Business Opportunities Weblog

August 31, 2006 by Rich Whittle | 2 Comments

The Wall Street Journal Online:

Where can entrepreneurs find office space, a research assistant, mentors and access to reams of market research — all free of charge?

Try your local library.

In an age where Google has become a verb and entrepreneurs have easy access to information from their home computers, libraries have been trying to evolve as well.

Some have seemingly become small-business incubators in their own right: places where cash-strapped start-ups and established business owners alike can gather sophisticated information on a target market, draw up a business plan, bounce an idea off a seasoned executive, or perhaps, even find funding or build a Web site.

While resources will vary across institutions, most libraries subscribe to a number of commercial databases, which can cost thousands of dollars a year.

For instance, ReferenceUSA, a database with information on millions of businesses and households, coupled with census data and a lifestyle database, can make a powerful market-research tool.

Entrepreneurs can find, for example, how many pet stores are in Brooklyn, N.Y., where they’re located, residents’ income levels, and whether they tend to own dogs.

Library patrons also have remote access to materials — including a limited number of databases — from their library Web sites. In fact, many list links to other sites and directories they have vetted and found particularly useful.

Photo by EricGjerde.

In Ideas | 2 Comments
Tags: Free, Startup, Strategy, Tools