Resources for Entrepreneurs and Business Development

Small Business Administration Includes information on starting, financing, or expanding your small business.

Internet Business cards by state online - searchable

Small Business Innovation Research Grants and Awards for Alabama Previous Small Business Innovation Research Awards (SBIR) to Alabama companies.

Small Business Innovation Research Grants and Awards  Many U.S. Government agencies award Small Business Innovation Research Awards (SBIR) to small U.S. companies in an effort to promote their growth and development. In effect, the SBIR program is the Federal Government's venture capital investment program.

Alabama International Trade Contacts Export assistance, trade contacts, state export assistance, state offices overseas, Alabama trade associations, etc.

Export Promotion from the International Trade Administration Includes trade information and service, marketing, export assistance, "how to" information, information by industry sector, information by region and country, trade show announcements, etc.

Small Business Help Center

Minority Business Development Agency The Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) of the United States Department of Commerce is the only Federal agency specifically created to encourage the creation, growth, and expansion of minority-owned businesses in the United States.

Government Contracts Center (Includes Commerce Business Daily)

Business Leads and Procurement Opportunities A service of Stat-USA including a  version of Commerce Business Daily searchable by service and supply codes.

Manufacturing Extension Project MEP is a nationwide network of more than 70 not-for-profit Centers whose sole purpose is to provide small and medium-sized manufacturers with the help they need to succeed. The Centers, located in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, are linked together through the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. That makes it possible for even the smallest firms to have access to more than 2,000 knowledgeable manufacturing and business specialists.

        Manufacturing Extension Centers in Alabama

Advanced Technology Program The ATP is a unique partnership between government and private industry to accelerate the development of high-risk technologies that promise significant commercial payoffs and widespread benefits for the economy. The ATP encourages a change in how industry approaches R&D,
providing a mechanism for industry to extend its technological reach and push out the envelope of what can be attempted.


USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office The primary services of the USPTO include processing patents and trademarks and disseminating patent and trademark information. Provides searching for patents and trademarks 1976-present.

Patent and Trademark Search online This patent server lets you access over 26 years of U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) patent descriptions as well as the last 23 years of images. The first entries date back to January 5, 1971. You can search, retrieve and study over two million patents.

Community of Science Patent Searching The U.S. Patents database is a fully searchable bibliographic file containing all of the approximately 1.7 million U.S. patents issued since 1975. The database is updated weekly and permits subscribers to search all of the important "front page" information about each patent: number, dates, assignee, inventor, title, abstract, exemplary claims for recent years, and U.S. and international classifications. In addition, the database tracks the "lineage" of each patent - how each patent cites previous patents or is cited by subsequent ones.

U.S. Business Advisor Regulatory Assistance, Selling to the Government, Labor, Trade, Domestic Commerce, etc.

AT&T Toll-free Directory