Your Personal GPS Part I The Library

Sometimes I feel like I’m nagging about the importance of finding out as much as you can about the career you are considering or the entrepreneurial idea you are hatching and to suggest that you often don’t even know what it is you don’t know yet. But the many questions I get indicate that many of you don’t know how to find information from all the sources that are out there. So, this is the first of a series that will include books, the internet, the professionals, and the experts in a variety of fields.

This is Part I – THE LIBRARY. This gem is the easiest, cheapest, and frequently most convenient source that is available to everyone. Every town, regardless of size has a library. And, in the case of very small towns, their library is almost always part of a larger network that serves the county or region. The internet allows you to sit in your own living room at 10 PM and search the catalogue of the entire system. All you need is a library card.

For the sake of demonstration throughout this series, we are going to go looking for information for three clients:

• Sue is interested in being a Virtual Assistant;

• David has designed a cool line of lamps he dreams of selling in Target;

• Kathy wants to start a non-profit for young women and is looking for grant money to fund it.

My first step was to check the catalogue online late last night. Then this morning, I physically visited the Reference section to find the most useful books there. Let’s start with Sue. By searching the library catalogue using a couple of keywords, I found these books in my library system.

Virtual Assistant-- The Series: become a highly successful, sought after VA -Diana Ennen and Kelly O'Fallon, IL: Another 8 Hours Pub., c2004

101 Internet businesses you can start from home: how to choose and build your own successful e-business. Sweeney, Susan, 1956 Gulf Breeze, FL: Maximum Press, c2007.

Small Business Operator: How to start your own business, keep your books, pay your taxes and stay out of trouble; Kamoroff, Bernard.Willits, Calif., Bell Springs Pub, c2008.

Now – David needs to know about the laws for trademarking a design and the process to find a manufacturer. Let’s see what a keyword search turns up for him.

Trademark: Your Business and Product Name from Nolo Press Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks for Dummies - by Henri Charmasson. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2004.

Handbook of Manufacturing Processes : How products, components and materials are made - James G. Bralla, New York : Industrial Press, c2007

And lastly, for Kathy and her non-profit idea I found these:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Grant Writing - Waddy Thompson. Indianapolis, IN: Alpha, c2007.

The Only Grant-Writing Book You'll Ever Need - Ellen Karsh and Arlen Sue Fox. New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers; [Berkeley, Calif: Distributed by Publishers Group West], 2006.

The Pennsylvania Nonprofit Handbook: Everything you need to know to start and run your nonprofit organization. Grobman, Gary M, Harrisburg, Pa: White Hat Communications, c2005.

Some of these books were in branches far away, but with the click of my mouse I am able to order them and can pick them up at my local library after 11 AM tomorrow morning. Depending on the distance and how your local system works, it might take longer, but you can have the books to browse through and glean as much information as possible without spending a dime. (Just don’t forget to return them.)

My actual visit to the Reference Room netted these other great resources:

The Business Journal Book of Lists – if you live in or near an urban area, this weekly business newspaper publishes the Book of Lists that will give you company profile and contact information for the 100 biggest whatevers. i.e. design firms; manufacturers; builders, office buildings etc.

The American Marketplace – anything you want to know about the demographics and spending habits of Americans. For example, a couple between the ages of 35 – 44, earning over $70,000 and living in the NorthWest eat out more than anyone else in the country. If you are considering a restaurant or coffee shop in Seattle, go for it!

The Community Sourcebook of Zip Code Demographics will tell you all you want to know about your own local area and your potential clients or customers.

The Standard and Poor’s Industry Surveys provide descriptions of domestic and foreign markets, economic variables and resource information by industry - when I looked up Household Durables for David, I got a list of trade associations that could be helpful in his information search.

In the Harris Industrial Directory for Pennsylvania I found a list of 53 regional manufacturers of lighting fixtures for residential use for David.

The Encyclopedia of Business Information Sources provided lists of applicable books, journals, associations, directories, handbooks, online databases, periodicals and newsletters for Kathy’s search for non-profit help. It provides all of this for hundreds of business categories. This one is cross-referenced so it eventually led me to Associations which led to Women’s Clubs which led me to the National Council of Women of the US.

All of these resources will be able to provide Kathy with valuable data and advice. In the same book, I looked up self-employment and got a comprehensive list of web-sites for Sue that deal with home businesses, internet based businesses and the information about the Home Business Magazine which offers an annual list of 250 non-franchised home business opportunities along with information on start-up costs and providers.

In addition, as I browsed the business section in the Reference room, I found the Directory of Trade Shows and a Directory of Mail Order Catalogues.

The Encyclopedia of Small Business covers any possible question you could ask about starting and running a small business from Accounting to Zoning.

The Book of Associations – this reference lists all the organizations and associations in the world according to categories such as non-profit, manufacturing, consulting, etc.

One whole shelf was devoted to PA state tax laws, incorporation, state business requirements, etc.

In general, if you remember the Dewey Decimal System from jr. high, you can find Business books in 658, Manufacturing in 670, non-profit in 361 and 347 and Career books in a variety of places depending on the field.

Part II will deal with searching the internet and I know some of you, especially those under 40, think that is the only place to look. But, unlike the internet where you may not be able to determine the date or source of the information or even it’s accuracy, the books mentioned above are all creditable sources you can trust.

So go get a card, meet the reference librarian, and spend some time just browsing. You’ll be amazed at what you might find that you didn’t know you were looking for!