Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

So i noticed the StartUp Nation Community wants to get some ideas for forum topics. This is great and the sooner this happens the better. I can already imagine what this forum will look like wants it gets really busy! Since i have some experience with this i thought I`d kick it off.

So here are my thoughts. Feel free to add to them, group them, rip them etc but be sure to post your thoughts on the subject!

• Business Basics - For those just starting out or have basic questions.
• Marketing Your Business - Tips, Tricks and trade secrets for marketing your business
• Your Business and the Web - Everything related to your business and the web
• Funding Your Business - find funding or discuss funding options for your business
• Growing Your Business - discuss the steps to grow your business to the next level
• Promoting Your Business - discuss ways to promote your business
• Business Market - Tell us about your business, talk about your services /products
• Business Legalities - discuss legal topics including incorporating, taxes, zoning, employee issues etc
• Home Based Business - work from home? use this forum to discuss you ups and downs with others like you!
• Franchises - Want to franchise your business? Buy a Franchisee? or just love the model, then discuss it here.
• Mentoring - Need some help, or that little extra push. Post here to have a community member help you along the way.
• Business Operations - Got questions related to daily activities post it here.
• Selling your Business - ready to cash out or move on? Here`s the place to discuss things on your mind.
• Business / Marketing Plans - got a plan to share post it here and let the community help you make it a winner
• Business Referances & Tools - Know of a great website, service or product that can help a business out? Or maybe you just love it? Either way share it here for all to enjoy.
  

Now this is just a small list and is not ordered in any way. So please add to it and lets make this the best business forums around!

It seems to me that you have hit the nail on the head. This Topic list looks great. Lets get it implemented Sloan Brothers. Once again, I am waiting to here that Jonese has been put on the Start-Up Nation payroll. Excellent contribution Jonese!

I can`t think of anything you missed. We can always add more later, right? Or maybe divide some categories further if they get too big. It would make it much easier to find the topics you want. I can`t believe how fast this forum has grown. I have received SO much help already. Thanks everyone!

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VickiJ
www.freshairjournal.com

I like the list, but would like to add more. The current list seems to lean toward the web world. I`d like to tilt the forum more toward the physical product arena. So here goes.

• Shipping - anything that physically moves your product around. fulfillment, export, import, customs brokers, harmonized codes, shipping containers, bar codes
• Brick and Mortar selling - anything involved in this relationship. Sales reps, packaging, POP displays, getting your foot in the door.
• Manufacturing - getting it made. Prototypes, finding and working with engineers, designers, manufactures. QC (quality control) , focus groups
• Money management - (might be part of funding or operations) What to do with $ on a day to day basis. SEP-IRA, health insurance, cash-flow, exchange rates, employee security in a small business

Degrees,

ARG! you found my weakness, i`m a net geek !

Your topics are awesome and hopefully this will spurr more people to make suggestions as well!

I love the topics of Marketing, Business Promotion, Business Basics, Business and the Web, Business/Marketing Plans and Mentoring. Nice suggestions.

I`d like to add Website SEO and Paid Search Advertising as possible topics. From a startup perspective, these issues bring around much different conversations than what I`m able to find elsewhere online.

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Nick Runyon
Director of Marketing
PrintingForLess.com

I`d like to add a Find Business Partners, Team Members forum.

Matt

The main thing I got from jonese is that we need categories. At the moment there are only two, one for startupnation posts and one for everything else.  With categories I can skip the posts on topics I`m less interested in and better monitor those I can actually help with (web & general IT). Oh... how about an IT/computer help category?

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Blog - http://www.buggy.id.au/

I SECOND "IT COMPUTER HELP".   TOPICS FOR ME WOULD BE:
HOW TO KNOW IF YOUR DVD BURNER REALLY IS BROKEN OR IS IT JUST ME?  - ARE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES WORTH THE COST AND ARE THEY BETTER THAN ONLINE STORAGE OR PORTABLE BACKUP?




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Jo
NJ

Great ideas all! Let`s keep them coming!

At this rate we`ll be able to plan out the entire forums for StartUpNation! (talk about cheap labor )