MGT4500: Small Business Management: Welcome/Getting Started

Welcome to the Cheng Library's guide to small business management! We will show you a variety of sources, both through the library and on the web, that will help you. In addition, this guide provides suggestions for researching both the product/service as well as the industry demand. Throughout the guide, we use the example of a coffee shop or bakery/cafe to illustrate the sources. 

An important first step is to think about the industry or industries most associated with the product or service.

For example, if I am interested in starting a bakery cafe, do I need to research:

• the restaurant business,
• the fast food industry
• the coffeehouse/cafe business
• retail bakeries
• or all of the above?

Census data is often a good source of industry information. Use the NAICS/SIC codes to locate information such as establishments, employees, shipments and sales.

Using the "bakery/cafe" concept, here are some potentially relevant NAICS codes...

• 311811 -  Retail Bakeries
• 445291 -  Baked Goods Stores
• 722515 -  Coffee shops
• 722513 -  Fast-Food Restaurants
• 722511 -  Full Service restaurants

Thinking about your product/service and it's relationships with other businesses will help you construct the competitive environment.

For example,

• think about Starbucks and its key competitors, from the perspective of a fast food or simply coffee, who are possible competitors?
• think about Starbucks as a restaurant, can you suggest other competitors?
• think about Starbucks as a bakery/cafe, does that suggest other competitors

What business is Starbiucks in? Since this is a public company, the 10-K report provides a good discussion of the business.

 For comparison, Panera offers a different description of it's business.

In addition to providing a host of useful information, The Small Business Administration offers a series of short videos on YouTube of interest to entrepreneurs.