By Dan Bobinski

You opened your business with less than $35,000 operating capital.  You have less than five employees. Some say you are crazy.  I say people like you are the backbone of the country. But what you really are is a microenterprise. And the good news is that microenterprises have online communities and other resources opening up to them like never before.

One such resource is startupnation. Founded by entrepreneurial experts Jeff and Rich Sloan, startupnation has an abundance of resources for starting a business from scratch. In addition to all the articles and step-by-step instructions, their online community forums let you chat with other entrepreneurs from around the world.

Free Online Mentoring

Another innovative site is micromentor.org. It emerged from an Aspen Institute project called FIELD - the Microenterprise Fund for Innovation, Effectiveness, Learning and Dissemination.

Seems some FIELD research (pardon the pun) found that micro business owners (known as microentrepreneurs) kept things moving in the right direction with the help of one-on-one, in-depth, industry-specific business assistance. A no-brainer there. And they also found that technology (i.e., the Internet) was available for an efficient, low-cost delivery of that service.

Consequently, the MicroMentor concept took shape.

The result is a free, Web-based service connecting low-income and shoestring start-ups with successful business owners and managers. All mentors are volunteers who must meet certain criteria:

 > Be at least 21
 > Have a minimum three years of business ownership
 – or five years in business management
 > Agree to spend at least three hours per month for three months helping each matched protégé.

To have a mentor, “Microentrepreneurs” must apply and fill out a questionnaire about their business. Once matched, the mentor often helps the microentrepreneur establish goals and plans. Meetings usually occur via email and telephone, and the relationship can last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, depending on the need.

Phenomenal Use of Social Networking

Considering that large corporations have more money in their training budget than most microentrepreneurs make in a year, MicroMentor.org an awesome idea. In fact, the MicroMentor site and startupnation.com are probably the most practical applications of social networking I’ve seen yet.

Of course, we can’t neglect the Association for Enterprise Opportunity. They’re about as pro-microenterprise as you can get.  And I’m sure there’s a lot more out there — feel free to add links to more resources in the comments section.

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Filed in Business, Management, Leadership, Internet, Workplace, Coaching