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June 2023 | Volume XLI, Issue 2 »

Public Libraries as Business Incubators: Partnering with SCORE

June 1, 2023
John Amundsen, Wilmette Public Library

Public libraries have much to offer entrepreneurs in the communities we serve. We offer our patrons access to a wealth of business intelligence, from statistics to analyses, and everything in between. We can certainly show our business patrons how to use these databases and where that information comes from, but one piece is missing: synthesis and strategy, and how entrepreneurs can act on the information they find. Librarians, even those with MBAs, are not consultants nor mentors. Filling this void for many libraries is SCORE (www.score.org), a resource partner for the Small Business Administration. Founded in 1964 as the Service Corps of Retired Executives, it is the nation’s largest network of volunteer business mentors, with 10,000 volunteers serving all 50 U.S. states and territories.

As a brand-new business librarian charged with engaging our local business community in Chicago’s North Shore suburbs, I had a general idea of the value proposition my library presented to entrepreneurs. Indeed, the availability of crucial information for business formation and growth — so-called business intelligence — available in business resources prompted me to pursue an MBA after library school to engage in this work. Upon starting at Wilmette Public Library, my predecessor introduced me to Mark Lieberman, a retired IT entrepreneur and mentor with SCORE whose mentoring motto is “together, we can.”

Lieberman’s career in IT spanned several decades, where he worked in programming and software sales, eventually founding four firms. “Along the way, I’ve programmed, managed programmers, sold software, and managed others who sold software,” Lieberman said. “I’ve started four businesses. Two worked and two failed. But I’ve had a lot of fun doing it.”

Upon selling his most recent business, he was looking for something new. “I had just sold a company and I had absolutely nothing to do with my time,” he said. “It was the fourth business I had started so I felt I had a pretty good background, but I was too old to keep going and lucky enough to have enough money to allow me to try something new. A friend told me about SCORE so I went for an interview.” Having mentored with SCORE for over 14 years, Lieberman’s mentoring territory for SCORE’s North Cook and Lake Counties chapter encompasses Highland Park, Wilmette, and Niles, but following the pandemic and the advent of video conferencing, gained clients as far away as Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood on the Far South Side.

While Lieberman works with businesses from the ideation phase onward, most of his clients with operating firms have less than $2 million in revenue and staffs ranging from a handful of people to a headcount of 20. Interestingly, Lieberman measures the success of his mentoring not by financial performance or securing venture capital, but through how an entrepreneur feels about their progress. “When a client sticks with me, and when you can tell they are feeling successful about what they have done, then I share their success,” he said. “Sometimes I’ve spent long periods with some clients only to have seen them feel very dejected. It’s when they come to talk about something and when they are very animated about doing so — that’s when I know I’ve been successful.”

Lieberman’s list of successful clients includes a Wilmette-based nutritionist and tour guide, who merged her two passions into selling tours highlighting the beauty of Italy and the ‘joy of lliving well by eating right.’

“She had a real niche business!” Lieberman enthused. “I helped her mostly with marketing and the moral support to keep going. Today, she is running a highly successful travel business with connections all over Italy...her biggest problem was getting prospects to know about the unique tours she could offer. She finally solved that by making YouTube videos and spending a lot of time on LinkedIn.”

Glenview Public Library Business Librarian Claire McCully similarly inherited a long-standing relationship between her library and SCORE when she started in her position. “The partnership has been very cooperative,” she said. “The  library not only refers patrons to SCORE for assistance, but SCORE also refers patrons for one-on-one help with business databases and other resources. Being able to refer business owners and entrepreneurs to each other really helps to provide more complete assistance for local small business owners.”

McCully offered one-on-one mentoring on site once a month as well as hosted business programming from the organization before the onset of COVID-19. “Businesses have been facing lots of challenges since the pandemic,” McCully said. “SCORE has been an excellent resource for local small business owners and entrepreneurs. The one-on-one appointments they offer ensure that business owners can get help with their specific questions and work through difficult situations. The virtual format allows for a lot more flexibility and we are now able to offer appointments once or twice a week, helping many more business owners and entrepreneurs.”

The pandemic also expanded the way McCully hosted SCORE programming, reaching out to libraries in neighboring communities and chambers to broaden reach. “The partnerships help to make sure important information is reaching a wider audience,” she added. “Before the pandemic, we partnered with SCORE and the Glenview Chamber of Commerce to offer a Lunch & Learn program called Growing Your Mailing List & Targeting New Customers. SCORE presented about ways to grow your mailing list and I was able to show a short demo of some of the Library’s business databases that can help with reaching new customers as well. Sharing about so many different resources in one program was a fantastic way to share a wide range of ideas and resources with the business community.”

The Naperville Public Library’s (NPL) partnership with its local chapter, SCORE Fox Valley, is a departure from most public libraries’ relationships with the organization. In addition to connecting entrepreneurs with mentors for one-on-one sessions, Naperville integrates SCORE into its NaperLaunch initiative, a multi-week, cohort-based small business curriculum. “We work closely with a small group of Fox Valley mentors to offer our NaperLaunch Academy curriculum,” said NPL’s Business Librarian, Lindsay Harmon. “We currently offer two 4-week series per quarter – Starting a Business and Growing a Business – that take participants through the startup process for ideation and basic financial concepts to business planning and marketing and sales strategy. In addition to serving as instructors, these mentors also provide one-on-one mentoring for the participants.”

Since its inception in 2016, more than 175 entrepreneurs have graduated from the NaperLaunch program. NPL also has a ‘mastermind group’ that meets monthly, as well as a bi-monthly startup roundtable, both facilitated by Harmon and a mentor from SCORE Fox Valley. “Before the pandemic, we had regular drop-in mentoring hours,” said Harmon. "We also hosted weekly roundtables and marketing meetups that were co-sponsored with SCORE, and at least one of the Fox Valley chapter mentors would attend to staff the registration table and provide information about their services. Since the pandemic began, SCORE [Fox Valley] has pivoted away from in-person services; now, we occasionally co-sponsor one of their online workshops and I often refer local business owners and entrepreneurs to their website to request a mentor.”

In addition to mentoring, SCORE offers libraries free access to live and interactive webinars on a wide range of business topics. “We work with presenters who have expertise on topics such as business planning, Google analytics, accounting, human resources, and many other topics,” said Alan Blitz, Co-chair, Education and Marketing Team, SCORE North Cook and Lake Counties. “We have several library collaborations on the calendar this year, which is excellent outreach to the small business community.”

The organization also provides business planning templates that include easy-to-follow instructions to consider the many aspects of running a business, anticipate challenges and develop strategies to succeed, which can then be used during a one-on-one mentoring session.

SCORE views libraries as critical community partners for their work, offering space and resources for those starting their own businesses. “Libraries are my favorite locations for several reasons,” said Lieberman. “First, that SCORE mentor that I mentioned [earlier] established a network of libraries that housed our mentoring so I quickly learned about libraries. Second, libraries offer a quiet place for clients and me to reflect on the client’s problems. Finally, libraries have immediate access to materials that my clients often don’t even know exist.”

Partnering with SCORE can be as elaborate as hosting in-library mentoring and webinars to simply referring entrepreneurs to the Find a Mentor section of SCORE’s website. Illinois is served by chapters in population centers as well as regional affiliates in neighboring states. Libraries interested in establishing relationships with SCORE mentors and exploring business webinar topics can visit the organization’s website, www.score.org to search for chapters in their area.