flyte blog: small business web marketing blog

Recently I pitched a story to 207, the evening news program up here in Maine, on Web-based resources for entrepreneurs.

Due to the economic downturn, many people are thinking about (or forced into) striking it out on their own. This can be a scary thing, especially if you've been working in a cubicle most of your life, or even in a corner office.

However, there are a lot of online resources out there. I reached out to some fellow entrepreneurs and got a huge amount of online resources…more than would be useful for a five minute segment. To that end, I've created a list below of all the sites that had been submitted. In no particular order:

• Maine.gov: Starting a Business: Information and specifics about what you need to start a business in Maine.
• SCORE Maine: SCORE,
  the Service Corps of Retired Executives, offers free counseling and
  workshops to businesses. Chapters exist throughout the country,and this site lists all the chapters in Maine.
• Score Maine (Portland chapter): If you're living in the Greater Portland area, this is the chapter for you. Bonus Points: I occasionally speak there. Double Bonus Points: flyte designed it.
• Maine Center for Enterprise Development: Business incubator providing low cost services to start ups. They are also running a "Top Gun" applied entrepreneurship program.
• Maine Technology Institute: Offers early stage capital and commercialization assistance for R&D of innovative, technology-based projects.
• Maine & Company: Help on growing or moving your business to Maine.
• Maine Angels: Providing investments to promising, early-stage companies.
• Maine Small Business Development Centers: Help on starting a business, and many online courses entrepreneurs can take.
• Realize! Maine: Focused on encouraging young entrepreneurs to stay in Maine and grow their business here.
• Maine Development Foundation: Dedicated to sustainable, long-term economic growth for Maine. Offers programs on leadership, building downtowns and more.
• TechMaine: Focused on technology companies in Maine, including startups. Have an Entrepreneur Handbook.
• MEBSR: Not a startup resource per se, but helping Maine entrepreneurs build (and grow) sustainable businesses.
• flyte new media: The place small businesses turn to for Web sites and Internet marketing such as search engine visibility, email marketing, blogging, and social media. Oops, may have gotten a little self-serving there.

In addition, there are a number of LinkedIn Groups that are Maine-centric. Some of my personal favorites:

• Maine Entrepreneurs: Discussions around entrepreneurship, small business and startups.
• Living and Working in the State of Maine: Slightly broader topics for anyone who works, lives or even plays here.
• MaineBiz: Maine Business topics sponsored by MaineBiz.
• Maine Marketing Association: Marketing-focused conversations.
• Maine Tweetup: Primarily announcements about Maine-based Tweetups.
• TechMaine: The group for TechMaine.

Do you have any other Web-based resources for Maine startups and entrepreneurs? Let us know!   

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Entrepreneur & Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.