Throughout his career Jim Poole has sought to help entrepreneurs and business owners to get what they wanted out of their businesses.

Today, Jim is the Membership Development Manager at the James J. Hill Reference Library, a non-profit market research resource for smaller businesses. Jim is responsible to the thousands of entrepreneurs who annually visit the Library in person or who use its business information resources online to grow their businesses. In addition, he manages the Library’s SBDC program which provides specialized business planning intelligence to Small Business Development Centers’ Counselors in over 40 States.

On behalf of the Library, Jim weekly speaks to business groups throughout Minnesota about how to leverage business information to compete and has spoken to business groups around the United States and Canada about the importance of employing market intelligence as a form of competitive capital.

Prior to taking his position at the Library, Jim operated his own consulting business, Change Agency, and before that had been a founding partner and sales manager at one of the top advertising typography shops in the country. He has also served as the Marketing Manager at an accounting firm for entrepreneurs, the Business Development Manager of an interactive advertising agency, and the Sales Manager of a digital printing concern.