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)

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.

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.

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

Disposable Income

The BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis) collects data on disposable personal income.

Current data here

Historical data here

Industrial Design

The Ipod. The Vespa. Ford Mustang. Fender Stratocaster.

These are icons of industrial design - the art of making your product ergonomic, functional and attractive.

Restaurant Business Resources

Here are some resources to help you with your restaurant small business project.

Books:

restaurant management books

Includes e books as well. Rules and ratios of the restaurant businesses and how to operate a successful restaurant.

This Gale Business Plan e-book has a restaurant business plan.

(Extra: don't miss the great Anthony Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential )

Trade publications:

Infotrac small business

Trade publications on the restaurant business.  Practical how to tips and industry trends. Note: be sure your screen is tabbed to Magazines (left side of screen). Also you may want to change the results to  Publication date descending (most recent first.)

Beer, Wine and Alcohol Industry

This is the one of the biggest industries in the world. Here's how to do research (actually, the process works for many other subjects.)

Industry Trends (market size, shares, leading companies, analysis and more):

Marketline Advantage
Passport

Marketline Advantage Beer Industry Radar Chart Example:

Market Sizes and Shares:

Simply Map is a great place to get local (anywhere in US) wine and alcohol consumption patterns and compare them with national averages.

Example:

Watch the Simply Map tutorial video to find out how.

Future Factories in Your House: 3D Printing and Mini-Factories

As globalization winds down due to high transportation and energy costs, plus political conflict,do-it-yourself manufacturing looks like it could take off.

There's 3D printing. A machine builds up an actual object one layer at a time using a plastic like material.

Need something stronger or more complex than plastic? Get a factory in a box. This company makes fairly complex factories that fit in a 20-foot shipping container.

By the way, as unemployment remains high, this is a promising way to make a life outside the system.

The implications for manufacturing and design are staggering.

Consumer Prices: We Spent How Much on That?

Find out how much the American consumer spent on different categories of products. Pretty good product details - florists, lotteries, eyeglasses, sewing, taxicabs - to give you an idea of the level of coverage here. 

Once you're there:

1. Go to Section 2
2. Choose Table 2.4.5U

Austin and San Antonio Business Journal

Austin Business Journal

Find local Austin business information news in this journal: new businesses, expansion, openings and closings, and interviews with local entrepreneurs.

Plus job openings and business seminars and events are listed too. Oh yeah, and bankruptcies, liens, building permits and commercial real estate transactions.

Austin Business Journal on the web.

We also have it in library in dead trees, all the way back to 2001.

San Antonio Business Journal

The San Antonio Business Journal has great articles about current events in San Antonio. Both small and large businesses are covered. Read about partnerships, expansions and success stories. Plus there's interviews with local business people and job listings.

There's also information about tax liens, bankruptcies and commercial real estate transactions.

See what businesses are starting or succeeding and why that is.

Research Industry Clusters

Here's an interesting site: Harvard Competitive Data for researching clusters of industry by state or metro area.

For example, you can find out where the automotive industry is clustered, average wages, patents per employee, and employment growth, among other variables. 

Much of the data is from publicly available sources, but it is combined in interesting ways here.

My Favorite Basic Company Financials Book

This has to be my favorite basic company financials book.

Using a hypothetical example of an apple sauce company, the authors take you step by step though a company's balance sheet, define terms like costs and expenses, show you the proper sequence of math you go through (like depreciation or sales), how different costs and earnings affect each other and where to enter each financial transaction.

Of course, you'll want to graduate to advanced financial statement books, but this is a great start.

Videos and YouTube Production

You might get interviewed. You might make a YouTube spot. So you are going to have to know the following things:

Television Acting (trust me, the right subject heading). includes

Video Production

YouTube videos

Books on Contracts

Do you know how to analyze a contract? How to look for hidden problems, implications, or how future events might effect that contract?

A good place to begin here with this recommended review of contracts!

Or

Main contract books.

List of related contract subjects here.

Read Austin Statesman's Business Blog

Great way to stay current on Austin businesses - the Statesman Austin business blog.

What's opening, changing, closing or coming to Austin. From food trailer to major companies like Stratfor, Samsung and Dell. Interviews, thoughts and rumors too!

Business Plan Ideas Inside the S-1 Form

Summary: Read S-1 forms for your business plan ideas.

When a company sells stock for the first time, it must file a s-1 form with the SEC. This form explains how the company will make money - its business plan!

Companies can cite anything from identifying a competitive edge in their field, a market inefficiency they will exploit, an opportunity to reduce costs in an industry where this is a problem (like Amazon and storeless internet retailing!), or otherwise explain their plan.

Quickest way to do this:

Go to EDGAR (the SEC database) and

1. Search Most Recent Filings
2. Limit to S-1 Form
3. Avoid the S-1/A (amendment forms) and read S-1s all day.

Now, one thing you can also do is go to the advanced search screen and type in a keyword (insurance, computers, etc.) and s-1. This should get you closer to browsing S-1 plans in your field.

Copywriting Books

Here are our books on copywriting. Well, we call it advertising copy, but they're copywriting books.

Copywriting is the art of writing the text in advertisements.

Learn from the masters what makes a good tagline, how to appeal to a customer, and the absolute don'ts of the business.

And don't forget to read Hall of Fame advertising guru David Ogilvy's book on his experiences in the trade.

Small Business Statistics

Some tough stats about small business from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

These stats show that basically there are fewer and fewer small businesses and that their share of national income is smaller than you think.

The bright side: you get to learn business in a tough environment, giving you mad business skills.

Austin a Top Market for Personal Care Products

Austin is a huge market for personal care, gym memberships, fancy haircuts, grooming and all kinds of dandified metrosexual shennigans:

"The average household in Austin, Texas spends $143 a month on personal care, or $1,716 annually — the highest of the top 100 largest cities in the country, and more than two times the national average."

Click the link, but personal care includes gyms, drug stores, hair salons and a few other things.

Not 100% precise, but gives you an idea of a town's flavor and what else they might go for.