'Naperlaunch' Program Helps Businesses Get Off The Ground
(CBS) – Starting a business can be expensive, but it doesn't have to be.
CBS 2's Vince Gerasole explains how entrepreneurs are finding help for free in Napeville.
Yorli Huff is the guardian of her own galaxy. The onetime undercover drug agent is now an entrepreneur. Her website markets her character "Superhero Huff" on colorful T-shirts, in graphic novels and more.
"I have posters, jewelry, fragrances," she says.
But her ability to write a business plan, research costs, and identify investors all started in the mild-mannered Naperville Public Library.
Through a program called "Naperlaunch," entrepreneurs network with successful business owners.
The program also provides access to digital marketing, pricing and venture-capital databases, resources the library already had. At professional business incubators, people starting up companies can pay upwards of $3,000 a year for similar opportunities.
Naperlaunch is free.
"An entrepreneur who is just getting started, working out of the house is not capable of going out and incurring those kinds of expenses," the program's Kent Palmer says.
One of Naperlaunch's biggest success stories is now one of its prized tools. The firm Designer Software created a sort of fill-in-the-blank software package to create a business plan. It's now being used by libraries nationwide.