Business Plans
A GUIDE TO BUSINESS PLAN RESOURCES
AT THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
For those starting a small business, a critical first step is to create a business plan. There are many resources in the public library to assist you in creating a business plan. This guide will help you with general business plan information and specific components of the plan. Print sources at the library, as well as selected electronic sources, are listed.
Subject headings (to use when searching the catalog):
Business planning
New business enterprises – planning
Small business – planning
Basic Business Plan Information:
How to write a business plan by Mike McKeever
658.15 McKeever
This title shows how to write a sound business plan, including strategies for: evaluating the profitability of a business idea; estimating operating expenses, finding potential sources of financing; and presenting a plan to lenders.
Business plans made easy by David Bangs
658.4 Bangs
Bangs shows you not only how to write a business plan, but also how to use it, who should see it, and how and when to update and revise it. New information on personal investment planning and information technology has also been included, and an added “expert advice” section at the end of each chapter gives helpful hints and tips.
Anatomy of a business plan by Linda Pinson and Jerry Jinnett
658.4 Pinson
A step-by-step guide to creating your business plan. This title is also the basis of the SBA's publication "How to write a business plan."
The ABC's of writing winning business plans by Garrett Sutton
658.4 Sutton
Learn how to prepare and utilize the most important document for any organization—the business plan in very clear, easy-to-follow language.
Business plans for dummies by Paul Tiffany
658.4 Tiffany
An easy reference for entrepreneurs, managers, executives, and small business owners covers all the components needed to develop a successful business plan--from creating a mission statement to developing goals and objectives to executing and managing the plan.
Business plans handbook: a compilation of actual business plans developed by small businesses throughout North America.
R 658.4 Business
Real-life examples of business plans; however, it gives no instructions on the research process involved in writing a business plan. It does provide a state-by-state listing of Small Business Development Centers throughout the U.S., which will be helpful in the researching and resource phase. Also included is a 150-item bibliography on business planning.
Research Your Industry:
Datamonitor industry profiles via EBSCO Business Source Premier.
Available at home and in public library buildings; library card and PIN required.
Datamonitor's industry profiles provide market sizes and segmentations for key country and global markets; five-year market forecasts; analysis of current and emerging market trends; and analysis of each market's competitive landscape, including main players, distribution channels, and regulatory issues.
Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys
Available on computer stations in the library only.
Provides in-depth economic and business information on 52 major U.S industries. Each survey analyzes operations, highlights current problems and opportunities, and forecasts future trends and covers the following areas: current environment includes a near-term review and forecast, emerging trends and recent developments that may signal longer-term trends. Industry profile - major players and market share data, market/demand developments, the raw materials situation, the labor environment and regulatory trends. How the industry operates - the business/economic cycles to which it is subject, the competitive landscape, raw materials, distribution, regulation and legislation. Key ratios and statistics - a listing and discussion of the key ratios and statistical measures that are widely followed benchmarks of the industry's health. Comparative company analysis - tables listing historical financial data, including revenues and income, profitability ratios and various important balance sheet ratios for leading companies in each industry.
Value Line Survey by Value Line Publishing Inc.
Ask at the reference desk.
Provides information on 1,700 companies in about 95 industries. Ratings & Reports section contains one-page reports on each company with Value Line's Timeliness, Safety, and Technical ranks, financial and stock price forecasts for the coming 3 to 5 years, an analyst's written commentary, and historical financials. Also included are one page industry analyses covering sales, pricing, production, and 5 years of financial statistics. Summary & Index contains an index of all stocks in the publication as well as many up-to-date statistics to keep investors informed about the latest company results. Selection & Opinion section (in a separate binder) contains Value Line's latest economic and stock market forecasts, one-page write-ups of interesting and attractive stocks, model portfolios, and financial and stock market statistics.
Find Competitors And Suppliers:
American wholesalers and distributors directory . Gale Research, 2003.
R 338 Ame
Profiles 27,000 wholesalers and distributors in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Provides contact information, product line information, sales and employee figures for a majority of listings, and e-mail/Internet address. Organized into four sections: by broad subject terms based on product lines, by SIC code, by state and city, and alphabetically by company name.
Brands and their companies / Companies and their brands . Gale Research, 2006. 4 volumes plus supplement
R 658.8 Brand & R 658.8 Compa
Brands and their companies is arranged in two sections. Brands are listed alpha by brand, and include trade name, description of the product, and manufacturer or distributor. Companies are alpha by company and include contact information; fax/800 numbers, e-mail, and web sites listed when available. Companies and their brands is listed alpha by company and include contact information, fax/800 numbers, e-mail, and web sites listed when available. Also lists the company's brands, with a brief product description.
Directory of corporate affiliations . National Register Publishing. (Annual) 8 volumes
R 338.8 Direc
Also known as "Who owns whom." Includes over 133,000 public and private companies, both domestic and international, their affiliates, subsidiaries, and divisions. Includes contact information, key personnel, and type of business, net worth, and sales data. Volumes 1 and 2 are the master index, with company name, brand name, geographic, SIC, and key personnel indexes. Volumes 3 and 4 cover U.S. public companies. Volumes 5 and 6 cover U.S. private companies. Volumes 7 and 8 cover international companies. The last four volumes contain company name and SIC indexes.
Headquarters USA . Omnigraphics, Inc. (Annual) 2 volumes
R 917.3 Nation
Contact information, including web and e-mail addresses if available, for nearly 138,000 businesses, organizations, agencies, and institutions in the U.S. and Canada. Listings are presented in two volumes, one alpha by name and the other by classified subject headings with index. Also includes stock symbols, brand names, calendar of events, profiles of top U.S. cities, and area & zip code listings.
North Carolina business directory . American Business Directories. (Annual) 2 volumes
R 338 Nor
Includes basic contact information for over 300,000 companies in N.C. Also includes owner/manager name, number of employees, and estimated sales volume for about 80% of companies. Volume 1 includes a list of SIC codes, and alphabetical list of companies by city. Volume 2 includes alphabetical list by yellow page heading, alpha by city list of major employers/publicly traded companies, manufacturers by city, manufactures by SIC code, and counts by yellow page heading and SIC code.
North Carolina manufacturers register . Manufacturers' News, Inc. (Annual)
R 338.7 North
Lists over 12,000 manufacturers in N.C. with basic contact information. Buyer's Guide arranged alpha by industry/product. Alphabetical section is alpha by company name. Geographic arranged alpha by city; this section also gives key personnel, number of employees, sales. SIC arranged numerical by SIC code. Parent Company arranged alpha by company name. County Breakdown lists cities, towns, and villages by county; includes 5-year growth pattern by city, county, and industry.
ReferenceUSA - Business Directory via Internet (available at home and in public library buildings; library card and PIN required)
A database of over 11 million companies across the United States. There are over 29 search methods to find any business, varying from name, industry, geography, name, sales, size, etc. Individual company records contain contact person, estimated sales, number of employees, credit rating, phone, address, SIC code, and many other elements. Includes all yellow pages, business white pages & all the blue pages of every phone book that enable you to find organizations, schools, churches, etc. Updated monthly.
Thomas Register of American Manufacturers via Internet
http://www.thomasregister.com/
Search by company name, product/service, or brand name. Includes 158,000 companies, 63,669 product & service classification headings and 135,415 brand names. You may modify search results by selected states and by detailed product descriptions. Contains links to online supplier catalogs and company web sites. Free registration is required to search online.
Project Your Financials:
Almanac of business and industrial financial ratios (Annual) by Leo Troy
R 338.7 Almanac
Derived from the latest IRS data, provides 50 financial and operating ratios on 4.5 million U.S. companies in 179 fields of business. Data for each industry are subdivided into 13 categories based on company size.
Annual statement studies . Risk Management Association. (Annual)
R 338.0973 RMA
Contains financial data for over 600 lines of business. Information is in numerical order by SIC code; each entry shows data by assets, sales, and historical data on a two-page spread. Contains indexes for SIC code, NAICS, description of industry, and keyword index.
Find Customers:
ACCRA cost of living index by American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association
Business Reference Table
Measures relative price levels for consumer goods and services for urban areas across the U.S. The price reports cover grocery items, housing, utilities, transportation, health care, and miscellaneous goods & services. Issued quarterly.
Polk City Directory / Suburban Directory (Annual) by Equifax Polk City Directory
NC R 917.5655 Raleigh
City directory covers the city of Raleigh; suburban directory covers Apex, Cary, Fuquay-Varina, Garner, Holly Springs, Knightdale, and Morrisville. The alphabetical section lists residents and businesses. The business directory is alphabetical by yellow page heading. The telephone section lists residents and businesses in numerical order by prefix. The street section lists residents and businesses alphanumerically by street. The demographic summary is arranged by postal carrier codes in each zip code.
ReferenceUSA - Residential Directory via Internet (available at home and in public library buildings)
An online database of 102 million U.S. residents. The information is compiled from more than 3,900 White Page telephone directories. ReferenceUSA does not include unlisted phone numbers, Direct Marketing Association suppression files, or state-regulated mail and telephone suppression files (U.S. data only). Information is available eight to 12 weeks after it appears in the phone book. Each U.S. residential listing also contains information from the most recent U.S. census, including median household income, median home value, latitude/longitude and percentage of owner-occupied housing.
The community sourcebook of ZIP code demographics (Annual) by ESRI Press.
R 304.6 Comm
The first section reports demographic and socioeconomic data for residential zip codes in the US. For each zip code, member cities are listed, with dozens of social and economic indicators arrayed under four main statistical headings -- population and age profile, demographic and buying power profile, income profile, and housing and socioeconomic profile. The business section reports the most current business data available from the Bureau of the Census. Four appendices provide state summary data combining individual zip code data.
Statistical abstract of the United States (Annual) by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census Bureau. Also available online.
R 317.3 Statistical
Extensive selection of statistics for the United States, with selected data for regions, divisions, States, metropolitan areas, cities, and foreign countries from reports and records of government's most important statistical factbook on the social, political, and economic aspects of American life. It includes numerous tables and charts and is used as a guide to other statistical reports and sources. Each table cites its source and many tables contain new data reflecting fresh topics of interest each year. The index refers to table numbers, NOT page numbers.
U.S. Census Bureau via Internet
http://www.census.gov/
American Factfinder includes: 1990 and 2000 Census of Population and Housing, the Economic Census, and the American Community Survey. Use Factfinder to view, print, and download statistics about population, housing, industry, and business.
Keep Your Business Knowledge Current:
Business Source Premier via EBSCOhost (NCLIVE)
(available at home and in public library buildings; library card and PIN required)
Provides full text from nearly 970 journals covering business, management, economics, banking, finance, accounting and more. In addition to the full text, offers indexing and abstracts for over 1,650 journals. This database contains popular business publications such as Business Week, Forbes, and Harvard Business Review, and hundreds of scholarly, peer reviewed journals. Full text backfiles go as far back as January of 1990, while indexing and abstract backfiles go as far back as January of 1984. Updated daily.
Regional Business News via EBSCOhost (NCLIVE)
(available at home and in public library buildings; library card and PIN required)
A collection of full text newswires that incorporates news information from all over the world. Included in this database are PR Newswire, Business Newswire, News Bytes News Network, and Phillips Business Information Highlights. In addition to newswires, regional business publications are covered, including Business North Carolina. Information provided by these sources covers business, political, economic and other diverse, international news events. Several hundred articles are added to the database each day.
Selected Internet Sources:
BizStats.com – Useful Business Statistics Online http://www.bizstats.com/BizStats is an award winning online source for small business statistics. Their objective is to provide easy access to business statistical information that is useful and meaningful. The site has the two primary sections: "National Business Statistics" covers businesses and industries from an overall perspective, and "Small Business Industries" reports on comprehensive small business operating on an industry by industry basis.
Bplans.com – Business and marketing plans
http://www.bplans.com/
Find, view, download and edit free sample business and marketing plans optimized for the Web. You can choose from a list, or search for a match in the Standard Industry Code database.
CCH Business Owner's Toolkit: Resources for the Small Business Owner
http://www.toolkit.cch.com/
Covers all aspects of starting, managing, and growing a small business. The Guidebook offers several articles about the business planning process, and Business Tools offers downloadable samples of business plans.
SBA: Small Business Administration Home Page
http://www.sba.gov/
The SBA's goal is to help entrepreneurs form successful small enterprises, and offers information on starting, financing, and growing a small business. Extensive information on starting a business, including a tutorial on writing business plans, can be found here. The SBA's online library also has numerous forms, publications, and tutorials to download.
SCORE 96, Raleigh, North Carolina
http://www.raleighscore.org/
The SCORE Association (Service Corps of Retired Executives) is a nonprofit association
dedicated to entrepreneur education and the formation, growth, and success of small business
nationwide, and is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration. Provides free counseling and low-cost workshops in the community. Information about their programs and contact information can be found here.
Wake Tech's Business and Industry Center
http://conted.waketech.edu/schedules/
The Business and Industry Center provides free seminars for the entrepreneur. The seminars cover topics about starting, financing, managing, and growing your business. Directions and a list of current and upcoming programs can be found here.