Gale Small Business Builder, Online Planning Tool for Entrepreneurs, Launches at 2017 ALA Conference and Exhibition

CHICAGO, June 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 28 million small businesses in the United States. When their owners are looking for resources for everything from developing a business plan to determining if their idea will be profitable, they often turn to their public library. Today at the 2017 ALA Conference and Exhibition, Gale, a Cengage company, launched Gale Small Business Builder, an online planning tool for individuals who are exploring the idea of entrepreneurship, actively starting a business or operating an existing enterprise.

A unique program that will also assist startups and existing nonprofits, Gale Small Business Builder is featured in booth #2111 at ALA 2017 and will be unveiled at the close of a three-librarian panel discussion titled Be an Incubator to Your Business Community Luncheon on Saturday, June 24, 11:30 am at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, Chicago.

"Starting a small business is not an easy task. It takes commitment and planning," said Leigh Ann Cusack, Gale's senior director of product for public libraries. "We developed Gale Small Business Builder to help libraries fill the need for a resource that will help small businesses and nonprofits increase their likelihood of success by following a recommended step-by-step workflow. This comprehensive, guided approach to business planning provides a new level of assistance to small business owners and entrepreneurs through their public library."   

Developed in partnership with Deziner Software, a Chicago-based company that creates software for entrepreneurs and operating businesses, Gale Small Business Builder's intuitive dashboard allows public libraries to provide innovative tools for planning a small business or nonprofit, walking patrons through five areas of exploration:

• The Entrepreneur Profile helps users explore what they can bring to the table as an entrepreneur and assess where they stand in preparing to start a business, resulting in a one-page summary of them as an entrepreneur.
         
• Business Ideation provides users with tools, such as Lean Canvas, SWOT, Porter's Five Forces and more, to plan the high-level framework in which their business will operate.
            
• Break-Even Analysis allows them to determine when their business will be able to cover all of its expenses and begin to make a profit.
                   
• Business Plans helps create a plan for presenting to potential investors or lenders.
                    
• Financial Projections provides a robust financial analysis of their company's financial future, including capital expenditures, sales, equity and inventory.

NaperLaunch, a co-working business space at Naperville Public Library in Illinois, was an early adopter of  Gale Small Business Builder. Kent Palmer, business reference librarian, said, "Gale Small Business Builder helped us build NaperLaunch right from the start. In less than two years, we built an entire entrepreneurial ecosystem at our library. We have some attendees drive up to two hours to attend our weekly Thursday morning roundtables."

For more information, visit http://www.gale.com/c/gale-small-business-builder. To learn how Gale's complete suite of online business resources—including the newly enhanced DemographicsNow: Business & People with its updated, mobile responsive, easy-to-browse interface, and Google mapping technology—help libraries fuel local economic growth and empower entrepreneurs, visit booth #2111 or http://www.gale.com/business.

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.

Media Contact:                                                                                     
Lisa Wolfe, L. Wolfe Communications
773-278-2800, [email protected]

SOURCE Cengage