Happy Friday! This week, we are bringing you 5 top entrepreneur blogs you should read AND 5 top entrepreneur Twitter users you should be following.

Top 5 Entrepreneur Blogs to Read (excluding this one, of course!)

Mashable: With categories ranging from technology to social good, Mashable is the first blog you should check each day for the latest news and trends. It’s also wise to bookmark this blog for the wealth of resources and tips you’ll no doubt return to again and again.

Freelance Folder: While its target audience is freelance writers, Freelance Folder is chock full of advice and tips useful for entrepreneurs from all walks of life. With topics on productivity and marketing, you’ll find something to help your small business.

Chris Brogan: A small business consultant and columnist for Entrepreneur magazine, Chris Brogan offers his insight on a variety of current topics for entrepreneurs. He provides not just business advice, but inspiration.

Startup Princess: “An international network committed to Empowering Women Entrepreneurs by offering resources for women in business to support, mentor, collaborate, learn from, and inspire one another.” With events, a business directory, and advertising opportunities supplementing the blog, this online community is a go-to for women entrepreneurs.

Sparksheet: More of an online magazine than a blog, Sparksheet offers a variety of topics to get businesses thinking about the way they use content to define and promote their brands. In addition to news and information, Sparksheet gives you the opportunity–and encourages you–to engage in lively discussions.

Top 5 Entrepreneurs on Twitter

Ja-Naé Duane (@TheSunQueen): Our founder and CEO is our top pick to follow, but not just for the obvious reason. Her network is so vast and varied, she always has something interesting and useful to say.

Carla Young (@CarlaYoung): The founder of MOMeo Magazine and EntrepreneurialMoms.com tweets not only business-related information, but practical advice for life.

Jason Calacanis (@Jason): An angel investor and co-founder of Mahalo (among others), Jason tweets advice and information to and about startups. His account should be at the top of the list of any entrepreneur starting a business.

Small Business Administration (@SBAgov): The official Twitter feed for the Small Business Administration. Find tips and news here.

Anita Campbell (@smallbiztrends): Follow Anita to keep up on the latest trends and news in small business.

We know we’ve left off a number of people to follow and blogs to read, but this will give you a great start. Have we missed any of your favorites? Tell us below in the comments who we should add and why.

Happy Friday! Today we’re bringing you some interesting news related to social media for your small business:

Facebook for Business: Finally! A helpful guide from the denizen of social media. Facebook has recently launched its online education center to help businesses in establishing pages and profiles. Earlier this month, Facebook announced it would be partnering with Skype to offer video chat services via its website. All this seems to be aimed at taking on Google+. If you haven’t yet created a page for your small business, or aren’t sure you set it up correctly, check out their help center.

Social Essentials: More news from Facebook: the social media giant is teaming up with ComScore to provide a new service for businesses, Social Essentials. The goal is to help a business reach beyond their fans and tap into an even larger market–friends of their fans. Read this article from MyVenturePad and see if this is a service your brand can use.

How to Save Time and Be More Effective with Online Connections: As entrepreneurs spend more time using social media, the temptation to waste that valuable time becomes greater. Here is a great article from one of our favorite small business gurus, Chris Brogan, on how to manage that time more wisely.

Social Media “Incidents” Cost Companies: From hacking to negative publicity, issues created by a company’s social media presence have a real fiscal cost, so says a Symantec poll recently conducted. The numbers are staggering: “(T)he average loss in stock price came to $1,038,40, average litigation costs were $650,361, direct financial costs were $641,993, and lost revenue was $619,360″ Read more for how social media missteps can have a huge impact on your bottom line, and make sure you have a social media policy in place for your small business!

Forbes Interview with Mark Cuban: One of the most successful entrepreneurs of this generation, billionaire Mark Cuban knows what he’s talking about. And he’s talking to Forbes about social media and entrepreneurship. Check it out!

Have we left something off our Friday Five you think other entrepreneurs should see? Let us know. Meanwhile, stay cool and enjoy your weekend!

The Wild WE has been wildly busy! So busy, we missed posting a Friday Five last week. To make it up to you, we’re posting seven great articles loaded with seven tips each to help those of you starting a business or growing your own small business.

7 Signs You Need a Break from Your Business: It’s all too common for small business owners to experience “burn-out”. We can become consumed with running our business and lose sight of the big picture. Entrepreneur.com gives seven signs that it might be time to take a step back and tips on how to find more balance in your worklife.

7 Blogging Tips for Small Business: If you own a small business, chances are you have a blog. (And if you don’t, you probably should!) Here are seven tips from Entrepreneurs Journey to keep in mind if you want to make your blog successful.

7 Tips for Entrepreneurs Who Are Lone Rangers: To be a successful entrepreneur, you can’t go it alone. Cultivating positive business relationships is integral to growing and promoting your small business. This article from Startup Professionals, Inc. will give you ideas on how to foster mutually beneficial relationships with other businesses and entrepreneurs.

7 Mobile Marketing Tips for Entrepreneurs: Just about everyone has a mobile phone nowadays, and a large percentage own smart phones. This article from bNet will get you thinking about how you can reach out to your current clients via their mobile network to improve your customer retention rates.

7 Travel Tools for Any Productive Trip: This list of must-have travel gadgets comes from the Queen of Travel, our CEO Ja-Naé. These are the tools she swears by. Check them out before your next trip and be sure to add any that you find useful!

7 PR Tips for Entrepreneurs: Whether you are a new entrepreneurs or have been around, this list of seven PR tips will help make sure that you are on the right promotional track. It’s a good starting point if you are just starting a business and a good refresher for established entrepreneurs.

7 Tips for Teen Entrepreneurs: Encouraging budding entrepreneurs is one way to ensure a steady stream of motivated, innovative, young thinkers into the small business marketplace. Share this article with your favorite enterprising young entrepreneur(s) and help them achieve their dreams.

Have any small business news or tips to share? Leave us a comment here or on our Facebook page!

Google’s launch this past week of its own social network, Google+, has the social media sphere in an excited tizzy. So what is Google+? And perhaps more importantly, does the internet (especially your small business) need yet another social network?

Tentatively speaking…yes.

While Google+ is slowly being rolled out for individuals and has not yet introduced a business side, entrepreneurs should still be considering how they can use this new network to their advantage. Integration with your existing contacts and networks is fairly straightforward, and the multimedia tools that Google+ has make reaching out to business contacts and customer/clients easy. ReadWriteBiz gives more details on making the most of Google+ for your brand. For another great post about Google+, check out Chris Brogran’s 50 things to think about. He’s been talking about Google+ all week and has some other great posts about it, so be sure to browse his blog.

Are you one of the lucky few who’ve received invites to try out Google+? What do you think about it? Do you think it will replace Facebook, Twitter, and/or LinkedIn for small business networking? Leave us a comment with your thoughts!

Happy Fourth of July! As we gear up to celebrate our country’s independence, the Wild WE brings a patriotic flair to this week’s Friday Five. Below are links to resources for small business owners and entrepreneurs, particularly veterans.

V-WISE: Women Veterans Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship is a program specifically for female veterans sponsored by the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse. The program’s goal is to help women veterans become successful entrepreneurs by providing training and networking opportunities. Check out their magazine, WISE, for inspiring stories and information for all women entrepreneurs.

SBA Patriot Express: An initiative by the US Small Business Administration to provide easier access to loans and grants for veteran-owned small businesses. For non-veterans, the SBA offers a similar pilot program, Community Express.

BPW Joining Forces for Women Veterans: The Business and Professional Women’s Foundation launched their own women veterans initiative to provide resources and opportunities for would-be small business entrepreneurs. Information on the inaugural summit and future plans can be found on their website, including a webcast from the summit and links to more information.

Center for Veterans Enterprise: A web portal from the US Veterans Administration that links veteran entrepreneurs to forms and information they need to get started using the many veteran resources available to them.

Women’s Bureau at Department of Labor: The Women’s Bureau provides a wealth of resources for women entrepreneurs, but our favorite is their  guide to sustainable (green) jobs for women. If the environmental industry is one you have a passion for, you need to check this out.

Perhaps when you hear “Chamber of Commerce”, you think of a bunch of older men, smoking cigars and cutting deals in some back room. Or maybe it makes you think of a bunch of stuffed shirts passing out business cards at an event catered with cheap wine and stale hors d’oeuvres. Then again, maybe you just haven’t seen what benefit being a member of the Chamber of Commerce has for your small business.

If any of these are the reason for not looking into your local Chamber of Commerce, disregard them now. Your local Chamber of Commerce has a wealth of resources for entrepreneurs just like you. One of their most well-known resources is their frequent networking events. While some may take the form of a cocktail hour or reception, there are also a multitude of opportunities to network in other forms. Some CoC partake in community service projects (a chance to do social good and promote your business–win/win on all accounts!) or host summits, where you may have the opportunity to showcase your expertise on a topic. There is also the opportunity to be an event “sponsor”, another way of promoting your business and helping the community. Another significant benefit that a CoC provides is the ability to provide input to your local government. For more on the benefits of a CoC membership, watch this video.

As with any organization, you will get out of your local Chamber of Commerce what you put into it. So why not check out the CoC in your area and see how it can help your small business grow and succeed. (Tip: if you are in proximity to more than one CoC, maybe you should join both!) If you belong to a Chamber of Commerce, let us know what you like (or don’t like) about it. Leave a comment below!

Here is this week’s installment of the Wild WE’s Friday Five, news and information from around the web for small business owners and women entrepreneurs:

University of Dubai Entrepreneurship and Business Plan for Women Entrepreneurs:  The Middle East is not a region known for its support of women, especially professional women entrepreneurs. However, the University of Dubai, located in one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, is leading the way in turning that around. In a first of its kind program for the region, UD recently completed a workshop for women entrepreneurs to help them learn the tools necessary to be successful businesswomen.

The Most Influential Small Business Twitter Accounts: D and B Credibility has published this very helpful list of Twitter accounts that small business owners should consider following. They are rated in terms of the Klout score and peer follows. Perhaps someone you find valuable to follow isn’t on the list; if so, add them to our comments section below and tell us why you follow them! We would add @TheSunQueen, the account for our intrepid founder Ja-Naé, and of course, @TheWildWE!

6 Women Entrepreneurs Who Went From Rags to Riches: Need your weekly dose of inspiration? Check out these 6 highly successful and influential women entrepreneurs who started from nothing and built a fortune.

Using Tradtional Media to Help Build Your Small Business: A lot of focus is put on the trend of social media to grow your business, but this article explains ways you can use traditional media to your advantage as a small business owner to promote your products and services. We especially like the tip about HARO-Help a Reporter Out-which allows you to put your expertise to use.

Business and a Beer: An Entrepreneur Roundtable: Entrepreneur magazine held its first Business and a Beer event in March, gathering together several successful business owners over food and drink to share their stories and offer up advice for other entrepreneurs. See what they had to say.

Have we overlooked anything useful? Share with us in the comments below!

Start your busy weekend off right–check out our top 5 posts from around the web for your small business. Have we forgotten any? Leave us a comment!

Dad Inventors: Read how three innovative fathers built their businesses around solutions to common parenting problems.

10 Ways to Tell It’s Time to Fire a Client: Yes, you need the business. Yes, you need the income. But do you really need the headache? Read this article to decide if it’s time to fire that irritating client and move on.

One Small Business Owner’s “Groupon” Nightmare: Groupon, the social network that offers discounts on local products and services, has seen its popularity increase in just the past year alone. While it seems like a great deal for businesses and consumers alike, not every small business owner has had a good experience. Here is one entrepreneur’s story of how Groupon was the “single worst decision” she had ever made.

How Women Entrepreneurs are Changing the World: The title of this USAToday article says it all. Read on for some inspiration!

20 Time-Saving Tips: From Freelance Folder, here are twenty tips busy entrepreneurs can use–at work and at home–to maximize their productivity. Did they miss one? Share with us in the comments below!

Ever thought there should be a standardized set of rules for email, an established etiquette system? Think about how time consuming reading and replying to email can be. As small business owners, a lot of time may be wasted each day trying to wade through your inbox, culling the nonsense and prioritizing what is important. Wouldn’t it be so much easier if everyone adhered to the same standard in sending emails? Then you can see at a glance what is important and what is frivolous, what requires a response and what does not.

Here’s where Chris Anderson, curator of TED, comes in. He is in the process of creating a community-inspired charter for email. Take a look at some of the ideas he proposes. Our favorite? Use “CC” judiciously. Only include those folks who really need to know the information contained therein. This also eliminates the dilemma for the email recipient as to whether they should “Reply All” or not. He is looking for input from the web, so if you have suggestions or comments, visit his blog and leave a comment.

What are some of your email pet peeves? What are some of your best practices? Leave us a comment below!

The Wild WE understands that as small business owners, your time is precious. So we are launching a new feature, the “Friday Five”: the top five stories and blog posts we find to help you start a business or grow your existing one, or that you just may find as interesting as we do. Check out our list below and let us know what you think. Have any to add? Leave us a comment!

The Death of the Phone Number: Do you Skype or use GoogleVoice? Then you will enjoy Nilay Patel’s editorial on how the phone number is an outmoded means of communication and why it’s about time it goes the way of rotary dial phones.

5 Content Marketing Strategies for Small Business: From Mashable, tips on creating solid content to help market your small business, whether through blogs or social media platforms.

5 Productivity Tools to Boost Creativity: Who says being productive and being creative have to be mutually exclusive? With this list of small business tools, you can be both.

What is Hybrid Entrepreneurship? (And why you should consider it!): Starting a business can be a struggle. One way to keep a steady income while you plan and grow your business is to not quit your full-time job. Read this inspiring interview by Black Enterprise with one successful woman entrepreneur to see how she did it–and learn how you can do it, too!

401(K) Retirement Plans for One-Person Small Business: The last thing on many small business owners’ minds is setting up a retirement fund for themselves. It’s one of those details that often gets put off for “someday”. This explanation and advice from the SBA will help get you started in setting up your own “Uni-K”, or One-Participant 401(K) Plan.