Library hosts presentation of resources for business owners

Alicia Louters
Posted 5/27/21

The Goshen County Library now offers free resources to business owners through Wyoming Library to Business.

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Library hosts presentation of resources for business owners

Posted

 TORRINGTON ­– The Goshen County Library now offers free resources to business owners through Wyoming Library to Business. On Tuesday afternoon, Rachael Svoboda, the coordinator of the project, introduced the resources to the public and demonstrated how to access some of them.

The project connects libraries and individuals with a diverse variety of resources relating to business plans, inventory, marketing, ecommerce, employee training and much more. Svoboda, who is based out of the Laramie County Library, said, “one of the things I love about Wyoming libraries is we share.”

Wyoming Library to Business was created over the course of the last year, according to Svoboda. The group travels to counties around the state to help libraries with their business outreach.

Svoboda said the organization is building three video production studios in Casper, Cheyenne and Gillett. They also will launch seven business stations, once of which is in the Goshen County Library. These stations include a laptop and portable projector.

“We’re very excited to get this up and rolling,” Svoboda said. Goshen County was the second location to receive their station.

Though the organization only recently began expanding, Svoboda said there are several success stories from Laramie County.

Svoboda demonstrated how to find resources on gowyld.net. Under the “business” tab, anyone with a Wyoming library card has access to databases that provide a wide variety of content to help people looking to start, improve or expand their business. An example she showed was a course on the basics of Microsoft Excel.

Svoboda demonstrated how to search for and view examples of business plans. She also mentioned shopwyoming.com ­– a place where Wyoming businesses can all feature their products in one place.

The Workforce Development Training Fund, Svoboda said, is an underused resource that provides specialized training sessions for employees.

“How many of you are aware of Cyber Wyoming and that they will help small businesses secure their websites?” asked Svoboda. She explained the organization will do this for free.

“The sheer amount of people in Wyoming that are her to help, for free – it almost feels like half the state sometimes,” Svoboda said.

Toward the end of her presentation, Svoboda displayed several video resources on the Wyoming Women’s Business Council’s YouTube page.

Library Director Cristine Braddy said the resources are always available at the library. She said the library staff can help the public find the resources they need. They also plan to have the laptop station at Third Thursdays.

“There’s so many free resources and these experts that are willing to help businesses,” Braddy said. “What we’ve been learning from Rachael is that a lot of times people are starting businesses and they don’t have access to resources they need. That is something we can do in the library.”

Wendy Fanning, executive director of the Wyoming Women’s Business Center, briefly shared about the center, which is based out of Laramie, but serves the entire state.

“Our main mission is to help Wyoming’s entrepreneurs, especially women who are socially or economically disadvantaged. We do that through a number of resources,” she said.

Fanning explained services the center offers – business counseling, a micro-loan finance program and an education track and artist development program.

Fanning said the Wyoming Library to Business resources can be a big help to some of the business owners who work with the Wyoming Women’s Business Center.