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alt="images"/> What kind of equipment, materials, and services will I need? Which leading or recommended vendors provide those? What are the costs involved? Other:

       Other

Which laws or regulations (e.g., environmental, planning, etc.) typically affect my type of business?

Which companies could make potential strategic partners?

Other:

      Three good ways to find an industry association online are:

      1. A general online search engine, e.g., Google, Yahoo!, Bing. Type in the keywords associated with your industry.

      2. An online directory, e.g., Yahoo! or Google. Look in subdirectories for “Business and Economy,” or Business-to-Business, or Business Directories. Check “Professional Organizations” as well as “Trade” or “Industry” Associations.

      3. The “Gateway to Associations” (asaecenter.org/Community/Directories/Associationsearch.cfm). This national association of associations maintains an online directory of trade and industry associations. A caution, however: This link may change because the site is frequently redesigned. You may need to dig around. Look for “Directories” and/or “Gateway to Associations.” Nevertheless, it’s often a better jumping-off point than a general search engine or directory, which may result in thousands of unrelated results or commercial “organizations” that aren’t genuine trade associations at all.

      Finding trade associations can be difficult because they often use names that aren’t obvious. For instance, if you type in the word “dog groomer,” you might not find what you want. So check other words, such as “pet groomer” or “veterinary.”

      When you search for associations, you may find a dozen or more, so start with groups that contain the name “National,” “International,” or “American,” rather than local organizations. Don’t be afraid to look at national trade organizations outside of your country as they often have information such as standards, glossaries, other site listings, and so on.

       Check It Out

      Check out USA.gov’s alphabetical list of associations: www.usa.gov/directory/tradeassc/index.shtml

      Or Yahoo!’s list: www.dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Organizations/Trade_Associations/

Do online research

      In addition to your industry association, you’ll find a substantial amount of industry information and data online. Of course, you’ll want to make certain the information is accurate and up-to-date. Be careful to rely on information from trustworthy sources, such as recognized market research companies. If possible, when using data from media sources (such as newspapers and magazines), find the original source of the data; journalists, after all, have limited space and have to edit information, often leaving out data that might be important for your planning.

RESEARCH SOURCES

Type of information	Source	Website
U.S. Government	Census Bureau	www.census.gov
	Federal Statistics Online	www.fedstats.gov
	American Fact Finder	www.factfinder.census.gov
	2007 Economic Census	www.census.gov/econ/census07
	Government Printing Office (access to all federal documents and regulations)	www.gpoaccess.gov
	Louisiana State University’s links to federal agencies	www.lib.lsu.edu/gov/index.html
Canadian Government	Statistics Canada	www.statcan.gc.ca
	Canadian Census	www.12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/index-eng.cfm
U.S. Census Bureau state and local information	County Business PatternsQuick Facts	www.census.gov/econ/cbp http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd
	Link to State Data Centers	www.census.gov/sdc
State/Local/Regional information	Each state government has a website	www.state.[two-letter state code].use.g., www.state.ca.us for California www.state.md.us for Maryland
	Library of Congress links to state and local government sites	www.loc.gov/rr/news/stategov/stategov.html
	Links to state and local government sites (this is a private company)	www.statelocalgov.net
	Small Business Development Centers	www.asbdc-us.org (click on “Resources”)
S.E.C. Annual reports	S.E.C. Edgar database	www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml
Company information	Hoover’s	www.Hoovers.com
	Dun & Bradstreet	www.dnb.com
Supplier information	ThomasNet	www.ThomasNet.com
	eBay Business and Industrial	http://businessebay.com
	Yahoo! business-to-business	http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business
	Tradekey B2B directory	www.tradekey.com
	B2B Yellow Pages	www.b2byellowpages.com
Trade associations and trade shows	Center for Association LeadershipTSNN—Trade Show News Network	www.asaecenter.org www.tsnn.com

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