Ideas are great but they have to be marketable if you want to make a living off of them. If you’re a small business owner who wants to expand your products and services or you’re looking to start a new small business you can avoid some expensive mistakes through the power of crowdsourcing. These are three sites where entrepreneurs can get feedback and assistance for $10 or less.

Quirky (http://www.quirky.com/): Quirky is a social product development company. For just $10 you can submit an idea that will immediately go live on the site, which has over 100,000 members. Your idea stays posted for 30 days while people vote and give you feedback. Meanwhile, Quirky staff monitor the most popular ideas and choose two each week for potential development. If your idea gets chosen you earn a “perpetual royalty.” If not, you still get great analytics. Quirky’s track record is very impressive. Since 2009, they’ve helped to develop over 200 products and their retail partners include Bed, Bath & Beyond, Office Max, Toys “R” Us and Barnes & Noble. Their most successful product, Pivot Power, has earned its inventor over $100,000. It’s a rotating power strip that accommodates the bulky power bricks at the end of the plugs for many devices.

GeniusCrowds (http://www.geniuscrowds.com/ ): GeniusCrowds is a community for creating products people want to see in stores. You can submit product ideas for free. The community reviews all the ideas and votes for their favorites. Then, expert panels including GeniusCrowds staff, retailers and manufacturers conduct their own review and select contenders. If your idea gets deemed one of their “genius products,” they build it and you earn royalties. Their Exclusive Product Development Agreement states that you’ll be paid a direct 25%s share of royalties. Even if you don’t get that far, you can earn gift cards just for being a crowd favorite.

Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/): Kickstarter is a funding platform for inventors, artists and other creative types. The emphasis is on creative projects and no money changes hands until a project is fully funded. The most common projects are $5,000 or less so people use it to test concepts or conditionally sell stuff without risk. It’s free to use. You submit a project and within about two days you get a response from a team member to let you know if it meets the guidelines. The key to success is to offer products, benefits and experiences that will motivate people to fund your idea.

Maybe you’ll become the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg or maybe you’ll design a new product that becomes your next best seller. Either way, crowdsourcing provides valuable feedback at little cost.

The Startup America Partnership has promised over $1 billion in special services to 100,000 startup companies over the next three years. The private sector group held its first board meeting at the White House last week. These are some of the major highlights that emerged.

Background on Startup America: The partnership was launched at the White House as part an initiative to celebrate entrepreneurship. Under the chairmanship of AOL co-founder Steve Case, the alliance brings together major corporations, funders, service providers, mentors and advisors. The Kauffman and Case Foundations are founding partners, and American Express OPEN, Dell Inc., Intuit Inc. and Microsoft are sponsors. Fifty private sector partners have committed over $1.2 billion in resources to date. Almost 2,000 startup companies have already registered since the release of its platform in September 2011. Corporate commitments support the growth of startups in five key areas: expertise, services, talent, customers and capital.

Sample Expertise Offerings: The Consumer Electronics Association will welcome qualified Startup America entrepreneurs to the 2012 International CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow on January 10 through January 13 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Cooley LLP, a full-service global law firm, will offer 5 firms each month a special flat fee package including business formation, intellectual property and funding advice.

Sample Services Offerings: Turnstone, a Steelcase brand, is offering qualified firms free space plan consulting and 18 percent off their products for an estimated value of over $1 million. Qualifying firms can also get special prices and packages from NetSuite and Palo Alto Software, Accrisoft content management solutions, Bigstock and Shutterstock photos, and Legalzoom document services and legal plans.

Sample Talent Offerings: LinkedIn is donating up to 100,000 free subscriptions valued at $12 million. Other companies offering various benefits including free listings and credits include Top Prospect, Elance, IQ Talent Partners, The Resumator and ThinkHR.

Sample Customers Offerings: Emma, a web-based communications service for small businesses, is offering $86 million in free services including complimentary 6 month subscriptions and 20% lifetime discounts. All Startup America firms will also get a $100 credit at Eventbrite.

Sample Capital Offerings: Lendio, an online loan platform, has donated about $54 million to cover free premium memberships and other discounts. All eligible Startup America firms can also get 10% discounts on Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corp. subscriptions.

Scott Case, CEO of the Startup America Partnership, says, “Every startup in the country should register now to utilize these resources and jumpstart their growth.” Each Startup America Firm gets a personalized dashboard “Growth Kit” so they can select the most relevant offerings and interact online. Visit www.startupamericapartnership.org or follow at www.twitter.com/startupamerica and www.facebook.com/startupamerica.

Three out of four small business owners believe that the number of workers financially unprepared for retirement has hit “crisis levels” according to a survey released by Nationwide Financial last week. The company is one of the backers of the Save Act introduced in Congress earlier this year. They say that it may help to encourage retirement savings by reducing some of the most common barriers small businesses face when it comes to employer-established IRAs.

The survey made it clear that small business owners recognize the value of offering retirement plans but find them difficult to implement and afford. Among the major findings were:
Less than 20 percent of small businesses offer a 401(k) or other self-funded retirement plan and only 11 percent are likely to add one within the next two years.

When asked why they’re not offering a retirement plan, 69 percent said their business is too small and more than half said they cost too much.

Having a retirement plan helps to attract qualified employees according to 78 percent of those surveyed.

Almost half (46 percent) of small business owners were unaware or unsure that an employee self-funded retirement plan could be offered without having to match employee contributions.

Most business owners said they would prefer plans that allowed them to decide whether or not to match employee contributions and would welcome the ability to pool their resources with other businesses to lower administrative costs. These results are based on 501 online interviews conducted by Harris Interactive Inc. on behalf of Nationwide Financial, a diversified insurance and financial services organization.

The SAVE Act sponsored by Congressmen Ron Kind (D-WI) and David Reichert (R-WA) might help this situation. It would give small businesses more flexibility and incentives for offering employer-based retirement plans. Specifically, the legislation would create new Multiple Small Employer Plans (MSEPs) where businesses could pool their resources, reduce their expenses and simplify their administrative burdens compared to single employer plans. Additional provisions would also make it easy for businesses to transition to traditional 401(k) plans as their needs change.

However things work out, it is obvious that many Americans will not have enough money for retirement unless some reforms are made. Another survey by Wells Fargo just made headlines for finding that about twenty five percent of middle class Americans now think they will have to work until they are 80. Making it easier for small businesses to sponsor retirement plans for their workers could be part of the solution.