From Entrepreneur.com:

Even Wal-Mart sells organic cotton T-shirts these days, but you definitely don’t have to be a retailing behemoth to take your business in a green or organic direction. In fact, entrepreneurs have an advantage when it comes to reaching customers who care about the cause as well as the products.

“It’s a highly underrated opportunity for small business,” says Dr. Karel J. Samsom, a specialist in environmental and sustainable entrepreneurship and author of Spirit of Entrepreneurship. A study by the Organic Trade Association shows that nonfood organic product sales reached $744 million in U.S. consumer sales in 2005, with supplements, personal care and household products leading the charge. For green entrepreneurs, passion is key, says Samsom: “People who are imbued with this kind of spirit have an incredible imagination to rebuild the value chain and inspire their customers in the process.”

That passion is evident when talking to Jonelle Raffino, 41, of South West Trading Co. Inc., a Tempe, Arizona, business that specializes in earth-friendly, alternative fibers and textiles such as yarns made from bamboo, corn and even recycled crab shells. “This country is seeing that we need to challenge the idea of products that use fossil fuels,” says Raffino, who co-founded the company in 2001 with her mother, Jonette Beck. Business is booming so much, they’ve expanded into ready-to-wear items, and they can barely keep up with demand for their line of plush Soy-Silk Pals toys.

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The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is the federal government agency whose sole responsibility is helping you succeed with your small business. Many entrepreneurs have heard about their loan packages, but are you taking advantage of the additional free information, resources, and even personal assistance they have to offer? These people are paid to provide assistance in every area of your business. They are knowledgeable, and they are glad to help. All you need to do is ask.

Every politician in the entire country wants the U.S. economy to thrive. What better way than to support the engine that drives this economy: small business?

Small businesses provide 75% of net new jobs added to our economy, and they represent 99.7% of all employers. To see just how important we small entrepreneurs are, just look at this page: http://www.sbaonline.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbastats.html.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), though always ready to help, used to be considered too complex for the average small business. For many years, only those businesses with legal and accounting advisors took advantage of most programs….

Full Article: Small Business Administration: A U.S. Entrepreneur’s Best Friend

Jenna Bean loves pets, so much so that she has turned her appreciation of the four-legged creatures into a thriving home-based business as a pet sitter.

In two years, her client base has jumped from a handful to nearly 90 pet owners.

“This has just exploded,” said Bean, an animal-science major at Fresno State University. “One day I had 12 stops to make. It was crazy.”

Bean joins the growing ranks of home-based entrepreneurs who opt to run their own companies in nontraditional ways. For many, including Bean, home-based businesses are cheaper to operate, more flexible and easier to control.

Recent Census data show that almost half of the nation’s 23 million businesses are operated out of the home.

“We are running at about a 10 percent annual growth rate,” said Rudy Lewis, president of the National Association of Home Based Businesses, in Maryland.

“I really couldn’t do everything I am doing if I had an office,” said Bean, who likes having few overhead business costs. “But what’s scary is how fast this has grown. This was supposed to be a side job to earn some extra money; now I am working on a Web site and brochures.”

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From WomenHomeBusiness.com:

By tradition, the “self employment culture” has been characterized as a male phenomenon. Entrepreneurship, a game of risk and chance, used to be the exclusive domain of the male population

Not anymore. A growing number of women are venturing into self-employment and getting inclined to start an enterprise. Many women are finding that entrepreneurship could pave the way for their “need for new challenges”, the wish to “be one’s own boss” and a “better organized working life”.

What motivates women to pursue self-employment and start their own businesses?

We interviewed Kimberly Yorio and Caitlin Friedman, founders of YC Media, a successful PR firm), to give us insights on women and entrepreneurship. Kimberly and Caitlin recently wrote a book entitled The Girl’s Guide to Starting Your Own Business (HarperResource Category: January 2004),.which is a great primer designed to give real advice to women on business planning, hiring and managing a business.

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Excerpt from StartUpNation.com:

Before Becky Boyd turned her basement into an office for her public relations business, MediaFirst PR, she fell prey to the “just let me check another e-mail” syndrome that ails many home-based entrepreneurs.

“We had a computer in our living room, and it was so easy to run in there and go online and start doing e-mail,” says Boyd, who works with her husband, Jim Caruso.

After founding the company in 1992, the pair worked offsite. But they moved home because, well, they liked being there. It was easy, convenient, required no commute and – a big plus – their young son wouldn’t have to sit in after-school daycare.

They built out the basement of their 4,000-square-foot, three-story house, creating two offices and a computer closet. Every day, Boyd dresses for work like she would for an offsite office. She sets hours, too, which is imperative for home-preneurs who can get swept away by the compelling forces of working where you live.

“It’s very hard to leave work at work because work is always available,” says Boyd, who has to fight the urge to work 16-hour days and fill weekends with earning income. “It’s not like I have to drive anywhere, fight traffic. I just go boom, and I’m in the office. You have to make a concerted effort to get away from it.”

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