May 2012 CyberSelection: BusinessUSA

BusinessUSA (http://business.usa.gov) is  a "centralized, one-stop platform" designed to make it "easier than ever for businesses to access services to help them grow and hire." It went live in beta in February, just four months after President Obama challenged government agencies to work together, beyond their individual boundaries, and to "start thinking and acting more like the businesses they serve." Thus much of the information you find here is available at other U.S. government websites; the unique contribution of BusinessUSA is supposed to be that you can find what you need easier and faster.

How Can We Help You?

That service-oriented business question appears in large letters on the center front page; help comes in five categories: Start a Business, Grow Your Business, Access Financing, Help with Exporting, and Find Opportunities. The drop-down menu (Find Resources) in the top navigation panel uses the same subject division, except for separating Exporting into Beginning Exporting and Expanding Exporting.

I clicked on Grow Your Business; the page changed to one offering four programs to help in developing a plan for diversification: Small Business Development Centers, Procurement Tech. Assistance Centers, SCORE Mentors, and U.S. Export Assistance Centers. Each carries a two-line description; when you click on the program title, a new page opens with a one-paragraph "detail description," eligibility requirements, a web link for learning more, and contact information that reveals the hierarchy of agencies within which this program is embedded in government bureaucracy, with a telephone number and email address. One annoying feature is that when you click a web link, an interim message appears warning that you are leaving the BusinessUSA.gov web server and asking you to verify that you want to do this--that is, click again. It is particularly annoying because when your mouse hovers over the link, a pop-up message tells you "This link opens a new window." In every case I tried, the link did open a new window, and I was not leaving the BusinessUSA.gov site.

You usually have to "leave the site," or open one or more new windows, to find the local help that is advertised on this page, but the length of the path depends on the program.  From the SCORE Small Business Mentors detail description page (http://business.usa.gov/content/score-small-business-mentors), I needed only one click (plus that annoying one) to get to the SCORE page (www.score.org), where links to find a mentor online or in person at a local chapter were clearly visible at the screen top. The Export Assistance Center (http://business.usa.gov/content/us-export-assistance-centers-0) required the same to get to the Contact a Trade Specialist Near You page (http://export.gov/eac/index.asp), where you can search by ZIP code or local U.S. or international office. The one+one click got me from the Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTAC) page (http://business.usa.gov/content/procurement-technical-assistance-centers) to www.dla.mil/SmallBusiness/Pages/ProcurementTechnicalAssistanceCenters.aspx and a clickable pathway by state or territory to the location of the nearest DoD PTAC.

But the Small Business Development Centers page (http://business.usa.gov/content/small-business-development-centers) sent me first to www.sba.gov/sbdc, where I had to scroll down to see "Visit the Association of Small Business Development Centers website to find your nearest SBDC," then click OK to leave the SBA site, and go to the ASBDC site (www.asbdc-us.org) before searching by ZIP or state to find an SBDC. Clearly if BusinessUSA is to reach its goal of "faster and easier," it is going to have to shorten the path from its pages to some of its contributing agencies' content.

Back on the Growing Your Business page (http://business.usa.gov/top-programs-and-services-recommended-growing-your-business) there are also leads to programs for specific industries: Manufacturing Extension Partnership, Fishermen's Contingency Fund, Rural Energy for America Program, and International Marketing Assistance. Each gets its own page with detail description, eligibility requirements, web link, and contact information. Each also, like the diversification programs, has a list of about a dozen Similar Programs, Similar Services, and Recent Programs as a right-hand sidebar. The title of the program is hyperlinked, and the list includes a 60-character "description."  Government agencies being what they are, the name of the program is sometimes longer than the description. Still, you can click through this list and view other programs within the BusinessUSA resource base that may be useful. At the bottom of the page are links to "customize results based on your situation." Here are programs specifically for veterans and for women and minority business owners.

I browsed the other major categories of resources (Starting a Business, Financing, Exporting, and Opportunities) and found their style and layout to be similar to what I had seen in Growing Your Business: a few broad-based questions in each category, with listings and descriptions of applicable programs. As I browsed I became aware of dozens of possibilities for financing and other help which were new to me.

State and Local Help

The State and Local tab on the top navigation bar leads to What Your State or Territory has to offer (http://business.usa.gov/stateandlocal) with a map of the U.S. Click on the map or name of state or territory to find an expansive list of resources for that state; featured are finance, tax, and business development centers at the state level--including the state library--as well as regional and metropolitan concerns. Most states have 20 or so organizations listed; the name, a well-written and useful description, and a "learn more" link are provided. The links on this page do not tell you that they open into a new window, but they do, and you also have to go through the "leaving this site" rigmarole. Clearly, though, these pages can lead you to offices and resources that you may not have known before.

The Discover Events tab leads to a large, eclectic events listing (http://business.usa.gov/events); at the top of the list one time I looked were the annual Alabama State University HBCU Conference and an SBIR/STTR Workshop at Wichita State University. Refine results using the filters at the right: Date Range, Event Type, Industry, Organization, and Location. Date Range searches may be for the next 5 days, 15 days, or All Events. A Location filter  allows limiting to one or several states and U.S. territories. Event Types include Breakfast, Conferences, Job Fairs, Luncheons, Seminars, Symposiums, Trade shows, Training. Webcast, and Webcast - On Demand. The latter two made me go back to check whether "online" is given as a searchable location; it isn't. Twenty Industry types are searchable, from Accommodation And Food Services to Wholesale Trade, and there are 21 Organization listings, which appear to be sponsoring agency. Scanning the search filters gives some insight into the metadata that apparently is applied to each BusinessUSA record, but it is difficult to verify that, since no metadata is visible when viewing content.

Refining a search is a bit of a challenge. When you enter data to refine, the search is performed automatically in the length of time that you may be looking around for the nonexistent Search button, and the results list is refreshed. You may need to keep your eyes open wide to see that it has changed. Nor is there a button to clear former filters, so you need to remember to un-check limits you no longer require when starting a new strategy.

I had trouble with the keyword search box, too. Searches on self employment tax brought 189 results; "self employment tax" brought zero; and +self +employment +tax brought two relevant ones. I used the search tips, which appear only when you get zero results, to build my next successful search using plus signs, but when I used the big +blue drop example provided in the tips, I got zero results!

It's a Beta

Clearly there are some issues with design and functionality to be addressed before BusinessUSA achieves its goal of cutting through the boundaries between government offices to make it easy to get business information. However, the beta site is actively seeking feedback (http://business.usa.gov/feedback)--and implementing it, judging from several changes noted as this article worked its way through the editorial and production process. I hope the site continues to improve, as it exists through the work of our tax dollars, with the aim of stimulating business and economic growth in the U.S. BusinessUSA can be useful when you have a specific business or regulatory question, and it is worth browsing from time to time to check on new publications, programs, agencies, and events to aid in business development.

Susanne Bjørner provides editorial services to publishers, librarians, authors, and researchers from a base in Spain. Contact her at bjorner@earthlink.net or www.bjorner.info.