How do I write a business plan for my Christian start-up? Part 3

So far in this series of posts we’ve gone over why a business plan is needed, what it needs to accomplish, how to put together its framework (outline), and where to find the resources for getting started on writing a business plan for your Christian startup. As promised in the last post, this one will focus on the research needed to complete your plan. I consider there to be three sources for the data you’ll be gathering. “Public Data”, “Hands On Data”, and “Pay For Data”.

Public Data is basically free. Its in the public domain, so you can gather it from the internet, visiting your local public and university libraries, or through other public sources.

Hands On Data is physically gathered. It is collected as you can imagine, by going out and doing some legwork; measuring drive by or foot traffic at possible locations, visiting competitors and scoping out their businesses, or even by conducting polls with potential customers. All of these are forms of this type of data source.

Pay For Data is collected by hiring a company that specializes in doing things such as: marketing focus groups, writing industry reports based on proprietary data, joining a chamber of commerce or industry associations to garner info you will need, etc. The following links are a list of resource sites and pages that will allow you to get started on gathering Public and Pay For data. Hands On data is up to you to go out and gather.

General Entrepreneurial & Business Info
SBA- The Small Business Administration
SCORE- (Service Corps of Retired Executives) Small business counseling and resources
Bureau of Labor Statistics- A U.S. Dept. of Labor site
Info USA- A U.S. Dept. of State site
American Factfinder- A U.S. Census Bureau site
Sta.rtUp.Biz- Entrepreneurial social network
Startup Nation- Entrepreneur resources network
Net Impact- Network of community leaders impacting the business world
Go4Funding Forums- Entrepreneur network Q&A forums
SBTV- Small business television
Entrepreneur magazine-
Small Biz Opportunities magazine
B-Net- Reference publications

Perfect Business- Entrepreneur network

Christian Specific Research
Generous Giving
Association of Religion Data Archives
Info USA Religion Data-
ASARB- Assoc. of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies
Lifeway Research
Barna Group- Free and for pay Christian focused info and custom research
CBA- Assoc. for Christian Retail
FCCI- (Canada) Fellowship of Companies for Christ International
Christ @ Work- US version of the network above

Industry Research
Bureau of Labor Statistics- U.S. Industries at a glance
Closerware- Non-Profit Market research
Crunchbase- Database of tech companies, people, and investors
Experts & Think tanks- Find an expert to help find specific information
Expert Pages-Mostly for attorneys, but can be used to get specific expertise data

Ibis World- Industry research and reports (pay for data)

Market Trends
Comscore- Internet Rankings
Alexa- Web Page rankings and visitor info
PSFK- Trends and innovation
Trendspotting- Internet trends & marketing research

Marketing Research Firms
Greenbook- Find research firms
Market Research World
Mindbranch- Christian and religious research and statistics
Fuld & Company- Competitive intelligence
Dun and Bradstreet- Company & credit research

Competitor Research
Future now- Article with tools to legally spy on your competition
Fuld & Company- Competitive intelligence tools
The Deal.com- News on deals occurring in the business world

Technorati Tags: Business plan,Christian Startup,Christian Business,Christian Capitalism,Business plan research,Christian Resources,Startup Resources

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