Organizations
Business Outreach Center Network helps entrepreneurs and organizations take the next step.
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce has links to helpful info about promotion, support, and advocacy for those doing business in Brooklyn.
New York Small Business Development Center offers free of charge services. Through a network of 24 regional centers, the New York Small Business Development Center delivers high quality business counseling and training to New Yorkers who want to start a business or improve the performance of an existing business.
CAMBA Small Business Services offers one-on-one consultations, business plan workshops, start-up or expansion loans, and technology training.
FastTrac NewVenture is a series of multiple-session entrepreneurship bootcamps offered by the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) for aspiring and established entrepreneurs throughout New York City.
What parents are saying: "When I was in the early stages of starting my business, I applied to this amazing program, free I might add, that the city offers. It is called Fast Trac New Venture. Unlike most other courses that NYC business solutions offers, this one you actually have to apply to and get accepted. It's a lot of work, but an amazing experience if you can spare the time. I've since attended the second portion to this course, Fast Trac Growth Venture and have gained so much, including making so many contacts across various fields; restaurant business, perfume designers, garment industry, and even a gal that makes her own salad dressing."
NYC Business Solutions includes free services such as business courses, legal assistance, financing assistance, incentives, training and more. It's offered by the Department of Small Business Services to help businesses start, operate and expand in New York City. You can find information and resources here on a wide range of business-related topics.
The NonProfit HelpDesk (Helping you do good, better...) was created in 1992 at the urging of the commissioner of the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development, who saw the need for technical assistance to strengthen nonprofit organizations throughout New York City. They offer consulting, training, and video resources.
Books
Small Time Operator: How to Start Your Own Business, Keep Your Books, Pay Your Taxes, and Stay Out of Trouble by Bernard B. Kamoroff, C.P.A.
What parents are saying: "When I considered starting my own business recently, I read this book and thought it was a good read considering how dry the content is."
Payroll Services
Gusto
What parents are saying: "We've been using Gusto for 3 years and find it incredibly easy. It's cheaper than a lot of leading payroll providers and has excellent customer service! It also manages our benefits and offers lots of other services like 401(k) providers and connections to COVID and small business resources."
Bookkeeping and Budgeting Software
What parents are saying: "I use QuickBooks online, and I have a Mac. It’s fine to use. I work as a bookkeeper, and I have no issues when I’m on a Mac and use it."
"Excel was fine for a while for me. However, it's not the best way to keep books in order. I recently transitioned to QuickBooks online which has been a much better interface, especially since my business has gotten more complex. You can access it anywhere since it's in the cloud. There are other newer platforms, of course. However if you ever plan on having a bookkeeper help you (say if your business grows and you don't have time to manage bookkeeping anymore), I would suggest using QuickBooks because this is a platform they all use and it would be an easier transition down the line."
What parents are saying: "Look at the wave accounting - free and awesome. Largest growing small biz accounting software in the world right now...or some such convincing fact I heard to start using it. I’m no expert but like it so far."
What parents are saying: "I use FreshBooks and love it! I'm also on a mac and FreshBooks is cloud-based so there's no issue."
"I just use Freshbooks online.
I chose it because I wanted easy online invoices, but I ended up using it as my accounting software.
It's quick, simple, and relatively inexpensive. It's easy to give my tax preparer everything they need. And Freshbooks support has been excellent.
One thing that could be slightly better is if they added a quarterly taxes estimator, but it's fairly easy to calculate myself, thanks to some quick advice from my accountant.
Pro tip: If you use Freshbooks to invoice clients, switch to Stripe as your payment option. You'll save money on credit card fees when clients pay with American Express, and it's the same fee for all other cards."
What parents are saying: "I use Liveplan for financial projections and budgeting. It can sync with QBO for actuals and comparisons as you go.
QBO doesn’t have any great financial modeling/forecasting or budgeting tools built in. It’s one thing to accurately keep books of what’s happened to your money but when you’re starting you may also want to constantly be using forecasts and budgets and I prefer liveplan over diy excel sheets for that.
I can’t think of any business, no matter how simple, that wouldn’t benefit from using budgets and various forecasting tools in addition to bookkeeping software."
What parents are saying: "I use FreshBooks Cloud Accounting and YNAB - You Need A Budget for Budgeting. Both are great tools and easy to use."
