State Government Pages - Business licenses, building permits, contractors licenses, and home improvement licenses are often issued and administered by state agencies. Most state goverment Web sites follow one of two Internet address formats. To find online information in your state, use either of the following URL (uniform resource locator) formats, substituting the 2 letter abbreviation or the full name of the state where you want to find information:

https://www.state.va.us   or   https://www.maryland.gov

County Government Pages - Business licenses, building permits, contractors licenses, and home improvement licenses are often issued and administered by county agencies, as well. County Web sites often use the following URL format, substituting the 2 letter abbreviation for the county and state where you want to find information:

https://www.co.frederick.va.us   or   https://www.baltimorecountymd.gov

Trade Associations & Construction Industry Groups - Links to the Web sites of hundreds of special interest groups, which exist for the express purpose of promoting their respective industries.

Small Business Administration - Plenty of information for those starting, financing, or managing a small construction business.

Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. - Read consumer tips, check a company's BBB report and find your local BBB.

United States Census Bureau Housing Topics - American Housing Survey Data, Homeownership Data, Housing Affordability, and other housing related statistics.

U.S. Census Bureau Construction Statistics - Building Permits by County, Housing Starts, New Residential Construction, Value of Construction Put in Place, Residential Improvements, Characteristics of New Housing, Length of Time From Authorization of Construction to Start For Private Residential Buildings, Length of Time From Start of Construction to Completion For Private Residential Buildings, Manufactured Housing, and other residential construction facts and figures.

Residential Improvements and Repairs Statistics - US Census Bureau information related to home repair, home improvement, additions and alterations for residential properties.

National Association of Home Builders - Links to local builders associations, housing forecasts, facts and figures, new home prices, monthly and yearly home sales, number of building permits, construction books, trade shows, and other homebuilding information.

Quality Assurance System for Wood Framing Contractors - Quality control manual, inspection guidelines and rough framing check lists, which have been designed for use by builders and framing contractors. The manual was prepared by NAHB Research Center at the request of HUD and the Partnership for Advanced Technology in Housing (PATH).

Canadian Homebuilders' Association - Consumer information for homebuyers and homeowners from Canada's home building industry.

Intuit - Creators of Quicken personal accounting software, QuickBooks and QuickBooks Pro to manage business finances, and Turbo Tax software to help you keep as much of your money as possible. Many professional homebuilders, small business owners, and owner-builders use QuickBooks Pro to help them manage their construction accounting.

Check current prices by using the following links:

• QuickBooks Premier 2015

iSBiSTER International, Inc. - A software developer whose products include the award winning Time & Chaos personal information manager (PIM) for Windows. Download and try this excellent business management program free for 21 days and be sure to check out the plug-in programs, which add more versatility to the program. I have tried several other PIM's and, in my opinion, this is by far the best software program for managing your business calendar, personal contacts, meetings, daily schedule, phone numbers and addresses.

McAfee.com - Viruses are easily transferred from one computer to thousands by way of the Internet. It is unfortunate, but very necessary, to have a virus protection program running on your computer and to keep it updated with the latest virus database. The McAfee site offers a wealth of information about computer viruses and worms.

Check current prices by using the following links:

• McAfee Software

Strata Systems LC - Developers of Punch List project tracking software for Palm^® Connected Organizers.

Symantec Corporation - Developers of virus protection, systems management, and Internet security software, including Norton AntiVirus, Norton CleanSweep, pcAnywhere, Norton Personal Firewall and more.

Check current prices by using the following links:

Norton Software

TUCOWS - Quite possibly the largest collection of software on the Internet. This site offers freeware, shareware, program demos, and limited use software for immediate downloading.