5 Sites for Business Forms You Don’t Do Yourself

by | Aug 22, 2011

We all have different business writing skill sets and knowledge.

  • Some are good with numbers
  • Others are great at organizing
  • While still others shine at goal-setting

Few of us excel at all forms of business writing.

And let’s face it, there’s simply some business forms you don’t want to do yourself.

Whether it’s legal forms or accounting spreadsheets, we can all use a little help now and then.

Here are five sites that offer various business forms.

 We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post for a special announcement.
  •  Read the legal disclaimers that recommend you consult with an attorney or expert before using the forms
  • Always good advice and know that I am not an attorney, never wanted to be an attorney, and never will be an attorney
  • So enter at your own risk
Now back to our regularly scheduled post.

1. Entrepreneur – Formnet

This online magazine is a cornucopia of help for the small business owner.

Its Formnet boasts over 1,000 business forms and documents for downloading in the following categories.

 

Examples of a few of the forms offered include –

  • Partnership Agreement
  • Website Standards and Terms and Conditions template
  • Cashflow worksheet
  • Small Business Form Package

You can search by category or form name.

  • There is no signup required
  • Premium documents are through Docstoc with a monthly membership (currently $9.95)
  • State-specific legal forms are available for purchase

2. Docstoc

Docstoc is a user-generated site for sharing professional documents. It offers the following categories.

 

You must create an account to download documents. Hint – some of the Docstoc forms are found on Entrepreneur, where there is no registration.

3. Score.org

This is another site that provides resources for businesses, including business forms. Below are the categories.

 

You can search by Topic, by Industry (over 60 to choose from) and by Type (Templates, How-Tos, Checklists, etc.).

Like docstoc, you need to register at the site to download forms.

4.  Disclosure Policy.org

In 2010, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) revised its Endorsement Guide.

In a nutshell the guidelines state —

  • If you have a connection with a product or service
  • And the knowledge of that connection might make a difference to your readers
  • You should disclose the nature of that relationship

Disclosurepolicy.org offers a simple solution for disclosing affiliations.

A previous post walks you through the steps for creating your own policy statement.

You can also see an example of one of their policy statements on my Policies page.

  • Oh yeah – I have no affiliation with any of these sites
  • Of course, you know that since you read my Policies page, right?

 5. Software Advice

This last site is not about forms, per se. It’s about the software to create the forms.

In this case, I used accounting software.

  • Have you ever bought accounting software with way too many features for your business?
  • This site does the research and helps you find the right software
  • It offers software by industry and application (e.g., Human Resources, Customer Management, etc.)

And he best part – the advice is free – from experts.

How about you?

Have you used any of the forms from these sites?

What are your favorite resources for business forms?

Please share in comments.

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Helping you Keep it simple, clear & uniquely yours – contact me for help with your business writing needs.

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14 Comments

  1. Jennifer Mattern

    Great collection Cathy! 🙂 I’m a bit of a form junkie. I save anything I think I might need some day just so I don’t have to create them myself. I haven’t dug into docstoc much yet, so I’ll have to do that. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Cathy

    Hi Jenn: I know what you mean. I love forms as well to help organize things.

    I have to thank our friend Anne Wayman for the docstoc idea. I’ve used them, but never thought about doing a post about them-head slap. Anne thought it fit this blog’s theme so I thought why not add others I know of.

    So, thank you, Anne, and thank you, Jenn for stopping by. Let me know what you think about docstoc.

    Reply
  3. Lisa Kanarek

    These are good resources. I especially like SCORE.org. They seem to cover the needs of most businesses.

    Reply
    • Cathy

      Glad you find them helpful, Lisa. Thanks for stopping by!

      Reply
  4. Sharon Hurley Hall

    Thanks for this list, Cathy. I’ve used Disclosure Policy and have downloaded a couple of Docstoc documents, but none of the others, so this is a very useful resource.

    Reply
    • Cathy

      Thanks, Sharon-why reinvent the wheel, huh? 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.

      Reply
  5. Martha Giffen

    Very useful resources! I am partial to SCORE because my Dad was a consultant there after he retired. They are a fab organization for new small biz owners!

    Reply
  6. Cathy

    Well how cool to have the inside scoop, Martha. 🙂 I on;y recently discovered SCORE and like what I see. Now I know why-it was your Dad! 🙂

    Thanks for stopping by, Martha!

    Reply
  7. Gina

    Thank you! I love these resources and bookmarked!

    Reply
  8. Cathy

    Glad you found them helpful, Gina. There’s some great stuff on them. Thanks so much for stopping by!

    Reply
  9. The Substantive Mom- Lisa

    Thanks for the useful info. I don’t need any forms right now, but I bookmarked this post for future reference.

    Reply
    • Cathy

      Hi Lisa-thanks for stopping by. Entrepreneur & SCORE have more than just forms. They have a lot of great info. for small business owners. In any event, I’m glad you found the post useful. Thanks for stopping by. I do appreciate it!

      Reply
  10. Printable Forms

    Our site, samplewords.com has about 500 printable forms, business forms, calendars, etc. 95% of the forms are free and downloadable in PDF, Word or Excel format. We are newer, smaller and less known but so far our feedback has been very positive.

    Reply
  11. Cathy

    Thank you for sharing that information. I’ll be sure to check out your site.

    Reply

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