This document discusses managing the expectations of different types of entrepreneurs who use business libraries. It describes entrepreneurs who are not used to using libraries or doing market research themselves. For these groups, the librarian should actively promote library resources, assist with search strategies, and provide referrals. It also addresses entrepreneurs who expect all information to be free online or have experience with large company research departments. For these patrons, the librarian should explain the value of both free and low-cost resources available and help assemble information to address their needs. The hardest customers are those recently independent from large companies - the librarian should empathize while setting appropriate expectations about limitations.

1. Assisting the Entrepreneur:
Managing Expectations
Nicolette Warisse Sosulski, MLIS
Business Librarian, Portage District Library

2. Entrepreneur Expectations: Types
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Entrepreneurs who are not used to using libraries,
and who think you cannot do anything.
Entrepreneurs who are not used to doing market
research, and who think everything is available on
the Internet for free. Your job is to find it.
Entrepreneurs who have recently cut ties in one way
or other from large company with research
department or house librarian, and who have no idea
how many resources were dedicated to market
research in their former space.

3. Entrepreneurs who are not used to
using libraries, and who think you
cannot do anything.
These people can be among your staunchest
converts, because everything is a wonderful gift.
 Push resources and actively engage them in
discussions of what they are doing right now,
because they have little idea what you might be able
to do for them.
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4. Entrepreneurs who are not used to
using libraries, and who think you
cannot do anything.
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Associations-one secret for getting more research for less
Databases—they are unlikely to know about them
DVDs
Personnel or hiring or job description manuals
Business plan resources

5. Entrepreneurs who are not used to
using libraries, and who think you
cannot do anything.
These patrons may not know the wealth of knowledge
that the librarian possesses
 Referrals
 Help with search terms (explain that they may be a
subject expert, but you are a searching expert).
 Free resources on the web—even if they say they’ve
“already searched Google.”

6. Entrepreneurs who are not used to doing
market research, and who think everything
is available on the Internet for free. Your job
is to find it.

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Remind them of their entrepreneureal sense: if THEY
were running an information company, how would they
pay their employees if they put all the product up for
free?
Show them some things that they can do that they might
have thought they had to pay for—biz plan examples on
Small Business Resource Center, mailing list generation
on a directory database, if you have one.
Through Associations, show them that they might not be
able to get the $10,000 report that they saw online, but
there might be other research available to them

7. Entrepreneurs who are not used to doing
market research, and who think everything
is available on the Internet for free. Your job
is to find it.

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Show them material that they can get that is
excellent, but is free (or, rather, paid for already)
because there is “some assembly required. “ There
may not be a complete SWOT analysis on the
company that they are looking at (though there are
more SWOT analyses than there used to be in our
resources) but they can get strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats so that they can assemble
their own SWOT analysis.
They might be able to get more if they make a road
trip to a nearby college or university.

8. Entrepreneurs who are not used to doing
market research, and who think everything is
available on the Internet for free. Your job is
to find it.

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Show them through the wonders of Google
advanced search how to get at government data or
the census. Again, there may be “some assembly
required” but it is valuable.
Explain, kindly, that your job is to help find some
materials, and to get them started and over humps,
but that resources do not permit you to do the entire
research task for them. Give them your card, but
with the explanation that they contact you “if they run
into snags.”

9. Entrepreneurs who are not used to doing
market research, and who think everything
is available on the Internet for free. Your job
is to find it.
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Make a call to one of your larger libraries to see if
the information is available there.
Tell them that you can make a try at finding
something.
Give them contact information of agencies or
associations who may have the information that they
need.

10. Entrepreneurs who have recently cut ties in one way
or other from large companies with research
departments or house librarians, and who have no
idea how many resources were dedicated to market
research in their former space.

These are your hardest customers. They are on
their own doing some process possibly outsourced
by their former employers in major industries (like
Big Pharma in my case). Be ready for them to
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Refuse to believe you that the information is not available to you
without a price tag.
Suggest that you get it from a neighboring library who does
have it.
Suggest that you hack into a neighboring library or company.
Ask you to teach them to hack into a neighboring library who
has it.

11. Entrepreneurs who have recently cut ties in one way
or other from large companies with research
departments or house librarians, and who have no
idea how many resources were dedicated to market
research in their former space.

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Feel their pain. You are not going to have the
specialized resources that they do unless possibly
you are a major research university . They may be
temporarily filled with despair that they cannot
compete in the only arena they really know.
Try to find out what government information might be
available to help them—permits lists, bids from
agencies,