Trade Organizations and Statistics

Trade or professional organizations can be good sources for otherwise hard to find statistics on sales, volume, value, industry trends or other news. Many times these figures are cited as definitive as possible sources.

There are organizations for toys, chocolate, automobile sales, and so on.

They have stats like this:



You can do a google search for their websites or.....

you can search our database Ward's Directory and be sure to select advanced search and search the Encyclopedia of Associations by keywords. More clicks but better results.
 

What are Trade Journals?

What are trade journals? These periodicals feature real-life nonacademic experiences of people on the ground in a particular trade.

They contain management advice and hard numbers, among other things.

I've used trade journals to track down profit margins for Alamo Draft House locations, measuring sales from adding healthy items to restaurant menu and the process of opening an indoor ski run.

Use the following databases (be sure to limit your results to magazines in the tab):
ABI inform,

Business Source  (Open the source types on the left)

 

InfoTrac Small-Business Collection  (see below for limiting to trade publications)

The Two Business Books You Must Read

If I had to tell you which two business books to read it would be these two:

Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy will teach you everything you need to know about analyzing your business, coming up with opportunities and making a viable business model

And Chester Karass's book on negotiation - Give and Take - will cover the day today of making business deals.

And that's as quick and dirty as I can make it.

Financial Ratios Resources

Ratio books give industry averages for costs, profitability, inventory and other measurements. Find out what to expect and how to measure yourself.

Online

eStatement Studies - Online version of RMA Annual Statement Studies. 

Print

Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios.
Annual Statments Studies (Robert Morris and Associates)
Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios

Find an Individual Company's Specific Ratios

Use Mergent to see an individual company's ratios. Once you get to Mergent, do a company search, then click financials and you'll see Ratios.

Find Out Who's Moving Where

You can find out who is moving to where in the United States.

From official census information.

Why Second Life Failed

You may not have even heard of Second Life, but around 2006 are so everyone thought it was going to be the next big thing. You dressed up like an anime raver in a virtual environment so you could conduct business with virtual dollars.  Yes, some people actually thought this was a professional environment that would be used for actual business transactions.

Good blogger explanation here.

"Second Life was originally developed in 2002-2003 on two reasonable but ultimately wrong assumptions: That the desktop computer market would continue growing, and that dedicated broadband lines would be the main way people would access the Internet. Instead, the market largely shifted to laptops, and now to tablets, and also to smartphones, all of which depend on wireless Internet connectivity. The most popular platforms for accessing the Internet now are the least conducive to using Second Life, which performs poorly on wireless laptops, and can't fully perform on smartphones or tablets at all. At the same time, social networks, especially Facebook, provided many of the features that Second Life offered, but in a way that was much less resource and time-consuming."

Why Second Life Failed from Slate

Article digresses into predictive model of which social media will succeed , but still interesting.

Creativity in Business

Yes, it can be learned. Here's a list of our books on creativity in business.

Frankly, one of the best ways to learn about creativity is by reading a lot of fiction, history, the great books, and experiencing great music and art. You learn so much about connections, human psychology, and the craft of making the imagined real.

Internet Business

The official category is electronic commerce.

A link to more good subject headings. These include information for people who want to find information on internet marketing and advertising as well.

Bonus: Great government report about size, growth and other stats about the internet sales.

Herbalife, Pyramid Schemes and John Oliver's Take

Multilevel marketing, or for some people, pyramid schemes, have been in the news recently. Tune in for a lively critique of this business model.

Vemma Drink Biz Model Controversy

From Rolling Stone:

"Vemma is the latest mutation of an American invention. Multilevel marketing began in the middle of the past century with one company, a predecessor of Amway. The idea was simple: Instead of just selling a product, you could recruit people to sell it, too. Then, when they made a sale, you both shared in the profit. Recruiting soon became a lot more profitable than merely selling, a shift in incentives that produced a first in American consumerism: Suddenly the pitch was more important than the product. In some cases it wasn't necessary to even have a product. For some 50 years, lawmakers, consumer advocates and lobbying groups have argued over whether this unique setup constitutes a legitimate business or something more sinister, like an illegal pyramid scheme"

Austin Startups

Here's a pretty good webpage devoted to Austin startups with an emphasis on tech.

Stats on The Gig Economy

Traditional stats are lagging tracking the gig economy. You know, UBER, Airbnb, Lyft and so on. So I found Mish, the great blogger, who recently tackled measuring this subject.

http://mishtalk.com/2016/03/27/how-big-is-the-gig-economy-what-about-permatemps/

http://mishtalk.com/2016/03/28/gig-economy-take-ii-entire-increase-in-employment-since-2010-is-in-gigs/

Housing Starts and Building Permits

Housing starts (well, technically, building permits) by US Metro areas can be found here.

I like how they include counties and smaller cities as well. Oh yeah - "they" are the US Census Bureau.

Here's the link to the main Census New Residential Construction Page. There is a helpful explanation of methodology and a few other categories like Quarterly Starts by Purpose and Design.

Business Passings: Andy Grove, CEO of Intel

All of our books about Andy Grove here.

Andy Grove was a Hungarian born refugee who joined Intel - one of the first companies that made the processors for computers. He eventually became the head. A fascinating classic business American success story. Read the books above for a glimpse of how Silicon Valley worked in the early days.

Dun & Bradstreet Is Inside Mergent

The Dun & Bradstreet Private Company database is lurking inside the Mergent database. 

Once you get inside Mergent, you'll clearly see the correct tab. Most people use this to look up a private company's estimated annual sales.

Vemma Temporary Halted Due to Pyramid Scheme Allegation

I wrote earlier about the Vemma energy drink business model controversy. A court has agreed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and temporary halted Vemma operations due to concerns about the company being a pyramid scheme.

Read more about this issue here.

Small Business Financing

Here's some links to books on funding options for small businesses:

Small Business Financing
Venture Capital
Crowdfunding

Web Sources:

Texas Emerging Technology Fund
SBIR/STTR
SBA Loan Programs

Austin Startup Blog

Blog devoted to startups in Austin. These tend to be cool companies: social media, software companies, laboratories and more.

A great resource for finding out how companies attract funding based on their business model and also who's HIRING.

Bar Rescue: Critical Analysis For Entrepreneurs

Here's the link to the popular reality show Bar Rescue.


Kind of interesting way to get you thinking critically about your business idea, even if it is not a bar.  The link above offer some full episodes