Industry Overviews

Business and Company Resource Center
Company & industry news linked to electronic reference books. Contains histories, market shares, rankings, industry surveys, and investment reports.

NetAdvantage
Contains large Industry Surveys (and overviews of markets) for leading companies in 52 industries. Search by company or industry. Standard & Poor’s stock analysis is available for public companies.

Consumer Preferences

Global Marketing Information Database (GMID)
An integrated on-line information system providing key business intelligence on countries, companies, markets, and consumers. The GMID contains over a million demographic, economic, and marketing statistics for 205 countries worldwide. The database also contains 6-year historic market size data for more than 330 consumer products in 52 countries, plus 5-year forecasts. To access thousands of international company profiles in the GMID, click on "Browse Reports," and then click on "Company Profiles."

Mintel Reports
Database containing over 600 consumer product and service marketing reports. Most are US and UK based. They are full of amazing detail and analysis.

Business Plans / Marketing Plans

Business Plan Resources

Demographic Data

American FactFinder
The U.S. Census Bureau's source for population, housing, economic, and geographic data drawn from the official United States Census.

Other Statistical Sources

FEDSTATS
A window on the full range of official statistical information available to the public from the Federal Government. Use it to track economic and population trends, education, health care costs, aviation safety, foreign trade, energy use, farm production, and more. Access official statistics collected and published by more than 100 Federal agencies without having to know in advance which agency produces them.

LexisNexis Statistical
A comprehensive index to statistical sources on a wide range of subjects. This index includes citations and abstracts, with approximately 25% either full-text or linked. Dates of information varies: 20-30 years of citations are available.

Minnesota and Arrowhead Region Information

Arrowhead Links

MINPRO:  Minnesota Property Research and Community Profiles

Northland Connection

New Stratigist Publications

New Strategist Publications: Varies Must-have sources of demographics and statistics to help discover Niche Markets.

Competitors and Customers

Reference USA
Directory of U.S. business. Lists size of company, year established, type of business, credit rating, top personnel, yearly sales and more. Data can be searched by name of company, name of officers, geographic area, SIC, size, revenue or any combination.

Other Links

United States Census Bureau

United States Small Business Administration

Minnesota Tourism Industry

Visit Duluth

Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED)

A Guide to Starting a Business in Minnesota, 2010 (PDF)

Starting a Business in Minnesota (from Business.gov)

MNPRO: Minnesota Property Resources and Community Profiles

BIZSTATS:  Sources for financial benchmarking

Information on Financial Ratios in the UMD Library

Duluth Chamber of Commerce

City of Duluth Website

St. Louis County, Minnesota Website

APEX: Area Partnership for Economic Expansion

Arrowhead Regional Development Commission

Northeast Entrepreneur Fund

Iron Range Resources

UMD Center for Economic Development

UMD Data (Facts about UMD)

UMD Campus Data Book

Jim Vileta's Business Research Launchpad