Category Directory for the Massachusetts Small Business Resource Map

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Below is a directory of resource categories designed to help small businesses find the exact support they need to start, grow, and thrive. These categories make it easier to filter services on the Resource Map, so business owners can quickly connect with the right partners and expertise.

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1. Advertising: direct services related to branding, marketing, and public relations using print and digital media production as well as other methods; professional, membership-based networks of marketers

2. Banks/Trusts/Credit Unions: financial institution, like a regional bank, with services tailored to the exchange, management, and loaning of money in regard to small businesses

3. Benefit Planning Services: financial advice and expertise geared toward retirement savings strategies for both business owners and employees

4. Bookkeeping & Financial Recording Services: organizing and categorizing a small business’s financial records, such as financial information and transactions

5. Business Planning & Consulting: developing a concrete roadmap for a business that considers current resources and assesses what the owner needs to do to achieve long-term goals, like growing the business, safeguarding investments, rewarding key employees, and attracting and keeping new employees

6. Business Succession Planning: developing a long-term course of action for the business and its management that will go into effect during leadership transitions or when the business owner retires, passes away, sells the business, or steps back/transitions in some other way

7. Capital Provider: any entity that provides financial support to small businesses in the form of grants, loans, venture capital, donations, and other methods

8. Career Training & Workforce Development: employment guidance and job training services for anyone at any career stage (entering the workforce, beginning a first job, seeking a career change or promotion, or transitioning out of unemployment or retirement) to achieve their career goals

9. Chamber of Commerce: an organization of local businesses and non-profits in a specific city or town that provides its members with resources, thus supporting the entire business community and, consequently, uplifting the area economically, socially, and culturally

10. Community Development: resources dedicated to bettering an area’s economy, environmental sustainability, and social conditions with, in this case, a focus on local small business support by a city/town department or committee

11. Government Agency: an entity, such as a municipal department or commission, that offers resources in service to and under the authority of a local, state, or federal government

12. Graphic & Website Design: creation of visual and text-based media in digital and print formats.

13. IT & Technical Support Services: solutions to technological concerns, whether software or hardware based

14. Office Supplies & Operations: assistance with office space design and the delivery and installations of furniture for offices in a home or business. Supplier of routine items placed in a business setting

15. Property Provider & Management: a company that owns and manages both residential and commercial spaces in a community where individuals and teams can work independently and perform their operations