Creigh RISK MANAGEMENT----

GoSmallBiz.com was founded by Entrepreneur and NFL Hall of Famer, Fran Tarkenton. Having started 15 businesses since his football playing days, Fran has always had a passion for small business. After selling his international software company in 1994, Fran decided to pursue his desire of helping entrepreneurs, like himself, gain access to the tools and information they need to grow and compete in the new economy. The result was the Fran Tarkenton Small Business NETwork, founded in 1996. Once the organization started using the Internet as a primary delivery tool, the name was changed to GoSmallBiz.com.

Today GoSmallBiz.com has grown to include more than 49,000 active members throughout North America. During this growth, our mission has remained constant:

To help entrepreneurs run and grow their businesses, by providing access to a comprehensive body of knowledge and tools targeted specifically at the micro business.

GoSmallBiz.com continues to build its resource library and makes that library available to any entrepreneur through this web site. The library is organized according to subject matter category, and within the category by type of data being delivered. In addition to articles, FAQ’s and other written materials, GoSmallBiz provides access to a broad array of tools. Many of the tools are available at no cost online and others have been screened and approved for offer in our the Tools & Resources section of each content channel.

Membership is required to access most of the material available through GoSmallBiz. However, non-members can access the See How GoSmallBiz Works! movie, the SmallBiz Directory, and the Featured Member area. Members have exclusive access to the articles, FAQ's, Answers From the Masters and receive the GoSmallBiz e-newsletter. Members also have a 4-page website builder, online bookkeeping tools and a business audio library to utilize. Most importantly, however, members can access the business consulting service through GoSmallBiz's “Ask Your Question”.

Since August of 1997, GoSmallBiz has responded to every question asked by a member about running their small business. Not every response has been a black and white answer, but that’s not the intent. The intent is to provide access to a business consultant, so that the member can take advantage of knowledge gained by that consultant through years of experience. Our consultants might respond with a point of fact, an opinion or a reference to a relevant website. What sets us apart is that the answer is specific to the question that was asked.

What is GoSmallBiz?

(SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE FOR A FREE OFFER )

Being a Small Business Owner can feel a lot like being stranded on a deserted island. Sure, you might be able to start a fire or build a shelter, but you quickly realize that you can't do it all. Larger communities and businesses have the resources to support having people who specialize in all aspects of what they do. But on Small Business Island, you may find yourself as the accountant, the marketing department, IT, HR, the janitor and receptionist, etc., etc, until you get to the point where you are looking for any way to build yourself a raft to escape. You may feel like you are alone but you certainly are not unique in this respect. 99.7% of all businesses employ less than 100 people, 90% of the businesses in North America employ 10 people or less, and 100% struggle with having so few people to run so many different aspects of the business.

So what options do these small business owners have when it comes to dealing with areas outside of their expertise? The most common route is to hire a consultant, but as anyone who has used these services before can tell you, they are very expensive. According to a Kennedy Information market research study, the rate for a partner at a small management or IT consulting firm goes for an average of $294/hour, while even an entry-level consultant charges $175/hour. The problem for most small businesses is the entire reason you need the consultant in the first place is because of the fact that you can't afford to pay anyone $300/hour! Of course you would love the beautiful cruise ship to rescue you from your deserted island, but it doesn't do you much good if they tell you the only way they will save you is if you can pay them a million dollars.

So if you can't do it yourself, and you can't afford to pay someone else to do it, what can you do? And what about all the legal issues that come with running a business? If management consultants are charging $300/hour, just imagine what a business lawyer charges.

If you are asking yourself those questions every day then fortunately for you, you have come to the right place. Allow me to introduce you to a group of services so powerful, and so incredibly valuable for the price they are offered at, that when I was introduced to them I immediately ended my personal small business consulting work. I stopped doing this because I realized how many more small business owners I could help by simply referring them to these services where they can pay per month less than half as much as myself and others were charging for an hour, and get 100 times more out of it.

Since we are business people we tend to think of cost on the per hour basis. Assuming your business operates for an average of 40 hours/week, you are going to receive everything I am about to mention for 47 cents/hour. For 47 cents per hour, less than what you are paying for your telephone service, here is what you can do for your business:

As a member of this service, you will be assigned to a Provider Law Firm in your state which will provide the following services to you

Pick up the phone and have the ability to speak to an actual lawyer at a top-quality law firm for an unlimited amount of business related matters. Whether it is related to a specific instance or just a general question, your provider law firm is ready to assist you by answering any and all questions related to the legal aspects of running a business that the every day small business owner would never know on their own.

Have your provider law firm write a letter from their law offices, on behalf of your business as their client, to resolve disputes and legal issues on an unlimited number of unique subject matters. Save time and money by letting others know you are serious when they receive notice on your law firm's letterhead.

Your provider law firm will send out up to 10 initial debt collection letters per month.

Stop spending your valuable time and money chasing after people when you can have your attorney doing it for you.

Have your attorney protect your business interests by reviewing any contract before you sign, up to 3 contracts per month, up to 15 pages each. The attorney will let you know that it is OK to sign, or suggest changes to be made for your benefit. Additionally, 1 executed contract of up to 10 pages per month can be reviewed, even after you sign.

Documents sent to you by the government or other regulatory agencies, compliance or HR related documents, anything informing your business of a change in a particular law, etc. Your law firm will also review 3 of these documents per month, up to 15 pages in length.

If your business is named defendant or respondent in a civil suit, your membership entitles you to 75 hours of attorney time (15 hours pre-trial, 60 hours of actual trial time) per year. Stop worrying about going into debt defending yourself from illegitimate law suits.

25% off the provider law firm's usual corporate rate for anything not covered above. Never pay full-price for legal matters again.

Any one area of the Legal Coverage would be worth the price of membership alone, but you get them all for the 47 cents an hour I mentioned before. This is a must have for small business owners who need these services but simply can not afford the price an attorney would charge for them. This is fantastic for legal matters, but what about help running the day-to-day aspects of the business? Your membership has that covered as well, all for the same 47 cents.

As a small business owner, you have plenty of questions. Your membership provides you with access to receive answers from experts in Tax, Marketing, Technology, Accounting, Finance, HR, and every area of business ready to answer any question no matter how specific. Questions can be submitted 24 hours/day, 7 days/week where they will be assigned to an expert in the area of business you need assistance with. That person will do up to 1 hour of research and return an answer to you by the following business day.

Create your very own 4 page website with hosting service included to give your business a presence on the web within minutes after activating your membership. Through easy to use templates and auto-fill forms, no experience is necessary to have your site up and running, with a Contact Us form where your customers can easily reach you 24 hours/day. For a nominal upgrade, you can have a site of up to 10 pages, with 10 e-mail accounts @your domain name, and many other advanced features.

Using over 30,000 templates, create custom forms and legal documents you need to run your business. Fax the forms you create to your provider law firm, and have them review before you put them into practice.

List your business in a yellow-pages type Small Business Directory where members and visitors can search for you by business type/city/state/name. 2 listings per membership included.

View a database of questions asked by other members (personally identifiable information removed) and the answers they received. Also highlighted are a list of frequently asked questions, and their answers. You may be able to find the answer to your question here without waiting for a response from one of the consultants, or to just get a feel for what other business owners like you are going through.

An online bookkeeping tool for your accounting, analysis tools, articles of interest, educational/training resources, a monthly newsletter, links to valuable resources, discounts from partner companies such as Office Depot and Hertz, and thousands of pages being constantly updated giving you access to a virtual encyclopedia of business knowledge.

As a small business owner, you know how important it is to make every dollar you spend count. You are thinking about everything you just read, and how there must be a catch because there is no way you could have all that for 47 cents/hour, but just because it seems too good to be true, doesn't mean it is.In most states, membership for a business with 50 employees or less goes for $75 per month (40 hours/week * 4 weeks = 160 hours/month. $75/160 hours =47 cents/hour). For what it costs you to pay a minimum wage worker for 1 shift, you could have an in-house company attorney, consultants in every area of business, a website, custom forms, and much much more. There are even plans which cost less if you're running a home-based business, or are self employeed with less than 8 employees - and those protect you personally as well as your business! Now you can see why I decided to stop my own personal consulting service and get behind this product. How can I justify charging $150/hour for my time knowing that would have bought the business owner 2 months of so much more that I or any consulting/law firm could provide? Sure the $150/hour is great money, but I also have a conscience. If they are paying me to do my best to help their business, it would have been completely immoral to suggest anything but this service to them, which puts me out of business - get it now? We all know the old saying, if you cant beat 'em, join 'em.