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Small Business Hub: A Research Guide for Entrepreneurs

Plan Your Business

Turn your idea into a business. Part of the planning involves researching the market: What's the competition? What trends are happening in the industry? Who's your target market? The other piece is actually writing the business plan, a document that provides details on your proposed business for the first few years.

Tips

Starting points:

  1. Write down your business idea -- be as specific as possible.
  2. Do a quick internet search for your business idea. What else is out there? How is your business idea different?
  3. Brainstorm or compile a useful list of questions to prompt you to add details your business plan.

Suggested strategies:

Select Resources

The following materials link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Links to additional online content are provided when available.

The subscription resources below marked with a padlock  are available to researchers on-site at the Library of Congress. If you are unable to visit the Library, you may be able to access these resources through your local public or academic library.

These are freely available online sources provided by government agencies, trade publications, and organizations.