Cabrillo College Library

Business plans are essential. They function as road maps for starting and managing a business, and as documents for raising capital or securing financial backing. Good old-fashioned research goes into developing a business plan.

Industry Analysis

Your name _______________________________

Classification Codes
The SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) code classifies establishments by their primary type of activity. Use one or both of these Web sites to find the SIC code for your business.

SIC Codes from the U.S. Dept. of Labor

The SIC system is being replaced by NAICS (North American Industry Classification System). SICs are still more commonly used, but NAICS codes will soon predominate. Use a table to convert your SIC to the new NAICS code:

• Go to NAICS Web site
• Links to conversion tables are towards the bottom of the screen: correspondence between NAICS and SIC

The SIC code for your business is_____________

The NAICS code for your business is ____________

CBS MarketWatch Shows 3 month top performers
Hoover's Online and Hoover's Industries
Industry Risk Analysis from AIG Online

Your notes:

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To find Web resources that provide overviews of, and details about, particular industries, use Internet search engines and search statements such as

To get to a list of Internet search engines (along with tips for how to use them efficiently)

1. Be on the Cabrillo College Library homepage -- http://libwww.cabrillo.edu
2. Click on Search the Internet

URLs for the Web resources you found:

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• Click on Fulltext Articles [If you are accessing this from off campus, your user ID is your library card number]
• On the next screen, click on Magazine & Journal Articles
• On the next screen, click on EBSCOhost Web
• On the next screen, click on Advanced Search
• On the next screen, click in the small boxes next to Full Text
• In the boxes next to the word FIND, type in your search terms. Then click on the SEARCH box
  
  HINT: Try various approaches to searching for articles. For example, you could put women's clothing on one line, and industry on the next. Or, nursery on one line, and market on the next.

Note down information about at least one of the articles you find that's relative to the industry you are researching --

Title of article ______________________________________

Title of periodical ______________________________________

Date of article _________________________

What seems particularly useful about this article?

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Size and growth trends	Maturity of industry
Vulnerability to economic factors	Seasonal factors
Technological factors	Regulatory factors
Supply and distribution	Financial considerations

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Mo Hassan; T. N. Smalley
last rev. 3/05