and a legal humor section.

http://www.mojolaw.com
This website offers free legal forms, thousands of definitions, articles and information on many legal topics, and a law blog with legal news.

http://www.virginia.gov/bos/index.html
This internet portal provides a free service to help entrepreneurs form their new business enterprise and assists with forms completion.

Business Newsletters

http://visitor.constantcontact.com/email.jsp?m=1101376477133
Registration for Jeffrey Fox's eNewsletter, Thoughts on sales, marketing, business and personal successes

http://www.eventuring.org/eShip/appmanager/eVenturing/eVenturingDesktop
eVenturing is designed for entrepreneurial growth companies. “The site provides original articles, written by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, and aggregates ‘the best of the best’ content on the Web related to starting and running high-impact companies.”

http://www.gazelles.com/executive_ceo_newsletters.html
Offer executive programs as seminars, webinars, weekly insights, articles for business management, Cd’s and more.

Business Planning

http://www.bizstats.com
BizStats is the leading online source for small business statistics. Our objective is to provide instant access to business statistical information that is useful and meaningful. To accomplish this the data we compile, edit and publish must be reliable, verifiable and timely. The methodology we employ is briefly described on our disclosures page. You can see that we don't place a lot of emphasis on producing a flashy site, but hopefully you will appreciate the resources we invest in publishing useful and reliable small business statistical information.

http://www.blueprinttoabillion.com/index.php
Blueprint to a Billion is a well-researched and thoughtfully written book that quantifies the growth pattern of America's highest growth companies

http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/downloads/businessmodelgeneration_preview.pdf
A handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers striving to defy outmoded business models and design tomorrow's enterprises. It's a book for the Business Model Generation.

http://www.entrepreneurialconnection.com
EntrepreneurialConnection.com, powered by the National Association of the Self-Employed, offers free learning modules on topics vital to the success of the self-employed and micro-entrepreneurs (with less than 10 employees).

http://www.myownbusiness.org
My Own Business is a free Internet course for anyone starting a business. It provides 12 lessons covering topics such as business communications, e-commerce and online marketing, and small business marketing. The course textbook may be purchased for a donation of $45.00.

http://www.regions.com/small_business/planning_guides.rf
Planning Guides that assist with managing your business and provide step-by-step instructions to the situations you may face when growing your business. We've created the road map; you'll have to do the rest.

http://www.score.org
This website offers mentoring advice, online workshops, and "how to" articles and business templates, including business plan templates for startup and established companies and financial analysis templates.

http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/plan/writeabusinessplan/index.html
A written guide to starting and running your business successfully is essential.  This plan will encourage loans, promote growth, and provide a map for you to follow.

http://www.sba.gov/training
The Small Business Training Network (SBTN) is a virtual campus providing free, quality and targeted online training to meet the information needs of prospective and existing small business owners.

http://gazelles.com/books_leadership_business.html
Every successful businessperson has a list of must-have books on his or her nightstand. They are either educational, inspirational, or just plain exciting. Here are Verne's top picks for your nightstand reading.

http://www.startwithmoxie.com
Jim Flowers, Director of VT KnowledgeWorks and blog writer, offers information and advice to entrepreneurs with intent of reducing the risk in your entrepreneurial adventure and increasing the chances of identifying and obtaining what you really want.

Cool Tools

http://www.rsvme.com
RSVME is a free application that integrates with Outlook and other email packages, and makes obtaining feedback from people a snap! You can quickly and easily put together a questionnaire on any subject, from the best time for soccer practice to who's bringing what food to a party. Then select names out of your address book you want to send the questionnaire to, and send. It's that simple! As your friends get your email and answer your questionnaire, you get the response back in one simple-to-read report.

http://www.freeconference.com
FreeConference.com frees you from the hassles and expense of traditional call conferencing with simple, convenient, and reliable service at little or no cost. For small businesses, large enterprises, individuals, community and nonprofit organizations, and anyone who appreciates high quality at low cost, FreeConference.com offers a variety of solutions to fit your conferencing needs.

www.meetingwizard.com
MeetingWizard automatically sends invitations to participants proposing alternate times, summarizes their responses, updates you on the results, sends confirmations and optional reminders prior to meetings. MeetingWizard requires only that you and your participants have access to e-mail and a browser.

http://www.doodle.com
Doodle makes it easy to find a date and time for a group event. Doodle is a free online coordination tool which requires neither registration nor software installation.

http://www.oovoo.com
ooVoo is the next evolution in online communication - a remarkably easy way to have a face-to-face video conversation with friends, family or collegues, no matter where they are in the world.

http://www.skype.com/helloagain.html
Skype was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. Skype created a little piece of software that makes communicating with people around the world easy and fun. With Skype you can say hello or share a laugh with anyone, anywhere. And if both of you are on Skype, it’s free.

http://www.plaxo.com
Plaxo, Inc. keeps people connected by solving the common and frustrating problem of out-of-date contact information. Founded in July 2001, Plaxo provides a free service that securely updates and maintains the information in your address book. Plaxo is the universal digital assistant; available to you wherever and whenever you need it to keep you organized, on top of your life and in touch with those you care about.

http://www.linkedin.com
LinkedIn is an online network of more than 12 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.  When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleagues, clients, and partners. You can add more connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you.

http://www.esurveyspro.com
eSurveysPro.com offers free survey services that can help you quickly design and deploy surveys using just your web browser. You can easily create the most complex surveys, collect responses by sending email invitations or by placing a link to your survey on any website, and view your results as they are collected in real-time using our reports.

http://bubbl.us
Bubbl.us is a simple and free web application that lets you brainstorm online, share and work with friends, embed your mind map in your blog or website, and email, save and print your mind map.

Funding & Finance

Investor Fact Sheet
Refer to this sample template when developing a one-page company overview containing information desirable to investors.

Executive Summary
Sample template of an executive summary - a helpful handout during an investor presentation.

http://www.activecapital.org/entrepreneurs_videos.html
Active Capital is the premier Website for entrepreneurs seeking private investment and private investors seeking deals in a secure and protected environment consistent with all investment laws.  Active Capital rises above similar sites because of its legal status, action orientation, cost structure, and degree of support for growing entrepreneurial companies.

http://www.businessfinance.com/
BusinessFinance.com allows you to search the funding criteria of over 4,000 sources for business loans, venture capital, equipment leasing, and commercial real estate financing. You can search by type of funding (e.g., working capital or equipment finance), or you can limit your search to funding sources for existing businesses.

http://www.cit.org/programs/cit-entrepreneur
CIT Entrepreneur invests and leverages available funds for early stage technology companies with a high potential for technology commercialization, rapid growth, and downstream private equity financing.

http://www.caycon.com/valuation.php
Cayenne Consulting is a full-service solutions provider for emerging businesses, focusing on business plan consulting and financial modeling. Our talented consulting team has worked with numerous clients in life science, software, Internet, telecommunications, manufacturing, and other high-growth markets.

http://www.caycon.com/downloads/WP_2003a.pdf
The importance of a good Business Plan.

http://www.fintel.us/cms/DesktopDefault.aspx
Fintel Scorecard is a free online tool that allows businesses to benchmark their financial performance against similar-sized firms in their industry. Businesses need only enter their SIC code, eight figures from financial statements, and the number of employees to see how their company ranks in its industry,

http://www.nasvf.org
The National Association of Seed and Venture Funds is an organization of innovation capital leaders: private, public and non-profit organizations committed to building their local economies by investing in local entrepreneurs.

http://www.sba.gov/financing/
SBA – Financing Your Business, provides information about raising capital for your business. It includes information about eligibility and preparation, SBA loans, contract surety bonds, equity capital, and special purpose loan programs.

Human Resources

http://www.angelcapitaleducation.org/dir_resources/news_detail.aspx?id=212
Due to a new partnership formed between eHealthInsurance and the Angel Capital Association, individuals and small groups can use the customized ACA ehealthinsurance portal to compare insurance plans from different carriers to determine the best, most cost effective coverage for them on a case by case, state by state basis.

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm
By taking the Jung Typology Test, you will discover your type formula along with a quantitative measure of each of the 4 criteria (strengths of the preferences).

Marketing

http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/checklist.htm
How can you get more visitors to your website? What can you do to stimulate traffic?  Here's a checklist of 32 items you need to consider. Many of these you're probably doing already; others you meant to do and forgot about; still others you've never heard of. Of course, a great deal has been written about this. You'll find links to thousands of articles on site promotion in our Web Marketing Research Room. Also, try www.wilsonweb.com/research.

http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/06/featuritis_vs_t.html
Give users what they actually want, not what they say they want. And whatever you do, don't give them new features just because your competitors have them!

http://www.marketing-metrics-made-simple.com
This website is an overview about marketing metrics, including gross rating points, media impressions, and many other established measurements – plus new kinds of measurements and software tools.

To view a list of sample template press releases, please click on the following:
whitebarminio Newsworthy Event
whitebarminio Product Announcement
whitebarminio Service Announcement
whitebarminio Personnel Announcement
whitebarminio Sponsorship Announcement

SBIR/STTR

www.zyn.com
SBIR Gateway - includes Solicitation Search feature at no charge!

www.sbir.gov
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Technology administers the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program. Through these programs, SBA ensures that the nation's small, high-tech, innovative businesses are a significant part of the federal government's research and development efforts.

www.sbir.us
In the pursuit of SBIR or STTR funding, you will invest time and energy.  The resources found here can significantly reduce the load while improving your chances of winning.

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