Library Research Guides: BUS I304 Honors I-CORE Discussion: Business Plan Project

Business Plans

The following sources can provide advice on how to think through, research and format a business plans, as well as providing examples of plans for various kinds of businesses.

Entrepreneurship (Gale Business)
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Choose Browse Topics from the upper right, then choose Business Planning to see a variety of articles on business plans and sample plans for various kinds of enterprises.
Business Source Complete
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Try the following search: "business plan" and writ*
Provides access to peer-reviewed business journals, covering all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance, and more. Indexing and abstracts and full text are available back as far as 1886.

How to Write a Business Plan by Mike P. McKeever
ISBN: 9781413325454
Publication Date: 2018-11-30
Step-by-step advice on preparing a business plan. Clear step-by-step instructions and forms to put together a convincing business plan with realistic financial projections, effective marketing strategies, and overall business goals. Create profit and loss forecasts prepare marketing and personnel plans find potential sources of financing, and present your well-organized plan to lenders and other backers, and learn about best practices for raising money, from SBA loans to equity crowdfunding.
How to Prepare a Business Plan by Edward Blackwell
ISBN: 9780749481100
Publication Date: 2017-08-28
How to Prepare a Business Plan explains the process of creating an excellent business plan in an engaging and accessible way. It includes essential coverage of producing cash flow forecasts, planning a business expansion, planning your borrowing and monitoring business progress. Global case studies containing real business plans provide inspiration and real-life practical insight by analyzing the plans, monitoring the business' progress and discussing their problems.
Business Plans Handbook: A Compilation of Business Plans by Gale Cengage Learning (Editor)
ISBN: 9781410328229
Publication Date: 2017-06-09
For those looking for examples of how to approach, structure and compose their own business plans, the Handbook presents 20 sample plans taken from businesses in the manufacturing, retail and service industries.

Industry/Market Resources

Frost & Sullivan Growth Partnership Services
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Full-text access to international industry-specific databases including healthcare, telecom, IT, transportation, electronics, and semiconductors.
Frost & Sullivan provides research and analysis in new market opportunities for corporate growth. Frost & Sullivan covers the following markets and sectors:

Aerospace & Defense

Automotive & Transportation

Chemicals, Materials & Food
Chemicals & Materials
Food & Beverages

Energy & Power Systems Energy & Power
Power Supplies & Batteries

Environmental & Building Technologies
Building Management Technologies
Environmental

Healthcare
Clinical Diagnostics
Drug Discovery Technologies
Healthcare & Life Sciences IT
Medical Devices
Medical Imaging
Patient Monitoring
Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology

Industrial Automation & Electronics
Automatic Identification & Security
Electronic Devices
Industrial Automation & Process Control
Power Transmission
Semiconductors
Sensors & Instrumentation
Surface Mount Technologies
Test & Measurement

Information & Communication Technologies
Communications Services
Conferencing & Collaboration
Contact Centers
Digital Media
Enterprise Communications
IP Communications
IT Services & Applications
Mobile & Wireless Communications
Network Security
Next Generation Carrier Infrastructure
Smart Cards
Space & Communications
BCC Research
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Access to market research reports that cover life sciences, sensors, materials, environment and sustainability, commerce, and publishers. Provides the latest trends, opportunities, challenges, and innovations emerging within these landscapes.
IBISWorld
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A comprehensive collection of Industry Market Research and Industry Risk Ratings.
Passport GMID: Global Market Information Database
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Please note: Euromonitor allows access to IU faculty, staff, and students only. Authorized users may utilize the information obtained from this resource for academic, non-commercial purposes only, and only during the time of official affiliation with IU. Passport is a global market research database encompassing historical and forecasted statistics, reports & interactive tools on industries, economies and consumers in 210 different countries and territories. Passport also tracks the effects of COVID-19 for 50 different countries
MarketLine Advantage
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Original industry and company reports based on published research and primary and secondary data sources.
MarketLine offers a collection of company, industry, financial, product and country information, research and data extending over all major marketplaces and industries. A searchable online business information service using published desk research and secondary data sources to create three different types of profiles. Company profiles include company overviews, business descriptions, company history, executive listings, product listings, locations, news, and commentary. Industry profiles contain: 5-year historical and 5-year forecast market values and/or volumes; market segmentations; company and/or product market shares; explanatory text identifying major trends and significant growth points; and analysis of each market's competitive landscape, including main players, distribution channels, and regulatory issues. Each country profile includes a description of the country's economic performance and GDP, an assessment of its potential for development, and detailed market and industry analysis of the country's business environment. Profiles are supplemented by a "news & comment" section.
SBRnet: Sports Business Research Network
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Market research from the National Sporting Goods Association; the U.S. Department of Commerce; various sports governing bodies; and full-text articles from various magazines.
Provides searchable news and market research from the National Sporting Goods Association and other industry sources on all aspects of sporting goods, sports equipment, participation, broadcasting and marketing.

Marketing Resources

For information on demographics, marketing strategy and market research, start with these resources:

Mintel Reports
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Reports that include consumer and market data and analysis and marketing strategies. To get started with this database, see this video.
Mintel Reports offers product and industry market research reports covering US and International marketplaces. Each report combines data and analysis of the competitive landscape, supply chain, market-share size and trends, and consumer profiles. Complex demographic issues are broken into easy-to-understand sections, explaining consumer behavior and demonstrating the structure of the market. Reports may be downloaded as RTF (rich-text format) files; tabular data may also be saved as CSV (comma-separated values) files.

Access and downloading instructions:
1. All users will have to agree to the Academic permissions and prohibitions, which prohibits systematic copying, use without attribution, use for commercial purposes, or distribution to non-IUB students and employees.
2. After accepting the above permissions and prohibitions, you must create an individual profile in order to download reports.
3. Select "Log into your profile..." to create a new (or log into an existing) Mintel profile.
4. After logging in, downloading is available by either using the direct download option for a report or by using the My Presentations feature which also offers the direct download option for the report.
Passport GMID: Global Market Information Database
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Please note: Euromonitor allows access to IU faculty, staff, and students only. Authorized users may utilize the information obtained from this resource for academic, non-commercial purposes only, and only during the time of official affiliation with IU. Passport is a global market research database encompassing historical and forecasted statistics, reports & interactive tools on industries, economies and consumers in 210 different countries and territories. Passport also tracks the effects of COVID-19 for 50 different countries
MRI-Simmons Insights
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Data on U.S. consumer demographics, attitudes and behaviors, media use, and buying habits. The database can be used to create individualized reports for marketing strategies, advertising choices, and other business decisions. See this video to learn how to create a quick demographic profile.
Simmons Insights (formerly Simmons OneView, and prior to that Simmons Choices3) provides data on adult U.S. consumers based on national surveys. The data includes consumer demographics (age, gender, income ...), consumer psychographics (behavior, attitudes ...) and buying and media habits. The database can be used to create individualized reports for marketing strategies, advertising choices, and other business decisions.
Statista
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Consolidates statistical data on over 80,000 topics from more than 18,000 sources. Includes market research, dossiers, industry reports, and digital market outlooks and forecasts.
Provides access to data from numerous institutes and sources. The portal offers four languages: English, German, French, and Spanish. The German platform focuses on content about DACH-countries; the international platform incorporates international data. The French and Spanish platforms provide country specific data in their respective languages.

More marketing resources

Healthcare and Fitness Sources

Health Business FullTEXT
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Provides full-text coverage of well-known administrative journals. Includes topics such as staffing, health care regulation, health care facilities management, marketing, finance and more.
Details all aspects of healthcare administration, as well as other non-clinical aspects of healthcare institution management.
Alt HealthWatch
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Covers complementary, holistic, integrative, and alternative approaches to health care and wellness, from nearly 190 international journals.
Also includes pamphlets, booklets, special reports, original research and book excerpts. Subject areas covered include: aromatherapy, body work, childbirth, Chinese medicine, chiropractic, creative therapies, cross-cultural therapies, energy medicine, herbalism, homeopathy, mind-body medicine, naturopathy, nutrition, and osteopathy.
Health and Wellness (Gale)
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Consumer health information on diseases and health conditions, alternative medicine, drugs and other health-related resources.
Includes full-text medical journals, magazines, reference works, and streaming video. Also includes a broad collection of reference works, such as The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, The Gale Encyclopedia of Surgery and Medical Tests, and The Gale Encyclopedia of Diets. As well as Spanish editions of notable content and a Spanish-language search filter.
SPORTDiscus with Full Text
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With over 230 full text titles, a bibliographic and full text database covering both serial and monographic literature on sports, physical fitness, exercise, etc.
Sports Medicine & Education Index
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An index of the periodical literature of sports, physical education and related disciplines.
Physical Education Index Online offers access to the periodical literature of physical education, sports, recreation, and athletics. Articles are from peer-reviewed journals, report literature, conference proceedings, trade magazines, the popular press, and other sources. Links to fulltext are provided for selected publications. Topics inlcuded cover sport law, curricula, testing, research, kinesiology, sporting equipment, business and marketing, coaching and training, and sport psychology/sociology.

News and Literature Resources

To access news articles and trade publication for background information, trends and case studies, use these resources:

ABI/INFORM Collection
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Contains more than 2,890 publications, offering the latest business and financial information, management techniques, business trends, management practice and theory, corporate strategy and tactics, and the competition environment.
Comprised of ABI/INFORM Global, ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry, and ABI/INFORM Dateline. Notable periodicals include The Economist, Sloan Management Review, and the Wall Street Journal.
Business Source Complete
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Regional, national and international business, financial, banking and industry publications.
Provides access to peer-reviewed business journals, covering all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance, and more. Indexing and abstracts and full text are available back as far as 1886.
Factiva
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Contains more than 25,000 sources including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, and the Dow Jones and Reuters newswires.
Nexis Uni
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Includes articles from international newspapers, magazines, transcripts, legal research and medical journals.

General Library Resources

• IUB Libraries Website

Use the "Research" tab to find databases by subject/discipline. The Business subject page has a curated list of business databases, or consult the A-Z Database link for a list of all the Indiana University Bloomington subscription databases. These resources must be accessed through the Libraries website or portals like this guide.

IUCAT This link opens in a new window
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Search for books on your topic owned by the IUB Libraries. Use the Finding Books guide for tips on how to search and use this resource.
IUCAT, Indiana University's online library catalog, provides comprehensive access to millions of items held by the IU Libraries statewide, including books, recordings, US government publications, periodicals, and other types of material. Users can access IUCAT from any Internet-connected computer or device, whether in the libraries, on campus, or off campus.
OneSearch@IU
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Search across thousands of publications (many will not be retrieved in a Google search!) for background information. Use the Database Search Tips for how to effectively search this resource.

• Business/SPEA Citation Guide

Examples of how to cite business information in both MLA and APA citation formats.

BUS I304 Honors I-CORE Discussion

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Business Plans

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BUS I304 Honors I-CORE Discussion

Business Plans

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Marketing Resources

Healthcare and Fitness Sources

News and Literature Resources

General Library Resources

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