Entrepreneurship: Web Sites

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Here are some tips and suggestions about appropriate web sites and search engines to consider:

For finding local marketing related information, please note that when using Google  you can enter the business location zip code to return a  display of location-related information, including population, income, housing data, transportation, and so on.

The US Census Bureau will provide a vast amount of location-specific information. Consider using the following sections of the site:

• Census Business Builder: http://www.census.gov/data/data-tools/cbb.html
• American FactFinder: http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en·        
• State and County Quick Facts: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/index.html
• County Business Patterns: http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/index.html
• Zip Code Business Patterns:  http://censtats.census.gov/cbpnaic/cbpnaic.shtml
• USA Counties: http://censtats.census.gov/usa/usa.shtml

In addition, the tool known as Business Analyst may be of significant usage since much of the data from some of the above-names sources is aggregated and represented there.  KU provides access to the web version of Business Analyst and has a much more robust version accessible only via the Data/GIS lab in Watson Library.  If you wish to use the online (web) version of this, registration is required.  Here is some information you may find useful:

Business Analyst

Desktop version (twice as much data, better for geocoding- converting addresses to points on map); can use in GIS and Data Lab, Watson Library 4^th floor (http://lib.ku.edu/gis/lab )

Finding examples of business plans & marketing plans:

·         Bplans.com:  http://www.bplans.com/

·         Mplans.com:  http://www.mplans.com/

Locating NAICS numbers --  See http://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.

NAICS was developed under the auspices of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and adopted in 1997 to replace the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. It was developed jointly by the U.S. Economic Classification Policy Committee (ECPC), Statistics Canada , and Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia , to allow for a high level of comparability in business statistics among the North American countries.

Individual company web sites -- review the information contained therein.