work.com has self-help for small businesses
As noted in the Oct. 16, 2006, edition of Newsweek, the new website Work.com was launched last week. Work.com already offers an impressive cache of user-friendly information for small businesses. As their October 9th press release exclaims, “Work.com features unique “How-to Guides” for more than 1,000 business topics, ranging from start-up basics to advanced management techniques. The Guides are written by business experts who can now share their expertise with others through a new form of “Expert Generated Content” (EGC).” The Guides are touted as combining “the informative, editorial aspects of articles with the action-orientation of search results.” The authors help readers weed through the excess of information that is often provided by search engine queries, by suggesting especially helpful resources.
Work.com also has a Community weblog. Of even more interest to shlep, it has created many How-to-Guides related to legal issues faced by small businesses (i.e., forms, records, regulations, IP, Licenses and Permits, incorporation and more). For example, check out the Guides on Law page, which has a lengthy list of Guides on particular laws and topics (e.g., COBRA, Required Labor Law posters, Hiring the Disabled). The Work.com approach to legal self-help is one that we can applaud: “When it comes to the legalities of starting and operating a small business, very little seems truly simple, fair, low-cost or accessible. So arming yourself with legal solutions when and where you need them will be important to your growth and profitability.“Knowing how to avoid legal trouble in the first place, and how to respond to legal problems when they come up, is the essence of what you will find in Work.com Legal channel How-to Guides. The solutions here are wide ranging and comprehensive, from showing you where to find expert legal help for your business in your area, to the everyday legal matters you can handle yourself with free forms and documents that you can download from the Internet.”
There is much too much content for me to review, but I want to point to a very useful How-to-Guide by Work.com editor Daniel Kehrer, titled Guide to Do-It-Yourself Legal Help, which has the tag “Lawyers are vital, but expensive. Self-help options abound for everyday legal matters.” It looks like a good example of the Work.com Guide concept, with a short introduction, Action Steps (“The best contacts and resources to help you get it done”), Tips & Tactics (Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide), Recommended Solution Providers, Best Sites to Learn More, and Best Blogs and Forums. (The weblog list shows the current dearth of quality content on legal self-help. shlep is trying to help fill that void.) If you’re a business searching for a place to learn about legal issues, especially with the thought of doing as much legal problem-solving as possible without lawyers, Work.com is a good place to look. (thanks to “Ed” at Blawg Review for the tip)
shlep: the Self-Help Law ExPress » Blog Archive » a pause to give thanks
October 23, 2006 @ 11:40 am
[…] david giacalone – October 23, 2006 @ 11:33 am · Website Admin A few more Friends of shlep deserve our thanks: — Diane Levin for two recent pointers: (1) a generous posting at her Online Guide to Mediation, explaining shlep’s goals and what we might have to offer mediators (with nice words about f/k/a, too) and (2) adding us to the World Directory of ADR Blogs. — “Ed,” the masked man at the helm of Blawg Review, who has included shlep today (Oct. 23, 2006) in both Blawg Review #80 (wondering just what I’ve been doing with that dusty law degree of mine) and Carnival of the Capitalists #159 (which needlessly reminds us ”lawyers are capitalists”, too). Of course, both “carnivals” offer links to some of the best recent weblog postings in their fields. — abnu at Wordlab, who likes our “clever name” and our clever post about Christopher Columbus’ name. — Shara Karasic at the Work.com Community Blog, who our review of the new Work.com website with her community. — Imbroglio for the “little imbroglio” pointer. […]