What's The Buzz At BuzGate.Org—State-by-State Listings Of Free Resources For New And Established Businesses

“Free Small Business Resources” always gets my attention, since I’m always on the prowl for things that will help our IAHBE members as well as wanting to improve my own desktop publishing and freelance writing business.
 What a surprise to discover this interesting Website. BUZGate.org
(http://www.buzgate.org) is really a portal, searchable by state, for an impressive array of listings, links, and resources of everything related to small business start-up, growth, and development you can think of.

If you JOIN for free, you can get their free download of a 16-page course called “Common Sense Cash Flow Management: Strategic Management Learning System.” You’ll also receive a free email with updates and information that might be of benefit. You can always unsubscribe if you don’t find it useful.

BUZGate’s primary sponsor is the Knowledge Institute, an organization claiming to be a “Creator of Global Small Business Resource Communities.” They work with the country’s entrepreneurial assistance agencies to help individuals learn about and tap into the resources they need to start, grow, and succeed in small business. They describe themselves as “a facilitator of public/private collaboration on behalf of entrepreneurship on a national, regional and local scale.” They believe that by working together, they can “strengthen America’s Small Business Community leading to shared economic and social prosperity for all citizens.” A worthy goal, indeed!

BUZGate.org was developed as a business-to-business resource portal and claims to be “one of the most demographically targeted communities on the Internet serving the interests and needs of small and medium-sized businesses (SMB).” As mentioned above, it brings together nonprofit public business assistance agencies to provide a gateway to information, goods and services targeted at supporting small business start-up, growth and profitability. The community is further cultivated by also offering a way for business resource providers to add information that they believe would be of value to those using the site. This means that while there is an excellent base of knowledge and information, you’re going to find a lot of things provided by advertisers, so it won’t all be unbiased information. Think of it as an online Yellow Pages of sorts, only much more targeted and much more useful for small business in that it contains more than just phone numbers and addresses, but also a wealth of detailed information you need to run your business.

When you first get to the site, you’re asked to select a state. I selected Virginia (remember if you click any of the links provided later in the article, they will be specific to Virginia) and was taken to a screen touting “Discover Free Small Business Help in Virginia.” On this page there were two main sections: Build Your Networks and Advance Your Knowledge.

Build Your Networks

The Free Help link on the Build Your Networks side of the page said it would take me to free programs and experts that would help me develop my business. Indeed, the next page contained listings by service category (e.g., counseling, funding, marketing, real estate, training, etc.), by agency (chamber, economic development, government agency, trade association, or industrial development), or by name (alphabetically). There were almost 150 listings, and each indicated where it was located and what area it served. If you are the provider of small business public assistance, there is a link to offer information about what you provide.

The Biz Solutions link said it would take me to information on small business technologies, products and services that would help me grow my business. The link took me to another extensive list of links sorted by Best Practice category (e.g., Accounting, Finance, Insurance, Management, Sales & Marketing, IT & Communications, Administration, etc.), each with a list of solutions under that category (Under Accounting, for instance, there is Bankruptcy Alternative, Business Taxes Solutions, Cash Management, Debt Management, Inventory Management, and several others, each being a link to its own page of specific information and resources). There were also links to alphabetical listings by Small Business Solution Topic as well as a link to “Educational Champions that have chosen to support your business development progress through participating in the BUZGate.org Small Business Resource & Referral Network.” This list included both government and corporate entities such as the IRS, SBA, Verizon, HostGator, Xerox, and many others.

Advance Your Knowledge

This section on the right side of the page offers the following links:

Start myBiz: Concept and early stage business help includes a Start-up FAQ with many of the most commonly asked questions by new business owners. Next is a Start-up Checklist that will help you make sure you’ve covered all your bases when you’re trying to get everything off the ground. Start-up Business Solutions covers many of the same core business topics that we found in the Biz Solutions section above, only geared for newbies. Finally, there is a link to Business Incubators in your geographic area. The level and type of help offered will vary greatly from region to region.

Train myBiz: Self-learn, classroom, distance learning and more. The first link is a free online mentoring course called “10 steps to Venture Development with a Mentor.” It starts out with self-assessment and takes you through analysis, business plan, financing, launch, and progress charting. The Biz Experts link takes you back into the Business Solutions list with links to about 75 business topics (e.g., outsourcing, factoring, graphic design), each link, taking you to yet another page with more links that include FAQs, explanations, definitions, and further resources. A Training Programs link takes you to a list of local organizations that offer small business programs, seminars, or workshops. Distance Learning offers remote or online learning opportunities. Educational Institutions offers a list of schools, colleges, and universities that have small business courses or programs. The Business Publication link leads to a store selling small business publications from The Knowledge Instituate.

Grow myBiz: Resources to drive business growth. The Free Help and Biz Experts links have been described above. Free Tools takes to you a list of Business Articles, Business Forms, and Business Links.

myBiz Networks: Venues for building support and sales networks. This includes a B2B Products & Services where you learn about and connect with quality product and service providers that can solve a need for your business. The Biz Experts link was described above. The Chambers of Commerce takes you to a list of all the Chambers of Commerce in your state. Chambers help you to succeed in the community and offer such member services as demographic research, site finding, tourist promotion and business networking opportunities. The Trade Associations link provides a list of trade associations in your state. This allows you to access valuable industry data, network with peers, benefit from a variety of business service discounts and more through organizations that support your trade and/or industry. Captain Buz's Blog offers perspectives about small business start-up, growth and success.

Fund myBiz: Common and not-so-common sources of capital. Here you’ll find links to Public Funding, Alternative Funding, Angel Funding, Venture Capital Funding, and Financial Institutions serving your state.

Biz Success System: Start, grow and succeed in business by stage of development. This is an interesting section, because it allows you to find resources based on the stage your business is in. Each link offers listings of courses, publications, and other resources appropriate for that particular stage. The links are called: Thinking About It, Start Up, Started But Struggling, Growth, Networking, and Leverage Business Skills.

Women in Biz: Peer-to-peer networks, mentoring and other business programs. As a woman in business, you can discover and connect with free business assistance programs tailored to the needs of women in business including business mentoring for women, funding programs for business women, and peer-to-peer networking. Learn how to become a certified women business enterprise.

Veterans in Biz: Resources for veterans, reservists and active military personnel. Discover a range of tools, programs and resources that are available to assist with you starting, growing and succeeding in your own business venture as a Veteran, Reservist, and Active Duty Military Personnel.

Advertising Opportunity on Buzgate.org

If you or your business offers a Business-to-Business (B2B) product or service that you want to promote to the users of this Website, there are reasonably priced ways to do it: “Tap buzgate's expert marketing team to build an interactive listing of your B2B offerings. For less than $8.00 per month, you can build brand awareness, generate new leads by state, and improve your SEO positioning. Regional and national listings are also available.”

Click on the Add Content link that appears on every page to get to advertising instructions for three groups:

1) Economic Development Agencies,
2) Business-to-Business Product & Service Providers and
3) Industry Leaders of Business-to-Business Solutions.
When I clicked on #2, I was taken to a sign-up screen where I learned that pricing for B2B was $89.95 per state per year, plus $59.95 w/logo. Multiple state discounts are available. This might be a very good marketing outlet for some of you.

Bookmark and Return 

I only went three or four levels deep into some of the links, but I still found BUZGate.org to be rich with content, information, and interesting resources. Since the Search function of the site provides for geographic sorting, you are only going to get links to service providers in your own state or that serve your state. Every link seemed to offer access to still more information. I have bookmarked this site and will check it out from time to time when I need to find specific information or sources.

If you do nothing else, sign up to get your free Cash Flow Management course (which they sell elsewhere on the site for $9.95—downloadable link sent to you after you sign up) and take the time to go through the free Venture Development mentoring course: http://www.buzgate.org/8.0/va/ten_steps.html.

Get a buzz on at BUZGate.org!