Sno-Isle librarian to help businesses with research

  • By Emily Hamann For The Herald Business Journal
  • Sunday, August 23, 2015 5:34pm
  • Business

Many of the businesses that open fail. In the first three years of business, around a third shut down, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A lot of it comes down to knowledge. Some of the main reasons businesses fold include inadequate financing and planning, overly optimistic assumptions, noncompetitive pricing and inadequate marketing. Those key reasons were identified in a joint 2007 report prepared by a number of state agencies.

The resources to help new business owners avoid those common pitfalls are at Sno-Isle Libraries, and free to access for anybody with a library card.

There are how-to books, guides and a wealth information in the library’s databases.

The library system also offers a number of workshops aimed at business people. Some upcoming ones include how to write a business plan, using the investment database Morningstar and social media marketing.

One of the problems is entrepreneurs and business owners don’t seem to realize that Sno-Isle Libraries are there to help.

That’s where Kassy Rodeheaver comes in. She is the lead librarian for business at the Sno-Isle Libraries, a newly created position at the library system.

Terry Beck, the information services manager for the libraries, explained that Rodeheaver’s job is to create cohesion across the entire library system.

“A lead librarian is different than the other librarian positions,” she said. “They take a systemwide view of everything, so they’re not locked in to a particular building.”

Previously at the libraries, the business efforts varied from branch to branch, sometimes even from librarian to librarian.

“It’s been piecemeal,” Rodeheaver said. “And I’m at the systemwide level.”

Rodeheaver came from the Pima County Public Library in Tucson, Arizona. She was working with nonprofits and grants. She started working on a library committee to support nonprofit and small business services.

She realized she liked working with business owners.

“They’re passionate,” she said. “They’re putting it all on the line.”

A colleague told her about the job opening at Sno-Isle Libraries. She read the job description, and realized it was exactly what she wanted to do.

“I saw that this was a way for me to make a greater impact, working across an entire library system,” she said. She applied for the job and got hired quickly.

“The first month was basically orientation to Sno-Isle Libraries,” Rodeheaver said, “and then I got to go out into the community and start meeting with folks.”

Now she is looking for input from the business community on what they would like to see at the libraries.

She has a short survey for business owners, entrepreneurs or anyone else in the business community. Contact her at krodeheaver@sno-isle.org to get the survey.

“Before I really move forward on much else, I have to know the business community,” she said, “so looking at the environment, that’s what I have been focused on for the last month and a half so far.”

While meeting the local business community, she has also been trying to introduce the local business community to the library.

Beck said Rodeheaver’s already having an impact.

“I think we’re already seeing more connections, more regular consistent connections,” Beck said. “She’s getting us out there, she’s getting us more visible to them.”

Rodeheaver has also been working on developing training for library staff, so they all have the same level of knowledge about business resources offered at the libraries.

She’s developing programs to teach staff in all library branches which databases are helpful for businesses, what someone trying to start a business needs to know and what other organizations are available in the community to help.

“I want us all to be more knowledgeable,” she said.

Rodeheaver is also scheduling more business-focused workshops and wants to bring experts into the libraries to answer business questions.

Rodeheaver is hoping to expand services where people from the business community with “pearls of wisdom to share with other business owners,” will volunteer to teach classes, or hold one-on-one sessions with business owners. A similar program in Tuscon was very successful.

“Business people can be very generous with their time and their knowledge,” Rodeheaver said.

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