The Insider's Guide To Small Business Resources, Compiled By David E. Gumpert And Jeffrey A. Timmons. Doubleday Co., 501 Franklin Ave., Garden City, Ny 11530; 432 Pp., $24.95.

In their brief introduction, the authors are enthusiastic about the future of small business and governmental efforts on its behalf. Obviously, it was written before the Reagan Administration took a scythe to budgets. Even so, there remain enough federal-funding and state and private sources that an aspiring entrepreneur or start-up business need not lack financial or advisory help. Though not particularly "inside" (the book admits to relying extensively on the 1980 White House Conference on Small Business), the names, addresses, and descriptions that follow are both comprehensive and detailed -- much more so, in fact, than the government publications that emanated from the conference. Among the categories are small business educational courses, consultants, federal financing, franchising, and small business organizations. Each is preceded by some rudimentary instruction that guides newcomers through what still is -- judging by this valuable volume, anyway -- a land of plenty.

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