What do you do if you want to pursue entrepreneurship while working as a librarian?

By working as a librarian, you can leverage multiple assets, including free time, access to resources, and people. Let's consider the last asset. Library visitors can be an invaluable source of ideas, and they can help. You can use this situation in multiple ways, like: - get an idea of your target audience by talking with visitors about your possible product or service - build an audience of early adopters - refine the business idea by learning the pain your audience - present the prototype of your product to early adopters for testing, and, as they like it, invite them to the platform where they can buy it.

Step 1: Hoard books on entrepreneurship Step 2: Read books only to find out solidly half of them are thinly disguised pitches with a bunch of aggravating word soup thrown in to boost page count. Step 3: Do not slit wrists. Or drink self into stupor. Step 4: (Do not) file said entrepreneurship books under “true crime” (even though they really are!) Step 5: Briefly give up and check out your fave literary fiction volumes. Take home to read while drinking too much tea. Step 6: Go to bed. Step 7: Wake at 3am to pee (it’s the tea, not your pelvic floor, no need to panic). Have idea! Step 8: Feverishly Google idea and realize people are talking about it but no one has yet stepped in to solve this problem. Launch business. Voila!

To pursue entrepreneurship while working as a librarian, you can start by exploring your entrepreneurial ideas during your free time, possibly evenings or weekends. Research the market, develop your business plan, and gradually allocate more time to your entrepreneurial pursuits as your venture grows. Consider seeking mentorship or joining entrepreneurial networks to gain support and guidance. Balancing both roles will require effective time management and dedication, but it's certainly possible with determination and careful planning.

Your primary profession could be a driving force for you to explore entrepreneurship, but in most cases it is something to do with your core values. For example, even though I began my entrepreneurial journey while pursuing a scientific research career, I found out that what mattered to me were impact, freedom, family time and travel. In order to produce these, I had already tried 5 startups of different kinds and failed. I found that the best way to make it happen is to learn from someone who has been there and done that instead of trying out solo.

Being an entrepreneur, at start up, is like having several full time jobs: marketing and sales, product development, and business manager so you need to be passionate about your product/service, but also about sticking with it through these tasks required to run your business. It highly valuable to find people who are successful at running their businesses and learn from them.

Como bibliotecários, temos acesso a diversas ferramentas de informa??o e, melhor que isso, é sabermos utiliza-las. Pesquisar mercado através das necessidades informacionais de uma determinada biblioteca ou base de dados já poderia dar uma ideia de mercados relevantes em potencial.

One of the issues you will face is having too much information to access. A person can easily spend too much time researching and not enough testing and taking action for themselves. Yes, you do need to have a plan that is based on research but also, start testing yourself by talking to people and putting your ideas out there for feedback. This will give you real time and real life information to base your decisions on.

Entrepreneurship is providing solution to a problem in the market to get paid. The key is to understand the nature of the problem, the pain level (how many people are really willing to pay for a solution), and most importantly who are the current players in the market and what they are weak and strong at. As a Liberian, you may have access to a lot of books and information that may cover the topic of running a successful business. However, you must be circumspect as not all materials on the subject matter may be relevant. Another concern may be financing. Don't borrow money to start the business. Begin gradually with your income and get the product to the market as soon as possible. Your customers are your best source of funding.

Develop a Business Idea through Market Research: Brainstorming ideas that align with your interests and skills. Consider how you can leverage your experience as a librarian in your entrepreneurial venture. Maybe there's a gap in the market related to libraries or information management that you can address.

Quite often entrepreneurs quit their primary stream of income too early and take large amount of money to invest into their startup without proper planning/knowledge. After failing multiple times I learnt that keeping 3 things in mind helps big time: 1. Always maintain a primary stream of income and build your business in parallel to it. Once business income is good enough to replace your living expenses, you may fire your boss. 2. Build a lean startup. The amount of money you invest in your first venture shouldn't be more than 10% of your monthly income. Reconsider the idea if needed. 3. Budget with an expert. If possible, sit with an industry expert who has been through the journey you are planning to take.

Financial considerations should be made for the longer term because it can take some time for your business to start generating revenue and more time for it to generate a revenue stream. In most cases, you will need to put money out for some time before money comes back in or is recouped. Be prepared to be patient. It can take time to build brand and marketplace awareness to the point where you make sales.

By meticulously budgeting and managing expenses, individuals can create a financial cushion to support their entrepreneurial endeavors. This may involve setting aside savings to cover startup costs, such as website development or initial inventory purchases, as well as ongoing expenses like marketing and operational overhead. Additionally, having a clear understanding of personal finances enables entrepreneurs to make informed decisions about when to transition fully into their business ventures. By maintaining a stable financial foundation, individuals can mitigate the risks associated with entrepreneurship while maximizing their chances of success.

When you are all set to start the journey as an entrepreneur, first understand the problem you are trying to solve and how you can deliver the solution. Here you can clearly assess the skills you needed to take it up such as technical skills, finance skills , sales and marketing skills. You can understand the basics of those from the books in the library. Read at least 5 biographies of business leaders you admire. Read atleast 5 failure stories in business. Now take a detailed review on those and understand your skills and those you lack. You can identify a co-founder to compliment those skills you lack. Now before get in to full time business , do some small research through your visitors and get feedback on what they think about that.

Leveraging organizational skills for managing data and streamlining processes can enhance efficiency and productivity in business operations. Additionally, utilizing community outreach skills for marketing and building relationships with customers can contribute to brand awareness and loyalty. Recognizing and capitalizing on existing skills can certainly provide a competitive edge for entrepreneurs. Overall, the advice provided seems helpful in guiding individuals to recognize the value of their skills and apply them effectively in entrepreneurial endeavors.

The word networking scares most people, especially the introverts. Whether we like it or not, we need to connect with people who have been in the field and learn from them so that we don't repeat the mistakes that someone has already done in the past. In other words, one needs to overcome fear of rejection so that one can build a bridge between where they are and where they want to be. Entrepreneurship is less about how to solve the problem and more about whom we can connect with so that they can help us find a better/faster way.

Leveraging your professional network, both within the library community and beyond, to gather support, seek advice, and find potential collaborators or mentors

Balancing your job as a librarian with entrepreneurship can be challenging, so it's important to manage your time effectively. Prioritize tasks, set realistic goals, and allocate time each day or week for working on your business.

In my experience entrepreneurs who find a problem they can uniquely solve and for which they know the market are the ones who are most successful. Maybe find a job in an area where you can solve a problem to get your hands dirty and use it to make contacts and possible early customers. Sitting in a library researching while comfortable may not be best way to succeed.

More than anything else, entrepreneurship is a mindset and this mindset needs time and nurturing through actions. Develop it by practising entrepreneur skills at your current workplace. Take ownership and try to drive some bold initiatives by managing different stakeholders. Take small steps. Secondly leverage your skills developed so far to identify the market need and match it with what you are good at. For instance, being a librarian you can try your hands im developing a better or unique SaaS product for managing libraries worldwide or providing some other services. Search inside first before looking out

It would be an excellent opportunity to talk to the visitors while they are on their way out on the subjects they are reading . This will give insights on trends and one never knows what it might help an entrepreneur to trigger it off .Besides it gives free access to do research with the ample books in the library .

Quite often we want to start entrepreneurship journey because we have a unique idea that we want to work on. While it's a great start but the ones who become truly successful are the ones who shift their focus from idea to the outcome. The ones who stay focused on the method aren't able to pivot on time and they perish along with their tech. On the other hand, the ones who are outcome driven can easily make changes if some method isn't working out. They also have the humility to listen to others, especially to mentors for a better/alternate perspective.

Seeking some knowledge on entrepreneurship is an extremely valuable skill to acquire as a stepping stone to your entrepreneurial journey.