New York SBDC Research Network

The BEA, a federal agency, is where you will find an Overview of the Economy , including: Sales of U.S. Tourism Industries Gross Domestic Product Personal Income and Outlays (including Disposable Income) U.S. International Transactions (including Balance of Trade) Most of these are detailed, but national. One obvious exception is the Gross State Product Click on the article title for more data.

The Web site for the Modern Language Association has a feature that "displays the locations and numbers of speakers of the thirty languages most commonly spoken in the United States." If you have a client who seeks to know where a certain language/ethnic background is located, this site is a decent starting point: http://www.mla.org/census_main The site combines mapping & data tables that are simple to use & understand. Like many sites have done, MLA has taken a lot of information that you can find yourself on the Census Bureau Web site, but re-packaged it in such a way as to make it a snap to find language-related data.

Roger has touched on the issue of identity theft in a previous post or two. Today, I came across an excellent article on preventing identity theft written by a woman whose identity has been stolen three times. It contains steps to identity theft prevention including "Ten Things to Do Today" and "Seven Things to Do By Next Week" as well as what to do if your identity is stolen and lists of contacts to help. Where should you start? Read the article from Information Today at http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/nov05/ebbinghouse.shtml . Take action on the author's suggestions: request a credit report, consider getting a P.O. box, and perhaps add a photo ID to your credit card and/or debit card. These are just a few of the tasks that can limit the odds of identity theft.

Here's the list of sample business plans from volume 11 of the Business Plans Handbook: Adventure Travel Lodging Company : Cobra Travel Adventure Group Brewpub : Hopstreet Brewery Cigar Company : Smokescreen Cigars Construction Development & Real Estate Firm : Black Pearl Development & Real Estate LLC Construction and Home Rehabilitation Company : Pedro’s Construction Daycare Facility : Rachel’s Clubhouse Giftware Company : Jenni Frey Gifts Handmade Greeting Card Company : Heartsongs Handyman Service : “I’m the Man!” Handyman Services Homeless Shelter : Sister Joan of Arc Center Interior Design Company : Make It Your Own Space Inc. Interior Painting Service : Eyecatching Interiors LLC Internet Loyalty Program : Tunes4You Internet Services Portal Site : Net Solutions Massage Therapists : MASSAGEWORKS Mentally Disabled Care Facility : Welcome Home Organization Motorcycle Dealership and Racetrack : Zoom Motors Online Mortgage Company : Valuable Mortgage Pizzeria : Coastal Pizz

The Bureau of Proprietary School Supervision (BPSS) oversees and monitors non-degree granting proprietary schools in New York State. The Bureau is responsible for ensuring that the overall educational quality of the programs offered will provide students with the necessary skills to secure meaningful employment and for protecting students' financial interests while attending proprietary schools. BPSS licenses/registers proprietary schools and credentials proprietary school teachers to ensure that appropriate standards are met. The Bureau investigates student complaints and conducts comprehensive investigations of schools to assure compliance with Education Law and Commissioner's Regulations. Proprietary schools under BPSS jurisdiction include trade and business schools, computer training facilities, and for-profit English as a Second Language (ESL) schools. So, if you have clients who want to start a school to teach bartending, pet grooming, cosmetology or barbering, modeling,

Creating lists of businesses is a daily occurrence at the Research Network. The (vast) majority of time, we use the American Business Disc to create them. Clients use these lists for mailings. Often we hear of how the list is out-of-date. ABD is one of several products published by infoUSA. Since so many of you ask for lists, I called infoUSA to learn just how the data in ABD can be. Subscribers to the ABD (such as ourselves) get two editions every year. Both editions represent a snapshot of a database that is constantly changing. These snapshots are taken roughly at the end of a calendar year (that's the first edition), and at the end of June (the second edition). (They don't take the snapshot at the same time every year, which is why I say "roughly".) The CDs are then distributed to infoUSA customers on a staggered basis. The first edition is ready to be mailed starting in March or April, while the second is sent out starting in October or November. We

If you or your clients purchase used vehicles , this free resource, Hurricane Vehicle Fraud Database , may be of interest. The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) has compiled a database of vehicles and watercraft affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita . The information in the database was gathered from a number of sources, including insurance companies, salvage yards and state and local authorities. As a result, the NICB has not independently verified most of the information in this database and cannot, therefore, vouch for the accuracy of this information. In addition, there may be many additional vehicles and watercraft affected by the hurricanes not included in this database.