For MaryAnn Shank, entrepreneurship is in her blood. She started her first of several businesses in the 1980s and currently runs BusinessFinance-One Inc. out of her home in California. She is also a business plan writer, a web coach, and a blogger. While managing her online business full time, Ms. Shank is an active member of the Business.gov Community. In this interview, Ms. Shank talks about her passion for entrepreneurship and advises others to start only businesses they are passionate about. Read more...

In our monthly Idea Exchange, we asked members to “Share Your Energy Saving Tips.” Here’s what our members had to say about how they greened their small business. Read more...

At Business.gov, we are constantly evolving our functionality and features to make the user experience more productive and enjoyable. In the interest of transparency and open government, we'd like to share several new updates to the site. Read more...

Federal agencies have launched an initiative to gather feedback from the public about how they can be more transparent, collaborative, and participatory. Read more...

Glenna Tooman has been in the wedding and event planning business in Idaho for over a decade. She left her banking job in 1998 to start her small business, Memory Makers Event Planning, LLC. Today, she splits her time between running her small business out of her home, working part time at Idaho’s Small Business Development Center (SBDC), and contributing articles and blogs to various print and online publications. In the Business.gov Community, Ms. Tooman is better known as BizResearcher. She has accumulated the highest number of kudos amongst all Community members for her informative and helpful posts. We recently interviewed Ms. Tooman about her experience as a small business owner. Read more...

You have a great business idea and a solid business plan, but how are you going to find the capital to finance it? Every entrepreneur needs to answer this question in order to successfully launch and operate their business. In this month’s Idea Exchange, we asked our members to share their stories about how they financed their businesses. Read more...

A look inside the Community's latest hot topics and most-discussed threads. Read more...

You may have heard the terms web service, API, mashup, and dataset. There has been a lot of talk about these because of the recent Open Government Directive (OGD) that the Office of Management and Budget released in December. The directive was in response to President Obama’s call for transparency and open government when he first took office in early 2009. But what does the OGD have to do with web services? And what are they anyway? Read more...

Joseph Lizio is the CEO of www.businessmoneytoday.com, based in Texas. He regularly blogs and writes articles related to financing small businesses. Prior to starting his own business, he worked at the Concho Valley Center for Entrepreneurial Development, Wells Fargo, and Intel. He holds a MBA in Finance from the University of Oregon. While managing his online business full time, Mr. Lizio (also known as phanio) has been an active member of Business.gov’s community since its launch, sharing business finance information. He currently has the greatest number of replies and one of the highest kudos counts of all members. We recently asked Mr. Lizio to share some more about his experiences as a small business owner. Read more...

In an effort to continue to support the President’s campaign for transparency the Business.gov team has created a new metrics dashboard. We have taken it upon ourselves to publish relevant metrics about the Business.gov website for fiscal year 2009 (FY09) that visitors may be interested in. Read more...

As an acknowledgement to high-performing members in the Business.gov Community, we are pleased to announce the launch of a new series, Power User Spotlight, in In the Loop. Every month, the Power User Spotlight will feature exemplary members who have been very active on the discussion boards, giving informative answers and insightful advice in response to questions from small business owners. Read more...

While 2009 draws to close, the Community is buzzing with new business ideas. Members are looking into different business areas like exporting and franchises. Read on for more insights and resources on these topics. Read more...

Remember the days of going to your state’s government building and waiting in line to apply for a business license? Now business owners can find most, if not all, of the information they need online -- from complying with laws and regulations to researching business locations. In our monthly Idea Exchange, we asked members to “Showcase Your State or Local Government Website” Here’s what you had to say. Read more...

November has been a busy month in the Business.gov community, with a lot of conversation on a wide variety of topics, including foreign nationals doing business in the U.S., deciding on the best business structure, and marketing and financial woes. Read more...

Adapting to changes brought on by the economic recession can be a challenge for business owners. To stay afloat, many small businesses are implementing creative tactics - from budgeting resources to embracing new technology. In our monthly Idea Exchange, we asked "What is one effective tactic you've taken in response to the recession?" Here's what you had to say. Read more...

What are latest hot topics the Community is talking about? Read more...

Not all small businesses are started by business savants. Most budding business owners enlist the help of mentors or enroll in courses to help them get started. In our monthly Idea Exchange, we asked "What training classes did you take to help you prepare for your business?" Here's what the members had to say. Read more...

One of the newest features on Business.gov is embedded videos. You can now view videos on various small business topics on a growing number of our pages, including a new, 13-part video series on business planning. Read more...

They say it takes a village to raise a child; we say it takes a community to run a small business. Read more...

Post your thoughts about training classes that helped your prepare for your business and read about this month's hottest discussion on online businesses and tax advantages. Read more...

In most recent Idea Exchange, we wanted existing business owners to tell us lessons they learned since starting their business so we asked "What is the one thing you wish you knew BEFORE you started your business?" Many budding business owners turn to those with experience for guidance. Here is a summary of what existing business owners told us wish they knew in the beginning. Read more...

A new website dedicated to retailers was recently launched by the EPA, in collaboration with several retail organizations. Business.gov teamed up with EPA's Retail Industry Portal program to integrate the new resources into the environment and green business sections of our site Read more...

You can help boost the value of Community posts by giving feedback through Kudos. To learn how to give and receive Kudos throughout the Community, Read more...

What are latest hot topics the Community is talking about? Read more...

Whether you’re searching for licenses, loans, or tips from notable industry professionals, we hope that you’ve had a chance to use the tools and resources available here on Business.gov. We’ve recently updated one of our tools to make it even easier for small businesses owners to find the information they need to successfully start and manage their businesses. Read more...

In our monthly Idea Exchange, we pose questions to the community about the content, features or services provided by Business.gov. In July we asked members, "What Government Data Would Be Useful to You as a Small Business Owner?" Your feedback showed us how important it is to encourage better access to government information. Read more...

As you may or may not have noticed, a “Go To” bar resides on the top of most Community pages. The “Go To” bar is a drop down menu, located directly underneath the banner logo, and can provide a shortcut to any board or blog on the site. Read more...

What are the hot topics being discussed within the Community? Read more...

In the June Idea Exchange we asked members "Where Do You Typically Go for Business Advice?" We tapped into the experience of our community members to find out the resources that they use for business advice. Here is a summary of the resources our members found most valuable. Read more...

Whether you're just starting up, looking to expand, or in need of quick troubleshooting - small business owners know research is a big part of their job. There's no limit to the amount of information available, but sifting through it all can seem like a full-time job in itself... Read more...