Free Business Resources

Understand Key Accounting Terms

Understanding the language of accounting is essential for good conversations with service providers. Take time to review the Accounting Terms all small business owners should know.

Understand Basic Cash Flow Management & How it Applies to Your Business

• Looking to feel more confident in your financial knowledge? Join the SBDC at UW-Madison for one of our accounting classes to help you learn how to manage cash flow, read financial statements, assess your financial data, and more.
• Cash flow is a term that describes the way cash flows into and out of your business. The ability to predict your cash needs is essential. Cash on hand will give a business more flexibility in uncertain times. 
• Looking for a basic cash flow tools to help you make projections? SCORE has hundreds of templates to help you organize your business 
  • Basic cash flow template (Excel document)
  • Balance Sheet Template
  • Explore more templates here
• No-cost alternatives for Excel
• Looking for funding for your business? Kiva is an online crowdfunding program that provides 0% interest loans to entrepreneurs and start-up businesses. Kiva loans include a private fundraising period, after which the application is posted online for a public fundraising period.
• U.S. News and World Report’s 360 Review of Best Small Business Credit Card Companies 2024

Hire an Accountant 

An accountant is a key member of your team of advisers (in addition to an attorney, insurance agent, lender, etc.). It is essential to interview several accounting firms to find a good fit. Industry experience, cost, and scope of services are all aspects to consider in choosing an accountant. Review the important questions to ask before hiring an Accountant.

Choose an Accounting Software

A key function in being able to understand your overall financial picture is the quality of your reports. Good reporting comes from accurate inputs and functional software. Having cloud-based software allows you to easily access information remotely. How to choose an Accounting software.

Understand Your Risk Tolerance and Decide When to Take on Financial Risk

Risk tolerance is an important factor in entrepreneurship; most entrepreneurs have a higher risk tolerance than the general public. There is no one-size-fits-all answer about how much financial risk (debt) you should take on; this is an individual decision based on a variety of factors. Even so, you will want to make educated decisions in collaboration with your stakeholders. If you are signing a contract in particular, this is a good time to involve your attorney.  

• Choosing whether to buy or lease the equipment you need for your business
• Acquiring equipment loan financing 
• Understand the terms of a commercial lease and questions you should ask
• Decide if/when you need to take out a business loan

Seeking Funding

Due to the inherent risk of starting a business, there are limited grant programs available. Grants that do exist are typically focused on specific categories of business. To learn more about loan and grant opportunities for funding, visit this resource page created by the Wisconsin Technology Council.

Articles:

• Funding your startup article from Fundable – provides a good overview of the most common funding sources for small businesses
• Pros and cons of common startup funding options
• Sources and challenges of startup funding for new businesses

Financial Management for Freelancers

The Freelancer’s Union is an excellent resource to give you an overview of taxes, benefits, quarterly payments, and more for freelance entrepreneurs.

Small Business Taxes

View this recorded small business tax workshop from the IRS to learn more about the basics of how taxes are structured and what you need to know.

More about small business taxes from the IRS.

Insurance

One key way to mitigate risk in your business is to purchase insurance. The Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance has developed the Consumer’s Guide to Insurance for Small Business Owners to help you better understand the types of insurance available for small businesses and how to buy the coverage you need.

Reduce Cybersecurity Risks

• Michigan SBDC Cybersecurity Tools
• Protect your business from cyber attacks
• Government response to cyber attacks 
• Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency

Health Care

Understand what health care options may be available to you. If you are self-employed or a small business owner, nonprofit Covering Wisconsin helps helps people find affordable health insurance based on their budget and health needs.

Hire a Lawyer

• An attorney is a key partner in your business. Learn more about how to hire the best attorney for you.
• The Wisconsin Bar Association’s “I Need a Lawyer” search will help you find an lawyer to interview. Make sure to speak with several lawyers in order to find your best fit! 
• No-cost legal assistance for small businesses
  • The Marquette Volunteer ​Legal Clinic provides legal assistance to small businesses in Wisconsin with non-litigation business law servic​​es they could not otherwise afford.​
  • The UW-Madison Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic is able to work with a limited number of businesses who apply, based on the criteria outlined on their website.

Evaluate Your Employee Needs

Adding employees to your team can take a variety of forms beyond full-time staff. In fact, hiring part-time or temporary staff can help you better understand your needs. Several options include:

• Hiring freelance staff through websites like Fiverr or Upwork
• Hiring UW-Madison student staff by:
  • Learning more about hiring current students via our Hire Badgers: Student Staffing Opportunities for Small Business
  • Joining the Federal Work-Study program by completing the Federal Work-Study partner eligibility questionnaire. 
  • Posting hourly student positions on the Student Job Center
  • Sharing internship opportunities via Handshake

Establish Your Brand

• Your business’s brand is one of the intangible assets you can leverage. It is helpful to establish your brand moving forward.
• A brand mantra can help your team establish focus and build motivation. This resource provides additional information about how to create a brand mantra.

Develop a Marketing/Communication Plan 

• Whether you are working with a marketing professional or doing the work yourself, it is helpful to understand the basics and key terms associated with customer acquisition, as explained in this “101” SBDC blog article.
• Communication is always key with your customers. In our digital world, it is important to grow and stay motivated for your brand. This marketing plan template can help you make communication decisions.
• As you think through your marketing objectives and tactics, review this 12-step template, which covers topics such as conducting a SWOT and competitive analysis, setting SMART marketing goals, establishing KPIs, planning marketing tactics, and more.
• Understand consumer confidence by conducting online surveys. Here are the six best online survey tools.
• Sprout Social provides updated information annually about the demographics of different social media platforms so that you can choose the tool(s) that best connect to your audience.

Understand Your Target Market

• Use your business data to identify demographic information about your customers. This can come from sales records, a Customer Relations Management (CRM) system, social media accounts, mailing lists, etc. If you’re in the early stages of creating your business plan, conduct formal research via UW-Madison Libraries and the Madison Public Library.
• An empathy map is a tool that business owners can use to better understand their customers’ psychographics, including needs, wants, and motivations. Likely, when you started your business, you created something similar to this; however, it is a good idea to revisit the process now that so much has changed for our customers as a part of the pandemic. This particular empathy map was created by XPLANE.  
• Trade associations are a great way to get an industry-specific outlook regarding the current status and future trends of your products. They often conduct research on behalf of members and do legislative advocacy.
• A competitive analysis helps you determine what made your product or service unique, especially compared to similar businesses in your area.

General Leadership Topics

Having a better understanding of your natural leadership and communication styles – as well as the styles of those around you – can give you a clearer sense of how to maximize your natural strengths and make adjustments when working with an employee whose style differs from yours. 

• The SBDC at UW-Madison offers a variety of leadership classes about leadership style, coaching communication, performance reviews, and more.
• As a leader, developing emotional intelligence is key to helping your team thrive. The Six Seconds website includes several resources, including:
  • Several Emotional Intelligence Inventories (paid)
  • Assess your own leadership strengths and weaknesses in order to identify where you can improve. Leadership Assessment Tool