The Chamber and several other business groups have teamed up with IBM to provide local minority and women entrepreneurs and businesses with a free online business toolkit to help them start or grow their businesses.
The small business toolkit enables entrepreneurs and small businesses to learn how to implement sustainable business management practices needed for growth in areas such as finance, accounting, international business, marketing, human resources or legal.
The Toolkit is a partnership between IBM and IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank, and it was recently expanded in the U.S. to serve underserved communities such as Black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian and women-owned businesses.
"Successful small businesses can create jobs and are vital to the state of Massachusetts' growth,” said Chamber CEO Paul Guzzi. “The SME Toolkit is a high quality website provided by IBM and the IFC that can serve as a great resource to help the survival and growth of our small businesses.”
In Massachusetts there are over 650,000 small businesses accounting for over 1 million jobs in the state's economy. While small businesses generated between 60 to 80 percent of the new jobs annually in the U.S. over the past decade, they can be disadvantaged by the lack of access to resources such as skills, knowledge and information that larger businesses routinely use to grow and succeed.
Among the Toolkit's specially designed free tools are:
- An online calculator that helps small businesses determine their readiness for financing
- Free software to build a web site
- Free business forms used for employee performance evaluations
- Community tools such as online conferencing, blog capability, group calendars, survey and quiz builders to help small businesses make decisions, and
- A multilingual business directory to help small businesses link locally, regionally and globally.
Small businesses can also receive business training delivered via classroom workshops and partnerships with local support providers. The Toolkit can also help small businesses go global by providing detailed market access, investment and trade information for the 64 countries most exported to countries.
The Toolkit was launched by IFC in 2002. IBM has dedicated more than $1.6 million to transform the Toolkit and rebuild it on an innovative open source platform using top talent in IBM research. The Toolkit includes new Web 2.0 features such as live chat, online forums, business directories and survey capabilities to create a community where small and medium sized business can collaborate – anywhere around the world.
