Yahoo! Helps Gulf Coast Entrepreneurs Get Back Into Business

Hurricane Katrina may have struck more than seven months ago, but its devastating impact still looms large in the lives of many who were caught in its path.

Immediately
following the hurricane, recovery efforts focused on rescue, then on housing. Now that a large portion
of the residents have found at least temporary housing solutions, efforts are shifting toward economic
recovery. Given that small businesses fuel a large portion of any region’s local economy – the Gulf
Coast being no exception – it’s important that small businesses in the region recover in order to
help the entire region heal.

On Friday, April 7, Yahoo! Small Business held a training seminar in New Orleans for over 200 small
business owners and entrepreneurs in the Katrina-affected areas to show them how to use the Internet
to help their businesses recover. Working in partnership with BellSouth, web site developer Solid
Cactus, and the Small Business Development Centers
of Louisiana and Mississippi,
Yahoo! offered a hands-on “one stop shop” to help area small business owners and entrepreneurs open
their businesses online that day.

With the hands-on guidance of Yahoo! experts, small business owners and entrepreneurs learned about web
hosting, built web sites using Yahoo!
SiteBuilder, created e-commerce
storefronts, listed their businesses on Yahoo!
Local, and initiated sponsored search
advertising campaigns – all free of charge.

Yahoo! co-founder and Louisiana native David Filo even joined in the festivities, greeting attendees
during the morning general session and visiting the 20 break-out sessions to offer additional training
expertise.

In total, 150 of the attendees brought their businesses online that day. They left the event proud
of what they’d accomplished, and Yahoo! employees left feeling grateful for the opportunity to donate
our expertise and services for such a worthy cause.

As many as 200,000 small businesses along the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coasts were impacted
by the hurricane. Many closed their doors never to re-open. Some remain open but have struggled since
the storm.

Given our vast customer base in the Gulf Coast area, and our ability to help people build web sites,
we’re proud to have been able to help Katrina survivors in a variety of ways, from initial work with
the American Red Cross to build and host a web
site to accept donations for Hurricane Katrina recovery, to the recent Back in Business event.

To learn more about the Yahoo! Small Business Back in Business event, please visit http://events.yahoo.com/backinbiz or
email getbackinbusiness@yahoo.com

In addition, we encourage all of our readers to help the Louisiana and Mississippi economies as
much as they can. Visit the region. Buy the products. Let’s all do what we can to help!

For an up-to-date listing of news and events regarding Hurricane Katrina, as well as ways to help
facilitate the recovery efforts, please visit http://news.yahoo.com/fc/US/Hurricane_Katrina/.