From Shakelaw.com

Mobile technology changed the way we communicate, share information,  shop, and entertain ourselves. So it comes as no surprise that someone would invent a tool to simplify legal transactions using your smartphone.

The folks over at Shake designed an app to record agreements for everyday transactions–from a personal loan to a friend, to a contract for freelance work and more. The app, which is available for iPhone, walks users through a series of questions to create legal documents that can be signed and/or sent to another person, even to your lawyer.  Documents can be signed on any mobile device and are stored securely in the cloud for reference later on.

For budding entrepreneurs who can’t afford to hire a lawyer, this a great way to create simple and plain-language legal agreements.  You can save the big bucks for complex legal agreements.

Shake is in no way a replacement for a lawyer, but a tool to help you create enforceable legal documents.  If you feel you need counsel, by all means seek it out. Shake’s founders emphasize that point in this article from Forbes and on their FAQ page.

You can download the app for iPhone from the App Store.

If you have tried Shake’s app let us know in the comments below.

Cheers!

Looking to network with other female entrepreneurs?  Look no further than Project Eve.

The Project Eve community prides itself on promoting female entrepreneurship through mentoring and communication rather than swinging around “sharp elbows.” The goal is to provide a a nurturing atmosphere, where ladies can get practical advice and access to resources for starting their own businesses.  The 1,000 members who call themselves Eves and have access to:

• Mentors
• Forums
• Directories
• Job listings
• Events
• Tailored groups
• Guest bloggers

Other nifty stuff

Project Eve has a local Boston group too which has 20 members. With the number of women who come into Kirstein it should be so much higher! Check it out Ladies.

Remember Ladies, and Gentlemen too, if you need help with your business we host SCORE mentors every Friday from 10-1.  Call 617-859-2142 to make an appointment or ask one of the library staff.

We have a variety of other business programs too.  Our popular Getting Started in Business Program is coming up on Jan 29.

Cheers Dears!

Enter Enloop — an online product to help you build a better business plan while assessing the viability of your idea.  Enloop’s product has been featured by Mashable,  CNNMoney,  and many others.

Some cool features

While there is a free option, some of the more advanced tools are available if you if you purchase a premium account.  Enloop asks you a series of questions about your business idea and analyzes the answers to compute your Enloop Performance Score or EPS. The FICO-like score updates as you or collaborators adjust the plan.  Higher scores indicate the likelihood of success.

Moreover,  Enloop calls attention to weaknesses in your plan and gives you suggestions on how to correct them.  Enloop will also generate cash flow and profit and loss forecasts based on the information you supply.   And depending on which account type you use, Enloop will calculate up to 15 ratios so you can see how your idea stacks up against others in your industry.

Another convenient feature is Autowrite.  It will take all of the information you have entered and insert it into a business plan template.  The template is pretty flexible so you can add sections, create charts and graphs, and download it as a pdf.  Again some features will be limited depending on price.

Overall, Enloop is nifty tool to create a draft, especially if you are not sure how to phrase the language of your business plan.  The free account is very useful, but if you chose to subscribe to the service you can always cancel it later.

One last note

Remember, we have several programs geared at helping small businesses get started.  On Tuesday, January 29 we will be holding our very popular Getting Started in Business program.

Also we host SCORE mentors every Friday.  To make an appointment please call 617-859-2142 or just ask a librarian at the reference desk.

Cheers!

The Small Business Administration has taken the time to create several tutorials and videos on a wide variety of topics.

Tutorials

If you go the the SBA learning center page you can view a variety of courses for free on topics such as:

• Disaster recovery
• Government Contracting
• Marketing
• Business Technology
• Introduction to Accounting
• Loan preparation
• And more

Each of the 29 courses is about a half hour long and is intended to give you the basics as well as to point out SBA programs that can help you. Users can toggle between the presentation outline and slide notes using the tabs in the pane on the left hand side. One note: they are presented using Flash so you can’t view them on any iOS devices, but you can view the text based versions as PDFs.

Videos

The Learning Center’s videos are also valuable.  Some videos are a great way of seeing how other small business owns came up with solutions to problems. If you go to the SBA’s Youtube account you can see more videos too. This video from their Youtube channel explains SBA issued  Loans:

Other videos include more niche topics such as:

• Establishing an Online Presence
• Team Building
• Record Keeping
• OSHA compliance

If you still need help please take advantage of our SCORE Business Fridays.  You can ask a librarian at the Kirstein reference desk or call 617-859-2142 to make an appointment.  Each appointment lasts an hour on Fridays between 10am and 1pm.