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Reliable Small Business Information

Small Business Source offers a collection of state-specific resources with demographic data and other information to meet the needs of small business owners and entrepreneurs. Many of the full-text reference books are provided through Nolo, the nation’s oldest and most-respected provider of legal information for consumers and small businesses. Business videos include interviews, lessons learned, lectures and how-to tips to foster success in all aspects of managing a business.

Subjects Include:

• Starting and growing a business
• Writing a business plan
• Marketing a business
• Managing employees
• Going green
• Conducting business on the internet
• Understanding legal information
• Selling a business

Searching in Small Business Source

You can search for any topic, title, keyword, or author in the box at the top of the page.

You can also scroll down on the homepage to view and select popular and selected topics shown in blue boxes below. If you click a topic box, it will open the next page, where you can select sub-topics until you drill down to the exact topic area you're looking for. 

When you reach your search results, you can use filters to further narrow your results. There are some things to notice on your results page, identified in red on the image below with corresponding numbers here.

1. This box opens the extensive list of filters that includes specific publications, dates, subject headings, company name, NAICS codes, etc.
2. Publication date ranges can be found here. Options include last 12 months, last 5 years, and last 10 years. This is different than the option in the "all filters" option where you can create custom ranges.
3. This box allows you to choose what types of resources you are seeking, such as books, case studies, articles, reports, forms, etc.
4. The access link will often have either a PDF button or an "online full access" link to take you to the resource. Sometimes it will link to a video.
5. Most results on the page will have subject headings you can click to be taken to more results within that topic area. This can help expand your results.