Gale Improves User Experience and Discoverability of Gale Small Business Builder with New Integrated Access to Business and Legal Resources
PLA Conference, PHILADELPHIA – March 21, 2018 – Gale, a Cengage company, is making it easier for new entrepreneurs and existing business owners to find and access their library’s key business and legal resources. Gale Small Business Builder now provides integrated access to Small Business Resource Center, DemographicsNow and Gale LegalForms. Libraries that subscribe to one or more of these products now have access to additional business and legal content through Gale Small Business Builder, giving their patrons a direct path to the resources and tools they need within their business planning workflow.
Entrepreneurs need access to a wide variety of supporting information and data when they are in the business planning process. In many cases, they’re unsure about the type of information or data they need and don’t know where to find it. The new integrations in Gale Small Business Builder link users directly to the appropriate content, making business planning more actionable, enabling libraries to guide entrepreneurs to relevant resources with less staff involvement.
Naperville Public Library in Illinois uses Gale Small Business Builder as the foundation of the NaperLaunch Academy, a library program that offers coursework in entrepreneurship, where Gale Small Business Builder is used to help new startup entrepreneurs create a business plan. Kent Palmer, business librarian at Naperville Public Library believes the new integration will help streamline the process of finding and accessing information that entrepreneurs and small business owners require for business planning:
“Entrepreneurs using Gale Small Business Builder at NaperLaunch will appreciate the ease of accessing important subject information for their business plans. The guidance and resources from Small Business Resource Center and Gale LegalForms makes my job much easier as we guide startups through the plan development process. Importing demographic and legal information will help them build the best business plans possible. Gale Small Business Builder’s new integration makes the library experience for entrepreneurs significantly better than any incubator,” said Palmer.
Gale Small Business Builder includes integrated access to:
- DemographicsNow: connects users with tools and a wealth of highly detailed demographic data that spans the entire United States, making it ideal for gaining consumer and market insight for opening or growing a business.
- Small Business Resource Center: a comprehensive database that covers all aspects of starting and operating a business, including accounting, finance, human resources, management, marketing, taxes, and more.
- Gale LegalForms: provides access to a variety of legal documents and offers the most robust collection of legal information available – including state-specific legal forms – that are helpful for starting or managing a new business.
“Having direct access to quality resources and tools is key to creating a successful business plan. Gale Small Business Builder’s new integration achieves this by making content easily discoverable and accessible,” said Leigh Ann Cusack, senior director of public and consortia products at Gale. “As entrepreneurship and small business rapidly grow, public libraries have become the epicenter for research and support. Gale Small Business Builder’s new integration provides access to resources that are vital to businesses and entrepreneurs, helping libraries drive economic development within their communities.”
Gale Small Business Builder’s new integrations will be available in April. Demonstrations of the new experience will be conducted at the Public Library Association (PLA) Conference, March 21-23 in Philadelphia at the Gale booth #501.
About Gale Small Business Builder
Gale Small Business Builder is an online planning tool that helps aspiring small-business owners and experienced entrepreneurs plan, start or run a small business or nonprofit. For more information on Gale Small Business Builder visit: https://www.gale.com/c/gale-small-business-builder.
About Cengage and Gale
Cengage is the education and technology company built for learners. The company serves the higher education, K-12, professional, library and workforce training markets worldwide. Gale, a Cengage company, provides libraries with original and curated content, as well as the modern research tools and technology that are crucial in connecting libraries to learning, and learners to libraries. For more than 60 years, Gale has partnered with libraries around the world to empower the discovery of knowledge and insights – where, when, and how people need it. Gale has 500 employees globally with its main operations in Farmington Hills, Michigan. For more information, please visit www.gale.com.
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Media Contact:
Kayla Siefker, Gale-Cengage, 248-915-9624, [email protected]