Website Links for Entrepreneurs

There are hundreds of links to websites that I have chosen for their value in stimulation, interest and utility. You are not going to visit them all, but I hope your find what you are looking for.

You will see from the contents list that there a wide variety of categories. Some websites do not fit tightly into single categories, so cast around the list, in case by serendipity you find something good.

Administration and Documents

• Docstoc is like a Youtube for professional documents. Anyone can search, browse and download documents such as real estate contracts, business plan templates, financial spreadsheets and more, all free of charge. This is a wonderful initiative by John Jorgensen.
• Twidox is a free, user generated online library of quality documents that allows individuals and organizations to easily publish, share and search for them, allowing people to share their knowledge and help others with their work, learning, teaching and research.

Business Education

• The Music Paradigm uses orchestral music to animates messages, not just relates them,
  involves audiences, not just informs them, and demonstrates results, not just describes them. It can be used for development events on leadership, teamwork, communication, or building a new level of performance.
• AcademicInfo is a massive site and this link will take you to the business degrees section, but there is a wide selection of information of wider application. It's worth a quick browse, anyway.
• The Economist has a good business education section with a worldwide perspective.

Business Planning

• JIAN (jee'-on) focuses on developing business planning software to help entrepreneurs, business owners and managers to complete important business planning projects by simplifying the process of writing a business plan.

Entrepreneurship

• International Entrpreneurship is an excellent source of very valid links for entrepreneurs—to websites, videos and other sources of help. It has a special section for women entrpreneurs that focuses on female entrepreneurs around the world and their successes, since they face very special challenges.
• The Entrepreneur School is run, as the prvious site by Jim Beach and Chris Hanks. It is a place where you can learn how o start a business. Both these sites are well worth a visit.
• Kauffman eVenturing is geared to those who are building companies that innovate and create jobs and wealth. It is a guide for entrepreneurs and provides original articles, written by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs, and aggregates content on the Web, related to starting and running high-impact companies. It is part of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation that encourages entrepreneurship.
• The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) research program is an annual assessment of the national level of entrepreneurial activity. Initiated in 1999 with 10 countries, you can download GEM reports for every year since then. There are also national reports, as well as several special topic reports.
• International Entrepreneurship is an eclectic site with information arranged by topic and country. Its director is Jim Beach, at the J Mack Robinson College of Business of Georgia State University. Jim is great and generous academic and the site is full of very helpful material.
• National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship; since entrepreneurs represent 99.7 percent of all employers in the US and employ nearly half of its private sector employees, the needs of small businesses play a major role in any conversation about entrepreneurship. NDE is attempting to broaden attention to the field of entrepreneurship and to connect thought leaders looking to advance it.
• The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) has as its mission to provide entrepreneurship education programs to young people from low-income communities. NFTE has reached over 150,000 young people since its founding and has programs in 21 US states and 13 other countries. The NFTE believes that entrepreneurship empowers young people to build a vision for the future.

Ethics

• The World Business Academy is a non-profit business think tank devoted to rekindling the human spirit in business. It was founded in 1987 as a result of discussions conducted at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) International in Menlo Park, California. These talks centered upon the role and responsibility of business in relation to the criti­cal moral, environmental and social dilemmas of the day.
• BSR works with its global network of more than 250 member companies to develop sustainable business strategies and solutions through consulting, research, and cross-sector collaboration.
• The Greenleaf Center is an international non-profit organization headquartered in Indiana. The Center promotes the understanding and practice of servant leadership. The Center is governed by an international Board of Trustees. The Center holds conferences, publishes books and materials, sponsors speakers and seminars, and provides information and services for its members.
• The New Prospects Collaborative was founded to support individuals and organizations creating New Prospects for a Better World. We are experienced change-agents, integrative thinkers, lawyers, economists, and business managers who are primed and ready to support your vision.

Finance

• MyBizHomepage is a free, web-based service created to help small and emerging businesses run more smoothly and profitably. MyBizHomepage provides at-a-glance financial information presented in a Desktop Dashboard with easy to interpret graphics.
• Growthink Research is a company that specializes in tracking and analyzing US venture capital activity, Its VC database has detailed information on venture-funded businesses, funding sources and executives. It is an excellent route to finding your funding. By all means visit the website, but you can also call Corey Lavinsky, the CEO on 310-823-8346.
• IdeaCrossing® is an Internet resource available to all individuals and organizations with an interest in supporting and promoting entrepreneurial activity. It is intended to help Entrepreneurs find the assistance and investment capital they need to launch promising new business ventures. Additionally, IdeaCrossing serves the Angel and Venture Capital Community by identifying and screening new investment opportunities.

Marketing

• Entrepreneurial Marketing is an MIT Graduate level course, available through Open Courseware. You can download it free, thus getting very high level instruction that you can also use for non-degree application in your own business.
• Drupal is a free software website content management package; it can be used for all kinds of sites, blogs, newsletters, podcasts, intranets, networking.

Sustainability

• Bioneers are social and scientific innovators from all walks of life and disciplines who have peered deep into the heart of living systems to understand how nature operates, and to mimic "nature's operating instructions" to serve human ends without harming the web of life. Nature's principles—kinship, cooperation, diversity, symbiosis and cycles of continuous creation absent of waste—can also serve as metaphoric guideposts for organizing an equitable, compassionate and democratic society.
• Root Capital is a nonprofit social investment fund that is pioneering finance for grassroots businesses in the developing world. It makes many of its loans on a factoring model, advancing loans against sales.
• Green Maven is a green search engine and directory, built using Google technology, but highly focused.
• TED has a mass of wonderful videos on sustainability, many from business practitioners. TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading and has an annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK.
• The Sustainability Institute has a focus on understanding the root causes of unsustainable behavior in complex systems to help restructure systems and shift mindsets that will help move human society toward sustainability.
• SustainLane is the web's largest people-powered guide to sustainable living and is filled with personal accounts of how-tos, news, and local business and product reviews for sustainable living. Really worth visiting.
• Green DMV is non-profit organization seeking to promote clean energy and green jobs in low-income communities across America as a pathway out of poverty.
• WiserEarth helps the global movement of people and organizations working toward social justice, indigenous rights, and environmental stewardship connect, collaborate, share knowledge, and build alliances. All tools and content are free to use. The site is commercial-free too. It includes: the world's largest free and editable international directory of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and socially responsible organizations (110,000 in 243 countries, territories, and sovereign islands); online community forums where members can engage in discussion, post and share resources, and collaborate on projects; and a vibrant community of over 27,000 members making connections, sharing resources, solutions, jobs, and events.
• Ceres (pronounced “series”) is a national network of investors, environmental organizations and other public interest groups working with companies and investors to address sustainability challenges such as global climate change.
• The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) brings together small business leaders, economic development professionals, government officials, social innovators, and community leaders to build local living economies. We provide local, state, national, and international resources to this new model of economic development.
• Green America is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 1982 that went by the name "Co-op America" until January 1, 2009. Their mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society.
• Ecologia is a non-profit whose programs bring international perspectives and resources to local sustainable development projects, and bring locally based ‘on the ground’ experience back to the world of international decision making.One of its projects is the Virtual Foundation—a unique philanthropy program which supports grassroots initiatives around the world. Carefully screened community improvement projects are posted on our web site. They can be read and funded by donors.