Blog Posts by Subject: Small Business

Beverage Industry • Apparel • Tea & Coffee Trade JournalIf you’re writing a business plan or have recently started a new business, you need to keep up with industry news and trends. One way to do this is with trade journals.

Trade journals are written for people involved in an industry or sector, and offer a view from inside the industry. Some are restricted “to the trade,” but many can be accessed online through NYPL.

So how can you find these publications? One quick way is to go to the

This Sunday's paper listed the New York Times business best sellers. Rankings reflect sales for January 2012. Below are several of the titles culled from that list, sorted by genre, with links to our catalog.

The New York Times rank for each title is found after the author's name, and paperback titles are indentified as such. In addition, the list has been annotated and supplemented by identifying and listing books from Nielsen BookScan's top 10 hardcover business titles as published in the Saturday, February 4 edition of the Wall Street 

The January 14 issue of The Economist has reviewed (and maybe recommended...) five new books on a few different business topics. I'm using this as an opportunity to post a list of these titles with links to the Library's collections.

For those interested in the articles, you can find them through some of our electronic resources (I recommend EBSCO's Business Source Premier,

At the suggestion of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce (MCC), SIBL recently hosted a lively orientation for NYC-based foreign trade commissioners and their staff. The attendees learned effective and efficient ways to mine business-to-business (B2B) contacts from online business directories accessible at NYPL's Science, Industry and Business Library.

Trade commission staff from 

The New York Public Library with its sponsor, Citi Foundation, has announced the New York StartUP! 2012 Business Plan Competition for New York-based startup entrepreneurs with cash prizes totaling over $30,000. The third annual New York StartUp! gives aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to bolster their business acumen. Entrants gain practical insights about starting and growing a business, while learning about the comprehensive small business resources at NYPL’s Science, Industry and Business 

If running your own business is your goal, let SIBL help! It's not too late to enter the 2012 New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition with three remaining orientations scheduled for December. In this posting, though, I glance back to September's lively Awards Ceremony closing the 2011 New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition. The evening epitomized the synergies that SIBL 

Do I have your attention? OK! Yes — the money is real. It's time for SIBL's New York StartUP! 2012 Business Plan Competition! If you've been thinking about starting a business in Manhattan, The Bronx, or Staten Island, this money could help make your dreams a reality.

But don't think there will be a free lunch. You're gonna have to work for it. Although there will be a short break for the Thanksgiving Holiday, there are still a few more 

The Hat - Patents and TrademarksThe talent pool in patents and trademarks at SIBL is deep — which means we're almost always ready to answer IP questions on the spot when they come up. But I've been lucky and have had the opportunity to wear the patent and trademark hat — yes, there is one, it won first place in a contest a few years ago! And among the privileges this brings is the opportunity to invite U.S. Patent and Trademark Office representatives to come to SIBL every couple of years for public and staff 

November 8 is fast approaching, and with it the Intellectual Property day at SIBL, featuring representatives from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This seems like a good opportunity to recommend one of the Library's best sources for information about trademarks, Stephen Elias and Richard Stim's Nolo book Trademark — Legal Care for Your Business and Product Name.

Highly 

In polite conversation, it is unusual for people to talk about taxes. In other situations, they may be mentioned or discussed. And as we know, they are frequently a topic for political rants and news.

The majority of people only have to deal with taxes about once a year, when the filing and payment (or refund) season for income tax comes around. Folks who choose to do their tax filing themselves may visit the Library to borrow or consult resources like The Ernst & Young Tax Guide or

Are you planning to start a business? Are you interested in doing something you really love? Perhaps it's using your expertise to start a service business — maybe you’re a chef with a unique restaurant concept. Do you know who your competition is? You’ll need to find out.

A great place to research competitors is Reference USA, an online directory available on site at SIBL and several other NYPL libraries. Use the 

Those who take an interest in patents will have heard by now; the U.S. has a new patent law, the "Leahy-Smith America Invents Act." It's too early to tell whether the changes that will take place as a result will be revolutionary or not; and for that I await the views of the experts. But it is worthwhile taking note of these recent patent law amendments in anticipation of the visit to SIBL by the USPTO on November 

We're just starting to get the word out — November 8, 2011 will be a day to explore Intellectual Property protection when the Science, Industry and Business Library hosts a visit from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Our friends from the Patent and Trademark Resource Center Program will be here to to present a day-long seminar covering IP protection topics, as well as offer pointers on searching for patents and trademarks on the USPTO databases. Overall this 

Starting a business? Take my word for it — you don't need a business plan. Oh, and while we're at it, I have a nice bridge I can let you have at a very good price...

Well, you don't have to have a business plan — maybe — if you have plenty of cash and don't mind doing without a few things. But here's what the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) website suggests as why you might want one: "Many factors critical to business success depend upon your plan: outside funding, credit from suppliers, management of 

First some breaking news! The word has come down from the US Patent and Trademark Office. The new name of the Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries will be Patent and Trademark Resource Centers. The actual name change will be official as of October 1st. Although as yet no festivities are planned, we look forward, both before and after the change, to helping you with your Patent and Trademark research here at SIBL. What do

I'm hesitant to use the word easy; things easy to do don't usually have to be identified, and when things aren't all that easy, it's not good to suggest they are. But, Patent Searching Made Easy is the title of a Nolo Press book by David Hitchcock (currently available here at SIBL in its fifth edition), and I'm going to exploit an opportunity to write a little about both this book and patent searching.

There are several reasons to "search" patents. This book is about "prior art" searching, 

A little while ago, I gave a presentation at a session for FastTrac® GrowthVenture™. These sessions have to be held outside the Library, and they're very brief with lots of information to cover, so there's no chance to do a hands-on demonstration. This time I was told by one of the participants that she had been to visit us here at SIBL, but wasn't able to find current industry information in her business area, cleaning services.

While I thought that didn't seem right, there 

Hearing the capstone presentations of 20 aspiring business owners in a FastTrac New Ventures program last week inspired me to talk to Shagun Malhotra, who recently told Crain's New York Business what she learned at FastTrac en route to taking second place in SIBL's 2010 New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition.

Shagun, here's your 

Inspiring America's youth to study engineering is an Obama administration priority. Many professionals—from trade associations to campus-based groups—focus specifically on getting more women into the engineering pipeline. Participants in Dow's recent virtual conference undercored the importance of exposing young women to ways