Library resources will require your account login and pin for access.

• Business books on Gale eBooks
• Business Plans Handbook on Gale eBooks

Visit our online catalog to search for books and eBooks available to you for free with your library card. Or click on any of the links below to find books and eBooks by topic.

• Entrepreneurship
• Home-Based Business
• Legal Forms
• Small Business
• Start a Business

How to obtain a Cobb County Business License: Determine if your business is in unincorporated Cobb County.

1. Complete the Application Packet for your business type
   1. All documents must be signed by the same person.
2. Obtain the fee amount
   1. To obtain the fee amount for a new business establishment, please e-mail your completed application to businesslicense@cobbcounty.gov

Download an Application Packet

In addition to this application packet, applicants must provide:

• One secure and verifiable document, (i.e. driver's license or passport)
• Immigration documents, if applicable
• A copy of the Georgia Secretary of State Certificate for Corporation or LLC, if applicable
• A copy of any State license, if applicable

Business Application Links:

• Corporation/LLC- Occupational Tax Certificate
• Sole Proprietorship-Occupational Tax Certificate
• Professional Occupation Tax Form
• Attorney Occupation Tax Form
• Partnership/LLP-Occupational Tax Certificate
• HB87 Citizenship Affidavit
• Private Employer Affidavit

Application may be mailed, after the fees have been assessed, to:

P.O. Box 649
Marietta, GA 30061-0649

Or presented in person at:

1150 Powder Springs St, Suite 400 
Marietta, GA 30064 
 

No mail is accepted at this address.

 To obtain fee amount for new business establishments, please e-mail your completed application to businesslicense@cobbcounty.gov

You will need to have the Adobe “Acrobat” reader installed on your computer to view these files.

 https://www.cobbcounty.gov/procurement-services/bidding-opportunities

Library resources will require your account login and pin for access.

Entrepreneurial Mindset Training is a self-paced program available to all Georgia public library patrons thanks to Georgia Public Library Service. Participants are prompted to engage in exercises that connect their life experience to that of successful entrepreneurs, develop a personal vision, interview a local entrepreneur, identify a problem they would like to solve and complete an opportunity canvas that helps them refine and validate their solution.

Gale Courses offers you access to hundreds of instructor-led online courses covering everything from health and wellness to creative writing, computer programming, GED test preparation, and much more. Gale Courses courses are developed by expert instructors, many currently working at universities around the country, and have continuous enrollment dates. Each individual course is offered online for six weeks and features 12 lessons with online discussions, homework, quizzes, and a final exam.

• Accounting Fundamentals
• Accounting Software
• Business Communication
• Business and Corporate Law
• Business Software
• General Business Skills
• Grant Writing
• Management and Leadership
• Nonprofits
• Personal Finance and Investments
• Project Management
• Start Your Own Business

The Great Courses Channel includes over 150 of the most popular courses taught by the world’s top professors. Gain unlimited access to the world’s most engaging professors enabling patrons to delve into an immersive learning experience, covering a wide variety of subjects, including:

• Business and Finance
• Professional Growth

Data Axle: Reference Solutions (formerly ReferenceUSA) is the premier source of business reference and research. Use Custom Search to find employers by geographic area or type of business; includes company contact name and address.

LearningExpress Library is an interactive online learning platform featuring over 770 practice tests, tutorials, and eBooks related to job search and workplace skills improvement, career certification and licensing exam preparation, college entrance and graduate school admissions exam preparation, GED exam preparation, and basic skills improvement in reading, writing, and math, for all ages. You’ll get immediate scoring, complete answer explanations, and an individualized analysis of your results.

LinkedIn Learning is an online learning site that hosts a constantly growing library of over 3,000 courses that include over 130,000 videos. Courses cover a variety of topics (including business, design, web development, and multimedia skills) and software (Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, and open source applications) that can help you pursue personal and professional goals.

• Business
• Creative
• Technology

Mango Languages is an online language learning resource, and the only single solution that combines quality content, intelligent technology, and an adaptive algorithm that delivers practical phrases from real situations. This is language learning centered around you.

Niche Academy

UGA Small Business Development Center (external resource)

Library resources will require your account login and pin for access.

Business and Entrepreneurship Reference

Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research, including:

• Business Plans Handbook
• Encyclopedia of Business and Finance

Demographics, Survey, and Directory Information

Data Axle: Reference Solutions (formerly ReferenceUSA) is the premier source of business reference and research. Use Custom Search to find employers by geographic area or type of business; includes company contact name and address.

• US Businesses
• US New Businesses
• US Standard White Pages
• US Historical Businesses
• US Jobs/Internships
• US Healthcare
• US Consumers/Lifestyles
• US New Movers/Homeowners

Demographics Now offers a variety of simple, ready-to-use demographic data reports. Users may customize them by geography, choosing the area that best suits their needs. In addition, users may also run an unlimited number of reports in summary, comparison, or ranking formats.

• Experian Mosaic USA Consumer Lifestyle Segmentation reports

Gale Directory Library provides access to several publications, including:

• Consultants and Consulting Organizations Directory
• Encyclopedia of Associations: National Organizations of the US
• Encyclopedia of Associations: Regional, State, and Local Organizations
• Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media
• National Directory of Nonprofit Organizations

Gale LegalForms helps patrons understand common legal procedures through access to authentic, professional legal documents for businesses. It is the only electronic reference to offer legal forms that are truly state-specific. Useful for filing patents and trademarks, developing leases, creating bills of sale, delegating power of attorney, and more, these forms are ideal for supporting legal tasks that business owners need to manage. The forms in Gale LegalForms are drafted by attorneys.

Polling the Nations is a comprehensive online database of public opinion polls containing the full text of more than 700,000 questions and responses from more than 18,000 surveys and 1,700 polling organizations, conducted from 1986 through the present in the United States and more than 100 other countries around the world.

With SimplyAnalytics, you can create professional quality thematic maps using 100,000+ data variables from industry-leading data partners. View data by state, congressional district, city, county, ZIP Code, census tract, or block group.  Intuitive reporting tools generate detailed custom reports for any location in the country. Add individual data variables or entire groups of variables and generate a report in seconds, or create a ring study report illustrating the characteristics of the 1-, 3-, and 5-mile radius surrounding your target location.  Search from over 22 million business points from Dun & Bradstreet and add them to a map or a detailed business report to find the best place to locate your business, manage the competition, or identify services. Select specific businesses using any combination of NAICS or SIC codes, legal name, company name, number of employees, total revenue, year started, and more.

Statistical Abstract of the United States is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States.

Investments, Company, and Industry Information

Hospitality and Tourism Complete

Morningstar Investment Research Center offers analysis on 1,700 stocks, 2,000 mutual funds, and 300 exchange traded funds (ETFs). While it is primarily designed as a tool for investors, it is also an excellent place to get quick information on a company. The Company Stock Reports include analysis written by Morningstar’s experts, up to 10 years of financials, bond information, ratios, SEC filings, and information on insider actions and institutional holders. Reports are available for the top 2,000 companies but other information is available for many more.

Value Line is an Investment Research tool that covers 3,500 Stocks across 100 Industries and features:

• 1,700 widely-followed analyst covered companies
• 1,800 small and mid-cap companies
• Analytical Summary & Index
• Full industry reports
• Guided Selection & Opinion
• Market-Driven Supplements
• Unbiased Rating and Reports

Weiss Financial Ratings Series Online gives you powerful new tools to protect your finances, invest wisely, grow your wealth, and learn more about your finances. This resource includes:

• Financial Strength Ratings: Banks, credit unions, and insurance companies
• Investment Ratings: Stocks, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds
• Customized Medicare Supplement Insurance Buyer’s Guide
• Online Access: Consumer guides, financial literacy basics and planning for the future

Periodicals and Current Newspapers

Business Source Complete allows users to search and browse for articles in over 4,000 business journals, the Business Searching Interface allows for easy browsing of supplementary content such as company profiles, country reports, industry profiles, market research reports, SWOT analyses, and author profiles.

NewsBank America's News allows you to search current and archived local, state, regional, and national full-text articles on issues, events, business, health, education, people, government, sports, and more with nearly 1,000 newspapers, newswires, news videos, and web-only content including the Atlanta Journal Constitution (1985 - current), Augusta Chronicle (1994 - current), Marietta Daily Journal (10/29/98 - current), and USA Today (7/1/87 - current).

• AJC Image Edition
• Georgia News Sources
• MDJ Image Edition

NYTimes.com offers breaking news coverage, video and multimedia access, email news alerts sent right to your email account.  NYTimes.com also offers a translated Spanish and Chinese edition of the paper.

• inside the library
• outside the library

ProQuest Digitized Newspapers provides instant online access to full-image newspapers in microfilm accessible through a web browser. The digital microfilm format has a short delay before new issues are included in the archive (approximately 3 months).

• New York Times Digital Microfilm
• Wall Street Journal Digital Microfilm

ProQuest Newspapers provides full-text access to major national newspapers including:

• Christian Science Monitor (1988 - current)
• Los Angeles Times (1985 - current)
• New York Times; Late Edition, East Coast (1980 - current)
• Wall Street Journal; Eastern Edition (1984 - current)

Wall Street Journal Online Access the Wall Street Journal from anywhere for free!

Provided by the Cobb Chamber of Commerce

CobbWorks Offers On-the-Job Training Funds
Cobb County Government has issued $1 million in CARES Act funding to CobbWorks Inc. to provide a robust Economic Recovery and Humanitarian Assistance Project to more than 230 Cobb residents and employers. Through this project, employers can receive on-the-job training funds, which allows employers to teach new employees the skills necessary to perform a job adequately while reimbursing them for the loss of productivity during the training period. Learn more here.

Free HealthMarkets Resource from UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group has recently launched its new GetCovered campaign and HealthMarkets resource which provides free services to connect individuals to insurance while providing educational information and tools to help assess options based on eligibility and affordability.

GADOT SSFP Business Help Center

The GDOT SSFP Business Help Center is open to eligible GDOT certified Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs), GDOT Registered Small Businesses, and veteran-owned small businesses. Eligible firms may use the resource center to access:

• One-on-one assistance related to pursuing SSFP projects to include routine maintenance application review and SSFP project identification and forecasts;
• Routine Maintenance Application Review;
• Meeting Space (appointment required);
• SSFP Project Plan Review;
• General computer usage to complete and print SSFP routine maintenance applications and internet access to search for SSFP projects; and
• Training.

Main Street Business Lending Program
The banking community is recommending that businesses apply for the Federal Reserve's Main Street Business Lending Program. This program supports small and mid-sized businesses that were in good financial standing before the public health crisis. The Treasury will invest $75 billion into a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to purchase eligible loans. This lending vehicle minimum loan is $500K max loan is $25 million.

More information on the program is available here.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce American Rescue Plan Resources
The U.S. Chamber has an informational video sharing details about the American Rescue Plan, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, grant opportunities, and expanded programs like the Employee Retention Tax Credit. View the video here.