Business.gov - The Official Business Link to the U.S. Government

Features, Tools and Gadgets

Business.gov offers a number of unique search tools and features that help small business owners, start, manage, and expand their operations while staying compliant with laws and regulations.

Online Community

Business.gov is engaging citizens by offering the first Online Community sponsored by a government agency. The Community allows small business owners and industry and government experts to discuss and share information that helps small businesses succeed. Visit the About the Community page to learn more on how the Community helps the nation's small business.

The Business.gov Community also provides RSS feeds for all of our discussion boards and blogs, allowing all the Community content to be accessed in the RSS reader of your choice. To access the Community's RSS feeds, click the options link on most Community pages and select "subscribe to this RSS feed".

Business Videos

One of Business.gov's newest features is embedded videos. Users can now view relevant videos on an increasing amount of our pages. These videos are part of our YouTube channel but are displayed on Business.gov in our customized 508 compliant video player.

Per the section 508 guidelines, content on Federal websites must be fully accessible to individuals with disabilities.

Business.gov has designed a 508 compliant video player that can be used to embed any video currently hosted on YouTube and provides keyboard control functionality and text controls for users using a screen reader. This player will be released for public use in the coming weeks. The video player will also display closed captions, if available.

Any government agency or user may use the Business.gov Video Player on their site, by following the directions located on the Video Player page.

Social Media

Business.gov is active on a number of popular social media outlets:

Twitter (@businessdotgov) where Business.gov has more than 5,000 followers
YouTube where users can comment on our latest videos
Facebook where users can connect with all the resources available as a part of Business.gov.

Business Search Engine

Business.gov offers a unique business search engine that quickly and easily finds information from federal, state and local government web sites. You no longer need to visit multiple government websites to find information you need.

Gadgets

The Business.gov Tools for Small Business are interactive tools organized into a "gadget" that you can place on your website or iGoogle homepage, and get immediate access to essential online tools and resources to help you run your small business.

Loans and Grants Search Tool

From businesses in rural communities to hi-tech Silicon Valley start-ups, from women-owned enterprises to those affected by hurricanes, Business.gov provides a wealth of information on financial programs to help business get started or expand their operations. Small business owners no longer have to navigate multiple federal, state and local government websites to find financing programs that apply to them. Answer a short a survey about your business, and the Loans and Grants Search Tool will provide a list of programs for which you may qualify with links to eligibility and application information.

Licenses and Permits Search Tool

Our Permit Me tool allows you get a listing of federal, state and local business licenses and permits you'll need to operate your business.

Resource Guides

Business.gov provides easy access to resources and programs that help small business owners understand legal steps to starting and operating their businesses. In addition, these guides provide information on government programs that help small businesses expand their operations into federal and state government contract and exporting to overseas markets.

State and Local Guides

Through its State and Local Guides, Business.gov provides access to over 9,000 official U.S. city government resources in addition to business information from all 50 states and territories. These state guides include information on complying with state and local regulations, and programs for starting and managing a business.

Coming Soon

Web Services

This tool, which is currently in the development stage, will allow users to make use of the data that powers the most popular Business.gov tools. The information supporting our License & Permit tool, Loans & Grants Tool, and our geographic zip code tool will be published in a format accessible for users to create their own applications by utilizing the raw data powering these tools.

Short URLs

This tool, which is currently in the development stage, will allow any web address on Business.gov to be shortened to a more memorable readable URL, such as http://go.business.gov/blogs. This will improve the use of social media tools such as Twitter. The shortening service will be launched initially for Business.gov in the Fall of 2009. Nevertheless, the service may be expanded to allow other government agencies to use it to shorten the long URLs on their websites.