ETR 592: New Venture Management and Entrepreneurship

F. Hoy

Class Handout

General Information

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Citation Resources | RefWorks: Citation Management Tool

Key Resources

Writing a business plan requires thorough knowledge of an industry. This knowledge can be gained by reviewing and benchmarking with corporate & industry reports, articles from journals, newspaper and magazines, and by looking at trade association and government data. Sometimes, information you need may have to be gathered by talking with industry insiders.

Start with sources on our Business Plan Resources guide!

Idea generation

Web surfing & browsing

scirus.com
Trend catching blogs, zines, scientific community web sites:
Venture capital funding:
- DJ VentureWire Professional
- Boston Globe venture capital report
- PWC MoneyTree ™ (you have to register but its free)
Business & trade journals such as:

Search Library journals for specialty trade magazines: Playthings or Publist.com to find journals we may not have (request sample issue, or even subscribe)

Patent browsing & Inventors inspiration
- As of 10/10/2006 USPTO has granted up to patent number 7,120,935. Search for 7,120,936 or higher to find out what’s new today!

Where do you buy stuff & why? Distributors sites, catalogs, online

Shopping, Specialty sites:
- HearthSong catalog
- Board Games Superstore
Other sites of interest:
- American Science & Surplus
- Edmund Scientific – scientific product supplier
- ThomasNet – industrial product/service search
- Grainger – industrial supplier

Review Sample Business Plans

For formatting, plan contents, and similar concepts. See Business Plan Resource Guide.

Find Books

We have a number of electronic and print books on business planning in the library, but search also for books on your market or industry.

Developing an IT Business Plan by Marc Cisco. (WPI users must create a Books 24x7 account to use this book)
Business Plans That Work: A Guide for Small Business by Jeffrey Timmons, et al.

Search for books for inventors/entrepreneurs: Library Catalog | WorldCat | Amazon (Also, there may be books or reports with background information on companies or industries.)

If you find nothing on your specific product or market, for example, we may not have any books on board game inventing. So, search for books with a broader focus, such as licensing inventions.

When, searching Amazon, you will find books such as: Toy Inventor Handbook, Game Inventor's Guidebook, The Blockbuster Toy, How to License Your Million Dollar Idea. Contact Interlibrary Loan to request books or articles that WPI doesn’t own.

Research Tips: Effectively searching the web and library databases

Ask the Right Questions

LEXIS®-NEXIS® Academic: Provides a wide range of full text news, legal, and business information. Includes patent information as well.
Wall Street Journal - ProQuest: Search and read the full text of the Wall Street Journal back to 1984.

A FEW keywords to start with but as you search glean for others that are used within your industry or market:

MARKETING: advertising OR marketing OR campaigns OR sales promotion OR product samples OR target market* OR physical distribution OR pricing OR packaging OR sponsor* OR NPD OR new product development

INDUSTRY: Use your industry keywords AND (industry OR market OR forecasts OR trends OR sales OR units OR market share OR market size OR barriers)

COSTS and OPERATIONS: labor OR materials OR suppliers OR supply chain OR logistics OR transportation OR distribution OR overhead OR capital invest* OR production OR manufactur*

EBSCOhost Business Source Premier: Provides full text for nearly 3,300 scholarly business journals, articles from business/marketing journals. Trade journals targeted towards various types of business professionals are included from . Academic journals such as Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review will give more in-depth scholarly analysis of specific cases. Coverage: Varies by publication but some back to 1922.
The Enhanced Business Searching Interface contains company & industry profiles (Consumer Electronics industry profile sample) from Datamonitor. Refine search by selecting either Company Profiles or Industry Reports on the main search screen.

Within library database searches, look for FullTextFinder link for article retrieval options.

Better Google Searches (PDF)
Searching in the Library's "article" databases:
- Phrases, industry terms, follow up on authors, analysts, research firms, sources of useful tidbits you come across
- Typing in the keyword "competitors" and your product name won't get results.
  - Search or visit sites where this type of product would be sold with a competitive matrix chart in hand
  - Search business.com, Hoovers, other company directories
  - Check 10-K (EDGAR or Hoovers) for competitor section of a peer company that may be publicly traded
  - Track down specific directories of companies online such as Toy Directory

Competitors & Benchmarking

If possible, pick a publicly traded company you could benchmark with (check Hoovers or ThomsonONEBanker) and/or find a similar recent IPO (check Hoovers IPO Central). Analyze IPO data within SEC filings: S-1, Securities Registration Statement and 424B Prospectus. Example: Shutterfly

Check Competition section of 10-K filing if publicly traded company (Ctrl-F, and type in compet to quick get to any mention of competitor or competition, all 10-Ks are required to have a competition section)
Check Hoovers - choose Competition on left sidebar
Search Patents
Search for other similar products and research the company name. Visit stores in person or online
Try company directories in the library or online (by industry or product code):
- LEXIS®-NEXIS® Academic = choose Business > Company Profiles
- Directory of Corporate Affiliations. 5 vols. Ref HG4057 A219
- Thomas Register of American Manufacturers.

Typing in "market barriers" will not get results
- Find out who’s entered the market by reading articles, looking at new product introductions (announcements in trade magazines, customer/product reviews)
  - Requires thorough understanding of your industry
    - Search industry sources for 339932 Game, Toy, and Children's Vehicle Manufacturing, in EBSCO Business Source, use filter option to look at SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) for toy companies, distributors, manufacturers. Also check for toy industry profiles, and market research reports.
  - Search for industry news within LEXIS®-NEXIS® Academic and other article databases
  - Consumer reports or Epinions.com
  - Economic Census Concentration Ratios - classifies industries by the percent of output accounted for by the largest 4, 8, 20 and 50 companies. Use truncation: board game* (most databases truncate with * except LexisNexis which uses !) will search for board game or board games.

Be creative with your search terms: digital games OR online games OR online gaming OR digital gaming OR computer games OR computer gaming OR video games OR gamer (and so on...)

Follow up on sources, research firms, or names mentioned in articles about similar products or companies. For instance after noticing Parks Associates as market research firm, this may lead you to additional articles and ultimately to their research reports (some may be for a fee however).

More Specific Types of Information

Market research.com reports $$$.
Industry size/growth - Economic Census
Consumer data & preferences: how many potential buyers; where do they live/shop? Check American FactfinderNew Strategist publications in library (Household spending; Millenials, etc.) as well as other data sources Check out the WPI's Data databases and government information, Consumer Expenditure Survey
Trade associations & trade shows: or TradeShow Week

Find Statistics or Data

Also be sure to check for trade associations data.

Your Public Library

This source may expand the information you can get on the web or via WPI. For example, Worcester Public Library has a number of databases that can be accessed on site (RefUSA - a company directory) and even remotely (Mergent Online) with your WPI library card. Most major public libraries will have Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys, which are useful in determining how to analyze an industry. See this sample.

Only Finding a Citation? Getting the Full Text

Is the journal online or here in the library? Search our Journals, Magazines, & Newspapers
Journal not owned by WPI Library?: Search WorldCat to find out which libraries do own it.
To request delivery from another library, contact Interlibrary Loan.

Give Credit! Cite Your Sources

Questions?

Stop by the reference desk or set up a research consultation.

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Last modified: Nov 04, 2009, 17:27 EST