Resources for Starting and Growing Small Businesses
NREL can help people interested in licensing our technology. When individual organizations license NREL technology, they often request technical assistance that can be accomplished most easily with Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs), as well as with "work for others" (WFOs). In a WFO, NREL acts as a subcontractor to the entity wanting the work done. Contact Jennifer Schofield for the requirements and conditions that apply.
There are also dozens of Web sites and publications dedicated to or containing extensive information on all facets of starting and growing a new business. The sites below, together with many not listed here, provide profiles of successful start-ups and advice about how to do some—and sometimes all—of the following:
- Write a business plan
- Develop markets and competitive strategies
- Secure financing
- Build a management team
- Build partnerships and alliances
Small Business School. Based on the weekly public television series "Small Business 2000", the on-line Small Business School contains a mix of live Web-casts and posted how-to advice.
Forbes.com's Small Business Center. Web site for entrepreneurs by on-line business magazine Forbes.com, SBC lists links to articles about issues that entrepreneurs face. The site also features forums such as "Growing Pains/Startup Clinic" containing columns that address entrepreneurial problems, and "Starting Your Own Business" profiling recently established companies and their start-up experiences.
Publications/Books
Good places to check for publications include general on-line booksellers as well as the virtual libraries of small business organizations. The National Business Incubator Association also has an extensive on-line library.
Engineering Your Start-Up: A Guide for the Hi-Tech Entrepreneur, Michael L. Baird, 1997. Breaks down complex start-up issues and helps high-tech entrepreneurs understand the business environment they seek to enter. Contains information on securing start-up funding, writing business plans, and building a management team.
High-Tech Startup: The Complete Handbook for Creating Successful New High Tech Companies, John L. Nesheim, updated March 2000. Presents issues associated with start-ups or the creation of new enterprises within existing corporations, including how to negotiate venture backing.
Early-Stage Technologies: Valuation and Pricing, Richard Razgaitis, April 1999. This book is a complete guide to technology risk management, valuation, and pricing. It shows how to identify key early-stage technologies and determine the value to individual companies, as well as provides methods for pricing pre-commercial products for sale or licensing. Topics include intellectual property-general law, accounting and finance, management, licensing, and special topics.
Growth Company Starter Kit, published by Coopers and Lybrand (1992) provides entrepreneurs with easy, comprehensive checklists needed to develop a strategy for the future success of a company. The manual provides a roadmap for writing a business plan, also in checklist form, including dos and don'ts. Appendices contain information on information/support sources such as trade and industry associations, SBA programs and contact numbers, model financial statements, and instructions on tax filing requirements.
Start-Up: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Launching and Managing a New Business (1994) focuses on the how-tos and problems commonly associated with starting and maintaining new businesses.
NxLevel Guide for Business Start-Ups, NxLevel Entrepreneur Set, and Small Business Guide to International Trade are available from the Western Entrepreneurial Network (sponsored by the US Foundation), at the University of Colorado at Denver. These training materials incorporate feedback from more than 4,000 entrepreneurs in 12 states who have recently taken entrepreneurial training programs
Commercializing New Technologies, Getting from Mind to Market; Vijay K. Jolly, 1997. This book offers a way to take the guesswork out of technology commercialization and improve the returns that companies make on their research investments. The author draws on dozens of examples from leading companies around the world (IBM, AlliedSignal, Sony, and others) as he highlights successful and unsuccessful attempts at bringing new technologies to market. This book is written for those who want to harness science and technology to create breakthrough products and new growth opportunities.
Preparing Business Plans
"How to Write a Great Business Plan." Harvard Business Review, (July-August, 1997) pp. 98-108, provides a concise description of the four critical success factors in any business: the people, the opportunity, the context, and the possibilities for both risk and reward.
