New York SBDC Research Network

At a librarian conference in June, I learned about this free service from MelissaData. Go to the Free Home Sales Alert by ZIP Code page . Sign up to receive a weekly email with the home sales in a ZIP Code for the previous 7 days. You'll get information on the sales price, street and date the sale was recorded. You must be a registered user to take advantage of this service. The Lookups section of MelissaData has lots of other free services (up to a daily limit) including: Campaign Contributors - Contributors to federal campaigns by ZIP Code Climate Averages - Monthly low, average and high temperatures by ZIP Code ZIP Codes in a County - List of ZIP Codes in any county in the United States Fatal Accidents - Number of fatal vehicle accidents by county People Finder -Locate anyone nationwide. Search public records. Try it out for yourself and post a comment when you do.

Rainey, W.T. 10th Annual Disaster Resource Guide 2005/2006 2004 Automatic Carwash Operations Benchmarking Report. 2004 Self-Serve CarwashingBenchmarking Survey Report. Alpaca Owners & Breeders Association AOBA Farm & Ranch Guide 2005-2006 Hall, Stephen F. From Kitchen To Market: Selling Your Gourmet Food Specialty 4th Ed. 2005 Getzips: Zip Codes By County. 2001. Morrison, David A. Marketing To The Campus Crowd: Everything You Need To Know To Capture the $200 Billion College Market. 2004 Barletta, Martha Marketing To Women: How To Understand, Reach, And Increase Your Share Of The World’s Largest Market Segment. 2003 Valuationresources.com Small Business Valuation Formula Multiples. 2004 Gross, T. Scott When Customers Talk... Turn What They Tell You Into Sales. 2005 Based On A National Survey Of 100,000 Customers

Here are some recreational and entertainment sites to check out. While some of them (notably SGMA) sell a lot of material, there is something of use, and FREE, to recommend the site. The Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association has a number of expensive reports, but the Sports Participation Topline Report , delineating how many play various sports, is free. Clients seeking to compete with the big music chains should check out the site of The Coalition of Independent Music Stores . Speaking of music, there are great demographic statistics at the Recording Industry Association of America webpage. Paul Rapp is a lawyer dealing with intellectual property issues, especially in the areas of art and music. He was also the drummer in the legendary Albany band Blotto. He's put out a series of articles about copyright myths, trademark infringement, work for hire, fair use and similar topics. If you fill out the form on the Motion Picture Association of America website, you will be se

Recently, I came across an article that might be of interest to clients of yours who run e-commerce businesses. It explains the results of recent studies of how visitors to the Web go about searching for what they need. It answers such questions as "How do they phrase their searches?" "At what sites do they begin their search?" "How many results are they willing to wade through before choosing a destination?" Very useful for those businesses with a significant customer base in cyberspace. (By the way, this article was found on a Web site called Search Engine Watch . If it sounds familiar, Mary Beth cited this in her blog of June 23rd.)

When you call the Research Network, you may ask for a list of competitors in a certain region, say, Western New York. When a librarian starts work on your question, (s)he needs to define what counties make up that region. To do this, I use Empire State Development's definitions : (1) Western New York : Niagara, Erie, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany (2) Finger Lakes : Orleans, Genesee, Wyoming, Monroe, Livingston, Wayne, Ontario, Yates, Seneca (3) Southern Tier : Steuben, Schuyler, Chemung, Tompkins, Tioga, Broome, Chenango, Otsego, Delaware (4) Central NY : Cayuga, Oswego, Onondaga, Cortland, Madison (5) North Country : Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence, Franklin, Clinton, Essex (6) Mohawk Valley : Oneida, Herkimer, Hamilton, Fulton, Montgomery, Schoharie (7) Capital Region : Warren, Saratoga, Washington, Schenectady, Albany, Rensselaer, Greene, Columbia (8) Mid-Hudson : Sullivan, Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Westchester (9) New York City : Bronx, Kings, New York, Que

Every small business owner will at some point realize the need for competitive intelligence. We often get requests for lists of competitors in a given area but the real questions concerning the competition: how much of a threat they pose to the business owner is one that requires closer attention. They will likely learn a fair amount about the competition from their own clients. Besides the typical sources of information: annual reports, corporate web sites, national and local papers; there are also job postings, legal filings, patents and interviews with people to gather the pieces that will come together into a fuller picture of the market. Clients could take advantage of tracking services, join professional associations, and attend trade shows and network. Clipping competitors ads can help keep on top of what their offerings are. Business owners should also be aware of competitors from new corners – those with aligned products or services. Approach the competition as a customer to s

Sometimes, you or your client need to make contacts with state and local governments, perhaps out of state. There are a number of different strategies to achieve your informational needs: You can use Google or Yahoo! or another search engine. Be aware, however, that you might hit the commercial, rather than governmental site for the entity. The ending .com will generally be the tipoff, but not always. You can access state web pages by using the formula http://www.state.xx.us/ , where xx stands for the two-letter postal code of the state. (Need the postal code? Check with the U.S. Postal Service .) This methodology can be helpful when you want to look at several aspects of a state's governance. These sites also tend to have links to the localities within their respective states. You can go to a portal of state and local government sites, regularly updated, such as the one here . FirstGov.gov , "the U.S. Government's Official Web Portal," not only has alphabetical