Websites about Business & Personal Finance

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Note: See our Brevard and Florida pages for local business information.

General Business

CNN Money - Provides a wealth of current business news, tools, investment information.

Barkley's Comprehensive Financial Glossary - Find the meaning of those elusive business and financial terms.

Bloomberg - Current business news, tools, investment information.

Bureau of Labor Statistics - Data, surveys, regional information.

Hoover's Online - Search for information on companies by business name, ticker symbol, keyword, or person's name.

FindLaw for Business - Provides legal information plus downloadable templates for spreadsheets, sample letters, forms, contracts, policies, checklists.

Internet Nonprofit Center - News, FAQ, bulletins, and a nonprofit locator featuring an "easy-to-use interface to the complete IRS list of all exempt entities."

National Center for Small Business Information @ Florida Institute of Technology - This site offers resources, workshops and classes for new and established small business owners. FREE computer classes to anyone who registers.

National Inventor Fraud Center - Operated by a registered patent attorney, this site helps you evaluation "invention marketers" by describing warning signs and listing information on their success rates.

Old Stock and Bond Certificates - The U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission provides a summary of the resources that are available to help you determine the value of your old stock and bond certificates.

ThomasNet.com – ThomasNet is “the most comprehensive resource for industrial information”. It includes the traditional Thomas Register, the standard source for finding who manufactures what. Go straight to the source of product, company information, CAD drawings and more. Searching and viewing information are unrestricted. In addition, a free “MyThomas” registration gives services including storing search results, contacting multiple companies at once, and customizing news feeds and special offers.

Top Ten Business Links - What this site feels are the best 10 sites in various business categories: top 10 directory sites, home office sites, etc.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce - The U.S. Chamber's page is a good way to keep up with national news and legislation that impact business.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office - Basic facts, downloadable forms, instructions, searchable database of patent attorneys and agents. Search and view full-text U.S. Patents from 1976 on (requires a TIFF image viewer--downloadable from this site). Also, search for trademark words and phrases (and limited searching for images).

Yahoo Business and Economy - Hundreds of links divided into almost 40 headings, from Business Libraries to Labor, Magazines, Taxes, etc.

Women's Business Center - Newsletter, information exchange, resource database, loan information.

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Grants & Fundraising

Association of Fundraising Professionals - Tools and networking opportunities for professional fundraisers.

Federal Funds Expre$$ - Many links related to finding grant sources and writing proposals, as well as government and statistical reports. Page is provided by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Foundation Center – Provides news articles, tutorials, lists of grant topics, grant search tools, and other helps. Some of the services require registration or subscription.

Fundraising Opportunities – Goes beyond seeking grants; gives ideas, success stories, techniques, and tips for raising funds. Although this site is geared toward education, it has parts that are very useful in other areas – for example, Preparing for Fundraising Activities and Guide to Fundraising on the Internet.

Grantsmanship Center – Provides information about funding sources and grantsmanship workshops, especially for nonprofit and government agencies. Access to The Federal Register requires free registration.

Non-Profit Guides – An excellent site for beginners. Provides free online grant-writing instructions and example. Has links to other grantwriting resources and funding sources.

Target Community Giving – The Target Corporation gives grants that support “projects promoting the arts, education, and peace at home.” Includes links (at bottom of page) to Mervyn’s and Marshall Field’s community giving sites.

Personal Finance

Investment Information:

BestCalls - Free registration provides access to conference calls, formerly a largely private means of distributing company information. Previously available only to brokers and analysts, these calls often coincide with the release of quarterly earnings reports.

CBS MarketWatch Investor's Primer - Major sections of the site are Mastering Markets, Your Big Financial Picture, Tools of the Trade (suggested reading, interactive calculators, charting tools and data resources), and Investing Wisely in Mutual Funds.

DRIP Central - Information on DRIPs (Dividend Re-Investment Plans) which let you buy stock directly from a company rather than through a broker.

E*Trade - Money Magazine rates E*Trade as "The best of the cyberspace brokers". Requires online registration to open free acccount. E*Trade offers unprecedented control over your investments, unlimited quotes, charts and real-time news for a minimal fee. Place stock and option orders online, anytime.

Federal Reserve - Website of the Federal Reserve Board.

Financial Times - Coverage of international news, stock quotes and corporate and financial data for over 8500 companies worldwide and a searchable index of closing stock prices and market indices from 35 countries.

Glossary of Investment Terms - Alphabetical listing of key investment terms, many with links to related information and resources.

Hoovers Online - A top source for information on companies.

InvestingInBonds.com - A good place for the beginning bond investor to get basic information.

Investment Resources for the Independent Investor - Primary purpose is to help investors do their own stock research on the Internet. Investors have access to company research, screens, quotes, charts, online brokers, instructional texts, software, and more.

Investopedia – a major site with a dictionary of terms, tutorials on stocks, bonds, margin buying, etc., an Ask Us feature, an investing game, and e-newsletters.

Mortgage and Banking Center - From the Realtor.com commercial site, get daily quotes and bank financing rates for homes, autos and more. There is also a Resource Library with valuable information on mortgage finance, saving and investing, retirement planning, insurance, consumer fraud, business research and more, browsable by topic.

Motley Fool - Information and advice, beginners guides, market reports, analysis and comment. Requires FREE registration.

PC Quote - Stay on top of market news, access research and ideas, get free real-time quotes, and trade stocks, options and mutual funds instantly, online.

Researching Companies Online - This business research tutorial presents a step-by-step process for finding free company and industry information on the World Wide Web.

Savings Bond Calculator - Compute the redemption values for your savings bonds at this site sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Securities Class Action Clearinghouse - Provides detailed information relating to the prosecution, defense, and settlement of federal class action securities fraud litigation.

U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission - The SEC site includes the EDGAR database, which allows you read the quarterly and annual filings of publicly traded U.S. companies.

Mutual Funds:

Morningstar.com - "Chicago-based Morningstar is the leading provider of mutual fund, stock, and variable-insurance investment information." Data, analysis, and editorial commentary on more than 8,500 mutual funds, 8,000 stocks, and 5,000 variable annuity/life subaccounts.

Mutual Funds Interactive - "The Web’s top-rated mutual fund site."

Stock Quotes, Indexes, Futures:

123 Jump - Source of historical stock prices, in some case going back decades, adjusted for stock splits.

AMEX - American Stock Exchange

Commodity Futures Market Charts & Quotes - Free source of daily commodity futures and financial market information.

IPO Investing and Research - Initial Public Offerings Website.

NASDAQ - Newsroom for NASDAQ.

Penny Stocks - Penny stock information. Requires free Acrobat Reader to view PDF file.

Yahoo! Finance - Stock quotes (including real time), insider activity, research, charts (including historical), ticker symbol look-up, and other financial information and news from Reuter’s New Media.

Investment Magazines:

CRHOME - Capital Resource Mortgage Network. Consumer resource for current rates and information on various types of home equity lending

Money Magazine - Money Magazine online.

Smart Money - The Wall Street Journal's "Magazine of Personal Business."

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Small Business

American Express Small Business Net work - Exchange Practical advice on many topics: buying/selling a business, finding money, finding more customers, marketing, managing staff, etc.

FindLaw's Small Business Center - An extensive resource for the legal, tax, and related aspects of your company.

Entrepreneur - Articles, technology, hints, trade secrets for those who work at home, from Entrepeneur.

SCORE - "Counselors to America's Small Business" – a nonprofit site for entrepreneur education. The “Ask SCORE for Business Advice” feature gives access to online counselors 24/7.

ThomasNet – “The most comprehensive resource for industrial information”. It includes the traditional Thomas Register, the standard source for finding who manufactures what. Go straight to the source of product, company information, CAD drawings and more. Searching and viewing information are unrestricted. In addition, a free “MyThomas” registration gives services including storing search results, contacting multiple companies at once, and customizing news feeds and special offers.

U.S. Small Business Administration - Information on starting, financing, expanding a business. Online business courses and business counseling.

And don't forget--if your search for an answer didn't prove successful, contact the Reference Desk at your nearest Brevard County Public Library.

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