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Recommended Sites

Associations – Directories

ANSI (American National Standards Institute) Member Trade Associations

The ANSI portal allow you to search by name, ICS codes, and industry sector. This listing includes associations that contribute to US standards and conformity assessments.

Directory of Associations

Search from over 35,000 local, regional, national, and international associations.

Industry Trade Groups

Hundreds of industry trade groups and associations are listed alphabetically at Wikipedia with live links to each association’s Website.

Associations – Business

American Marketing Association

The world’s largest and most comprehensive professional society of marketers.

Biotechnology Industry Organization

The mission of BIO is to be the champion of biotechnology and the advocate for its member organizations –both large and small.

National Restaurant Association

The leading business association for the restaurant industry.

National Retail Federation

The world’s largest retail trade association.

Benchmarking

Biz Stats

Compare your company performance to others in the same industry.

Fintel Scorecard

Compare your company to others in the industry based on 9 core ratios.

Business Plans

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Guide to business plans by type of business.

Entrepreneur Magazine – Business Plans: A Step-by-Step Guide

a “how to” for writing your plan along with the business rationale for doing so. The article provides templates, sample plans, and links to plan-writing software.

Entrepreneur Magazine – How to Write A Business Plan

provides necessary information about the proper formatting of your business plan.

SBA Business Plan Basics

step by step instructions for creating a business plan from the SBA.

SCORE Business Plan Template

Preferred by counselors, SCORE offers a variety of business plan templates and tools.

Template from Purdue University

An excellent template that covers all necessary topics for use in creating a business plan.

Competitive Intelligence

A Selective Resource Guide

Articles on competitive intelligence.

Hoover’s Company Profiles

Free information on over 40,000 companies, including company overview, industry information, leadership and historical financials. Use your NC public library card to access online via NC LIVE or visit your local public or UNC library for assistance.

Reference USA

Free reference and research tool providing real-time access to accurate, in-depth information on 24 million US businesses and 234 million US residents. Use your NC public library card to access online via NC LIVE or visit your local public or UNC library for assistance.

Securities & Exchange Commission

Search for required filings of publicly traded corporations.

Demographics / Psychographics

Free Demographic Reports

Free demographic market analysis reports from Alteryx Analytics Gallery.

Melissa Data

Free address information for businesses and individuals.

US Census Bureau

Provides detailed, demographic information including population, age and sex, health, education, race, housing, income and the economy. Map your data using census mapping.

E-commerce

Amazon OnLine Selling

Learn how to start selling with a website by using Amazon.

Etsy Seller Handbook

Advice and inspiration for running an Etsy shop.

Economic Development

NC Commerce Site Search

Information for site selectors considering NC as a business location.

Employee Ownership Options

National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO)

Non-profit association providing information for companies who are considering an employee ownership program or for guidance and resources for managing an existing plan.

North Carolina Employee Ownership Center (NCEOC)

Resources for Employee Ownership for North Carolina companies and employees.

Project Equity

An organization to help businesses and communities discover the power of employee ownership.

Project Equity

Read case studies from Owner-Retires or Owner-Stays

SBA Office of Financial Assistance

The SBA Employee Trusts program provides financial assistance to Employee Stock Ownership Programs and can assist qualified employee trusts that meet the necessary requirements with their 7(a) loan program.

The ESOP Association

Founded in 1979, the ESOP Association is a trade association representing companies with Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) and professionals, such a accountants, attorneys, and trustees/fiduciaries who provide services for them.

Financing Resources

SBA-Financing

Describes loan availability, eligibility, sources of grants.

Franchising

Entrepreneur Magazine-Franchise Opportunities

Franchising opportunities plus tips on buying/running a franchise.

Franchise Direct

Listing of franchises for sale.

Franchise Registry

Listing of companies registered with the SBA available for franchising.

Franchising.com

Resource for On-line Franchise Information.

Federal Government Resources

Fed Contract Opportunities

Federal government procurement opportunities above $25,000.

Internal Revenue Service

Tax information for small businesses.

Laws & Regulations by Industry

Provides a single access point to government services and information to help the nation’s businesses with their operations.

US Patent & Trademark Office

Search for patents and trademarks.

US Small Business Administration website

An independent agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns.

State Government Resources

NC Biotechnology Center

Supports biotechnology research, business and education statewide.

NC Secretary of State – Corporations Division

Responsible for the examination, custody and maintenance of the legal documents filed by corporations, limited partnerships and limited liability companies in NC.

NC State Data Center

Free population, demographic, economic, and income data as well as county profiles and rankings. Use your NC public library card to access online via NC LIVE or visit your local public or UNC library for assistance.

NC State University Industrial Extension Service

Supports North Carolina business in the workplace – in the office, on the factory floor or in the hospital.

Human Resources

Bureau of Labor Statistics

The BLS compiles information on pricing, unemployment, pay & benefits, workplace injuries and import and export data.

Employee Benefit Research Institute

Contributes to, encourages, ands enhances the development of sound employee benefit programs and sound public policy through objective research and education.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Commission which enforces laws protecting against discrimination in employment.

Indeed.com

Indeed provides local and regional salary information compiled from job listings they have posted during previous twelve months.

NCSU IES: Safety and Health Management Systems for Small Businesses

This free, online training course teaches you to build an effective safety and health management system in order to prevent injuries and illnesses in your workplace.

Salary.com

Benchmark salaries.

Society for Human Resource Management

World’s largest professional association devoted to human resource management whose mission is to serve the needs of HR professionals by providing current and comprehensive resources, and to advance the profession by promoting HR’s role.

Industry Research

ABI/Inform

Free business research from journals, trade publications, market research reports, dissertations, and working papers. Can be accessed at no charge using an NC public library card via NC Live or by visiting a local or UNC library.

Industry and Competitive Analysis

describing industry and competitive analysis process.

NAICS Classification System

Classification system for industries. Replaces SIC codes.

Valuation Resources

A directory of resources which address subjects such as industry overview, issues, trends, and outlook, industry financial information and financial ratios, and compensation and salary surveys for a wide variety of industries.

International Trade

EXIM Bank

Assists in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to international markets.

U.S. International Development Finance Corporation

OPIC helps U.S. businesses invest overseas, fosters economic development in new and emerging markets, complements the private sector in managing risks associated with foreign direct investment, and supports U.S. foreign policy.

US Trade & Development Agency

Advances economic development and U.S. commercial interests in developing and middle income countries. The agency funds various forms of technical assistance, early investment analysis, training, orientation visits and business workshops that support the development of a modern infrastructure and a fair and open trading environment.

World Fact Book

Detailed information about countries of the world including political and economic aspects.

Manufacturer Resources

CMTC Manufacturing Blog

While the organization was formed to support and advise California manufacturers, this link will take you to a wide variety of free and low-cost resources available to small and mid-size manufacturers nationwide.

North Carolina Chamber

The exclusive state affiliate for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).

North Carolina Manufacturing Institute (NCMI)

The North Carolina Manufacturing Institute initiative was conceived in the summer of 2014 during meetings with leaders from Rowan and Cabarrus counties, the Centralina Workforce Development Board and Rowan-Cabarrus Community College. Their goal is to build a world-class talent pool to support the retention and growth of regional manufacturers.

Market Research

Annual Reports

Online access to annual reports.

Conducting Market Research

Provides critical information about conducting research on the market viability of your product or service.

Marketresearch.com

Reports that can be purchased about your market or industry.

Online Market Research References and Tools

Free online tools for every “hands-on” marketer.

Quirks

Magazine for market researchers.

Valuation Resources

Free industry reports.

Marketing

American Marketing Association

Resources for marketers and advertisers.

Digital Marketing 101: The core things that every marketer (or business professional) needs to understand

Provides easy to understand definitions of key digital marketing terminology collected by BootCampDigital, an online social media training company.

Digital marketing. What it is and why it matters

Brief description and discussion of digital marketing from SAS.

The Four P’s of Marketing

An excellent resource from Purdue University

M Plans

Choose from several free marketing plans or purchase others.

Moving Toward a Digital, Customer-Centric Marketing Strategy

A SAS white paper on digital marketing.

The Ultimate Marketing Machine

Summarizes the results of the Harvard Business Review Marketing 2020 study identifying the attributes of a high-performance marketing organization.

Writing a Market Plan

The Ingredients of a Marketing Plan From Entrepreneur Magazine.

Primary Research Tools

A number of user-friendly, low- and no-fee resources are available to help you conduct electronic surveys of customers and targeted prospects.

Ask Your Target Market

Ask Your Target Market (AYTM) is more sophisticated software than some of the low-cost options. For a fee, AYTM provides live support, helps identify survey pools, and provides guidance in survey development.

Google Consumer Surveys

Pricing is per completed response, but they also offer project-based options (down to helping select color choices and format options) as well as Website questionnaires.

Alchemer

Free and low-cost options.

SurveyMonkey

Free and low-cost options; extremely popular and easy to use.

Science and Technology

American National Standards Institute

Has standards information and links to standards sites.

Association of University Technology Managers

Promotes, supports and improves academic technology transfer worldwide and demonstrate its benefits globally through education, advocacy, networking and communication.

National Technical Information Service

Has science, technology and business information.

US Patent and Trademark Office

Protect intellectual property by patenting.

Tracking Innovation Report

Report released by the N.C. Board of Science and Technology highlights key trends and themes to be considered when undertaking efforts to promote economic opportunity throughout the state.

(SEO) Search Engine Optimization

The Ultimate Guide to Market Research and SEO

This white paper provides an overview of SEO and insights on how your Website and e-commerce marketing efforts can be managed and monitored. An introduction to some basic marketing principles as they relate in a digital environment and definitions of new vocabularies and technologies.

Google Analytics

Harness the power of your Website with this free resource for SEO.

Social Media

Moving Toward a Digital, Customer-Centric Marketing Strategy

A SAS white paper on digital marketing.

Twitter 101 for Business

Has standards information and links to standards sites.

The Ultimate Marketing Machine

Summarizes the results of the Harvard Business Review Marketing 2020 study identifying the attributes of a high-performance marketing organization.

Statistics

American Quick Facts

QuickFacts provides statistics for all states and counties, and for cities and towns with a populations of 5,000 or more. Show side-to-side comparisons for up to five different locations; download charts.

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Free resource from US Government provides a wide array of statistics in the broad fields of labor, economics, and statistics.

County Business Patterns

An annual series that provides subnational economic data by industry. Businesses use the data for analyzing market potential, measuring the effectiveness of sales and advertising programs, setting sales quotas, and developing budgets. Additional information can be found utilizing American Quick Facts comparisons.

Federal Stats

Gateway to federally collected stats.

NC State Data Center

Free population, demographics, economic, and income data as well as county profiles and rankings. Use your NC public library card to access online via NC LIVE or visit your local public or UNC library for assistance.

U.S. Census

Find popular facts (population, income, etc.) and frequently requested date about your community. Run guided queries using pre-built functions and formulas.

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