New York SBDC Research Network

Excerpt from an article by Ayaz Nanji To read more, visit  MarketingProfs "Marketers are using original research primarily to create blog posts, infographics, and PDFs, according to a recent report from Mantis Research and BuzzSumo. The report was based on data from a survey conducted in January and February 2018 among 698 marketers from around the world (53% work for B2B firms, 16% for B2C firms, 26% for hybrid B2B-B2C firms, and 5% for governments/nonprofits). Respondents were surveyed on how their firms are using original research, which was defined as research published to gain attention from external audiences (benchmarks, salary guides, etc.), not research conducted to meet internal needs (marketing plans, competitive analyses, etc.)."

From:  U.S. Small Business Administration  The U.S. Small Business Administration is interested in learning more about the needs of current and aspiring small business owners. This survey will ask for input on the resources you have used to start and manage your small business and your satisfaction with those resources.    This survey is being administered by CFI Group, an independent third-party research group. It is voluntary and will take approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete. Any information you provide will be strictly confidential. Neither names nor email addresses will be associated with any answer you provide.

This  report  provides national estimates of total annual sales, e-commerce sales, end-of-year inventories, purchases, total operating expenses, inventories held outside the United States, gross margins, and end-of-year accounts receivable for retail businesses and annual sales, total operating expenses, and e-commerce sales for accommodation and food service firms located in the United States. The  Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS)  sample covers employer businesses classified in retail trade sector and accommodation & food services sector located in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The ARTS excludes data for businesses located in the U.S. territories. The data are published on a  North American Industry Classification System   basis and the estimates are used to benchmark the monthly retail sales and inventories estimates each spring.

Nationally, today’s findings  of the 2012 Survey of Business Owners show the number of minority-owned firms in the U.S. rose from 5.8 million in 2007 to 8.0 million in 2012. This includes a 46.3 percent increase in the number of Hispanic-owned firms over the period, from 2.3 million to 3.3 million, and a 34.5 percent rise in the number of black or African American-owned firms, from 1.9 million to 2.6 million. Additionally, the number of Asian-owned firms climbed from 1.5 million to 1.9 million, an increase of 23.8 percent. For added context, total U.S. firms increased 2.0 percent during the same period, from 27.1 million in 2007 to 27.6 million in 2012. The 9.9 million women-owned firms in 2012 were up more than 2 million from five years earlier when there were 7.8 million women-owned businesses, a 26.8 percent increase. As a comparison, male-owned firms increased 6.8 percent from 13.9 million to 14.8 million during the same period. The Survey of Business Owners...

The preliminary results from the 2012 Survey of Business Owners (SBO) are now available from  American FactFinder . As part of the Economic Census, which is conducted every five years, the Survey of Business Owners uses a sample of 1.75 million employer and nonemployer businesses. The results provide estimates on firms, receipts, payroll and employment by gender, ethnicity, race and veteran status. The preliminary release provides a high-level snapshot prior to the final release.

"Partnerpedia, a leading provider of enterprise application store and marketplace solutions, today released findings from its Corporate Mobile App Strategy Survey. Respondents included executives in IT, sales, and marketing, and offered insight into the various approaches and opportunities to procure mobile apps." Large and Small Businesses Reveal Mobile App Strategies

Though it may feel as though it is a losing battle, concerns about privacy permeate the national dialogue, from fears about identity theft to potential TSA full-body scans at airports. For many businesses, engaging in customer research can mean walking a fine line between gathering vital information for you and intruding on the customer's privacy. It's a tough nut. You need to know who your customers really are and the reasons behind their buying decisions. But crossing the line to find out too much can be downright perilous. Here are seven tips.

Jeff Boyce, who sits on the New York SBDC Advisory Board, forwarded a link to a new report found on the Kauffman Foundation website. It's called The Capital Structure: Decisions of New Firms . It's 20 pages long, and was generated by using data from Kauffman's Firm Survey. From its Abstract: "This paper investigates the capital structure choices that firms make in their initial year of operations . . . Contrary to many accounts of startup activity, the firms in our data rely heavily on external debt sources as bank financing, and less heavily on friends and family-based funding sources." Later in the report, "external debt sources" is defined to include local bank financing, as well as that of credit cards. There's a lot more to the report, but I invite you to read it. As Jeff mentioned in his accompanying email, "This recent Kauffman Foundation report underscores the importance of microloan funds and small business lending operations like NY...

I've written about state rankings from the Milken Institute before. Here's another one, called the State Technology and Science Index . Published last June, this is their third version of this survey (they do it every four years). The survey attempts to rank each state by its level of investment and commitment to high technology and science. To understand how they do this, it's easier to quote from their site: "The State Technology and Science Index looks at 77 unique indicators that are categorized into five major components: * Human Capital Investment * Research and Development Inputs * Risk Capital and Entrepreneurial Infrastructure * Technology and Science Work Force * Technology Concentration and Dynamism" As you'll notice, New York ranks 15th in their list. This is where we ranked in 2004. Massachusetts ranks 1st, and they've held that spot in each of these surveys. If you click on New York on the map, you'll see a breakdown of where we rank am...

You are probably familiar with SurveyMonkey , an online survey service we have used in the RN, but as this method of taking surveys becomes more popular and effective, there are others: PollDaddy , Zoomerang. As far as I know, all of these offer a basic, free service and an expanded service for a fee. Another service is called; Ask500People which is what it says. It is in beta and allows users to ask sometimes random questions and counts the responses.

Back in early December 2007, I sent out an email to the advisor population of the New York State SBDC. It concerned how advisors used norms and ratios data when working with clients. Over 120 people were asked this question, and I received 37 responses. What I didn't do, obviously, was tell you about the answers. In short, the question was this: We at the library typically provide you with the last three calendar years of norms and ratios data. We have four distinct sources for this information, but "norms and ratios" has seemingly become synonymous with "RMA". Did you, however, actually need three years' worth, or was the most current year enough? Four were squarely on the fence, where one year or three years applied, depending on the circumstances. Of the remaining 33, there were 19 who said that one year was more than adequate, while the other 14 said that three years of data was still necessary. Back in the early 90s, in the infancy of our library,...

Maybe it's because it's nearing Friday night, or maybe because restaurants are easily the top source of requests for our library. Or maybe it's because I'm hungry. Regardless, to continue from Josee's recent post, here's a story on this website which describes the results of a recent survey from Cornell's Center for Hospitality Research. It's called "A Consumer’s View of Restaurant Reservations Policies," and it's an ideal read for clients with sit-down restaurants who want to get a better handle on what patrons expect from a reservations policy. (While reading it, I couldn't help but think of this "Seinfeld" episode. I know I'm not alone in doing so." There's a link link to the full report, but it requires (free) registration to get at it. If you're waiting for a table over the weekend, bring your laptop, log in, and give it a read.

This link describes the contents of a recent (May 2007) study conducted by the National Federation of Independent Businesses regarding small business' attitudes towards the health care system. As you can imagine, the "survey . . . identified cost as the single most important problem facing the health system today." (A link to the full report is provided.) As a provider of health insurance options to its members , NFIB has a vested interest in this issue. If your clients don't know of these options yet, perhaps you should give them this link.

One of the reasons as to why the Research Network decided recently to go all-digital can be found in the results of this survey . Wells Fargo & Gallup frequently conduct surveys of small business, with a specific emphasis lately on the role technology plays in a small business owner's management style. As you can see, this is an attitudinal survey, asking business owners what they think might happen if Internet access went away, etc. Nonetheless, such attitudes are a driving force in how business owners conduct their operations. I've handled a few recent requests where the client didn't have an email address. Since addresses can be obtained freely, I'm not sure why neither of them had one. Perhaps it's a reflection of a personal philosophy, or a sign of discomfort with certain technologies. However, perception is key, and surveys like this serve as guides as to what small business owners see as the expected norm in the American economy. It's been said many ...