Small Business Development Center resources

Business Plan Research

 

This guide is designed to help you find resources for writing a business plan.

Background for planning your Business Plan : http://www.business.gov/start/business-plan.html

 

To find industry research:

It is helpful to know the SIC or NAICS code(s) for your industry.

Many library databases provide a feature to look up industry codes or find them in these government reference books and web sites:

NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) Industry codes used by U.S. federal statistical agencies; also used as organizing scheme in many business research tools.

SIC (Standard Industrial Classification)    Older system of industry codes previously used by U.S. federal statistical agencies; still used as organizing scheme in many business research tools.

Industry research from the Cofrin Library (on-campus use only)

ABI/INFORM Global
Description : Indexes and abstracts over 1300 scholarly and trade business journals. Popular magazines such as Fortune, Forbes and Time are included. Full-text articles for over 600 journal titles are available online.
Coverage: 1971 -

Business Source Premier
Description : Provides comprehensive access to abstracts and indexing for over 2,300 titles, including The Wall Street Journal.
Coverage: 1886 -

Business Full Text
Description : Indexes and abstracts 400 English language general business periodicals and trade journals, plus the Wall Street Journal and the business section of the New York Times. Topics include management, accounting, advertising and marketing, construction, entertainment and media, information technology, mergers and acquisitions, occupational health and safety, public relations, small business, and a great deal of corporate information.
Coverage: 1982 -

Regional Business News
Description: This database provides comprehensive full text coverage for regional business publications. Regional Business News incorporates coverage of 75 business journals, newspapers and newswires from all metropolitan and rural areas within the United States. This database is updated on a daily basis.

Lexis Nexis Academic
description : Academic Universe provides access to nearly 5,000 publication on a wide range of news, business, legal, and reference information.
Coverage: 1990-

Hoovers Company Records
Description : Hoover's Company Records is one of the world's leading electronic distributors of information about companies, industries, and the people who lead them. Content in Hoover's Company Records covers more than 40,000 companies, 225,000 key executives, and more than 600 industries.

 

Find and understand your customers.

Use government sources of demographic information

Web resources for business plan research:

Small Business Administration
Small Business Planner - Section 1: Plan Your Business
http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/index.html
 
SCORE Business Templates (including business plans):
http://www.score.org/template_gallery.html
 
SBDCNet National Information Clearinghouse (includes business planning info but much more)
http://sbdcnet.org/

Current Industrial Reports
http://www.census.gov/manufacturing/cir/index.html   
U.S. government data on production and shipments of selected products; reported by NAICS subsector.

Industry-Internet Resources (Fuld & Company)
http://www.fuld.com/Tindex/I3.html   
Portal to various industry association web sites.

Industry Snapshots (from the Economic Census)
http://www.census.gov/econ/census/snapshots/index.html   
Graphic presentation of selected data by industry; arranged by NAICS codes

FedStats
http://www.fedstats.gov/
FedStats provides access to the full range of official statistical information produced by the Federal Government without having to know in advance which Federal agency produces which particular statistic. With convenient searching and linking capablilties to more than 100 agencies, FedStats links to the full breadth of Federal statistical information. You can go through the topic links A-Z to find small business, and this will include economic indicators, establishments & employees, state profiles, and the full text of The Small Business Economy.

Economic Census 
Conducted every 5 years on the years ending in 2 and 7, and while it takes several years for collected data to be tabulated and released, the census is a good and fairly recent indicator of economic activity in the United States.  Beginning with the 1997 Economic Census can be found online at http://www.census.gov/ . Select the "Business & Industry" heading, or select American FactFinder in left menu to access data.