Hidden Business Tools

It all started with a trip to my local library after I moved to Houston. I was looking for business reference books to do some market research (yes, I'm a dork). I walked into the tiny round building, appropriately named Ring Branch Library, a half mile down the street, and I must have looked utterly out of place. Immediately, the reference librarian asked me if I needed help. Did I look that baffled?

It had been at least 4-5 years since I'd stepped foot in a library of any sort, so I'd forgotten how to use the Dewey Decimal System, what reference books were appropriate for my research, how to check out a book, and generally all things dealing with properly navigating a library. After all, it's been at least 2 decades since I took the "using the library" class in elementary school.

With the help of The Great Librarian, as I affectionately refer to her now, I was shocked to find that most of the resources I needed were easily accessible from my home computer with nothing more than the number on the back of my shiny, new library card.

I discovered a whole new (free of charge) world at my fingertips with everything from reference articles on ANY subject, business databases with profiles, financial data, market research, etc., to foreign language tools like Rosetta Stone.

These databases were much easier to navigate than filtering through 1.5 million results from a google search, and all the information was much more refined and relevant to the research at hand (which, I guess, is the point of the whole thing).

As I was leaving the library equipped with my new (did I mention it was FREE) arsenal of small business research heaven, The Great Librarian waved goodbye and sent me off with a, "Good luck on your research paper," but I won't hold that against her...the same way I don't mind showing my ID every time I attempt to purchase an adult beverage. Just stay out of the sun and drink lots of water and you too can look forever 17.

So, in essence--if you don't have access to your local library or a library card, run--don't walk to get one as soon as possible. When you take care of that, don't hesitate to ask what tools are available to you as a business owner (or employee of a business). You'll no doubt be shocked to find out that you have databases and tools that would normally cost lots of money without your new, members only access.

Other helpful free tools:
Google documents-when working on a project with a client, this was brought to my attention. It is a great tool for businesses working with consultants that either aren't onsite, or when data needs to be entered by 2 or more individuals working on the same projects at the same time. If you have employees that work from home or a separate location, it is great to be able to share these documents without having to email them back and forth to edit.

Google alerts-You type in a phrase or even your company name (to check for copyright or trademark infringements perhaps) and google will send any and all instances of that word or phrase to your email. You can keep track of clients and what is being put on the web, keep track of potential clients, track trends in your industry, or even keep up to date with your competitors.

I'm sure there's plenty more free tools, but I have work to do and this blog post is getting pretty lengthy, so please leave comments on some business tools you've found useful.