Resources for Small Business Plan and Marketing

Hi B.,
A great marketing company is called The Kaiser Group. The owner is Mary Kaiser. Her direct # is ###-###-####.

DePaul runs a course called Start Up! Chicago that is focused on all the aspects of starting a small business in Chicago. They have a great entrepreneurship program overall that even provides consulting for start ups on an hourly basis. I'd HIGHLY recommend it :) Good luck!

B., a colleague and I started a new business earlier this year called art & soul, an art and wellness center for kids and families. We found SCORE to be an invaluable resource. It's an amazing center that offers counseling for people starting a new business: business plans, strategic plans, marketing, etc. Their website is www.scorechicago.org. Check it out. The "counselors" are retired CEO's, CFO's, entrepreneurs, accountants, etc. and it's free! It sounds too good to be true but they absolutely deliver.
Another good resource is the Jane Adams Hull House. They offer business development workshops www.hullhouse.org. Sometimes they offer workshops through local chambers so I would also check out your Chamber of Commerce and see if they have business development services too!
Good luck with your new venture!

http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/sbdc/sbdclocator/...

Hi B.,
I made my small business official last year and found the Small Business Administration site to be sooooo helpful! www.sba.gov

Here they have great resources including step-by-step business plan writing, mentoring, financial advice, etc. And, most importantly, all free!!

We also bought "small business for dummies" somewhat as a joke, but it actually was helpful.

The business plan really helped us to organize our ideas, goals and business projections. Our marketing plan is quite simple for the beginning, but it helps to have a long-term goals to push for.

If you are in need of a website, we had an acquaintance do ours and he did a great job, very honest and reasonable. Nathan DeWitt (____@____.com) - if you want to check out his work, our site is: www.threegraces-design.com.

Hope this helps, best wishes!! H.

Source.org is a good website. I think they also have free mentors that you can speak with.

When I was setting up my business, the Women's Business Development Center in downtown Chicago was indispensable. They have workshops, classes, consulting, etc available. Here's their phone number###-###-#### and website www.wbdc.org

Good luck in your endeavors!

I started a new business in January and put an ad on Craigslist and my business has exploded. It is amazing. I tutor Quickbooks/Quicken on the side and my main business is bookkeeping and accounting for small businesses.
Consider Craigslist. It is unbelievable the feedback you get.

contact the small business administration at www.sba.gov and also the women's business development center. they have a ton of resources for women owned business and help with start-up, marketing, finances etc.

best of luck!

Have you checked out SCORE? The name stands for Service Corps of Retired Executives. It's a free service for small businesses sponsored by the government. They have both seminars and one-on-one consulting.

I know this is an old post but in case others are reading I wanted to also suggest SCORE. It's not only retired folks anymore. I am a SCORE counselor in my mid-40s. I do all my counseling online across the nation. My expertise is low cost advertising. You can have as many counselors as you want and all the time you need. It's all free. I've heard finding the right counselor is sometimes a hit and miss so if the first one doesn't work, look again.

I also teach a class online called: Small Business Marketing on a Shoestring. You can search for it on the website of ed2go(.)com.

http://www.ed2go.com/CourseDetails.aspx?query=small+busin...

Best of luck to you all!