Business Plans

Sources for sample business plans and tools to create a business plan.

• Business Plans Handbook
• Entrepreneur.com: Business Plans
• Bplans.com: Sample Plans
• NEBS Business Plan Tool
• Agricultural Innovation & Commercialization Center: INVenture Business Planning Tool

Components for Developing a Business Plan: Consumer spending habits

• The book Who’s Buying… contains consumer buying trends on specific product categories including: Alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, entertainment, groceries, household furnishings, and several others.

• The Consumer Expenditure Survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics consists of two surveys collected for the Bureau of Labor Statistics by the Census Bureau — the quarterly Interview survey and the Diary survey — that provide information on the buying habits of American consumers, including data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit (families and single consumers) characteristics.

• Choices III is a massive survey conducted by Simmons Media & Markets. It is a study of consumer buying and media viewing habits. Choices III provides a significant level of flexibility in finding patterns and cross-matching different survey elements.  Data is from their 2005 survey. Choices III is available in the Management & Economics Library.
  

• MediaMark is similar to Choices III and presents data on consumer buying and viewing habits.  It provides more prepackaged reports than Choices III.  MediaMark requires IE and you must create a free account with them.

Components for Developing a Business Plan: Market Research

Review market research reports for details and projections.

• BizMiner – Market Research Profiles
• IBIS World
  – Industry Profiles
• Mintel – Consumer Market Research Reports
• MarketResearch.com Academic – Market Research Reports
• Plunkett’s Online Research – Industry Profiles
• Associations Unlimited (Trade Associations)

Components for Developing a Business Plan: Location, location, location

Gather information on where you will be located…do you have customers there?…what are they like?

• BizMiner – Local Business Summaries
• CFED – Development Report Card for States
• U.S. Census: American Factfinder
• Bureau of Economic Analysis – Regional Economic Accounts
• U.S. Chambers of Commerce

Components for Developing a Business Plan: Competitors & Suppliers

Who are you competing with and who are you partnering with?

• ReferenceUSA
• CatalogXpress
• Thomas Register
• Business & Company Resource Center
• LexisNexis Company Dossier

Components for Developing a Business Plan: Industry Analysis

Analyze the industry and market you will be in…

• Industry Classifications
• Industry Ratios
  • Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios (book)
  • Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios (book)
  • Key Business Ratios (database)
  • e-Statement Studies (database)
    
• Current Industrial Reports(CIR)
• BizMiner – Financial Analysis Profiles
  • BizStats – Summary data from BizMiner
• NetAdvantage (Industry Surveys)
• Marketline Business Information Center (5 Forces Models)
  
• Industry Handbook – Investopedia
  (5 Forces Model on selected industries)