SBA, SCORE revamp Web sites

Two big Web sites for small businesses are undergoing some massive renovations, and company owners are likely to find the changes have turned both sites into more valuable resources.

Joyce M. Rosenberg
Associated Press The Spokesman Review

SCORE, the organization of retired executives who give free advice to small businesses, has redone its entire site, expanding its learning center and adding what it calls a Small Business Toolbox that links users to hundreds of other helpful sites. SCORE’s address is http://www.score.org.

The Small Business Administration, whose site is http://www.sba.gov, has updated and expanded its own online learning center, making it more comprehensive.

Online sites like SCORE’s and the SBA’s can be extremely helpful for business owners, particularly when they’re starting out.

"For a lot of people, this will be their toe in the water," said Jean Palsgrove Butler, the SBA’s deputy associate administrator for the Office of Entrepreneurial Development.

She said users often gather information from the site, and then take advantage of the SBA’s other resources, such as counseling.

Visitors to the SBA site will first see the changes on the home page. Previously divided by programs, it now is organized according to topics of interest to small-business owners. They include Starting Your Business, Financing Your Business, Managing Your Business and Business Opportunities.

Butler said the entire site will be overhauled.

Besides the home page, perhaps the biggest changes so far are in the SBA’s online learning section, which has been renamed E-Business Institute (http://www.sba.gov/training). The number of online courses has been expanded, and they’ve been organized to make them easier for users to find.

After clicking on "online courses" on the E-Business Institute home page, users are taken to a list of topics and subtopics. Some of the links take the user to a list of articles on SBA sites, such as the Online Women’s Business Center. Others take users to information at non-SBA sites, such as Bank of America.

Butler said the SBA does not use articles that are purely intended as marketing tools. "We do review material for universal applicability," she said.

Butler said the changes seem to be drawing more users to the site.

SCORE is best known for its advice to small businesses, one-fourth of which is done online. But the entire SCORE site has been redone to make it easier to use, spokeswoman Alison Dickson-Kozloski said.

The site’s learning center has been expanded, with more articles on a huge variety of topics, including starting and managing a business, disaster assistance, human resources — just about any topic that a business owner is curious about.

Dickson-Kozloski noted that special segments have been added for entrepreneurs who are women, minorities, Hispanic, young or veterans.

The new Tool Box can be particularly helpful when an owner is in search of more resources. A click on that link takes the user to a list of subtopics, and a click on one of those links will give a list of other Web sites.

For example, a click on Small Biz Power Links reveals a list of 100 sites, some educational, some commercial, some governmental. They include Entreworld, a site that offers advice and information to entrepreneurs; Staples, the office supply company; the SBA; and My Own Business, an online course.

There are other Web sites providing information and advice for small-business owners, but many are run by companies that are also seeking to do business with small companies, such as Bank of America and other financial institutions. Some sites are full of sales pitches, which some business owners might find helpful while others might find them objectionable.

The American Express site has links to articles on topics including starting, financing and managing a business, and it offers advice from Alice Bredin, a writer on small-business issues. The articles are on pages with the AmEx logo, but there are no pitches.

On the Quicken Web site, some of the articles are actually from Web sites of other companies, such as Nolo Press. There are ads on many pages, and there are links at the bottom of some of the articles directing the user to "more related information and products"; a click on the links will take you to a page selling a book dealing with that particular topic.

Some articles on the various sites are quick overviews, while others are more comprehensive. If you’re looking for in-depth treatment of a particular topic, you might want to head for the library or a bookstore.

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