To address the needs of small business owners, Visa U.S.A. has added a Small Business Site to its "Visa Expo" web site (http://www.visa.com) that provides instant access to all the resources needed for running a small business.

"Visa's goal is to serve the small business sector by providing the necessary educational tools to support the growth of the entrepreneurial spririt," says Tracy Connelly, vice president, Visa Business, Visa U.S.A. "This site is the first phase in our effort to create a one-stop, online information link that connects all types of businesses witht he resources they need to succeed."

The Visa Small Business Site was developed after extensive research on the needs of small business owners. It provides hot-links that offer useful information on such issues as financing a small business, locating a specific Federal institution for support, researching small business associations and finding small business suport groups for women and minorties, The categories of resource topics include:

• Topic of the Month - Visa's "Small Business Expert," Roberta Joyner Executive Director of the East Bay Outreach Project at the University of California-Berkeley Haas School of Business, will cover a Topic of the Month, giving tips on how to start up a business, manage itm or how to makret products and services effectively. Ms. Joyner's first column discusses what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur in today's technology-driven marketplace.

  

• Women and Minorties - Visa connects users with sites that address the needs of women and minotity entrpreneurs, including The Women's Network for Entrepreneurial Training (WNET). WNET is a mentoring program which connects seasoned entrpreneurs with women whose businesses are ready to grow. Other hotlinks include the Minority Business Development Agency and the American Businesswomen's Association.

  

• Financing/Venture Captial - Small businesses can browse through helpful pages such as the American Venture Capital Exchange or SBA's Programs of Financial Assistance.

  
  
  

• Small Business Resources - The Visa site offers links to a variety of resources, including the Association of Small Business Development Centers Membership Director for information on all development centers in the U.S., or Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), where experienced counselors give professional online advice to entrepreneurs for free.

  

• Government Information - Business can tap federal institutions such as the U.S. Chamber of Comerce, The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office or the Internation Revenue Service (IRS) within seconds for important regulatory information.

Visa offers a range of commercial card products for companies of all sizes. In addition to the Visa Business Card, the company also offers the industry's most widely-used purchasing card and the Visa Corporate Card.

Visa is the world's largest consumer payment system. It plays a pivotal role in advancing new payment products and technologies to benefit its 20,700 member financial institutions, their cardholders, and the global economy. Visa's 561 million cards are accepted at 13 million locations worldwide. The Visa Global ATM Netowork consists of more than 323,000 ATMs in 109 countries. For more information on Visa, visit Visa Expo at www.visa.com