There are countless choices involved in building and operating a small business. You need to write a business plan, secure financing, and hire qualified employees. Sometimes the paperwork can be overwhelming. Luckily the Web abounds with sites that offer time-saving forms for conducting business. Planning to hire a consultant and need to draft a Nondisclosure Agreement right away? Can't locate that tax form your business must file tomorrow? Relax, these and thousands of other forms are just a few keystrokes away online. To save you time, this guide shows you the best places to turn to download legal forms and templates, tax and other business forms, even software that enables you to create your own forms.

Make your case
If you need a legal form or template, chances are that one of the sites listed here has it. In fact, never before has the Web offered so many legal resources targeted directly at small businesses. Even better: many of the forms that you can download from these sites are free.

• Nolo.com. Regularly voted one of the best sites on the Web, Nolo.com bills itself as providing "Everyday Law for Everyday People." Besides explaining legalese in ways that non-attorneys can understand, the site offers a plethora of legal forms that are essential to operating a small business. Nolo.com's charges for the forms vary, and some discounts are available.

• FindLaw for Business. While this site's primary goal is to help you find a lawyer, it is also chock-full of articles, how-to guides, samples of actual contracts, and links to thousands of free legal forms organized by state. These can be found under the "Small Business Legal Concerns" heading on the home page (http://biz.findlaw.com).

• Internet Legal Resource Guide. The ILRG is a categorized index of more than 4,000 Web sites devoted to law and the legal profession. The site (www.ilrg.com) provides numerous free legal forms as well as links to forms that are available for a fee.

• LawInfo.com. Founded in 1995, LawInfo.com (formerly LawSmart) boasts an easy-to-navigate Legal Resource Center that is home to thousands of free forms and templates arranged by practice and state. You'll also find dozens of commonly used letters and forms that you can fill in online and print from your browser.

Taking care of business
The emergence of full-fledged small business "centers" on the Web over the last few years comes with the promise of keeping all of your day-to-day operations running smoothly. These centers deliver a wide spectrum of software and tools, usually on a subscription basis. While these sites offer a polished set of services for running a business, chances are they're overkill if you're only looking for help generating essential forms and documents. The following sites are likely to have what you need.

• IRS Small Business Site. The Internal Revenue Service (www.irs.ustreas.gov/businesses/small/index.html) offers a wealth of resources tailored specifically to small businesses, ranging from reference guides to research papers to—not surprisingly—a comprehensive list of downloadable tax forms. Detailed instructions for filling out each form are provided. The IRS also offers a good selection of fill-in forms that you can complete online and print out.

• AllBusiness.com. This well-designed portal makes it a snap to quickly find the business forms you need. The AllBusiness "libraries" are stocked with actual and sample forms and agreements. Forms cost $25 each (previews are free) and are delivered to your email address in Microsoft Word or PDF format. For every two forms you order, the third is free.

Do it yourself
Still can't find the form you need? Maybe it's time to create your own. ScanSoft's (www.scansoft.com) OmniForm forms management software enables you to turn paper forms into digital forms or to create new digital forms from scratch. Need a form that your users can fill out online? With the OmniForm Premium version, you can post forms to ScanSoft's eOmniForm Web-based service.

Whichever sites you ultimately end up using, you can be sure of one thing: you're going to find much more than just online forms. Competition among sites catering to small businesses continues to be fierce, so count on finding plenty of tools, free advice, and other helpful resources in addition to forms. That's good news for any small business.