On a mission: 10 useful web sites for Kentucky businesses

This article originally appeared in Business Lexington Magazine.

You’re on a mission, there’s a deadline, it’s Friday night, and well, we’ve all been there. It’s times like these that the Web sites I’ve built into my list of “most useful” really shine.

I tried to find destinations that are useful for small and large firms, and each has the potential to save time and money from the first visit. Most of these have been significantly improved in the past year, as well.

… Drum roll please!

10. http://www.thomasnet.com When you’re looking for a specific type of supplier, I’ve yet to find a more thorough solution. ThomasNet is the online version of the Thomas Register book, but it’s much richer and always up-to-date. If you’re a supplier, being listed on this directory is critical to find industrial buyers. It is also a very common stopping point for purchasing departments.

9. http://www.ideacafe.com They call it a fun place for serious business, and I agree. The cyberschmooz forums are a riot, and extremely good ideas flow inside. Yahoo! said of Idea Café: “Idea Cafe serves up a business info feast… insights on starting, running and growing a business.” The large number of participants means you’ll almost always find someone else who has faced a similar issue to yours.

8.. http://www.sidestep.com If you travel for business, this site will do more than save time; it’ll rise to the top of your bookmarks list. With a comparison tool that searches Expedia, Travelocity, and Orbitz, you can find the best rates for flights, hotel rooms, and rental cars. If you’re a frequent flyer, the sidestep toolbar add-in attaches to your web browser to give basic searching functions anytime.

7. http://www.download.com As is the case with the sidestep toolbar, sometimes we all need a little specialized utility for the computer, and the mega software suite won’t cut it. The download.com site is a little geeky, but the shareware and freeware offerings number into the thousands. You can find utilities for just about anything you’ll ever want to accomplish on your computer.

6. http://www.osha.gov As employers, we’re all bound to assure the safety and health of our employees, and the U.S. Department of Labor’s site provides almost everything for compliance in your Kentucky business. Forms, posters, and various regulations are easy to find and print out.

5. http://www.ehow.com From how to conduct market research to buy a fax machine, there are thousands of how-to guides in one place. An incredibly useful site, ehow.com is my favorite place to go and ask stupid questions. Example how-to guides include finding a good accountant and getting the most out of a trade show.

4. http://www.score.org Speaking of questions, here you can send (for free) any inquiry about business to one of over 1,000 volunteer business counselors. There are specialists on many topics, and they guarantee confidentiality on all questions. The diversity of talent is very good, and these folks seem to love doing it.

3. http://www.eftpssouth.com/Eftps This rather clunky site won’t win any design awards, but it lets you securely pay almost any type of federal taxes online. You can also schedule payments ahead of time, and they’ll fund automatically on the specified date. This is great when you’re going to be busy or away near a deadline.

2. http://www.findlaw.com Growing every month, you’ll find huge quantities of legal information, news, and case study research to understand the issues you might face running your business. I’ve never seen a more extensive collection of legal resources in one place. Specialized legal topics such as intellectual property and thousands of free articles put it at the top of my bookmark list.

1. http://sos.ky.gov The Kentucky Secretary of State Web site also underwent a transformation in recent years. What used to be painful to use, is now a slick, indispensable destination. Some of the best sections include a form library, fee information, and a huge business records database.

There you have it. I hope that in this list you found at least one destination on the Web you’ve not heard of but can’t live without. Best wishes for happy surfing and profitable ventures.

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