Small Business Resource Center

Open for Your Business

The Small Business Resource Center is located on the Lower Level of our Main Library and provides the timely and reliable business information you need to start, manage, and grow your business.

Funded by:

Business Classes

The library has a variety of Small Business classes to help you in everything from Facebook marketing to business planning! Classes will resume in the fall. Check back for a complete listing.

Contact Us

Call 616.988.5400 or contact the Business Librarian for general questions. Request business research assistance with this form.

Books By the Stack for Business

Come check out our Books By the Stacks for Business to help you get the most out of your business reading!  There are discussion questions composed for each book.

Small Business e-Newsletter

Join our e-mail list to discover new books, entrepreneurship resources, interviews, SBRC classes, book reviews, local events, and much more sent straight to your inbox! Our newsletter is published quarterly, and is available in a print edition in the SBRC as well.

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Current Newsletter

In this issue, you’ll find our class schedule, a review of The Big Life: Embrace Your Mess, Work Your Side Hustle, Find a Monumental Relationship, and Become the Badass Babe You Were Meant to Be by Ann Shoket, a review of Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by Martin Ford, a review of How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life by Caroline Webb, an interview with a local micropreneur, and as always, our new book spotlight!

Past Newsletters

Small Business Resources

How do you turn your unique idea into a successful small business? Our Small Business Resource Center has loads of resources to help you plan, start, and grow your business.

Small Business Databases

Jump start your business research with our Small Business Databases.

Foundations and Nonprofits

As a Foundation Center Cooperating Collection, we maintain a library of databases, directories, indexes and guides to help you find your way through the funding maze. With them you can find information on over 140,000 private and corporate foundations and the grants they’ve made. We also have a number of books on nonprofit organizations and fundraising techniques. At the Main Library you may use Foundation Directory Online Professional to search for U.S. Foundations and corporate giving programs.

SCORE at the Library

SCORE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping entrepreneurs like you succeed in the world of small business. They can help with the development and writing of a business plan, or any aspect of an existing business in need of further development.

A SCORE certified business counselor will be holding business consulting sessions at the library in the lower level near GRPL’s Small Business Resource Center on the first Wednesday afternoon of every month. For further information about SCORE and the Grand Rapids Public Library’s Small Business Resource Center, please call 616-988-5402, ex. 5486 or send an e-mail to businesslibrarian@grpl.org.