Business Assignments

St. John's University Library, New York (an unofficial page)

Business

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Advertising

Ad*Access - From their page, "The Ad*Access Project, funded by the Duke Endowment "Library 2000" Fund, presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Ad*Access concentrates on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II, providing a coherent view of a number of major campaigns and companies through images preserved in one particular advertising collection available at Duke University."

Advertising Age - Special Reports - Link to articles about the the top advertising agencies including rankings.

Corporate Tax Data - Advertising data by industry is available from the corporate tax files of the IRS. While you may be able to run these files from the IRS site I'd suggest you down load the files to a known location on your hard-drive and open them (as appropriate) to either a word-processing or spread-sheet program from there. Please check the SJU Reference Desk if you need more assistance.

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Brand Names

Thomas’ Register of American Manufacturers - Search database by brand product and service headings. Covers over 155,000 companies in U.S. and Canada. (Requires registration which is free.)

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Business Plan Sites

Business Plan - This is a direct link to Business Planning Guidelines of the Small Business Administration. Included at this site are shareware sites which contain many free/low cost software programs desgined to be of use to a small business owner. The Lansing Community College, Small Business Development Center site provides forms useful for completing a Business Plan.

Business Plan Suppliments - Many useful suppliments to the Business Plan site of the Small Business Administration.

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Business and Financial Ratios

SJU has excellent sources for business ratios.

The following two printed sources are kept at the Reference Desk and provide ratios for the Industry only.

Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios. Ref HF 5681.R25 I53 (Kept at the Desk). While it is less detailed than the others it lists ratios on more than 800 lines of business. (Dun and Bradstreet)

Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios Ref HF 5681 R25 A45. Includes information on 179 industries but is more detailed for those industries than the Dun and Bradstreet publication.

For individual company ratios use Hoovers (also provides a useful comparison to the industry) while Disclosure provides a greater number of ratios and provides up to three past years for a comparison of company progress.

Following are some useful online sites for information on what ratios are and how to use them.

Ratios - Business - What they are and how to use them.
Ratios - Business - More of what they are and how to use them.
Ratios - Business - More of what they are and how to use them.
Ratios - Business - An explanation of Ratios. A tutorial is available for a more in-depth look at ratios and how they can be used.
Ratios - Business - Another tutorial in the use of Ratios.

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Companies

Public vs Private Companies
The most important division among companies, at least for the purpose of finding information, is between public and private companies.

A public company being one which is traded on a stock-exchange. (Public companies are required by law to publicly reveal financial information about themselves.) The most reliable way of obtaining this information is via the 10K form which is filed annually with the SEC (Security and Exchange Commission). These reports are available at their site through the EDGAR database.
A private company being one which is NOT traded on a stock-exchange. Private companies are NOT required by law to make public any inforation about themselves.

One of the quickest and easiest ways to discover which is which is to use the Dun and Bradstreet Million Dollar Directory Ref HC 102 D8 kept at the Reference Desk. Public companies are maked with a triangle next to their name. It lists brief information on over 160,000 companies, 136,000 of these being private companies. For many private companies this may be the only available source of information. Caution. Any printed directory has obsolete information even before it's printed. If the information is critical please confirm in a more up-to-date source.

Edgar - Searchable database of forms filed by public companies (10K, 10Q, etc.) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Public Only
Hoovers Online - Search Hoovers Company Capsules by name, ticker symbol, or keyword. Covers over 11,000 companies. SJU Subscribes to this databases and has full access to the passworded features. Both Public & Private
Disclosure. Information is derived from the EDGAR files but has much value added materials including historical data. Public Only
Thomas’ Register of American Manufacturers - Search database by product, service headings and brand names. Covers over 155,000 companies in U.S. and Canada. (Requires registration which is free.) Both Public & Private
Finding Company Information - Tutorials
Two excellent tutorials follow which provide step-by-step guides to finding company information on the web.

Tutorial I - Developed by Debbie Flanigan who is an educational consultant in Ft. Lauderdale FL.

Tutorial II - Developed with a grant from OhioLink (a library consortium).

Company and Industry Research - From the webpage "This web site provides tools for researching specific companies, industries, and manufacturing processes. For business researchers not yet familiar with the internet, a brief "Introduction to the Internet" is provided."

Stock Quotes from Yahoo - Stock quotes plus other financial information from Yahoo.

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Industries

SIC/NAICS Codes - Structure of North American Classification System plus NAICS and Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) comparability tables.

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Marketing

Market Share Guide

A guide to what market share is.
Examples of market share data
Sources for printed data
Sources for online data with search examples

Market Share Data - a site from Duke University with some suggestions for finding market share data.

www.bizmove.com - A commercial site with guides to marketing and sales for the business owner.

Market Research Firms Directory - A directory of market research firms listed alphabetically, by location, and by area of specialization.

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Stock Market Information

World Stock Markets - Links to the stock markets of the world.

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Taxes

Tax Forms - Federal - Downloadable and printable tax forms from the Federal Government.

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Women in Business

Women In Business. - This site is maintained by a section of the Association of College and Research Libraries.

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Link to Business and Economics section of St. John’s Subject Page

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This page was created by P. Charles Livermore, Reference Supervisor.
It was last updated on July 31, 2000.