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 |
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·
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 |
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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. |
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·
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
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·
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: ·
International
– health statistics from the
World Health Organization |
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·
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 ·
Commercial
market research reports – too expensive to purchase, but look at their
abstracts and tables of contents for industry structure, top companies,
outstanding issues. |
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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 ·
INSPEC - scientific and technical literature on
electrical and electronic engineering, information technology, etc – for
competitive product developments. |
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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 |
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·
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 -
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. |
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·
The directory of venture capital & private
equity firms, domestic & international – Hunt Reference room: HG4751
.F582 (2007) · MoneyTree Report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers – VC firms by industry |