Guide to Resources for Entrepreneurs at the Tepper School of Business

Prepared by Roye Werner, Business & Economics Librarian, 2008

 

URL for this guide:  www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/rwerner/bootcamp.htm

 

Welcome! Below you will find several online tools that will help you to research trends, industries, companies, and markets. You can use these during all of the phases of an entrepreneurial venture – the early phases of idea generation, the business planning and fundraising process, and even the execution phase of your business as you try to strategize against competitors and forecast customer demand.

 

We’ve tried to organize the tools based on the types of tasks that you will need to do in order to truly understand your business and your market.

 

Common Tasks of the Entrepreneur:

 

Note: For some sections, there is a video tutorial to help you learn how to approach a research task using the online tools that are available. We've just started making these tutorials and will add more periodically throughout the year.

 

Tutorials

Online Resources

 

 

Library Services

·         Carnegie Mellon University Libraries' Home Page

·         Business Databases – find those mentioned here

·         Online Catalog: Cameo - Look here for e-books, books, journals, etc.

·         Online journal list – Here you can check to see if a journal is contained in one of our databases.

·         Online encyclopedias and dictionaries

·         IF YOU ARE OFF CAMPUS: Remote Access

·         Interlibrary loan – if we don’t have the book or article that you need

·         CONTACTS – we’ll answer your questions:

-       Call the Hunt Reference librarians at:  (412) 268-2442

-       Email:  huntref@andrew.cmu.edu

-       Staff at desk – summer hours are M - F 9 am - 5 pm; regular hours: M – Th 9 am to 8 pm, Fr – 9 am to 5 pm, Sa and Su 1 – 5 pm.

-       All ways to contact us, including chat service

-       Or, contact me directly:  Roye Werner, Business and Economics Librarian, rwerner@andrew.cmu.edu, (412) 268-2453

 

 

Trendspotting and Idea Generation

·            “Hot ideas” feature from Entrepreneur Magazine

·            U.S. Patents – or Google Patents – what’s being invented now

·            Google Zeitgeist – what are people searching for?

·            Blog trends from Nielsen

·            Trend forecast 2008 from the original trendspotter, Faith Popcorn

·            Prizewinning startup ideas from business school teams

·            www.clickz.com – interactive marketing statistics and research

·            Export opportunities abroad – market research from the USITC

·            What is the U.S. Government buying?  See bids for contracts here.

 

 

Video

Tutorial

Economic Indicators

·         From the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas – a quick slide show plus more

·         From the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) –  a comprehensive list

·         “Economic Indicators” – a detailed monthly publication of the Council of Economic Advisors

·         The future economy - economic projections from the Congressional Budget Office

·         The future labor market - labor and occupational projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

·         Local – from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland (which covers Pittsburgh)

·         International - World Economic Outlook database from the International Monetary Fund

 

 

Video

Tutorial

Demographics

·            Numerous population studies from the Census Bureau, including international statistics and topic breakdowns.  Also - Factfinder. census.gov – another way to locate census data from national level down to block level

·            Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, including geographic profiles, time use, longitudinal studies, etc.

·            Community Sourcebook America – maps zipcode and county data – on CD-ROM computer in Hunt Library reference area

·            Statistical Abstract of the United States – easy-to-find statistics on everything

·            International - World Development Indicators database (if you're off campus, go here first: Remote User Access , then click on CMU Library, and then Databases by Name, and find this one.)

·            International – health statistics from the World Health Organization

 

 

 

Background on an Industry

·            S&P's NetAdvantage ** website – use “Industries” tab

·            Industry section of Business & Company Resource Center  ** - use both Overviews and Market Research tabs

·            Industry statistics from U.S. Census Bureau’s Economic Programs.

·            MarketLine ** – international industry reports on a wide range of specialized industries

·            Gartner ** – specializes in technology products and services

·            World Robotics ** – analyzes the market for industrial and service robots (included because of CMU interest in this area.)

·            News Sources listed below – which will include targeted trade publications in every industry. Use search terms like “market,” “forecast,” “trends,” “industry overview,” etc. with terms that describe your industry.

·            Commercial market research reports – too expensive to purchase, but look at their abstracts and tables of contents for industry structure, top companies, outstanding issues.

·            Find your industry/trade organization - Googling key words is probably the best way, i.e. "robotics organization" will turn up the Robotics Industry Association. Then look for links to data, research, publications, statistics, reports, etc. Other source for these: valuationresources.com's industry links; Google's Directory: Associations by Industry.

 ** For these starred databases, if you're off campus, go here first: Remote User Access , then click on CMU Library, and then Databases by Name, and find this one.)

 

 

News Sources about Markets, Companies and Industries

There is considerable overlap among these databases, but also unique items in each one.  Use various combinations of keywords, and use the articles themselves to start identifying company names and other key terms to use later on.

·         Business & Company Resource Center – in addition to news and journal articles, this has company histories, analyst reports, industry overviews and research reports.

·         Lexis-Nexis Academic– most wide-ranging database available. 

·         Proquest – wide-ranging news database containing many smaller databases within it - complete Wall Street Journal and New York Times coverage

·         INSPEC  - scientific and technical literature on electrical and electronic engineering,  information technology, etc – for competitive product developments.

For all these databases, if you're off campus, go here first: Remote User Access , then click on CMU Library, and then Databases by Name, and find this one

 

Video

Tutorial

Identifying Competitors and/or Potential Corporate Customers

·            Identifying NAICS and SIC codes

·            Dun & Bradstreet's Million Dollar Database **

·            Hoover’s Online **– find company like yours, then see “competitors” on left hand side

·            High tech: CorpTech Directory of Technology Companies **

·            Manufacturing: Thomas Register of American Manufacturers

** For these starred databases, if you're off campus, go here first: Remote User Access , then click on CMU Library, and then Databases by Name, and find this one.)

 

 

 

Spending Patterns - Markets

·            Books with statistics on markets from New Strategist publishers:

-       Who’s buying?  Executive summary of household spending – E-book

-       Lifestyle market analyst – Hunt reference section - HF5415 .33.U6 L54

-       American Generations: who they are, how they live, what they think – Hunt reference section - HC110 .C6 M545

-       Who's buying information products and services – Hunt 2nd floor - HE7601 .W46

-       Household spending : who spends how much on what – Hunt reference section - HC110 .C6 O34

·            Consumer Expenditure Survey – US govt. survey that is the basis for many studies

·            Lifestyle market segmentation patterns by location from ESRI – enter a zipcode for that area’s identifiers

·            Polls – Pew Internet & American Life, Gallup, Harris, Reuters (“archive” goes up to 2007), ACSI (customer satisfaction by company and industry,) or any of the “News” databases below using “poll” as a search term, i.e. movies and poll.

 

 

 

 

Venture Capital

·         The directory of venture capital & private equity firms, domestic & international – Hunt Reference room: HG4751 .F582 (2007)

·         Corporate Finance Sourcebook – Hunt Reference room: HG4057 .A1565 (2008)

·         MoneyTree Report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers – VC firms by industry