5. Gather Background Information for
Market Research
Detailed encyclopedia-
style articles on dozens
of small business topics
http://tinyurl.com/ccplbusinessdatabases
6. Gather Background Information
for Market Research
Articles from popular &
peer-reviewed
periodicals on many
business topics
http://tinyurl.com/ccplbusinessdatabases
7. Gather Background Information for
Market Research
Articles, reports & reference books on
all business topics
http://tinyurl.com/ccplbusinessdatabases
8. Write Your Own Business Plan
http://tinyurl.com/ccplbusinessdatabases
Articles, directory information, & advice
for every type of small business
9. Write Your Own Business Plan
Sample business plans
for 300+ real businesses
http://tinyurl.com/ccplbusinessdatabases
10. Find Your Own Demographics
for Market Research
Find in-depth, customizable reports for SC
population, income, housing, consumer
expenditures, businesses and more!
http://tinyurl.com/ccplbusinessdatabases
11. Make A B2B Mailing List
or Spy On Your Competition
Spy on 13 million+ public and private businesses:
Who’s in charge? What do they do? How much
do they earn & spend? Contact information?
http://tinyurl.com/ccplbusinessdatabases
12. Get In On The Action
Everything here is available
online wherever you are with
a CCPL library card.
In county? Get a free card!
Out of county? Stop by &
use our resources for free!
You’ll soon see that…
14. CCPL Reference can help
843-805-6930
askaquestion@ccpl.org
text “askccpl” to 66746
IM: http://tinyurl.com/ccplhelp
Editor's Notes
Business decisions are hard. To make the best decisions, you need information. After all, knowledge is power, as they say. Where can you turn for solid business information?
Many sources of information are out there. Lots of companies will say they can help you, but it’ll cost you.
That market research report? $12,000.
Pay someone to write a business plan? Another 8 grand gone. Expert loan officers can ask you a couple of simple questions & they’ll know you paid someone else to write your plan. That might cost you the loan.
But what else can you do?
Running a business isn’t rocket science. Why not do your own business research for free with the help of the resources at CCPL?
Thanks to the State Library’s DISCUS program and our county’s library budget, entrepreneurs can do startup research with the help of FREE resources at CCPL! We buy expensive resources so you don’t have to!
Small business owners must be a jack of all trades out of necessity. You are now getting more education on marketing research in high school than most entrepreneurs have when they start their business. How do you figure out marketing research if there’s no teacher, textbook, or classmates to turn to?
Start with general resources on small business like:
Encyclopedia of Small Business at http://tinyurl.com/ccplbusinessdatabases. A two-volume reference book, this one is on small business topics. Volume 2 has some great articles on Marketing and related topics.
Search with this publication: “Market Research” yields 6 highly relevant articles
Small business owners must be a jack of all trades out of necessity. You are now getting more education on marketing research in high school than most entrepreneurs have when they start their business. How do you figure out marketing research if there’s no teacher, textbook, or classmates to turn to?
Start with general resources on small business like:
Trade journal articles in Infotrac’s General BusinessFile ASAP at http://tinyurl.com/ccplbusinessdatabases. Full text articles from the best academic, trade, and popular periodicals on all things business, including marketing topics.
Choose Subject search, then “Marketing”. Limit it to full text, then narrow by subdivision
Small business owners must be a jack of all trades out of necessity. Kids are now getting more education on marketing research in high school than most entrepreneurs have when they start their business. How do you figure out marketing research if there’s no teacher, textbook, or classmates to turn to?
Get more detail on your industry and the companies in it with:
Business & Company Resource Center at http://tinyurl.com/ccplbusinessdatabases. Take a look at the Advanced Search to make it easier to pull out industry & marketing information in addition to basic company, industry, or article searches.
A business plan is an essential tool. You can get help from SCORE and the Small Business Development Center, but when it comes down to it, you’ll need to find some facts for yourself.
Check out Small Business Resource Center at http://tinyurl.com/ccplbusinessdatabases. Find over 300 sample business plans, preselected searches on popular businesses and even business topics such as pricing, marketing, and more.
A business plan is an essential tool. You can get help from SCORE, the Small Business Development Center and others, but when it comes down to it, you’ll need to find some facts for yourself.
CCPL has great books like the Nolo Press guides and the print & ebook Business Plans Handbook. Nolo’s books will guide you through the writing process step-by-step and Business Plans Handbook will let you learn by example what a good business plan looks like for many types of businesses
Demographics are a big part of Market Research. Will consumers in this ZIP code spend enough on my product or service to make the business fly? Which location is best for my startup? Theses questions can be extremely expensive to answer if you pay someone to do it for you, but why do it when the Library’s resources are here?
DemographicsNow is the easiest database I have ever used and is a valuable demographics tool. You’ll be amazed at what you can find out. This is your tax dollars hard at work!
If you won’t be selling to consumers and work in a B2B environment, or if you’d like to spy on your local competitors, here’s a showstopping tool for you: Reference USA. The publisher, infoUSA will sell you their data individually, but why pay for it twice? Use the Library’s subscription to build a mailing list or check out your competitors. You can even play from work!
All you need for access is a CCPL library card, free for in county residents, $35 for out of county cards, which is a steal since one purchase of the data from the publishers would cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars.
If you don’t have a library card, take a few minutes and pick one up at any CCPL branch. You’ll be glad you did!
CCPL’s Online Business Library can help your business idea become a winner!
If you’re currently an entrepreneur, or you plan to become one someday, check out the public library resources wherever you live and work. Many cities and counties in the US have tons more online library resources and services to help you with your work life in addition to fun stuff like wireless Net access, DVDs, or downloadable audio books.
Once you get home, you’re not alone! Give us a call if you have questions. Our Reference staff is here whenever we’re open. If they can’t answer your question, they’ll consult with one of our business librarians and one of us will get back to you.
