Resources for small businesses: 1
Jinfo Blog

By Dale Moore

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In previous posts, I’ve talked a little bit about the information management needs of small businesses. In this post I’d like to cover their information resource needs.

Having worked for a number of small businesses in various information guises and having spent the last eight years working for business support organisations, I’ve used a number of resources aimed primarily at smaller businesses. The ones covered here have worked particularly well; although many of these are UK focused there will be similar products available for other countries. 

Perhaps the first port of call for UK businesses is Business Link. This is a government funded organisation which seeks to address the needs of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) by providing a web portal to information and advice.

There are four flavours depending on where your business is based. Business Link covers England; NI Business Info covers businesses in Northern Ireland; Business Gateway for Scotland and Welsh Government for businesses based in Wales.

If you look at the site structure you’ll soon see that it shares a common framework and if you drill down through the content taxonomy, you’ll discover the same themes. A fine example of content redeployment! 

There is in fact a wealth of content available covering pretty much all the general areas of interest to businesses and it’s free, high quality information. Businesses are invited to register to personalise their experience and they can assemble their own portfolio of material to print out in pdf format if they so wish.

It works very well and is well organised, as content is developed by subject experts and each topic area is controlled by a content manager - though the sheer amount of information can be a little daunting. Some businesses are a little sceptical though as the site is managed by HM Revenue and Customs!

Another source of quality information covering areas of interest to smaller businesses is Cobweb Information. Being a private sector organisation, this content isn’t free, though the number of subscribers suggest that it’s highly valued.

Cobweb focuses on sector specific and "business idea" specific information. Its flagship offering is the Complete Business Reference Adviser (COBRA). This is a subscription database of business information factsheets covering a wide variety of general business topics; a large collection of business opportunity profiles, covering sector specific information; local area profiles, providing information on localities for businesses relocation and a number of other relevant topics. 

Part 2 will continue this brief survey of information resources relevant to smaller businesses.

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