Save time, ask your business librarian!
Steve Cramer
336-256-0346
smcramer@uncg.edu
AIM & Google talk: stevebizlib
a. Company directories for private companies.
- Coves 14 million U.S. businesses and associations.
- For most companies, it provides an address and phone number, SIC and NAICS codes, estimated sales, number of employees, credit rating, and more.
b. Company homepages
Often a good source for product descriptions.
- Greensboro Chamber of Commerce: membership directory
- Greensboro Merchants Association: membership directory
c. Articles about private companies
Unfortunately, there's no one database that includes articles from all local newspapers.
- America's Newspapers via NewsBank: Covers 14 N.C. newspapers, including the Greensboro News & Record and Winston-Salem Journal.
- LexisNexis Academic: Includes a few N.C. newspapers.
- All newspaper databases
RMA Annual Statement Studies: Financial Ratios Benchmarks
Ask for this at the Library's Reference Desk
- Provides 40 performance indicators for 340 products and services, organized by NAICS code.
- Provides five years of data.
- Available online via OneSource Global
- Select "International Businesses" in ReferenceUSA.
- Then search or browse for an industry.
- From the industry profile, look for the "RMA Industry Norms" link on the left.
Dun & Bradstreet Key Business Ratios
- Provides 14 financial ratios for 800 products and services, arranged by SIC code.
- Includes three years of data.
- Data can be exported into spreadsheet format.
- More info
Duns Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios
Ask for this at the Library's Reference Desk
- Provides 32 performance indicators for over 800 products and services, arranged by SIC code.
- Covers the most industries of any ratio source.
Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios
Reference HF5681.R25 T68
- The Almanac provides 50 performance indicators for 192 industries, organized by NAICS code.
- Provides the most ratios per industry of any ratio source.
Standard & Poor's Analyst's Handbook
Reference HG4519 .A530
- The best source for older financial ratios (covers 1992 to present).
- Covers 59 industries and 122 sub-industries.
- The handbook is updated by monthly supplements, which also provide quarterly data for recent years.
Financial Studies of the Small Business
Reference HD2346 .U5 F55A 2005
- Provides income data, expenses, and ratios for companies with under $2 million in total capitalization.
- Covers 57 sectors, including 22 under retailing and 7 under manufacturing.
- Also provides 5 year historical summaries.
a. Directories
GuideStar: the National Database of Nonprofit Organizations
- Provides data from the IRS From 990 (required from all non-profits with $25,000 or more in gross receipts).
- Covers 850,000 organizations. Requires free registration.
- Coves 14 million U.S. businesses and associations.
b. Association homepages
c. Articles about local non-profits
- America's Newspapers via NewsBank: Covers 14 N.C. newspapers, including the Greensboro News & Record and Winston-Salem Journal.
- Lexis-Nexis Academic: Includes a few N.C. newspapers.
- All newspaper databases
a. Places to get preexisting reports (i.e. simple sources)
State & County Quick Facts for Greensboro
- Use for simple geographical look-ups.
- Includes 2000 Census data and American Community Survey (annual) data.
- The main portal to Census data.
- Provide tables, graphs, pie charts, and maps for all types of U.S. places.
- Provides ranking and downloading options.
b. Places to create your own reports (i.e. data sets)
- A database covering over 25,000 series, including many covering demographics.
- Provides ranking and downloading options.
- Provides detailed U.S. data as maps or reports.
- Data can be displayed for census block-groups, census tracts, zip codes, cities, counties, states, and the entire United States.
- Data can be displayed as a map or report, and downloaded as an image or spreadsheet.
American FactFinder: Data sets
- Covers demographic, social, and economic characteristics.
- The most detailed source for N.C. places.
- Provided by the State Data Center in Raleigh.
c. Places to get projections
CEDDS: The Complete Economic and Demographic Data Source
Reference HC101.C616 2007
- Provides demographic information for MSAs and counties covering 1970 to 2030.
- Covers population, employment, earnings, personal income, household income, and total retail sales, and more.
LINC and the Census also provide population prjections, but not all the other types of demographic data the CEDDS books provide.
- Provides 25 to 45-page US industry reports for all 5-digit NAICS codes (over 720 reports).
- Each report includes statistics, industry structure, product & customer segmentation, performance analysis, major players & market share, external drivers, 5-year forecasts with forecast analysis, and more.
- Reports are updated three or four times a year.
- Using NAICS codes, this site lists the types of companies active in a county, zip code, or metro area.
- Also covers number of employees and payrolls.
S&P's Industry Surveys (in Netadvantage)
- Includes the S&P Industry Surveys, which provides analysis, descriptions, and data on 52 industries.
- Also provides Global Industry Surveys for over 20 sectors in Europe and Asia.
- Updated twice a year.
MarketLine Business Information Center
- Provides 2,000 concise industry profiles, international in scope.
- Also provides 10,000 company profiles (many including a SWOT analysis).
Mintel Market Research Reports
- Provides fulltext market and consumer research reports, for many sectors.
- International in scope, but with emphasis on the U.S. and Europe.
- Most of the reports covers market drivers, market share, size, structure, segmentation, trends, consumer expenditure and spending patterns, psychographics, forecasts, and company and brand profiles.
Euromonitor Global Market Information Database
SimplyMap (3 concurrent users)
- Provides market reports and statistics on countries, companies, markets, and consumers from over 200 countries.
- Particularly strong for the apparel, retailing, food, drink, consumer electronics, toys, travel, and personal care products industries.
- A web-based mapping database for developing thematic maps and reports using thousands of demographic, business, and marketing data variables.
- Each user accesses SimplyMap through a "personal workspace"; you will need to create an account the first time you use the database.
- Covers census block-groups, census tracts, zip codes, cities, counties, states, and the entire United States.
- Includes Mediamark Research (MRI) data, covering usage and consumption for thousands of products, including brand data, details of frequency of usage, and more.
- Data can be exported and maps can be printed.
- SimplyMap Quick Reference (PDF, 600K)
- SimplyMap Variable List (PDF, 2,100K)
- Provides full-text market research, analysis, and forecasts
- Covers five industries: e-commerce and technology, consumer goods, energy, finance, and healthcare.
a. Basic data:
- The source for most U.S. consumer spending data.
- The Survey collects data on the "buying habits of American consumers, including data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit (families and single consumers) characteristics."
- The tables on the homepage provide the most detailed data from the CES site.
- Statistical Warehouse also covers this info, but adds ranking and downloading options.
b. More detailed data:
- Covers U.S. population, age, race and ethnicity, income, housing, employment characteristics, and consumer expeditures.
- Provides data for census block-groups, census tracts, zip codes, cities, urban areas, counties, and states, as well as custom radiuses defined by the user.
- Areas can be compared and ranked.
- Provide tables, graphs, pie charts, and maps, which can be can be downloaded into Excel, Word, or Adobe Acrobat Reader.
- More info
SimplyMap (5 concurrent users)
- Provides detailed U.S. spending data for 550 products and services.
- Data can be displayed for census block-groups, census tracts, zip codes, cities, counties, states, and the entire United States.
- Covers the near-present as well as 5-year projection.
- Data can be displayed as a map or report, and downloaded as an image or spreadsheet.
- More info
- Provides over 25,000 statistical data series on many topics, including consumer spending, population and demographics, economics, social indicators, and more.
- Covers the U.S., U.S. states, counties, cities, and other Census-designated places (more than 30,000 places total).
- Data can be ranked.
- Data can be downloaded into Excel, or formatted into a PDF file for printing.
Household Spending: Who Spends How Much on What
Reference HC110.C6 A670 2007
- A more detailed source for U.S. spending data.
- The data is organized by age, income, household type, race and Hispanic origin, and region.
- Covers apparel, entertainment, financial products and services, food and alcohol, gifts, health care, household operations, shelter and utilities, personal care, reading, education, and tobacco, and transportation.
Demographics USA, County Edition
Reference HF5438 .S870 2007
- Provides county-level data, with an emphasis on retail sales and spending power data.
- This book provides rankings by region, state, and MSA; demographic profiles; retail sales by store groups and merchandise lines; 5-year projections; consumer buying power by county; and establishment and employment data by county.
Best Customers: Demographics of Consumer Demand
Reference HC110.C6 B470 2005
- The companion book to "Household Spending."
- This book provides short profiles of spending patterns for hundreds of products and services
