In 1998, Melissa Wurst started her own localization industry business. She brought substantial experience in teaching and management, and an unfettered love for helping people overcome cultural and language barriers. While such passion went a long way to help get her business rolling, Melissa learned it takes some solid business sense to keep it rolling. She found help when she contacted the St. Louis office of the SBDC.

The IRS has increased the optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business purposes for the second half of 2008 to 58.5 cents per mile.

Dr. Rusty Sutterlin, co-founder and CEO of Renewable Alternatives, a Columbia, Mo.-based business, calls the University of Missouri's Small Business & Technology Development Center a "full-circle service provider."

Times are tough. More than 90 percent of respondents to a recent national survey of independently owned service firms indicated that their businesses will suffer significantly due to increased fuel costs in 2008. What's a small business owner to do?

Three strategies to help small business start-up money go further.

A husband-wife doctoral engineering duo, Keshab and Shubhra Gangopadhyay, at the University of Missouri in Columbia is taking its "nano" vision from the laboratory toward the marketplace with help from SBTDC technology specialists.

Ten minutes isn't a lot of time. But with excellent preparation it's all the time necessary to convince prospective stakeholders to support a business venture.

The Internal Revenue Service is kicking off a new campaign to help educate new self-employed small business owners about tax responsibilities.

Perseverance paid off for Army veteran turned-entrepreneur Randy Crawford of Kansas City. Aegis Business Solutions is one of only eight Service Disabled Veteran Owned Businesses in the country that has a contract schedule for furniture with the General Services Administration.

The Small Business Resource Guide is now available for 2008. This handy interactive CD contains all the business tax forms, instructions, and publications needed by small business owners. The guide also provides an abundance of other helpful information such as how to prepare a business plan, finding financing for your business, new tax law changes and much more.

The Missouri Technology Incentive Program is a new funding source for innovative and high-technology companies interested in pursuing federal SBIR and STTR R&D awards.

Jason Eftink, founder and CEO of Technology and Networking, has taken his computer technology and telecommunications business from a two-man start-up to a vital and growing company with more than 30 employees.

Founded in 2001, the Lytmos Group was originally intended to serve as a conduit for high-tech small businesses to obtain expert feedback as they pursued federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding. Along the way Lytmos Group has evolved.

You've come up with the next great invention that will take the market by storm and revolutionize daily lives. Before finding someone to make it, you need a plan. Lessons learned on product development in this two part column on conceptual development, design/implementation and post-product launch.