Two-thirds of the world's population earns less than five dollars a day. And a large percent of the world are small business owners. To that end, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the financial arm of the World Bank, developed the Small Business Toolkit. This Web-based portal is a powerful resource for business owners who need a little added expertise to run their business. Accounting advice. Legal guidance. Financial calculators. All the tools that businesses large, small and very small need to succeed.

The portal includes 27 global and local sites in 14 different languages. Partners in each of the countries customize and localize the content, making it relevant to each market. The sites are seeing healthy traffic, averaging 2.5 million visitors a year collectively. More than a portal, owners can receive online or onsite training on the toolkit resources through a certified network of 1200 trainers.

IBM has joined forces with the IFC to launch the next chapter of the SME Toolkit, and to put the power of collaborative technology in the hands of small business owners.

Built on an open source platform, with more than 500 pieces of content, the system will include new functionalities and capabilities to expand its value and increase usability, with features that include:

• Web conferencing, blogging, group calendars, and survey and quiz builders.
• Content syndication to enable partners to share and access new content easily.
• Multilingual business directories to help businesses link locally, regionally and globally.
• Full support of right-to-left languages like Arabic.

IBM, the IFC and a vast network of partners have provided entrepreneurs and small businesses with advice and guidance on how to implement sustainable business management practices, especially in areas such as finance, accounting, international business, marketing, human resources and insurance.

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Five entrepreneurs talk about their experience and how the SME Toolkit has helped them build their businesses.

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