Selected Market Research Resources
Selected Market Research Resources
Prepared by
The SBDC National Information Clearinghouse
General Business Information:
American City Business Journals - http://www.amcity.com/. Business related news for many US cities. Search for articles on industry trends, compare similar businesses in other cities, and check your competition. American Demographics Magazine - http://www.demographics.com/publications/ad/index.htm. Good for discovering trends, obtaining marketing ideas, and identifying markets for businesses that market to consumers. Edward Lowe Foundation - http://www.lowe.org/. The Ed Lowe Foundation maintains a searchable database of articles, book chapters, and SBA publications dealing with a wide variety of small business issues. EntreWorld (Kauffman Center) - http://www.entreworld.org/. The Kauffman Foundation supports entrepreneurial education. Their website provides a good source for training materials. Forbes - http://www.forbes.com/. Online version of Forbes magazine. Inc Magazine - http://www.inc.com/incmagazine/. Search for general business trends at this popular business magazine’s website. NAICS (North American Industrial Classification System)- The new system that will replace the SIC within the next few years. NAICS was created in order to compare and track the economies in Canada, Mexico and the United States. The 1997 US Economic Census is reported by NAICS. NAICS codes can be located at: http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html. See also: SIC. SIC (Standard Industrial Classification)- All establishments are assigned a classification by the Federal Government for statistical and other reporting purposes based upon their primary business function. Most private and public statistics are reported at the SIC level. SICs can be located at: http://www.osha.gov/oshstats/sicser.html. See also: NAICS. Small Business Sourcebook (Gale Research) – Contains sources of information related to starting specific types of small businesses. Typical entries include citations for start-up info, associations, trade publications, reference works, statistics, supply sources and databases. Small Business Profiles (Gale Research) – Provides short vignettes about selected small businesses. Includes brief statistics and contact information for associations and franchise opportunities. SmartStart Your <State> Business (Oasis Press) – Part of a series that contains a variety of general business information and some knowledge specific to individual states. It includes federal and state agency contacts, sample legal forms, business plan guidelines, marketing information, and human resources advice. Financial Information: Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios (Prentice Hall) – Provides ratios and industry norms in actual dollar figures derived from IRS data. Each industry includes performance indicators such as total assets, cost of operations, wages, asset turnover, and profit margins. Financial Studies of the Small Business (Financial Research Associates)- Similar to RMA but surveys small and micro-businesses only. Organized by industry. Market Share Reporter (Gale Research) – Organized by SIC categories (industry groups). Reports percentage of market held by leading companies in each category covered. Usually gives total market size for each category. Robert Morris Associates (RMA) Annual Statement Studies – On disk or in print. Contains ratios derived from statements of commercial bank borrowers and prospects. Organized by 4 digit SIC code, most editions contain only national averages. Demographic Information: American Factfinder (US Census) -- http://factfinder.census.gov. Users can access statistical data about their geographic area. Includes demographic and economic statistics. County Business Patterns (US Census) - http://www.census.gov/epcd/cbp/view/cbpview.html. Employment and establishment data for U.S. counties. FedStats -- http://www.fedstats.gov/. The gateway to statistics from Federal Agencies. Acorn Lifestyle Lookup -- http://www.infods.com/freedata. See 2000 demographic estimates and lifestyle data for a zip code of your choice. NOTE: This is NOT official Census data! Demographics Journal (MSA Statistics) - http://www.bizjournals.com/journals/demographics/. From the publishers of the American City Business Journals. State and MSA rankings for a variety of different demographic characteristics are available. Consumer Expenditure Survey (BLS) – http://www.bls.gov/cex. Provides average expenditure data for the nation, regions, and selected cities. The Sourcebook of ZIP Code Demographics (CACI) – Demographic information by zip code. Includes population, race, income, and expenditure information for each ZIP code in the US. See also: http://econdata.net.
Directories:
American Wholesaler and Distributor Directory (Gale Research) – Provides listings of wholesalers and distributors sorted by product category and by state. Catalog of Catalogs (Woodbine House) – Billed as “ The Complete Mail-Order Directory” this resource contains the descriptions and contact information to 14,000 catalogs. It is indexed by subject and by company name. Directory of Manufacturers' Sales Agencies (Manufacturing Agents National Association) – Lists manufacturer’s sales agencies alphabetically and by state. All companies included are members of the Manufacturers’ Agents National Association. Also has information on how to select a sales agent. Encyclopedia of Associations (Gale Research) – Guide to thousands of National and International organizations. Contains contact information and descriptions and is indexed by name, key word, and geographic area. Thomas Food Industry Register http://www.tfir.com/. Free directory of food manufacturers and suppliers to the food industry. Thomas Register of Manufacturing http://www.thomasregister.com/. This widely used directory includes national listing of most manufacturing firms. Market Research Tutorials: How to learn about an industry or a specific company - http://www.virtualpet.com/industry/howto/search.htm http://home.sprintmail.com/~debflanagan/index.html http://gopher.nypl.org/research/sibl/company/companyinfo.html Market Research Workbook- http://www.umsl.edu/~smallbus/MRW/mrw.pdf. Miscellaneous: Industry Information - http://sbdcnet.utsa.edu/industry.htm and http://www.sba.gov/ADVO/stats/profiles Small Business Administration - http://www.sba.gov/. SBA Women’s Business Center - http://www.onlinewbc.gov/. Not just for women. The business center provides several tutorials for people starting a business and lists several links for further information.
Entrepreneur Magazine - http://www.entrepreneur.com/ National Business Incubation Association – http://www.nbia.org/ Business Owner’s Toolkit – http://www.toolkit.cch.com/ Magazine Articles – http://www.findarticles.com/ Business Administration under Award Number SBAHQ-99-B-0001. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Small Business Administration.Standard & Poor’s Industry Surveys – Industry surveys in each of 52 topics. Each topic contains trends comparative company analysis and forecasts. Each survey is published independent of the other topics.
US Industry & Trade Outlook (McGraw-Hill/US Dept. of Commerce) – Hundreds of tables and charts, industry reviews, trends and forecasts divided by 50 major industry groups. Each group essay may contain more specific information about products and services in that category.
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Small