Online help for small businesses

By Pete Davis

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 1:31 PM EDT

Small businesses now have an additional place to turn for help, and this one is online.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently launched a new web initiative – http://Community.Business.gov – the first government-sponsored online community built specifically for small businesses.

The objective of the Business.gov community aims to provide small business owners, bloggers, and the government with a place to discuss and share information about starting and running a successful business.

“Over the past year, we have significantly expanded our efforts to engage with small business owners, by giving them easy access to the information they need to run their business,” said Nancy Sternberg, program manager of Business Gateway, who is running the program.

The Business.gov community combines discussion forums, blogs, an idea exchange and offers advanced tools for navigating the maze of government resources, policies, laws and opportunities that affect the small business owner.

In addition, small business owners can give their own ideas for how Business.gov and voice the ways government and the online community can better serve them better.

“The launch of the Business.gov community represents a new milestone,” Sternberg said. “Through the application of web 2.0 technologies, we hope to unite small business owners, industry experts and government, and take the program to a new level of collaborative knowledge-sharing and insight.”

During the next few months, the SBA will expand the site and add resources that address specific user interests and provide access to the wider pool of government and Business.gov partner resources available to the small business owner.