November 1997 Column
I went to The Business Resource Center, mentioned in the Wall Street Journal’s “Watching the Web” section, to find information for this column. I started at http://www.kciLink.com/brc/.
When I got to kciLink, I was immediately distracted by “Hot Links”, so I clicked on it. There were two locations I wanted to check out: Inc. Magazine Online and Your Small Office, both web sites from the editors of business magazines.
Inc. Online calls itself the “Web Site for growing companies.” From there, you can subscribe to the Inc. Online newsletter, review Inc. Online Highlights for the day, find products and services and visit libraries and bulletin boards.
Satisfied with Inc. Online’s wares, I went back to Hot Links and tried Your Small Office which is from the editors of Small Office Computing and Home Office Computing magazines. It was there I ventured into a vast sea of electronic business information.
Almost immediately, I clicked on Tech Expert. This brought up a short index of various technical topics:
? Tech Expert Says: Reorganize your electronic files
? Demo Gallery: Sample software application
? Buyer’s guide: Complete your small office with a personal computer
Without hesitation, I instantly pick the Buyer’s guide, excited about the prospect of a home copier. I discover eight pages of ratings for four different copiers: Canon PC 720, Panasonic FP-7113, Sharp Z-835 and Xerox XC 830. It takes only seconds for this information to print out into my eagerly awaiting hands.
Back to the Tech Expert screen I go, after printing out the copier ratings to peruse later. I click on “Reorganizing your electronic files.” I acquire two pages of instructions on creating a folder, organizing by date, sorting chronologically, organizing around monthly accounting cycles and archiving old files. I promptly print these for reference—and filing.
From the Tech Expert screen, I have chosen Demo Gallery, which lists shareware, freeware and demos that will aid in starting and running a small business. These files are downloaded at your own risk, despite Small Office’s attempts at virus checking. The shareware file users are “on their honor to pay the respective shareware author once they have tried the program and decide to keep using it.”
Pausing for a drink from the Water Cooler, I take a small break from the daily routine. There I will find strange tales from the front, games, activities, horoscopes, cartoons and contests, such as the winner of The Most Disorganized Office Contest and a Dilbert cartoon.
Before I leave I must visit three more places: the Marketing Guru, Business Maven and Marketplace.
At the Marketing Guru, I see something that catches my eye, “In the
Spotlight: Send killer e-mail without spamming.” Unsolicited e-mail
is the electronic version of junk mail. The Guru offers advice on sending
these
Cyber-advertisements without upsetting too many recipients. “How
to Solicit Business Via e-mail” includes sections such as:
? Directing your pitch
? Creating your own direct e-mail piece
? Creating direct marketing materials for Cyberspace
? Expanding your e-mail list
Off to Business Maven to poke through Business Profile and Business Resource. The former features lifestyle choices, like that of Mary Baechler, who invented a high performance baby stroller for athletic parents. She now reports annual revenues of $10 million. The latter discusses health care insurance and where an entrepreneur can go to get coverage. Several alliances and resources are listed here.
The Marketplace provides an index of business and franchise opportunities, business services, software and the Internet. These are much like classified ads in the back of a magazine.
There are many other small business sites to visit, as well as E-zines, online magazines for small businesses. We will visit those another day. Happy travels!
(November)