ELEMENTS OF A BUSINESS PLAN

Library Resources

Elements / Print resources
See catalog / Databases and
web resources / Research tips
Concept or
Mission Statement / 101 Mission Statements and others books with samples / Gale E-Books business plans as examples / E-books (Ebrary and Gale) accessible from home/office.
Demographics / Commercial Atlas & Marketing Guide Sourcebook of Zip Code Demographics, Lifestyle Market Analyst, Best Customers, Household Spending / American Factfinder
factfinder.census.gov
RefUSA Residential search / American Factfinder is extremely detailed, Use sidebar as guide
Company and Industry Overviews, Profiles and Statistics / Boulder County Business Report and Book of Lists, Small Business Sourcebook, Valueline. Various print magazines in library periodicals e.g. Colorado Biz, Home Business / Business Company Resource Center, Business Source Premier, Valueline (in Library login only). Newsbank for local business articles, Boulder County Business Report (online in library only) Yahoo Finance http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/ / May have to try a number of key terms e.g. cycling or bicycling +
industry + trends or outlook or statistics
Competition and Rankings / Book of Lists for Boulder, Denver and Northern Colorado,) / RefUSA, Business and Company Resource Center (advanced search) / RefUSA -Search by geography, business size, SIC/NAICS etc…
SWOT Analyses / Business Source Premier (see advanced search)
Marketing and Market Share / SRDS – Standard Rate and Data Service for advertising resources (fee based), Commercial Atlas & Marketing Guide / RefUSA, Business Source Premier Market Research Reports, Business and Company Resource Center (advanced search), Google Adwords https://adwords.google.com/ / RefUSA Search residential or businesses by geography, business size, SIC/NAICS etc…
Professional Associations / Encyclopedia of Associations / Business and Company Resource Center (advanced search). Try a general web search too. / Simple web search under industry + associations
Financial Studies & Ratios / RMA Financial Ratio Benchmarks/ Annual Statement Studies, Financial Studies of the Small Business / Bizstats.com (free info not as complete as RMA) / RMA's Financial Ratio Benchmarks/ Annual Statement Studies show
benchmarks derived from existing statements
Locate an SIC or NAICS code
SIC – Standard Industrial Classification
NAICS -North American Industrial Classification System / NAICS has replaced the SIC system. NAICS was developed jointly by the U.S., Canada, & Mexico for comparability in business statistics across North America. / RefUSA business search,
NAICS codes
www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html
Business and Company Resource Center (can browse SIC and NAICS codes) / Can use RefUSA to locate a business by yellow page or industry heading to get SIC and NAICS codes *Note RefUSA adds 2 extra digits to these codes that no other entity uses