sale and purchase of businesses. http://www.bizquest.com/ California Association of Business Brokers site, so you can search for a business or a broker.<br><br> http://www.cabb.org/ e- business http://www.e-commerceguide.com/essentials/ebiz/ Home-based business Ideas, information and advice for starting a business from home http://www.entrepreneur.com/homeoffice/0,6289,,00.html Starting a business in Palo Alto The Economic Development Office site provides a wealth of links to sites for people interested in starting a business in the city. Local, county and state offices are listed for easy access to information about registering business names, permits, licenses and more. Contact staff at (650) 329-2452 or (650) 329- 2604 for assistance.<br><br> http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/resources/resources.html e-books Check out e-books and audio e-books on business topics. Sample titles: Growing and managing a business Business plans that work Flawless consulting Palo Alto City Library Reference Services 3 Resources for starting a business 3 May 2006 2 For all titles, including print books on starting a business, go to http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/library/ and enter new business enterprises in the search box. Tip: to list recent titles first, choose cPublication Date d from the Sort option.<br><br> MARKETING Marketing and sales The Small Business Administration site provides advice and training. http://sba.gov/managing/marketing/market.html Talk to an expert face to face at SCORE Silicon Valley http://www.svscore.org/ or via e-mail with SCORE 9s national advisors http://www.score.org Check associations in your area of interest at the Business and Company Resource Center, a free database available from Palo Alto City Library http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/library/reference/findita-z.html Contact a Chamber of Commerce for networking opportunities, like the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce http://www.paloaltochamber.com/ Exhibit products and network at a tradeshow. Find upcoming shows at http://tsnn.com and get more information from the Library 9s Tradeshow Week Data Book.<br><br> Access the ReferenceUSA database with your Palo Alto City Library card from the Resources Online page at http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/library . Create lists of companies in a geographic area and more for free when you use the Custom Search feature. Market research, product development and pricing Market research can be difficult and costly, but this site is free and has resources recommended by its editor, director of MBA programs at an East Coast University.<br><br> http://www.knowthis.com/research.htm Get demographic and other information from the Rand California database. Palo Alto City Library subscribes to this, so visit Resources Online at the Library 9s web site http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/library This site contains information gathered by the Demographic Research Unit of the State 9s Department of Finance: http://www.dof.ca.gov/HTML/DEMOGRAP/Druhpar.asp Palo Alto City Library Reference Services 3 Resources for starting a business 3 May 2006 3 U.S. Census Bureau 9s State and County QuickFacts for cquick, easy access to facts about people, business, and geography d.<br><br> http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html At the CenStats site http://censtats.census.gov see the Census Tract Street Locator for information about criteria such as Household Income, and the Zip Code Business Patterns section for data on the number and kind of businesses, employees and payroll in a zip code. The CCH Business Owner 9s Toolkit site has information on generating new product ideas http://toolkit.cch.com/text/P03_4008.asp and on pricing http://toolkit.cch.com/text/P03_5200.asp Find an interactive breakeven calculator at http://dinkytown.com/java/BreakEven.html Look for classes and contacts at the Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center: http://siliconvalley-sbdc.org/RTPublisher/display.do?d=svsbdc_Index&pubId=717 Take a free SBA online class in pricing products and services: http://www.va-interactive.com/score/pricing/pricing.html LEGAL ISSUES Trademarks, business names Trademarks and intellectual property are explained briefly in layperson 9s terms at http://nolo.com . As an example, see the article on Trademarks at http://tinyurl.com/7h735 .<br><br> The Library has copies of the Nolo Press books on trademarks if you want more information. Search for trademarks at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office 9s Electronic Trademark Search System (TESS) http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=mmm5cb.1.1 Look for company names and brand names at http://www.thomasnet.com/ , the Thomas Register, and check the California Business Search on the California Business Portal page http://www.ss.ca.gov/business/business.htm to see if the name has been registered as a corporation or partnership in the state.<br><br> Check the Palo Alto Municipal Code at http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/government/municipalcode.html and the State Codes at http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/government/municipalcode.html Palo Alto City Library Reference Services 3 Resources for starting a business 3 May 2006 4 Accounting and taxes The California Tax Service Center is a partnership of four agencies involved in taxation issues and aims to provide cone-stop tax help. d Convenient tabs help you click directly to issues such as payroll tax, and there is a section called Small Business Assistance Center. http://www.taxes.ca.gov/index.html The Federal government site http://www.business.gov/topics/taxes/ gives an overview of tax issues for small businesses, while the IRS has a Small Business and Self-Employed One-Stop Resource page http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/index.html which gives more in-depth guidance. The equivalent page for State taxes is maintained by the California State Board of Equalization http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/sutprograms.htm The California Society of Certified Public Accountants 9 Ask a CPA page has many useful links for business owners, including a list of tax deductions http://www.calcpa.org/consumers/ask/index.htm The American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers offers a set of Client Help links at http://www.aipb.com/accounting_bookkeeping_tax_links.php which includes topics such as records retention and hiring a bookkeeper.<br><br> EMPLOYEES Finding and hiring the right employee is the focus of http://www.realsmallbusiness.com/techies/management/hiring/index.html with articles on topics such as job descriptions, interview questions and contract workers. The State Employment Development Division (EDD) offers assistance on hiring and training employees. The page links to services for submitting reports (like the Report of New Employees ) online http://www.edd.ca.gov/employer.htm The Occupational Safety and Health Administration governs workplace safety.<br><br> Employers in California can get help and consultation services from the Division of Occupational Safety and Health http://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/consultation.html The California Healthcare Foundation offers information on health insurance for employees http://www.healthcoverageguide.org/ The Benefits for your Employees section of this Commerce Clearing House page talks about a range of benefits, including healthcare http://www.toolkit.cch.com/text/P05_4250.asp TOOLS OF THE TRADE Lists of business links at http://lii.org/search/file/busfinjobs ,the Librarians 9 Index to the Internet, and the Small Business Network Resource Library http://smallbiz2.infopeople.org/info_res/ T Palo Alto City Library Reference Services 3 Resources for starting a business 3 May 2006 5

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