Business Resources Online: Tennessee Electronic Library

To celebrate National Entrepreneurship Week, which officially begins on February 16, we're taking a look at the Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL) and the wonderful array of free resources they have available for small businesses, employers and employees, and job searchers.  (Please note:  TEL is only available to Tennessee residents and, luckily for library card holders, Bristol Public Library patrons.)

The TEL Business Center, which can be found under the "General Public" tab, provides three very important resources for small business:  the Small Business Collection, which provides free access to business journals and magazines; the Small Business Portal at USA.gov, which offers free help and tools for getting your business started; and the Small Business Resource Center, a collection of resources on planning, funding, budgeting, starting, and managing your small business.

The Small Business Resource Center, which is powered by Gale, is a primarily a collection of articles from academic journals and magazines.  All articles are fully vetted and categorized to make searching easy.  Each section--Plan, Fund, Start, and Manage--has listings of free resources that will allow you to get started on research and planning.

The Small Business Portal offered through USA.gov is also a great resource for learning how to start a small business.  To get started, click the "Start Your Own Business" link to learn more about the steps to starting a new business and find out the requirements for taxes, insurance, hiring employees, and more.

USA.gov also has links to the Small Business Administration at https://www.sba.gov, which offers handy resources and guides to planning, launching, managing, and growing your business.  Both USA.gov and SBA.gov can be accessed even if you are not a Tennessee resident or a library card holder.

For more information on small business resources, check out the TEL website at https://tntel.info/ or visit your local library.