Press Releases

May 9, 2000 Contact: Wendy Thomas

Council for Entrepreneurial Development P.O. Box 13353 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 919.549.7500 Fax: 919.549.7405

CED Launches Expanded E-Source Online Resource for Entrepreneurs

May 9, 2000, Research Triangle Park, N.C. - CED announced the launch of its expanded E-Source (http://www.cednc.org/e-source/index.html) entrepreneurial on-line resource directory today. The enhanced E-Source enables entrepreneurs to access information about entrepreneur-focused services and publications provided by non-profit, government, trade, educational, and library organizations and allows those organizations to provide and update their information via an online registration form.

Piloted in June of 1999, E-Source provides an online catalog of resources available to entrepreneurs in North Carolina and elsewhere. The online registration and update feature is expected to dramatically increase the scope and timeliness of resource listings.

E-Source provides the following:

• Information and contacts for organizations that support, regulate or otherwise interface with regional entrepreneurs.
• Links to EntreWorld's compendium of quality web publications on virtually any business topic for entrepreneurs through a special agreement with the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, publisher of EntreWorld.
• Links to entrepreneurship training and education resources.
• A directory of entrepreneur-relevant publications available at no or nominal cost (from both public and private sector sources).

E-Source is not a directory of private sector resources for entrepreneurs.

"E-Source is a portal that really benefits from the immediacy of the world wide web," notes Monica Doss, CED executive director. "E-Source evolved from CED's print publication, 'The Entrepreneur's Guide to Starting and Growing a Business in the Research Triangle' which was first published in 1989. Our biggest challenge with the print version was timeliness and completeness since new entrepreneurial resources were being developed constantly. Even bi-annual surveys often missed important services for entrepreneurs."

About CED

The Council for Entrepreneurial Development was founded in 1984 to stimulate the creation and growth of high-impact companies in the greater Research Triangle region. CED provides education, mentoring and capital formation resources to new and existing high growth entrepreneurs. CED sponsors annual conferences, seminars, workshops and monthly programs on entrepreneurial management and finance. CED is a non-profit organization and is the largest entrepreneurial support organization in the nation with more than 3,000 members representing 1,000 entrepreneurial companies, financiers and professional firms.

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