U.S. Small Business Administration: www.sba.gov

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was created in 1953 as an independent agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business owners to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation. The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses. Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations, SBA delivers its services to people throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U. S. Virgin Islands, and Guam.

Special section on home-based businesses: http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs235tot.pdf

Free online self-paced courses

SBDC: Small Business Development Centers located throughout the U.S. offering free counseling and seminars: http://www.sba.gov/sbdc/

Other Resources:

Count-Me-In: www.count-me-in.org

Count Me In champions the cause for women’s economic independence by providing access to business loans, consultation and education. The first online micro lender, Count Me In uses a unique women-friendly credit scoring system to make loans of $500 to $10,000 available to women across the United States who have nowhere else to turn for that all-important first business loan. The organization provides access to networks that expand contacts, markets, skills, and confidence.

Entrepreneur: www.entrepreneur.com

Entrepreneur.com offers more than 200,000 pages of how-to content. From aspiring business owners all the way to high-profile decision-makers, Entrepreneur.com delves beyond the magazine with expert columnists, listings, tools and services exclusively designed to deliver the catalysts to start, run, or grow a business.

Inc.com: www.inc.com/resources/startup

Inc.com, the Website for Inc. magazine, delivers advice, tools, and services, to help business owners start, run, and grow their businesses more successfully. You’ll find information and advice covering virtually every business and management task, including marketing, sales, finding capital, managing people, and much, much more.

My Own Business: www.myownbusiness.com

The My Own Business coursework was designed to help owners of small and medium sized businesses identify, understand, and overcome the challenges they will face on a daily basis. Individual topics cover everything from business plans to marketing plans, licensing to financing, e-commerce to franchise opportunities.

National Consortium of Entrepreneurs: www.nationalconsortium.org

Under the sponsorship of the Kauffman Foundation, the NASDAQ stock market, and Beacon Venture Capital, the National Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers has been established for the purpose of continued collaboration among the centers. It is the vehicle by which the top established entrepreneurship centers, as well as the new emerging centers, can work together to share information, develop special projects, and assist each other in advancing and improving their centers’ impact.

Small Business Television: SBTV.com

The home of small business solutions on the Web, SBTV.com is the first television network on the Web devoted exclusively to providing engaging streaming video content to the 25 million small businesses in the US. SBTV is committed to helping small business owners manage, grow and protect their ventures.

Startup Nation: www.startupnation.com

StartupNation is the destination where you can learn the important nuts and bolts of business, such as how to patent your idea, build a business plan, or increase sales. While you’re seeking that helpful information to build your business, StartupNation is also a resource for you to learn from peers. StartupNation includes resources such as its “10 Steps to Open for Business” online tutorial, as well as via the weekly StartupNation e-newsletter and online seminars.

Wall Street Journal-Start Up Journal: www.startupjournal.com

Starting your own business or buying a franchise is tough, even in a strong economy. You’ll have to research the market, secure financing, open a shop, hire employees, and run the enterprise. StartupJournal can help. Content comes from The Wall Street Journal, as well as WSJ.com, industry experts and StartupJournal’s editorial team.

The Alliance of Online Entrepreneurs and CEO, Brenda Rivas are proud to announce the launch of it’s Coaching Boutique!

The Coaching Boutique offers several different programs all designed to provide you with the support that you need to move forward with lot’s of momentum! Our programs are designed for women in all stages of their entrepreneurial journey. 

For more information, visit the Coaching Boutique, by clicking here.  Any questions, please contact us!

More than ever, people are watching and witnessing YOU – as a business owner, as a person, as the face and voice of your own personal brand. They’re engaged with you 24/7 (whether you know it or not). And like it or not, they’re paying attention. It’s up to you to capitalize on the attention, captivate your audience, and deliver more value than ever before.

Why is Social Business 3.0™ a Game Changer? As a consumer driven culture, we’ve become much more conscious of who we invest in and why. Ultimately, this is a good thing. When YOU master the art of Social Business 3.0™:

• you’ll build a loyal fan base
• easily convert fans into customers
• create a community of evangelists who will help spread your message to the masses

Ultimately, this is a good thing.

Social media made it easy for anyone and everyone to claim to be an expert, promise remarkable results, and get away with delivering very little.  Not anymore.  As clients and customers grow increasingly skeptical of sales pitches, they’re not handing over their credit cards as freely as they once did.

During this teleclass you will learn:

How to stand out, get known, and make more money than you’ll ever need with The Social Biz Dream Team Julie Steelman and Lisa Steadman.

The Social Biz Dream Team will share:

•  How to create a buzz worthy Social Persona™ that magnetizes clients, fans, and customers
•  3 key steps to becoming the Social CEO of your company
•  What is Social Selling and the key differences between public and private selling
•  How to overcome common sale objections you may encounter in Social Selling

Join us for the teleclass on:

Tuesday, September 7th @ 5pm (est), 2pm (pst)

Call-in information for the live call is on your member login page.
Missed the live call? Get the audio download on your member login page within 48 hours.
If you do not have your password, email us at: memberservices@aoeconnect.com .

Not an AOE member yet?
Find out more about AOE Membership Benefits by clicking here:
www.aoeconnect.com/membership

If time or resources have been holding you back from
creating videos – this is the time to come on out, sit
back and watch Lon work his magic while I hit the
stopwatch.

We’re going to show you how to start with nothing and
create a super cool video in less than an hour.

At the end of the webinar, you will be able to follow
the exact steps Lon demonstrates one-by-one and
have a professional video in full High Definition (HD)
up on YouTube in less time than it takes to watch one
episode of “Lost”.

So join us on Wednesday, Sept. 1st at 8pm ET for:
“How To Create Your Very Own Killer Camtasia
Video In Less Than 60 Minutes Starting From
Absolutely Nothing”

Please click below to register:

http://www.learncamtasia.com/webinar/0901/

One of the questions that I most commonly get asked is “How much money will it cost me to launch my online business?” Well, one of the biggest perks of launching an Online Business is the relatively low investment required to start a new online business or bring your current offline business online. Here are some of the expenses that you can expect to incur.

1. Domain name and hosting.
You can purchase a domain name for just under $11 from www.godaddy.com.  When choosing a domain name, if possible choose a name that contains your key words. I also encourage everyone to own their name. I actually purchased www.brendarivas.com about 12 years ago, when I had no idea what I would ever need it for! You will need to host your website (hosting in essence is what “publishes” your site to the Internet). I recommend www.bluehost.com .  A year of hosting will cost you about $84. They will also give you a free domain name. Bluehost  allows you to host an unlimited number of websites at no additional cost and their technical support it great!

2. WordPress
I strongly recommend using www.wordpress.org  for your website platform. WordPress is a free software script that is completely customizable. Although WordPress is free to download you will need to add a “theme”. You can google “free” WordPress themes or you can also purchase a theme. I recommend the Thesis theme because it’s very easy to customize and is very SEO friendly. Thesis theme is $87.  If you want to have it customized you will need to hire a designer to do that work for you. 

3.  Graphics
You will want to invest in a few graphics including your logo and any additional “buttons” that you may want to have on your site. You can expect to spend anywhere from $50 up to $200 depending on the number of graphics that you will want to have created. A great resource to find an affordable graphic designer is www.elance.com.

4. Email Marketing & List Management
You will need to manage your email contacts and “opt-ins”. Mail Chimp is a great service and is free for the first 500 names. After the 500th name you will need to sign up for one of their affordable plans.

5. Shopping Cart System
In order to be able to take payments you will need to have a payment acceptance system. Many emerging entrepreneurs start off with Paypal. For the most part this is a free service, although they have several upgrade packages.   I personally use Practice Pay Solutions to manage my cart and my list.  PPS has various plans to choose from.  The most common plan is a combination of cart management, list and email marketing management for $59 a month.

6. Toll Free Number
Having a toll free number is a huge advantage! It gives your business a professional image  and gives you more credibility in the marketplace.  I use a service called One Box.  They have several plans that offer a combination of messaging, fax and email.  The plans start at $12.95.

As you can see, the costs of launching an online business is not exuberant at all. You can launch an online business in a matter of  weeks as opposed to months, and with very little cost. The beauty is that although your start-up costs are relatively low, your online business has the potential to be a very lucrative! 

Brenda Rivas is a six figure online entrepreneurship mentor to women business owners.  Through the Alliance of Online Entrepreneurs she teaches and empowers women business owners to evolve their passion and use the Internet to leverage their natural brilliance into multiple formats.  Using her systems, structures, resources and planning tools, AOE members have achieved phenomenal results.   Brenda integrates online business “know how” with inner game strategies to create financial, time and creative freedom.  Visit www.aoeconnect.com to sign up for your FREE Success Resources which includes access to our Online Business Resource Guide and our Success Circle Audio Library.

Actress Angela Logan has played many roles off-stage to earn a living. She’s worked as a teacher, model and hairdresser and is studying to be a nurse.

But when she fell into foreclosure on her Teaneck, New Jersey, home, Logan turned to baking an apple cake her family had always loved.
“It was a flash of desperation,” Logan said. “I thought, ‘Wow. We could sell these cakes, they’re so good.’ ”

Logan named her delicacy Mortgage Apple Cake and resolved to sell 100 in 10 days at $40 each to meet a mortgage payment, pay off bills and qualify for a federal program that could lower her monthly payments.

She advertised the cake to everyone she knew, including her classmates.
“The hardest part was saying, ‘Can you buy my cakes, this is my problem,’ because admitting to your friends that you’re in foreclosure, and that you need their help, that’s a hard thing to say,” Logan said.

Two years ago, a contractor promised to renovate Logan’s brick-and-stucco home. But instead, Logan says he took the money and did only a portion of the work — leaving the entire second floor bare to the beams and plastic wrap still covering much of the exterior.
Don’t Miss
• In Depth: Money & Main St.
• Essence.com: Home sweet home: How Angela Logan saved her house by baking
Logan’s financial squeeze tightened when one of the actress’ talent agencies shut down without paying her for commercial work.
The 55-year-old divorced mother of three fell far behind on her mortgage and other debt payments, leading her to seek help from Consumer Credit Counseling of New Jersey. Counselor Pamela Glass brainstormed with Logan to envision potential extra sources of income.
“We put our heads together to make extra money,” Glass said. “I said, ‘Take a look at what you can do.’ She said, ‘I bake once in a while’. I said, ‘Well, maybe you can do some baking.’ ”

When Logan asked, neighbors, fellow church congregants and classmates responded. Soon she was baking night and day, two cakes at a time. Al Hamdi, general manager of the Hilton in nearby Hasbrouck Heights, heard of Logan’s plan and offered the hotel’s four giant ovens, letting her accelerate production.

“She was going to do something out of the box to save her home and her family. That was the inspiring part for us,” Hamdi said.
Logan figures she’s baked about 200 cakes — double her goal. And since qualifying for the federal Make Home Affordable program, her monthly mortgage payment is dropping by nearly 20 percent
Other Americans in a financial bind can also find creative answers to their cash crunch, Logan said.
“Find your talent. Find something you can do that will help,” she said. Watch as Logan describes the circumstances that led her to bake the Mortgage Apple Cake »
Many hobbies have the potential to generate extra cash: teaching a skill like playing an instrument or speaking a foreign language; home repairs for those who are handy; even dog-walking or pet-sitting for animal lovers.
“Some people have extra skills they don’t use,” Glass said.

Internet retailer Bake Me A Wish! got a whiff of the Mortgage Apple Cake and is preparing to mass-produce it and share the proceeds with Logan. The company says it already has 650 Mortgage Apple Cake orders.

“We’re going to be baking cakes together, develop a whole line of cakes, Angela Logan Cakes,” said Josh Kaye, president of Bake Me A Wish!
Escaping foreclosure could propel Logan to a new career in baking. But she’s still studying nursing, knowing from experience never to depend upon just one role.

Join me at my Bellevue, WA view home on

Friday, September 17 from 9 a.m. – noon for the Bye-Bye Boring Bio Action Workshop. 

During this session, you will be guided to create at least three bios to serve your business interests – and more if you are truly motivated:

• Client-attracting bio
• Speaker-gig attracting bio
• Speaker introduction
• Media attracting bio
• Sassy media profile
• Short blurb bio
• Article “bio box”
• Twitter profile
• Two-sentence radio show introduction

You’ll enjoy:

The newly expanded second edition of Bye-Bye Boring Bio. It is packed with easy to use and road tested templates and worksheets that open the door for your perfect bios to just about write themselves.

Access to Nancy’s bio writing genius to find the right words that reflect your brilliance so the marketplace and the world can celebrate.Collaboration with like-minded business owners, including immediate bio feedback.The opportunity to connect with new people who could become your newest clients.Delicious refreshments to fuel your creativity – tea, premium chocolate, and more!

This workshop is for you if:
• You struggle with writing or talking about yourself
• You work best in the spirit of collaboration and connection with other like minded business owners
• You crave access to an expert who can help coax your best story from you
• You need to give yourself the gift of a roll-up-your-sleeves workshop to finally get this important mission accomplished.
• You value a group event for the personal attention you enjoy without having to invest in a private Extreme Bio Makeover session with Nancy.

This half-day workshop held at Nancy’s home and includes:

• The second edition of Bye-Bye Boring Bio.
• Delicious refreshments, and laser bio coaching from Nancy.
• The first ten places are sure to go fast.

Visit this link to reserve your place.

I am not sure who coined this phrase or why…
“Money Doesn’t Grow On Trees”
I was sitting in the lobby (back in the day) of Saatchi & Saatchi, Toyota’s ad agency, waiting for a meeting to start. I noticed they had these illustrations on the wall.  They were depictions of common beliefs but, they were painted upside down.

The one that captured my attention was the upside down tree with money falling  onto the ground and it said, “doesn’t money grow on trees?” in a cagey tone. 

I snickered to myself and then had an “aha” moment!
Money does grow on trees! It is made from paper and the last I heard paper was made from wood.
Money grow on trees! But, does it grow on YOUR tree?

The real question is what are you planting around your trees that preclude them from growing money? Is your product offering clear and do your customer easily understand how they can benefit?
Yes, it becomes metaphorical when you think about it.

Like gardening, the thoughts, ideas, perceptions, and self-talk we have about money, become the fertilizer that help abundance grow.  Or stop it.
If you think there isn’t enough money for you, then your tree won’t produce fruit.
If you doubt your product or service offering in any way, people pick up on that and it stops them from buying. Are you taking care of your money and watering it enough?

• Or, are you neglecting the care of your money and letting weeds and poisons (negative beliefs about money as it applies to you) surround your tree?
• Are you letting customer’s objections become your excuses for not selling more?
• Are you willing to put on your gloves and sun hat and prune what isn’t working or what is in the way of your sales flow?
• Do you need new soil to plant it in, like a new target market?
• Might you plant more than one tree and diversify?
• Are you letting nagging bugs eat away at your source of cash? Are you spending time on unnecessary things? Or, giving away the fruits of your labor and not charging enough?

What are you going to do to nurture your money, cash or sales garden?

Julie Steelman is The Alliance of Online Entrepreneurs Sales Expert.  To learn more about Julie please visit: www.juliesteelman.com

If you’re like most creative entrepreneurs, the thought of writing a business plan is not the highest item on your priority list. You’d rather explore new ideas, create products and services, develop a new speech, or work with your clients than sit down and write a plan.

But, to be successful in business, you need to have a plan in place. The good news is you don’t have to write a formal (bank-friendly) business plan to keep your business on track. In fact, until recently, I used my self-made sticky note business plan to keep track of my business goals and plans.

The sticky note business plan is a simple and fun tool you can use anytime, any place to keep your business pointing in the right direction. Here are a few simple steps to get you started:

Gather Your Planning Supplies
Thankfully, you won’t need fancy computer software, or heavy reference books to write your plan. All you’ll need is a wall, six poster boards, three pads of sticky notes, scotch tape, a note pad, a Sharpie marker and a pen. It’ll also help to have a quiet place and a few hours of time to enjoy this process. You may even want to light your favorite candle and play some relaxing music.

Lay Out Your Plan
Tape the six poster boards up on the wall. Once the boards are up on the wall, grab your notepad. Sit down for a few minutes and quietly think about the aspects of your business you want to plan. For example: do you need to design a new product or event, do you want to create a marketing plan, do you need a timeline plan for the next 3 years of your business, is it time to plan the launch of a new service?

Use your notepad to collect all of your ideas and decide on the six main categories you want to include in your plan. Next, write each category on six separate sticky notes using your Sharpie marker. Then, stick one note on the top center of each poster board so each board is labeled for one of your six topics.

Download Your Ideas
Here comes the fun part. Get your pen and sticky notes and begin to write down every single idea that comes to mind for each category. Don’t edit or censor any ideas. Simple write them down and stick them on the poster board for that category. Try to say with one category at a time as best you can. But, if other ideas keep coming to mind, write them down and pop them on the appropriate poster. Let the ideas flow and enjoy the process of getting everything on paper.

Organize Your Ideas
So, now that your ideas are on the poster boards, begin to organize them. Look for themes, sequences, and categories of items. Physically move the sticky notes on the poster board to group ideas together. Sometimes I’ll organize ideas by timeline, sometimes I’ll organize by concept you can organize them in the way that makes sense to you.

Put It All Together
Now, step back and take a look at your whole plan. After going through this process, you may discover some items need to move higher on your priority list; while other ideas may need to be dropped from your plan completely. The right things to do (and the order in which to do them) will surface now that you have the whole plan in place. Next, rearrange the posters so the highest priority plan is at the left side of the wall and the lower priority plan is to the right side of the wall. Finally, transfer your highest priority tasks to your calendar to make sure you begin executing your plan.

Keep Going
As you make progress with your plan, continually re-evaluate where you are and keep moving forward with your projects. Personally, once I complete a concept from one of my poster boards, I remove the sticky notes so I can visually see my progress and all that I’m accomplishing. You may enjoy doing the same thing.

Now that you know how to write your sticky note business plan, you’ll discover it’s actually FUN to work on your plan. And, it’s a huge asset to your business.

Christine Kloser, The Conscious Business Coach” publishes the revolutionary ˜Conscious Business Connection ezine. If you want to learn proven business strategies boosted with Spiritual success principles, you’re in the right place. Get your FR^EE tips now at www.ConsciousBusinessCoach.com

Your social networking profile will prove an old adage: first impressions are lasting impressions. Your profile page is often the first big impression you make on your contacts and will give them an overview of whether you’re worth the effort to befriend. Of course you have other opportunities to make impressions on your followers by posting comments and participating in discussions, but the profile stands as your big chance to prove your credibility.

When on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and all the other popular social networking sites, be sure you post profiles that make people want to know more about you and your business. Here are some tips for you to create a winning profile page that makes your friends and followers take notice and want to do business with you!

1.    Speak Your Expertise with Confidence: A winning profile leads with your expertise and clearly states who you are, what you do, who you work with, and the results you help create. Don’t start off with the fact that you’re a grandmother of 5 or a nature lover or else you’ll create a distraction. Lead with your expertise ALWAYS so people don’t have to dig into all the copy to find out what type of business you’re in.

2.    Soften It Up With a Personal Touch: After you lead with your professional expertise, you want to round it out with some interesting personal information. Include what you feel most comfortable with, such as hobbies, marital status, family info, or fun quirky things you think others might find interesting.

3.    Connect with a Great Photo: Your social networking profile always includes space for a photo of you. Choose a photo that shows your face clearly, not a distant photo of you in a big crowd. Experts say that a picture of you looking directly at the camera will create connection faster with your viewer than pictures of you looking away from the camera. Be honest with your profile picture, too . . . that means to use a fairly recent photo, not the old standby you’ve been using since 1995.

4.    Make it Easy for People to Learn More About You: Be sure to leave links to your website, blog, and other social networking sites so people can move into your inner circle. Be sure all your links are “live” by using http:// in each web address. (Many people just use “www” and miss the traffic that can be visiting their site.)

5.    Give yourself the 10 Second Test: You have no more than 10 seconds to make an impression on visitors who come to your social networking profile pages. Some experts say you have even LESS time than that, so make sure it’s easy to get who you are, what you do, and how you help others. Check your formatting and make sure all the paragraphs aren’t lumped into one big block of text.

When you have a strong profile page that makes it easy for friends to figure out who you are, what you do, and how you help others, then you have a greater chance of finding the right business connections. It’s important not to blend into the woodwork in the world of social networking. With these tips, your profile will stand out and generate more interest and visibility for your business!

Nancy Marmolejo is a PR, media, and social networking strategist who teaches women entrepreneurs how to generate more money and attention by positioning themselves in the spotlight. An award winning business owner, Nancy is frequently quoted in the areas of business, creativity, and social networking.