Free Business Training From SBA Where To Find Federal Stimulus & Recovery Money
by Elizabeth H. Cottrell, IAHBE Writer & Editor

Everyone who needs credit for any purpose, anywhere in the world today, is finding it difficult to find a lender willing to help. Government policies and official greed at all levels caused the housing market in all countries to blossom and finally explode, leaving banks holding assets with rapidly diminishing value. The result is extreme reluctance to make any loans at all. This is an example of what goes around comes around. I got out of the real estate agent business in 1995; during my years as an active agent, one of the most unpleasant things to do was tell a young couple just starting their lives to go to a lender, any lender at the time, and apply for a mortgage. To me, all the information required and the questions asked were a form of torture. Imagine my surprise when housing fell off the cliff last year and it was revealed mortgages were granted simply on the word of an applicant with no check of the facts. What a difference from just a few years earlier. Now, even with impeccable credit, most people are still having difficulty obtaining funds from conventional sources...

Evernote Research File Manager
Reviewed by Yank Elliott, MBA & IAHBE Writer

Everything I do involves great amounts of research where I get more information than I need at the time. Because all my Internet activities and businesses require a lot of writing, I like to accumulate the ideas I can’t use at the moment for content in future articles or other written products. The result is too many icons on my desktop and countless folders and files all over my hard drive. I have made countless attempts at organizing this research, only to forget where I put specific information; it’s amazing how many forgotten items show when I search my desktop. The result is much of my research becomes stale, or lost entirely, because I don’t remember where it is on my computer...

Why Now Is The Time To Crush It! Cash In On Your Passion, by Gary Vaynerchuk
reviewed by Elizabeth Cottrell, IAHBE Editor

When I first read the title of this book, I was afraid it would be just another “Follow your passion and the money will follow” book, and I only ordered it after I had heard the author, Gary Vaynerchuk (a.k.a. as “GaryVee”) on a teleseminar and then had several Internet entrepreneurs and bloggers recommend the book. It was engaging, helpful, and motivating, and I would recommend it to anyone who has started—or wants to start—a part or full time home-based or small business. Don’t be put off by the breathless exuberance of the author. That’s his genuine persona, but we’re not all like that. You can still learn a lot from this book, and for the types of readers I mentioned above, it’s worthwhile...

Face To Face On The Cheap: A Review Of Inexpensive Web Conferencing Programs
by Yank Elliott, MBA & IAHBE Writer

Recently I was asked to see what inexpensive plans are available to conduct web conferences or Webinars. Everybody wants as many features as possible for the least amount of money—only natural, and quite necessary in the economic environment of today. To be an effective small business tool, the program should provide service for at least 10 attendees at a time, and have a means to share desktops and documents. The main requirement for all small business owners, in particular, the startup people, is that it be very inexpensive—free is best, not just a free trial. This seemed to be an excellent subject all members of IAHBE would like, so this article is the result of the request...

Auto Mail Sender 4.10
Win 2000/XP/2003/Vista

Send e-mails on a schedule and from virtual identities. Easy-to-understand setup and ability to set the e-mail's time and date sent and import an address book from another e-mail system through a simple menu. Schedule e-mails to send hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly.

Tor 0.20.1.21
OS X 10.4, 10.5, 10.6

Defend against network surveillance and protect your privacy, business activities, and relationships. Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays and prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit and prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location.

When Is It Smart To Invest In A Business Coach?
by Elizabeth H. Cottrell, @RiverwoodWriter

Typically non-athletic coaching falls into three categories: 1) personal coaching which focuses on self-development, self-image, personal motivation and fulfillment; 2) business coaching, which focuses on issues of starting, running and/or growing a business; and 3) executive coaching, which helps executives learn to build better collaborative relationships for more effective leadership. This article will focus on the second type since you readers—home-based entrepreneurs—typically would be most interested in business coaching...

Credit Score Defines Your Life: What you need to know about the impact of your credit score on your life and leverage
by Yank Elliott, IAHBE Writer

An individual’s credit record has become the most important determinant of whether any kind of credit is available and what the terms of that credit may be, particularly the interest rate charged. Lenders use the credit score, or FICO score, a number resulting from manipulations of the data in someone’s credit report. During the housing boom, the ability to repay a loan was not considered in many cases, resulting in the disaster of sub-prime loans. Lenders and government regulators have over-reacted, and credit requirements are now so restrictive it is difficult for many to meet the standards. We are all in some home-based, or small, business of some kind, and the ability to obtain credit often means survival for us. This article will discuss how credit scores are developed, how to improve them, and who uses credit scores with some of the reasons for their use...