Monday, December 1, 2008

Great Informational Websites

It seems like no matter what we need these days, we often turn to the internet to help us whether it's to research products, find information, purchase goods and services, hire employees, book travel, arrange shipping, or much more.

The new year is right around the corner and you might be asking yourself what you need to do to generate even more business. So here are a few websites that will help you build and run your business throughout the coming year. These are websites for market and industry research:

  • U.S. Census Bureau - www.census.gov - has a vast amount of free information on all aspects of American life. Want to know the percentage of college graduates in Cleveland or how many baby boomers live within a particular zip code? This is where you'll find this information.
  • "County Business Patterns" - www.census.gov - is very useful for finding information about businesses.
  • American Fact Finder - www.factfinder.census.gov - is aimed more at finding data about people and demographics.
  • Experian - www.experian.com - Offers free credit reports in addition to many other services.
  • D&B - www.dnb.com - Offers global risk, credit, sales, marketing and supplier management solutions.
  • ERsys.com - www.ersys.com - is a quick and easy way to find information about a city where you might be planning to do business.

The beginning of the year is a great time to research new customer opportunities and new markets. Setting goals and staying focused will allow you to realize increasingly better results.

Brad Harmon is the President at a leading financing company, First Star Capital (http://www.firststarcapital.com/). Brad is a frequent contributor to online publications and newsletters, and is the author of this blog on commercial financing topics.

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