New York SBDC Research Network

We're here in our new library space, located with the rest of SBDC Central. As you know, we're now out of downtown Albany, which has its pluses (no more listening to car alarms beeping incessantly outside my window), and its disadvantages. Nonetheless, our computers are working, the phones & e-mail are in order, and the library books -mail is back & running, so we can communicate with the outside world. Back to reference tomorrow!

The recent SBDC conference in Catskill reminded me of a tool I use for ring studies. Go to http://www2.easidemographics.com/ . Click on FREE Census Reports. You'll have to register with your e-mail and ZIP Code, but that's free as well. Pick EASI Ring Studies Site Selection with Maps. You can pick one or three rings. Pick a report - try the Free Complete Report. Filling in the report name is optional. You need the latitude and longitude of what you want to study, so plug in the street address, and click on Find Address Coordinates. (You CAN'T use "the corner of Trade and Tryon".) With the next fields filled out, click on Create Site Study. Voila; the report is done. There is also some mapping capacities here and elsewhere in the site. There is also Rank Analysis (e.g., the counties with the greatest number of people with Masters Degrees, or with an Asian population.)

Sphere touts itself as an improved search tool for blogs, promising current and relevant results. One thing about it is it indexes entire sites and so your search term may only be mentioned in a blog. When I typed in SBDC, I got a list of mentions emboldened, with the name of the site, how long ago it appeared and a profile in the form of a pop-up that includes average posts per week, and the last 3 links in. The first in the queue was Roger’s blog, and various other mentions of SBDCs around the country. Some other search tools of interest? Talk Digger our website came up in a mention about our veteran’s program. Blogdigger http://www.nyssbdc.org/ did not appear in a simple search but a search on sbdc brought up a mention about the SBIR conference. Google Blog Search brought up mentions of sbdc and the url in various blogs.

The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, commuting, and socializing. It is a relatively new survey from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, and there are changes from the 2003 to the 2004 questionnnaire, so there are not always comparable figures. Much of the data are in ZIP files, and frankly, I found it to be quite cumbersome. Another source of this type of information can be found in this 2001 Harris poll , something you can actually read right away.

Law, accounting, consulting, advertising, public relations and human resources software, insurance, property management. These are some of the intangibles. They present marketing challenges to the entrepreneur trying to get the word out about their businesses. Below are a few articles that discuss some of the issues that face these services and how they can show potential clients something they can get their hands around.. Selling Your Services Pop quiz: How do you sell something you can’t touch? We've got a few answers August 28, 2000 By Danielle Kennedy Ten Myths about Selling Intangible Services By Charles H. Green Trusted Advisor Associates SWOT Team: Selling the Intangible Marketing Profs.com By Meryl K. Evans and Hank Stroll October 26, 2004 Selling the Intangible: The Value of Perceived Security IMAGE SUBSTATION Corporate Identity Consultants By Hamish Chadwick Carolina Entrepreneurship Club Business Resource Center How to Understand Your Customers

Health Status, Health Insurance, and Health Services Utilization: 2001 - How often do Americans use health care services? If you're looking for an answer, this report may be "just what the doctor ordered." It provides data on the frequency of visits to doctors, dentists and hospitals and whether or not people are taking prescription medicine - by characteristics such as self-reported health status, age and health insurance coverage status. Internet address: http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p70-106.pdf .

The Research Network is happy to announce the hiring of Amelia Birdsall, who will be starting her time with the SBDC on May 1st. Since Josee Fonseca will be unable to attend the upcoming Staff Conference, she will be working with Amelia - in a very quiet office - in introducing her to the ropes. Amelia graduated from the SUNY at Albany library program last December, and interned with both Empire State Development (where Mary Beth interned several years ago), as well as with the NYS DEC library. She had been working part-time at a local public library, but she now eagerly enters the world of specialized business librarianship. She comes highly recommended by those who've worked with her in the recent past, and we (Al Scher, Josee & myself) were very impressed with the answers given during her interview. We're all certain that you, too, will be impressed with the answers she'll be providing as a member of our library team.