JackRabbit – A New Site for Startups
By Anita Campbell
Never before have there been more tools available to individuals starting a business. There are incubators, support groups, books, magazines, newsletters and, of course and Web sites devoted solely to starting and jump-starting new enterprises.
On the Internet, Intuit, maker of QuickBooks and Quicken, has a new beta site – JackRabbit – focused on starting a business. JackRabbit is designed for startup companies and those planning to start a business.
I’m very impressed with JackRabbit. It’s user friendly, and, in my opinion, represents the new generation of small business resources online.
There are two features of the site – “Bookmarks” and “Contact” – that raise the bar for other small business help sites. It’s no longer sufficient to just provide information. If you are going to launch a site and expect it to be competitive, you now also have to provide a framework for small business owners to accomplish two things. The first is enable them to organize the reams of information they need to track, and the second is to enable them to connect directly with others (since, overall, most of us are doing more networking online these days.)
JackRabbit does all that. It’s organized into three general areas:
First, there’s Tips and Tools. This includes some general advice. While many sites provide advice, this offers an easy way to find a number of free interesting online tools. There are several online calculators and other free tools offered in conjunction with third parties, such as Palo Alto Software (makers of BusinessPlan Pro). There is also a link to download a free copy of QuickBooks Simple Start, a scaled down version of the famous QuickBooks software. While you can locate many of these tools on your own, there’s so much information available on the Web that finding – and remembering – the most useful tools is a real chore. JackRabbit helps you do that.
Second, there is Bookmarks. JackRabbitt has “bookmarks” or links of helpful business resources and Web sites. Bookmarked sites can be any kind of resources you need when starting a business. Anyone can add a bookmarked site or Web page. You can even add tags (equivalent to keywords), to make it easy to search for your bookmarked sites by topic. The sites you add are visible to others and also saved in your own page (“My JackRabbit”) where you can readily find them.
The third area is Contacts. The social networking aspect of JackRabbit is a key feature that sets this site apart from most content-based Web sites. This streamline the way you can network with other small business owners who are members of the site and save them in your “My Contacts” area. Even so-called community sites, such as discussion boards, rarely make it easy to connect directly with other users of the site.
An interesting touch is the “About Us” page that provides information about the JackRabbit team. This is an open and friendly approach that puts a human face on Intuit.
Are there any downsides to JackRabbit? Few that I can see. It looks like the content is still a little sketchy in places, but I am sure more content will be added over time. When it is, it will be interesting to see how well the site remains user-friendly even as the volume of content grows.
Intuit is looking for business owners to try out JackRabbit and offer feedback while it is still in the beta-testing phase. If you’re interested, go on the site where you’ll find a link on the top right corner of the page where you can send in feedback.
URL to article:
http://www.smallbiztrends.com/2006/07/jackrabbit-a-new-site-for-startups.html
Anita Campbell is editor of Small Business Trends (smallbiztrends.com), an award-winning web site where she follows trends affecting the small business market. She is also the host of the Small Business Trends (smbtrendwire.com) radio show.
