Startups and Small Business

Updated April 2022

City, State, and Federal Resources

• Assistance for Businesses from the City of Somerville (opens new tab)
  • ​​​​​​​Get information about coaching for your affected business, or find helpful materials like social distancing posters, or guidelines for takeout and delivery food service in the documents library. Check the News Feed at the bottom of the page to stay up to date on reopening news and other issues and sign up for business email alerts.
• Doing Business in Somerville (opens new tab)
  • ​​​​​​​From the City of Somerville Economic Development Department. Information about starting a business, finding a location, permits and licenses, networking and advocacy, business development and support, and financial assistance.
• Somerville Chamber of Commerce (opens new tab)
  • Founded in 1946, the Somerville Chamber of Commerce is a voluntary business association with 310+ members companies and organizations.
• Business Resources on Mass.gov (opens new tab) 
  • ​​​​​​​Massachusetts-focused information on business taxes, starting a business, licenses and permits, laws and regulations, and more.
• U.S. Small Business Administration (opens new tab)
  • Learn how to plan, launch, manage, and grow your business with free resources from the Federal government.

Online Learning & Events

• Take a Free Workshop with SCORE (opens new tab)
  • ​​​​​​​Free live and recorded webinars, workshops, and courses on demand covering timely topics of interest to small business. SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) is a national network of volunteer, expert business mentors dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground and to grow and achieve their goals.
• Small Business Events with the Massachusetts District Small Business Administration
  • ​​​​​​​Free online events, programs, workshops and more covering a variety of topics of interest to small businesses in Massachusetts.

Databases

• Entrepreneurship (opens new tab) from Gale Business.
  • Resources in this database cover all aspects of starting and operating a business at any point in its development. Includes accounting, finance, human resources, management, marketing, tax, and more.

Magazines & Newspapers   Available in the library.

• Banker & Tradesman (opens new tab) ­­– a weekly banking, commercial, industrial, and real estate newspaper for Massachusetts. It is a valued advertising vehicle, providing a one-of-a-kind outlet for companies to grow their brands. B&T collects development data and is a premier source of real estate and mortgage transactions in the region.
• Barron’s (opens new tab) — a  weekly newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company which covers US financial information, market developments, and relevant statistics. Each issue includes a summary of the previous week’s market activity with news reports and analysis and outlook on the week to come. Barron’s features an anual report of the Best Online Brokers featuring a ranking of top online trading brokerage firms. Dow Jones also publishes The Wall Street Journal, which is available in the library.
• Bloomberg Businessweek (opens new tab) — an American weekly business magazine providing information about events in the business world.
• Economist (opens new tab) — a weekly magazine focusing on world events, politics and business, but also covers science, technology, books and the arts. The Economist supports free trade, globalization, free immigration, and cultural liberalism (such as supporting legal recognition for same-sex marriage or drug liberalization). Periodically, it publishes Technology Quarterly, a special section focusing on recent developments in science and technology.