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...

Now that the Business.Gov Community is picking up steam at over 3,000 users, our team is looking for new ways to search, monitor, and evaluate the wealth of knowledge created on the site. Over the last several months, we have picked up a few tips and tricks that may be of help to Business.Gov users. Read more...

Shortly after the Business.gov Community launched in February 2009, we started the first Idea Exchange. From February until the end of May we asked members What kind of topics would you like to see discussed in this Community? Read more...

In our third installment of Community hot topics, we’re glad to say that with nearly 3,500 people in the Community, there is plenty of discussion going on! Here is a quick summary of what’s happening in the Community now: Read more...

As you may have heard, Google (who now owns YouTube) has signed an agreement with the General Services Administration that allows sites like Business.gov to serve their videos from YouTube. With the new YouTube capabilities, our goal is to seamlessly integrate relevant videos throughout the site and give small business owners one more resource for good information. Read more...

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

The Business.gov community has been operational now over two months and has steadily grown since its mid-February launch to over 2,500 registered users. As we talk to colleagues and stakeholders about the community, one of the inevitable questions is “What’s next”? What you the end user community would like us to do and what’s doable as a federal sponsored online community might be two different things. This article seeks user input on the use of "persistent" cookies on the Business.gov community. Read more...

You may have noticed ranks (Creator, Window Shopper, etc) across the boards, blogs, and profiles of Community users. The idea behind the ranking system is that we wanted a way to acknowledge our active members by conveying a Community-wide title and reward them with additional capabilities. Read more...

Last week we kicked off a series of articles on measuring performance. This article, the second in the series, explains how we use the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) to gauge how satisfied our customers are Read more...

You talked and we listened. Over the last month, members of the Business.gov community have been discussing questions and concerns related specifically to their business. With these discussions there have been a few trends in discussion topics that the moderators and editors of Business.gov noticed. We are going to address these topics in Business.gov by researching and creating new pages. To start, this month, we are going to address three topics: Starting an Online Business, Exiting a Business and Business Legal Structures. Read more...

The current economic climate has made it increasingly important to the public to track the performance of programs receiving federal funds. People want to know how their tax money is being spent and what the impact is. Are the programs spending the money in the right way? Are they achieving the goals and outcomes they set out to achieve? Measuring performance is in the spotlight like never before, but it doesn’t make it any easier. Read more...

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

Well, its been a little over a month now since we opened the doors to the Business.gov Small Business Community and the interest and level of participation has exceeded all of our expectations. Read more...

Business Gateway helps initiate a dialogue between business owners and organizations serving them, making the government more transparent and data more accessible the nation’s small business community. Read more...

Business.gov launched an e-mail subscription service in January that allows us to send small business information to subscribers who chose to opt-in to the service. The nearly 20,000 subscribers receive weekly updates on topic areas ranging from starting and expanding a business to staying compliant, and more. Read more...