We see all sorts of entrepreneurs here, from people with a germ of a business idea to those who have been in business for years. Many of our new entrepreneur visitors (or prospective entrepreneurs) come from the Ontario Self-Employment Benefit Program (OSEB).

OSEB is a 42 week program that gives aspiring entrepreneurs support and income while they get their business off the ground. It starts with seven weeks in the classroom, where participants attend a series workshops in areas like marketing & market research, financing, sales, negotiating and much more. Once the classroom portion is done, the entrepreneurs enter the 35-week business startup phase, when they work to launch their business. During this time, they get one-on-one coaching and support from business professionals.

Because this program offers income support, it has some specific criteria. To qualify, you either have to be A) currently receiving Employment Insurance or B) received EI at some point over the last three years (five if it was parental leave). OSEB is aimed at new businesses, so your business can’t already be established or in operation. And for the local program, you have to live in Durham Region.

On top of all that, you’ll have to do some preliminary work to prove that you have a viable business idea. Not everyone gets in, so competition is stiff. But if you meet the criteria, OSEB can provide you with a great start to entrepreneurship.

For more information, contact Essential Communications, our local OSEB provider. For more information, check out their website. They hold classes just down the road from us at Whitby’s Four Corners (Brock and Dundas Streets), so be sure to use the library’s business resources to help!

As noted recently, we’ve purchased new spending data for PCensus. We’re pleased to tell you that this data is now available on our public PCensus terminal! Now you can check out 2010 *and* 2012 spending data. Population counts from the 2011 Census have been uploaded as well and are also available. Statistics Canada will be releasing more data next month and we’ll add it as soon as it’s available.

For more information about PCensus, drop us a line. We would be happy to show you what it can do.

Writing a business plan is a common step for entrepreneurs who want to start a new business – or at least one that requires financing or investment, since banks and investors insist on them. They help you focus and think strategically about the big picture, and maybe ask some uncomfortable questions about your plans. They’re also useful for existing businesses too for exactly those same reasons. It’s easy to get caught up in the day to day activities of running a business and the process of creating a business plan can help you clarify where you want to take your business and how to get there.

If you’re looking for guidance, we can help. We have several books in our collection that will help you with the whole plan or aspects of it. We also have a great set of online resources from our Gale Virtual Library eBook collection. The Business Plans Handbook is a collection of actual business plans (names changed, of course) developed by small businesses throughout North America. From accounting service to yoga studio, there are dozens of business plans from dozens of different types of businesses. They’ll help you develop a template for your own plan and see what sort of elements are included.

To access the Business Plans Handbook, just log into the Gale Virtual Reference Library through our database page. Once logged in, you can search for your type of business in the search box or click on the business subject heading on the left-hand side of the page. Click on the Business Plans Handbook cover to access it. The most recent volume will have a cumulative index of types of business. As always, let us know if you need help.

PS – Of course, we also have to mention that PCensus is always here to help you with the market research portion of your business plan!

Great news! Not too long ago, we mentioned that Statistics Canada is gradually releasing data from the 2011 Census. We’re pleased to announce that we’re moving forward and will soon be able to make this data available as part of our  PCensus market research software. So far, StatsCanada has only released the population and dwelling count info, so that’s the first thing we’ll be adding. The release schedule is as follows:

• June – Age & Sex data
• October – families, households, marital status and dwellings
• November – language

Other data, including juicy stuff like income, won’t be out until 2013.

As an added bonus, we’re also updating our spending data. We currently have spending data for 2010, but we’ll soon be adding 2012 numbers. 

Watch this space for further updates! We’re checking out the new information and looking at some system issues (including a new software version of PCensus), but we hope to have the new data available for use on our public business PC over the next few weeks.

Looking for meeting space in Whitby? It can be hard to find, but there are a number of venues available for meetings large and small. We’ve put together a brief pamphlet with the particulars to help you get started. Some of the facilities available include local schools, the Whitby and Brooklin branches of the Royal Canadian Legion, the Whitby Curling Club, the Whitby Chamber of Commerce (including a free room available to members) and several others. The Town of Whitby manages several well-known local venues, including the Centennial Building, Heydenshore Pavillion and more.

And don’t forget your library! We have rooms for rent at the Central Library, perfect for large or small meetings. Room 1 has a maximum capacity of 90 (theatre style) and can be divided into two separate rooms. Room 2 is perfect for smaller gatherings and can hold up to 18 people. Different seating configurations are available and we have laptop projectors and other equipment available for a small additional fee.  Press Café is on the premises to cater or provide a place to spend a break.

We’re always amazed at the popularity of these rooms (sometimes we have trouble finding space for our own programs!) so book as early as you can. And contact us if you have questions!

Supporting the business community is a key part of the mission of the Whitby Public Library. We offer market data and demographics, books on every sort of business subject imaginable, magazines, article databases and more. But often, we’re trying to provide services that we think businesses need. Businesses know what they need.

So, if you think there’s a service that we can provide to the business community, tell us. Maybe it’s something we can do. Maybe it isn’t. Maybe there’s something similar or just as good that we can do. Whatever the outcome, knowing what you’re looking for helps us help you. And we don’t know what’s missing if no one tells us. Drop us an email with any suggestions you have.

Last week, Statistics Canada announced the first release of data collected during the 2011 Census. The numbers are released in stages – this data consists of basic population and dwelling counts for municipalities and federal electoral ridings. The media highlighted some interesting findings. For example:

• The western provinces are showing very healthy population growth;
• Ontario is still growing, but not as quickly as in the past. Our provincial growth rate fell below the national average for the first time in 25 years;
• Milton is the fastest-growing community (of 5000+ people) in Canada, followed by Martensville (SK), Whitchurch-Stouffville (ON), Sainte-Brigitte-de-Laval (QC) and Chestermere (AB). The fastest growing metro areas were (not surprisingly) Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon.

Locally, Whitby grew by almost ten percent to 122,000, from 111,000. Region-wide, Durham grew by 8.4 percent and now has 608,000 people. To search a community you’re interested in, simply visit the StatsCan website.

More detailed data will be released in the coming months. Please note that our PCensus program still uses data from the 2006 Census. Unfortunately, we have to wait until more data is released before we can get it in a format that PCensus can use. Rest assured, as soon as updated Census data is available, we’ll get it!

Not every business is in a position to go global, but if you are, you could be part of the $350 to $400 billion per year in goods and services that Canada exports. Dealing with the ins and outs of international business is not a challenge for the faint-hearted, but the more information you have, the better. Here are a few resources to help you along the way.

For a journalistic and often critical look at Canada’s international trade profile, check out Why Mexicans Don’t Drink Molson: Rescuing Canadian Business from the Suds of Global Obscurity by Andrea Mandel-Campbell. Mandel-Campbell has a lot to say about the lack of ‘big’ Canadian names in the global marketplace. She pins the blame on government policies, an insular business culture and a lack of cultural awareness, among other things. Several historic examples are cited, particularly relating to Brazil, It isn’t necessarily a practical guide, but it’s an interesting look at the bigger picture.

For more practical assistance, we have some government guides and links to online documents. There’s useful info in Your Guide to Canadian Export Financing, part of the Business & Start-Up Financing series. For specific countries, there are titles like Doing Business in China: A Guide to the Risks and the Rewards. Our Global Road Warrior database includes useful business culture information for every country on the planet – meetings, etiquette, relationship building, business entertaining and more.

And finally, check out the Department of Foreign Affairs & International Trade for up-to-date government info.

As everyone knows, we’re in the information age. Or the digital age. Or Web 2.0. Or 3.0. Whatever you call it, there’s a lot of information out there. This information can help you monitor industry trends, business news and much more. However, for many of us, it would be easy to argue that there’s too much – too much to effectively keep track of, at any rate. Sometimes, there may be a particular web page (or several) that you’re interested in. This page may be updated anywhere from once a month to several times a day. Or even an hour. You can check it constantly, but you may miss something. Or, if it isn’t updated very often, you’re spending time looking for changes that aren’t there.

Here’s where a product from Google can help. As you probably know, Google is much more than a search engine. There’s Google Maps, Google News, Google+, etc. etc. etc. One extremely useful tool is Google Reader. Google Reader enables you to keep track of updates to web pages you’re interested in, all with one easy-to-use tool. Google Reader isn’t new – it has been available for a few years – but it’s still one of the most useful tools out there if you have lots of web content to monitor. Or even a little.

You can access Google Reader using your Google/Gmail account. Once signed in, just choose ‘Reader’ to get started. Click on the red ‘subscribe’ button and add the URLs of the sites you’re interested in. As your sites are updated with new content, Reader will show you updates to your sites so you can monitor everything from one place. It’s that simple!

Reader works best with sites that have RSS (Really Simple Syndication), but if the site you’re watching doesn’t have it, you can use a service like Page2RSS. Page2 lets you get a feed from any page, whether it has RSS or not. Simply enter the URL into Page2. It will create a URL for you to enter into Google Reader and voila, you can see when the page is updated.

Here’s a video explaining Google Reader in plain English. And here’s a second video on Page 2 RSS.

As always, the end of the year brings out the ‘top ____ of 2011′ lists. Business books are no exception. Harvey Schachter of the Globe and Mail has produced his own top 10 list of the Best Business Books of 2011. We have seven of the ten in our collection right now, one on order and the other two will be ordered ASAP. Here’s the list:

• The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement and Creativity at Work by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer. We don’t have this one yet, but have added it to our ‘to order’ list.
• Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt. We’ve ordered this one and we’re waiting for it to be shipped.
• Great by Choice by Jim Collins and Morten Hansen. Collins, author of Good to Great and other titles has released a new book on managing for success.
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. This biography on the late Steve Jobs is extremely popular right now. We have eleven copies in the system, but several holds. Place a reserve now and we’ll let you know when it’s available.
• Why Are We Bad At Picking Good Leaders? by Jeffrey Cohn and Jay Moran. Again, we don’t have this one yet, but have added it to our ‘to order’ list.
• Brainsteering by Kevin Coyne and Shawn Coyne. These brothers suggest new techniques to improve the brainstorming process.
• Necessary Endings by Henry Cloud. Clinical psychologist Dr. Cloud asks why we cling to things that are no longer working or effective, and talks about the need to face up to necessary endings.
• Change Anything by Kerry Patterson (and others). This book is catalogued more under the personal self-help section, but is definitely applicable to business. It looks at six sources of influence that affect our daily decision making and ways to make them work for us instead of against us.
• Onward: How Starbucks Fought for its Life Instead of Losing its Soul by Howard Schultz. Schultz, former CEO, wrote an earlier book about Starbucks. This new title tells of his return to a troubled Starbucks in 2008 and his efforts to rebuild it.
• Fixing the Game by Roger Martin. Martin, the dean of the Rotman School of Business at U of T, compares capitalism today with the NFL and proposes solutions to the cycle of bubbles and crashes.

Check out these and thousands of other business books at your library!