The Internet is a great place to find helpful information and guidance regarding your business. We have listed several resources below that we feel are useful for keeping your business moving in the right direction. Also, we have listed some books that can provide comprehensive insight and perspective into your business. Each month we will create a short list of some of our favorites.

We also want to know what resources have worked well for you. Send us an e-mail at Valutis@Valutisconsulting.com with the subject heading "Resources" with any web pages, news groups, list servers, books, or other resources that have been helpful. We will review your contributions and post the best of the best.

Our Resource Center is divided into three sections: Web Links; Other Internet Resources; and Recommended Books.

Web Links
	The Business Forum	Provides two unique resources: The internal index provides a comprehensive listing of columns and articles on a broad range of issues relating to running your business. The external index provides links to over 50 non-commercial resources (government, academic) and management tools.
	EntrepreNet: The Entrepreneur's Electronic Resource Center	Whether you are an entrepreneur starting your own business or in an established business trying to create new directions and ideas, this web page provides a wealth of on-line articles to spark your creativity.
	Family Firm Institute	The Family Firm Institute is dedicated to assisting family businesses and uses their web site to help educate not only family businesses, but the advisors and consultants that serve them.
	Fast Company Magazine	One of our favorite magazines with a variety of useful and informative articles. Fast Company profiles successful businesses and provides ideas and tools to help your business thrive in this age of technology.
	Inc. Magazine on-line	Provides features and articles from the monthly magazine. Also check out the Virtual Consultant, with useful worksheets, databases, and bulletin boards to help growing businesses help themselves.
	Looksmart	A well organized listing of web sites on a variety of topics. Its unique organization helps you quickly sort through topics to find what is of interest to you on both business and non-business related themes. You'll find many helpful web sites here you might miss through more conventional search engines.
	NetMarquee Family Business NetCenter	Another good resource center for family owned businesses. A worthy contribution is its Family Business Stock Index. Also has several links to university research centers bringing you the latest in family business research.
	SHRM On-line (Society of Human Resource Management)	A terrific resource for human resource professionals looking for a multitude of on-line resources and services. A good site for sample application forms and other basic human resource documents.
	Training and Development Resource Center	A very comprehensive site to find books, newsgroups, and tools to help you better train and develop your people. A lot to explore here.
Other Internet Resources
	FAMLYBIZ	A mail list that links together researchers, academics, and professionals involved in family businesses. This is a terrific group to find solutions to some of the common problems found in family businesses. Go to www.acusd.edu/~kunkel/famlybiz.html to learn more about this discussion list. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to listproc@acusd.edu, leave the subject line blank, and include only one line in your message in the following format: subscribe famlybiz firstname lastname
	HRNET	A listserve group discussing a number of relevant human resource related issues. We recommend subscribing to the digest version which puts all the postings into a single document which is sent to you at the start of each day. To subscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@cornell.edu and within the message include the following one-line command, precisely using the following format: sub hrnet firstname lastname To get the digest version, send an e-mail to listserv@cornell.edu and within the message include the following one-line command, precisely using the following format: sub hrnet-digest firstname lastname
Recommended Business Books
	Danger in the Comfort Zoneby Judith M. Bardwick	exposes a critical threat to our nation's economy; complacency in the workplace. When executives are more concerned with perks than with motivating their employees and demanding high performance, a decrease in productivity is the result. This book serves as a wake-up call to American businesses.
	Growing Pains by Eric G. Flamholtz	provides some answers as to why many start-up companies never seem to break through the entrepreneurial stage. Flamholtz reveals that many of these firms are unprepared for the demands of rapid growth and are unable to adapt to the changing needs to their organization based on its level of maturity.
	Hands-On Strategy by William Finne	is a practical guide to strategic planning that takes the view that setting a corporate vision is a top down process, but success is dependent on a bottom-up implementation. The author directs his approach to best fit small to medium sized businesses.
	How to Run a Family Business by Michael Friedman and Scott Friedman	offers a comprehensive look at the very complicated task of starting a family business and seeing it survive for future generations. A few of the topics discussed include business structure, board of directors, financing, succession planning and many more crucial considerations for the longevity of the family business.
	Keeping the Family Business Healthy by John L. Ward	teaches owners and managers to plan for and survive future growth and changes in the business world. It is important for family businesses to have direction and strategies to resolve some of the delicate issues typically found when working with loved ones.
	Leadership is an Art by Max DePree	describes some of the more important aspects of a leader. Perhaps one of the greatest gifts a leader may possess it the ability to understand people and be able to recognize and utilize their talents and skills.
	Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers by Robert Kriegel and David Brandt	really gets to the heart of the many buzzword programs: people. They'll show you how to coach yourself and others to be ready for change at a moments notice.
	Taking Charge of Changeby Douglas K. Smith	provides good insights and guidelines for managing people and performance in your business. It is well organized and has good examples and questions to ask of your own business.
	The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization	by Peter M. Senge urges you to evaluate your organization to see if it might have a learning disability. That is, something or idea which prohibits its learning, growth, and expansion. A relatively new bible among contemporary business books.
	Think Out of the Box by Mike Vance and Diane Deacon	is for anyone looking to break out of traditional modes of problem solving. It provides a number of creative exercises and guidelines to help you reframe problems and arrive at high quality, innovative solutions.
Buying books on-line? May we recommend WWW.amazon.com