Are You Looking for Industry Information?

Well, then look no further!  Our database, OneSource, contains industry research reports on hundreds of industries.  These reports include historical overviews, segmentations, future trends, and industry leaders.  Perfect for entrepreneurs, MBA students, and small business owners who want the inside scoop on their industries.

OneSource is accessible remotely using a Chester County Library card.  Call 610-280-2624 for research assistance.

WSJ's 'Small Business, Big Innovation' Request for Entries

Wall Street Journal will be highlighting a small business that was able to survive the economic meltdown by doing something innovative.  And by innovative, they mean more than just a slight can to products and services.  They want to hear from small businesses that had to seriously put on their thinking caps to withstand the worst recession since The Great Depression. 

If you feel your business did just that, then apply to be the featured business in their Journal's Small Business report in November 2011.  The feature will be read by thousands of people.  Need I say more?

Here is the full article, complete with linked application form: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303365804576430381030430472.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_smallbusiness

Need Help Getting Your Ideas Funded??

Do you have an idea that involves being creative to tell a story or an invention that just needs a little tlc to get started?  Look no futher than Kickstarter.  This site allows people with ideas to help get the funding they need to get their ideas up and running.  Based on donations, entrepreneurs are funded as soon as their financial goal is reached.  The donations are varied in increasing increments, and upon funding a project, there are no strings attached. 

Some recipients 'repay' their funders by sharing their products and/or projects with them.  For example, the Coffee Joulies started on Kickstarter and were funded well over their set goal, helping them succeed much sooner than they would have growing interest themselves.

So, if you have an idea or two that is well suited for Kickstarter, why not start now??  Your ideas could become reality before you know it!

From the Internet: Scrapbooking Your Social Media Bread Crumb Trail

Our lives are increasingly being shared through social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and the like.  Our smart cell phones are equipped to capture any visual or verbal moment that may be worthy of sharing with our friends and family via Facebook and Twitter.  But these moments are being documented in the sense of here and now only, not archived or organized for future viewing.  Memolane has solved that issue for us.  We won't have to scroll through pages and pages of history on Facebook with our future grandchildren to show them pictures from past vacations.  We won't have to scroll through those same pages to find a link a friend shared that was never saved.  Memolane has resolved all of those dilemmas for us by designing a service that can read and organize your entire social media history and present all of that information in the form of a timeline.  Scary?  Yes.  Cool?  Yes.

The ever-changing landscape of social media has become a business.  It wasn't too long ago that I personally thought it would be nice to archive my social media history to perhaps customize and document in place of a traditional scrapbook.  Memolane may be the first of its kind, but it won't be too long before other services with varying capabilities will present themselves.

Online Job Searching - Class & Resources

The next Online Job Searching class is this Wednesday, March 16 from 2-4 PM at the Chester County Library.  Register online OR call 610-280-2666.

If you can't make it to this week's class, check out these job searching resources to discover local, national, and industry specific job websites.  We've hand-picked the best resources on the Internet for you to start using today.  The sites linked above contain easy to use search features and excellent data on the positions available.  If you need any help searching them or have any questions, contact 610-280-2624.

Business Workshop: Retirement Planning, 3/21/11 @ 6:30PM

Registration Required.
610-280-2624 OR sign-up HERE.

Retirement for many of us is right around the corner and planning for it is important to do at any age.  Come to this FREE information session to learn about planning for retirement through investing.  Presented by Christopher Roberts and Cheng Kuo from First Investors.

Learn about:

• Roth and Traditional IRAs
• Recent Tax Law Changes
• Tax-Deferred Investments
• Tax-Free Investments
• Retirement Needs Analysis

From the Internet: The Reality of Running a Store in a Weak Economy

This post is from the New York Times' blog You're the Boss.   The entry is a down-to-earth take on one woman's experience of starting and operating a small western-themed clothing and accessories store selling high-end lines.  Although the shop owner's intentions seemed perfect and her market research looked promising, the economy and the reality of what people were spending their money on prevented her from achieving success in the marketplace.

Blog Post: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/the-dark-side-of-opening-a-store/?ref=business