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Business Articles: Entrepreneurship

By almost any definition, the great majority of businesses in the world are defined as "small" by almost any measure: sales, employees, assets, etc. Nevertheless, in the United States for example (which has about 11 million companies), small businesses employ over half the nation's workers and provide approximately 47% of the GNP. It's easy to see why.
Every kid that has set up his or her little stand to sell lemonade, used comic books, or computer parts is learning the basics of entrepreneurship...after all it's fun, challenging work requiring some imagination and you go home a little richer than when you left. Entrepreneurship and small business management were not always on the curriculums of business schools. Needless to say, that has changed.

A quick way to see what's going on can be found at: www.entrepreneur.com. This is very handy site, developed by Entrepreneur Magazine ("solutions for growing businesses") since it covers some essential subjects including information on: start-ups, home biz, franchising, money, marketing, management, e-biz, technology and the like. The site offers a large number of free articles which can aid in research activitivies. For example, they will offer you subject areas like: "Defining Your Market". Then you will get a list of "Editor's Picks," perhaps 7 or 8 articles to choose from.

A second magazine called, Inc. Magazine www.inc.com found at your local news stand if you like the smell of ink and lots of color, offers excellent articles and cases that are instructive and "real-time" covering everything from writing a business plan to buying a franchise.

Another useful site for "street-smarts" with regard to running small businesses can be found at: www.businesstown.com. You can find lots of information and tips on what companies are doing with regard to health plans, selling a business, book store, associations, legal needs, taxes, accounting, finance, etc. In fact you can sign up and they will send articles to you.

Without question one of the fundamental resources of small business in the United States is the Small Business Administration which provides a large number of services to aspiring or experienced small business executives. The headquarters is in Washington, D.C. and the organization is online at: www.sbaonline.sba.gov

A major source of information dealing with small business management can be found at their "Small Business Classroom," "Outside resources - Links," and "Online Library" which provides students, among other things, a "Publications Room," which offers the Small Business Management Series.
The Small Business Classroom  (www.sba.gov/classroom/)is an online resource for training and informing entrepreneurs and other students of enterprise. It is a new --easy to use -- dimensiuon in entrepreneurial learning. At the Classroom site, you can read articles, take courses, or begin researching areas of small business development that interest you.

For an academic perspective, one of the most comprehensive small business portals and services is offered by the Small Business Advancement National Center at the University of Central Arkansas. Their mission is to promote the entrepreneurial spirit thorough education and training. Their electronic resources are located at: www.sbaer.uca.edu

For another comprehensive perspective look for the Journal of Small Business Management published jointly by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at West Virginia University College of Business and Economics, together with the International Council for Small Business: www.icsb.org. Unfortunately, a subscription is required to obtain articles. The tables of contents of present and past journals are available online and if you find and article you would like you could either check your university library or go to Blackwell Publishers for a downloaded or hardcopy. Approximately ten other journals concerning small business management are linked at the ICSB site

Another international organization that supports small business, academia, and government projects is the International Small Business Congress: www.isbc2001.org This is a very active international organization, but does not publish academic journals.

For more information on the European Small and Medium-size Enterprises go to: http://europa.eu.int.

Finally, another source of information that comes from the classroom is the Small Business Institute Directors' Association. This organization is made up of the faculty members who teach the subject of entrepreneurship and small business management. (www.cba.uc.edu/cbainfo/sbida/welcome.htm). The mission of the Small Business Institute Director's Association is to strengthen the small business- entrepreneurship sector of the free enterprise system, provide entrepreneurship education, and support economic development and diversification through teaching, consulting, training, and field research with small businesses and local communities.