Small Business Administration (SBA) how-to on planning and starting a new business.

Financing: SBA's page on financing a new business, a Credit Process Guide and the grants and loans screening tool offered at www.business.gov.

Step-by-step tutorials help you write your business plan. See templates and free samples.

The SBA offers loans through third-party lenders. Some businesses can also qualify for loans through other federal agencies. All loans are not alike. Learn more by reading the Small Business Guide to Government Grants and Loans.

Free online training courses offered by SBA

The Small Business Development Center at Georgia State provides free business and economic development consulting for Fulton County (10 Park Pl. S. Suite 450; 404-413-7830).

The U.S. Minority Business Development Agency offers help for new minority-owned businesses. There is also a Georgia Statewide Minority Business Enterprise Center at Georgia Tech.

Veterans should begin at the VA's Vetbiz website especially the section for Georgia.

Young entrepreneurs can check SBA's Teen Business Link.

Visit SBA's Online Women's Business Center website.

Interested in setting up your business as a cooperative? Find out more in Co-ops 101 and Research on the Economic Impact of Cooperatives.

Find a business incubator by location.

Permits

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service's page Small Business and Self-Employed One-Stop Resource for useful tax-related information and how to get a Federal Tax Identification Number.

Georgia: Business Taxes.
Unincorporated Fulton County: Business License.
City of Atlanta: Business Tax Division - 404-330-6270.

Research

For demographics and household income, use the Census Summary File 3. For information about business locations, size, type, and payroll, use the Economic Census. For information helpful in making siting decisions, try the American FactFinder at the Census Tract or Block Group level from Summary File 1. Try creating a Thematic Map in American FactFinder for area profiling. For information about employee wages, use the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Use the small business page from georgia.gov to find rules, regulations and other resources both state and federal.

Best of the Best Business Web Sites. This site, maintained by the American Library Association, contains government and non-government sites useful for entrepreneurs.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Data Bank collects government and original research relating to minority populations that could be useful in business research.

Missouri Census Data Center. With latitude and longitude coordinates or a ZIP code, get census information for a radius around a point.

Statistics about U.S. small businesses from U.S. SBA Office of Advocacy.

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