Small Business Center for Allegany County

Ashley Swinford

LATI Spring 2015

One of the most challenging community trends facing Allegany County is the slowlyrecovering economy. Since the great recession in 2009, Allegany County has struggled to attract
and maintain small-medium sized businesses, creating a domino effect on employment
opportunities, local economy, and the availability of goods. The first goal listed in the 2012
Economic Develop Plan from the Department of Economic & Community Development, is to
offer a prosperous business environment for new and existing businesses. I believe the
Allegany County Library System can help foster that environment by the creation of a small
business center at our LaVale Branch.
While networking with my LATI peers, Cecil Countys Small Business Information
Center was mentioned as having a large impact on their library systems efforts to support the
countys economic development, which in turn, just helped them win the National Medal for
Museum and Library Services (the nations highest honor for a library). I was immediately
interested in learning more, having a business degree myself, about what services and
information were offered through their SBIC. When I researched it through Cecil Countys
website and interviewed their Small Business Librarian, Laura Metzler, I was convinced that this
is the perfect niche for Allegany County. By providing services and information such as
business planning help, market data, steps for entrepreneurs, and more, we would be enriching
the lives of citizens of Allegany County by helping to attract and maintain small-medium sized
business, create job opportunities, and help diversify the products and services found in our local
community, improving the overall economy.
The first step in beginning this adventure would be to seek out grants to help build our
business collection and database services. Ms. Metzler mentioned that Cecil County began with
a LSTA grant, which we would apply for as well. After these resources to get us started, I would
plan a kick-off small business information seminar where we could invite entrepreneurs to hear a
few successful local business owners to speak on how they got their start in Allegany County and

Small Business Center for Allegany County

Ashley Swinford

LATI Spring 2015

the library system could present the resources we have to help small business owners. Partnering
with the Allegany County Department of Economic and Community Development, the Allegany
County Chamber of Commerce, Frostburg State University, Allegany College of Maryland, we
could reach a large number of potential small business owners for the area. By developing and
maintaining relationships with these small business patrons, as well as monitoring the economic
development in the county, we will be able to measure the success of the small business center at
obtaining its goal of building a strong economic future for Allegany County.

Press Release
Date:

September 7, 2015

Title:

Library Hosting Small Business Seminar

PRESS RELEASE - Allegany County Library System

Contact:

Ashley Swinford
Allegany County Library System
815 National Highway
Cumberland, MD 21502
301-729-0855
Fax 301-729-3490

For Immediate Release

LaVale Community Library will host a small business seminar on Thursday, September 24th.
Starting at 6:00pm, executives from several local businesses will be sharing their stories of
starting and maintaining a small business in Allegany County. The Allegany County Library
system will also present several new services available for small business owners. No prior
registration is required. For more information, please call the LaVale Library at 301-729-0855.

Social Media Promotion

Allegany County Library System focuses on using the social media channels of Facebook and
Twitter, which we would use to promote this event. The promotion would be placed on social
media periodically up to a month before the event date. We would promote the seminar in honor
of local small businesses for Small Business Saturday in November.