If we truly live in the Information Age, businesses need to start acting like it. The Spokane Public Library and the Spokane County Library District (Spokane area’s two public library systems) are at the forefront of bringing high quality business information to our local community. For free. Regardless of whether your business is online or bricks and mortar…service or product…start-up or 5th generation…B2B or B2C… manufacturer or wholesaler or retailer… sole proprietor, partnership or corporation, there are several essential topics all businesses need to constantly assess: 1. Who is my target market? 2. Where is my target market? 3. What are the demographics of my market? 4. Is there demand for what I’m selling? 5. Who are my competitors? 6. What are the important trends within my industry? 7. Where the heck is my research staff?! There are as many answers to the first six topics as there are numbers of businesses. But the clear and consistent answer to item #7 is Spokane’s public libraries. The library has the staff, the tools and the experience to act as Spokane’s business information sherpa. We carry the weight, we show the path, and we take the pain out of business research. Combining free access to online business resources (a $50,000 annual public resource) with knowledgeable library staff to help guide entrepreneurs and business owners, the public library offers Spokane’s businesses an exclusive and significant competitive edge. View the full case study at: http://universityeda.org/value-to-members/best-practice-sharing/awards-of-excellence/2014-awards-of-excellence/awards-of-excellence-2014-finalists/spokanes-business-library/

1. Spokanebusiness.org
Mark Pond, Business Reference Librarian l Spokane Public Library

2. IT’S NOT ABOUT AN
IDEA.
IT’S ABOUT MAKING
IDEAS HAPPEN.
 Demographics
 Industry trends
 Competitive analysis
 Sales lead development
 Sales projections
 Business plan

4. Spokanebusiness.org:
Professional grade business research. For free.

8. WHAT ARE WE DOING RIGHT?
 Originality
 Scalability
 Sustainability
 Check, check, and check

9. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
 Community outreach and training.
 Library acts as the crowdsourcing hub to fund other business research and information
resources.
 Like what? A Bloomberg terminal. eMarketer.com. Lexis-Nexis. WestLaw. Etc.
 3-D printers. Laser cutters. CNC routers. A full-blown MakerSpace.