Chapter 4
The Marketing Plan

IN This Chapter
Marketing means communication
Contents of the marketing plan
Industry research
Using your marketing plan

Introduction
Your marketing plan is your chance to demonstrate your knowledge of your customers and market, and spotlight the actions you will take to be competitive and successful.
Prospective investors and lenders will pay careful attention to your marketing plan. They look to it as an indicator of your business’s potential. Who will your business sell to? How will it position itself? How well does it know its customers? What is the pricing model? How realistic are its goals? What makes it special?
When it comes to marketing, every little detail counts. That’s why it’s necessary to create a marketing plan that explains how all the different parts of your business work together to communicate your company’s message consistently.
Marketing Means Communication
Marketing includes all the actions you take to design your product, and manufacture it, and promote it, and sell it, and deliver it, and service it. In other words, marketing includes everything you do that affects your customers.
Your website designer makes your site attractive and easy to use. This communicates your sense of style, your efficiency and your commitment to making life easier for your customers. The person who answers your phone communicates your friendliness, your knowledge and your eagerness to solve problems. The shipping clerks who package your merchandise communicate the value you place on your goods and on customer satisfaction.
Let’s look at that last example a little more closely, because it says a lot about how important little details are to your company’s image. Think what a difference it makes to receive an item that’s nicely packaged in clean protective material, versus an item that’s been tossed into a stained, flimsy box full of old newspaper.
As you can see, the image of your company can depend as much on a part-time shipping clerk as it does on your larger marketing efforts.
And it doesn’t stop there. Are your customers concerned about the environment? If so, should you package your merchandise in Styrofoam or lots of excess plastic, or would it be better to spend a little extra money on biodegradable or recycled packaging?
In a well-run company, every team member understands the importance of marketing and treats every interaction with customers as an opportunity to communicate the company’s values.
Types of Marketing
There are three basic types of marketing:
Consumer products marketing includes designing eye-catching labels; choosing the right radio station for a commercial; and fighting to get shelf space in a grocery store for a “new and improved” laundry detergent.
Business-to-business marketing (B2B) includes selling parts, materials or services to other businesses. B2B marketing has a larger annual sales volume than that of consumer products.
Service marketing involves the sale of professional services like consulting, design and repair. You can market services to individuals or businesses.
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When the Vautour plant closed down, it hit us hard. A lot of our parents had worked there, and we all grew up believing that opportunity was going to be there for our generation, too.
But things didn’t turn out that way, and it didn’t leave us with many choices. We didn’t want to move out of town. It’s our home, for one thing. Our families are here. And besides that, Mike and I were both engaged to our high school sweethearts.
A few years ago, George Starkey graduated from a small high school in a little town in the Blue Ridge foothills of North Carolina. Along with his friends Roger Bacon and Michael Maier, he started working at the Vautour furniture company, as their fathers had done before them.
A year later, Vautour closed down its plant and outsourced its jobs to China.
For a small, tightly knit town whose economy depended on the company, this was a disaster. Some workers commuted to jobs in nearby cities. Others left town. And a few—like George, Roger and Michael—decided that the best way to get back on their feet was to start their own business.
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Contents of the Marketing Plan
As we noted in Chapter 3, the marketing plan has four sections:
Products and Services
Market Analysis
Marketing Objectives, Strategies and Tactics
Direct Sales and Customer Service
A. Products and Services
This section of the marketing plan explains not just what your product is and does, but also what needs and desires it meets from the customer’s point of view.
Product Description
Here are the basic questions your product description should answer:
What is your product? What does it do?
What needs does it meet? What problems does it solve?
How is it different? What makes it appealing to your target customers?
Is your product seasonal? In other words, do people buy more of it at one time of year than another?
Don’t limit your thinking to the product itself. Think about the materials that go into it, too. Are the materials American-made? Are they green, sustainable, renewable or organic? Are they of higher quality than competing brands? How is your product made, and how does that make it special? What story does it tell?
Consider the psychological appeal of your product’s design and appearance, too. Remember: Marketing is communication, and every aspect of your product says something about your company’s values.
Features and Benefits
Every feature of your product should have a specific benefit for your customer. As an example, the vacuum-insulated wall of a travel mug is a feature that gives customers the benefit of keeping coffee hot. And the gel-filled sole of a running shoe is a feature that benefits customers by increasing comfort and reducing joint stress.
Businesses often make the mistake of thinking they’re simply selling a product. But what they’re really selling are the benefits of that product. It can’t be said often enough: Customers buy benefits!
This section of your plan should list each feature of your product and explain how that feature benefits your target customer.
B. Market Analysis
This section has three subsections:
Customer Analysis
Competitive Analysis
Market Potential
Customer Analysis
Customer analysis describes how many customers you have, who they are, where they live, why they need or want your product, how much of it they’ll buy and what they’re willing to pay. Its goal is to show that you’ve found a market that’s large enough to support your business.
The process of market segmentation breaks a mass market into smaller target markets. It helps you identify the customers who are most likely to buy, reducing the time and money you must spend on promotion.
Customer analysis should present the demographic data and psychographic data for your target market. Demographic data describe things like age, sex, income level, education, ZIP code and marital status. Psychographic data describe things like lifestyles, hobbies, beliefs, preferences, media choices and cultural attitudes.
Customer analysis should define your target market clearly in terms of size, trends and growth potential. It should also explain how often your target customers buy your product: Is it something they need every month or two, like a haircut? Or is it something they might buy once or twice a year, like shoes?
Your customer analysis should answer these questions:
How big is your target market?
What are its major segments?
Who are your customers?
What are their needs (a table)?
What are their desires (a wood table)?
What are their preferences (a wood table made from bamboo)?
Why, where, when and how do they buy?
Is your market expanding, shrinking or stable?
What political, economic, social and technology trends affect your customers?
Competitive Analysis
Competitive analysis entails finding out who and where your current and future competitors are, and how their strengths and weaknesses compare to yours.
This section should also explain how you will take advantage of your competitors’ weaknesses and overcome their strengths.
Competitive analysis identifies:
Your local, regional, national and international competitors (direct and indirect, current and future)
How your customers feel about them
Your competitive advantage over them
Their competitive advantage over you
Your plan for dealing with new competitors who enter your market
Your business’s competitive advantage comes from offering more value than your competitors. Value can come from a higher quality product, lower prices, better service or more convenient distribution. Other advantages include:
Proprietary technology
A specialized customer niche
Unique distribution channels
Production advantages due to better sourcing, location or processes
A stronger base of financial resources through cheaper debt
Employee expertise or training
Access to new or emerging technology
A unique brand identity
Environmental or social commitments (e.g., using solar power)
If you can provide more innovative and personalized customer service, you have a competitive advantage over your larger competitors. Therefore, you might position your business accordingly (provided that you know your customers value personal service, and you have the ability to deliver it).
In some cases, a business may decide not to enter a given market because it can’t identify a competitive advantage.
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Roger and Mike and I come from longtime woodworking families, so that’s where our hearts are. And that’s why we decided to start a partnership called Catawba Woodworks.
We were looking to support ourselves, but we had way bigger goals than that. Our dream was, we’d get big enough someday to hire some of the other folks who were out of work, and maybe bring our town back to life a little bit.
That was a pretty big dream for three guys with a high school education and no money. But it gave us a lot of motivation…the idea that we were doing it not just for ourselves, but for our community. That kept us going in times when we were tempted to give up.
The one thing we couldn’t figure out was, how could we compete with companies like Vautour? They had dirt-cheap materials, dirt-cheap foreign labor and the best equipment around. How on earth could we go up against that?
After a lot of discussion, the partners decided the best way to compete was not to compete head-on. Vautour’s line was mass-produced, so Catawba’s would be handcrafted. Vautour’s wood came from clearcut forests, so Catawba’s would be reclaimed or recycled. Vautour targeted price-sensitive customers looking for the lowest price they could get, so Catawba would target value-conscious businesses and consumers who made a point of buying high-quality, sustainable products.
They didn’t know much about marketing. But they knew they had to find a niche, and this one looked promising. In an industry magazine, they’d read that green furniture sales had totaled $2 billion that year—a 30 percent increase over the previous year. And growth projections looked strong over the next three years.
They researched nontoxic stains and varnishes, and certification from the Forest Stewardship Council. They looked into institutions and businesses they could target on the basis of their buying practices. And finally, they researched early American woodworking techniques.
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Market Potential
Once you know who your customers are, who your competitors are, and what trends affect your industry, you can estimate your market potential.
First, you need to figure out how much your target customers spend annually on products like yours. Then, you need to figure out what percentage of this amount you can realistically capture.
Your estimates must be logical and realistic. Some entrepreneurs make the mistake of saying something like, “My target market spends $100 million annually on carbonated drinks. If my new seaweed-flavored soda captures just 1 percent of this market in the next year, I will make $100,000.” Using this approach is a surefire way to get your plan rejected by lenders and investors. Your description of market potential can’t simply assume that a certain percentage of the market is yours for the taking. Instead, it must explain exactly how, when and why your sales are achievable.
This section should also discuss possible barriers to entry—such as high startup costs, or expertise you lack—and explain how you’ll overcome these obstacles to achieve your market potential.
C. Marketing Objectives, Strategies and Tactics
This section describes the marketing objectives, strategies and tactics for each of your target markets.
Objectives are actions that support your business’s goals within a chosen market. This might mean controlling 20 percent of the market, increasing sales by 50 percent over the next six months, or getting 100 new customers by the end of the year. Marketing objectives are based on your market research and analysis; they should be well defined and measurable, with a clear due date.
Strategies are plans for achieving your objectives (for example, targeting customers who are between 24 and 40 years old, or targeting a niche market for sustainable wood furniture). Your strategies show how you’ll segment customers into target groups, and how you’ll position your products to make the most of your competitive advantage.
Tactics are actions that support your strategies. Examples might include a two-for-one promotion; an ad campaign that emphasizes your customized service; or distributing your products through specialty boutiques. Measuring the results of your tactics improves the effectiveness of your marketing budget.
Your marketing objectives, strategies and tactics will guide the development of your marketing mix, which consists of the Four Ps: product, price, placement and promotion. Your goal is to find the ideal balance of these elements, each of which should have its own timetable, budget, and performance goals.
Chapters 9 through 12 discuss the Four Ps in greater detail and outline specific marketing tactics for entrepreneurs.
Product Lines
A product line is a group of products or services offered by a single company. A beauty shop’s product line might be haircuts, perms, manicures and pedicures. A jeweler’s might be bracelets, rings, necklaces and pendants. A landscaping business might offer rototilling, planting, tree trimming and patio design.
This section should introduce and describe  your product line, and explain why it makes sense for your customers and your business.
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We wanted to keep things simple by starting out with three product lines. First, we’d make an early American pine rocker in three sizes: two for adults and one for kids. They’d all have heavy steam-bent oak runners and the sturdiest arms and backs we could make.
Then, I had the idea of making benches in different sizes. You could use one size out on your porch. You could put another around the dinner table, or in a kid’s room or whatever. They also had a unique design: two trestles that tightened with just a couple of light taps.
Last, we decided to make fireplace mantelpieces. But instead of selling them out of a warehouse, we’d make them to order for each customer.
Their SBDC adviser encouraged them to do a thorough market research and analysis, so they divided up the work. George had a computer, so he started on industry research. Roger started calling competitors. Mike went out to conduct personal surveys.
George had his work cut out for him. The furniture industry is huge; looking at the big picture, it would be easy to conclude that the competitive situation was hopeless.
But George knew he could limit his focus to his company’s style and manufacturing technique. By looking at trade association materials online, he found that there was a hole in the market for eco-friendly early American furniture. In particular, he found a study that indicated an unmet demand for exactly the type of furniture they wanted to make. There were only two U.S. companies that made this kind of furniture.
Posing as a customer, Roger phoned both competitors and asked for their brochures and price lists. After looking through their literature, he discovered that neither company made rocking chairs or benches. George had been working on benches all of his life, while Mike had been in charge of Vautour’s chair division. Clearly, they were well equipped to compete in this market.
It was George who came up with the idea of “green” mantelpieces, which his research showed no one else was making. Although they might not sell many mantelpieces, the jobs they did do would be very profitable and were likely to raise awareness among wealthier customers. George felt this could be a stepping stone to other kinds of custom woodworking and remodeling jobs.
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Product Positioning
This section explains how you will position your product within each of your target markets. This means deciding how to portray your business to customers so that it stands out from competing products. Do you want to offer higher quality? Lower prices? Safer ingredients?
Your positioning statement identifies the primary benefit you offer your customers and the primary differentiator that motivates them to buy. You will learn how to write a positioning statement in Chapter 9 Product.
Branding and Packaging
Simply put, your brand is how you present your business to the world. It includes your benefits, packaging, advertising and customer service.
You can also look at your brand as a promise. When customers see your name or logo, it promises them certain things. Every time you deliver on that promise, your brand is strengthened. Any time you break the promise, your brand suffers.
Packaging helps to communicate and reinforce your brand. It also affects your promotion, price and placement strategies. We’ll discuss branding and packaging further in Chapter 9 Product.
Pricing
Pricing is crucial to profitability, which makes it crucial to your business’s success. No marketing task is more important—or more difficult—than choosing a price that will attract customers while delivering enough profit to keep your business healthy.
This section introduces your pricing objectives and strategies, and explains why they’re right for your customers, business and industry.
Placement
Placement, or distribution, is the method you use to get your product to your customers. For a retailer, placement might mean selling online or at a street fair. For a manufacturer, it might mean selling to a distributor, a retailer or a consignment shop. For a service business, it might mean serving customers at an office, the customer’s home or online.
Your distribution strategy affects your sales and your profit margin, so it must make sense for your business, your industry and your customers. Where possible, it should also deliver benefits that your competitors’ placement strategies don’t. A new distribution channel—such as Netflix created for movies—can be a powerful competitive advantage.
Promotion
Promotion means informing your customers about your business and products. This section should describe how you will promote your business, explain why your choice is the right one, and detail the costs and benefits of your promotional efforts.
D. Direct Sales and Customer Service
Your sales strategy identifies your major sales prospects or target markets in order of importance and explains how you will sell to them (e.g., personally, online or through a rep). This section should explain why you chose your selling strategy and how it will contribute to your success. See Chapter 13 The Art of Selling for more information.
Your customer service strategy explains your policies for ensuring excellent customer service, including handling returns, dealing with complaints and tracking customer satisfaction. What are your quality control policies? How will you measure customer satisfaction? What is your refund and return policy? How will you communicate with customers, and what steps will you take to resolve problems? How will you answer technical questions and provide support? Chapter 14 Customer Management will help you with these issues.
Using Your Marketing Plan
Your finished marketing plan might be several pages long, but first try to state its findings in one paragraph. Give this paragraph careful thought, and then make it brief and to the point. This will help you focus on what’s really important when presenting the plan to others.
Where possible, explain financial and statistical data with simple, easy-to-understand charts and graphs. You don’t need fancy charts with 3D graphics and every color of the rainbow; you just need something that will make the data clear.
Later, you should create a more detailed plan that includes long-, medium- and short-term projections. You may even want to include some “what if” scenarios and contingency plans. Customers and markets change often, so your marketing plan will definitely need some fine-tuning.
The most important part of any marketing plan is committing yourself to using it. Like your business plan, it should be a living document—one you go review at least every three months so you can see what works and what doesn’t. Therefore, you must put systems in place that will allow you to judge the effectiveness of your strategies and tactics.
One of the most important purposes of marketing is to gather more and better marketing data. Remember: Positive and negative results are equally important. Treat every response to your marketing efforts as an opportunity to narrow your focus and improve your targeting.
The best way to keep track of important marketing data is with a database. That way, you can easily find out how many customers are new, and which ones were influenced by a specific marketing tactic such as a social media campaign or sales call. This is very important information, so make sure it’s entered accurately and backed up often.
You should also consider how marketing tactics affect sales. If one of your tactics isn’t producing results after you gave it a fair chance, change it or drop it.
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Roger had been doing focus groups all this time, and he was learning some really interesting things about customers for green furniture. We’d assumed they were mostly people in big cities who have lots of money to spend.
That was true up to a point, but it wasn’t the whole story. There were a lot of people who wouldn’t ever call themselves “green”—but give them a choice between a green early American rocker and a regular one, and they buy the green one every time. As our SBDC counselor said, part of that comes from people following trendsetters. But also, for the kind of old-fashioned furniture we were making, there was this sense that we were more authentic. People felt our furniture was more like the furniture of 150 years ago. And they liked that.
There was also a sense that if we cared about how we harvested and stained our wood, it said something about our overall workmanship. When Roger started doing surveys, we expected most people to say that to them, “green” meant healthy, or natural, or safer.
But we heard this whole other response having to do with business values. He’d hear words like “well made,” “sturdy” and “honest.” People seemed to think that taking care in one part of your business meant you were more likely to take care in others. That was exciting news for us, and it was totally unexpected.
Next, George and Mike looked at their market potential to decide if there were enough customers out there to keep them afloat. After looking at each product line separately, they found that the rockers and benches were definitely viable.
It was a little harder to assess the market potential for green mantelpieces. On the other hand, they had no direct competitors, so they felt it wouldn’t hurt to offer this product. After all, it was a special-order item, and they could make it with existing tools and supplies.
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Implementing Your Plan
Your marketing plan sets forth a strict timetable for strategies and tactics, and it’s your responsibility to make sure that your team adheres to that timetable.
Make sure your team members know what’s expected of them—and why—well in advance. Remember that newspapers and other media have deadlines for submitting promotional material, and that many other marketing opportunities may require you to think weeks or months ahead. You can use an online calendar, hang a dry-erase board in your office, or send out regular emails. Use any system you want, as long as it keeps your team informed and accountable.
Industry Research
As a simplified introduction to market research, let’s take a closer look at the industry in which your business operates. This will help you complete the Industry Information section of your business plan, which has three parts:
Industry Background Information
Current and Future Industry Trends
Business Fit in the Industry
Although we’re focusing on your industry, the steps we describe also apply to other types of market research.
Primary and Secondary Data
Market data can be either primary or secondary. Primary data means information that you collect firsthand (by asking people how they feel about your product, for instance). Secondary data means information originally collected by other people, which includes the information you find on industry or government websites.
Secondary data
It can be tough and expensive to collect primary data, so most entrepreneurs start by looking at data that’s already available. The library and the Internet both offer lots of secondary data, as well as background and forecasting information on your industry.
Good sources of secondary data include:
U.S. Census Bureau
Small Business Development Centers
Women’s Business Centers
U.S. Small Business Administration
Trade associations
Industry associations
Chambers of commerce
Local newspapers and magazines
Industry-specific magazines and websites
Once you find relevant secondary materials, read them carefully and take lots of notes. The Industry Research Worksheet will help you use this information to answer questions like these:
What is your industry, and how big is it?
Is your industry new, growing, stable or declining?
How does your industry compare to the economy as a whole? Is it doing better, worse or about the same?
How and where do businesses promote, sell and deliver their products?
How many competitors do you have? What are their sales levels? What’s their share of the market?
How are small businesses affected by large competitors (e.g., chain stores or online retailers like Amazon)?
How does international competition affect your industry?
What current and emerging political, economic, social and technology trends are affecting your industry? How will these trends affect small businesses?
How does your business fit into your industry? Why is there an opportunity to enter this industry? What threats and risks do you face?
Primary data
Once you have a working knowledge of your industry—which includes knowing what you don’t know—you’re ready to look for primary data, if necessary. Start by studying the information you gathered from the library or Internet. Then, make a list of questions you still need to answer.
Next, come up with a list of experts to contact, such as members of a chamber of commerce or national trade association. Having done this, you’re ready to choose a research method.
Tools of the Trade
Here are the most common methods for gathering primary data:
Interviews. An interview is really nothing more than asking questions and encouraging open, honest answers. The people you contact may be very busy, so keep your questions clear and brief.
Surveys. A survey is basically a written interview. There are three big differences, though. First, you can’t ask followup questions. Second, the person filling out the survey can’t ask you questions. Last, you can’t see body language or facial expressions, or hear the person’s tone of voice. Therefore, your survey must be clearly written and easy to understand. Surveys that have only a few questions, and offer multiple-choice answers, are most likely to get a response.
You should be comfortable conducting interviews and surveys, because you will have to use these tools often as a business owner. Before we move on, let’s recap how to gather your secondary and primary data.
Use the library and the Internet to research your industry.
Based on these secondary sources, decide where to get primary information.
Contact primary sources by phone or email, and collect information from them with an interview or survey.
Analyzing Industry Research
After you gather your industry data, you must analyze and interpret it. You need to know where your industry has been, where it is right now and where it’s headed.
Before drawing any conclusions, check your findings for accuracy and completeness, preferably with the help of an expert or mentor. Once you’ve figured out what your research is telling you, write brief summaries of your findings under the following headings:
Industry Background Information
Current and Future Industry Trends
Business Fit in the Industry
Keep notes on all of your sources (authors’ names, dates, publications, page numbers, and so forth). You’ll be collecting a lot of information, so you must stay organized. More important, you’ll need to present your sources to lenders or investors.
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By the end of our first year, we were close to meeting our sales forecast for individual buyers. We sold benches, mostly, with the kid-sized rockers in second place. We also got calls from a couple of local bed-and-breakfasts that wanted matching furniture, which was a market we’d never thought of looking into.
We’d just started researching the market potential for a new line of tables and beds. It was tricky, because we were dealing with a lot more direct competition.
Then we met Barbara, and everything changed pretty much overnight.
One day, a young designer named Barbara Cummings stopped by to visit Catawba Woodworks. She owned one of their rocking chairs and was interested in seeing how their furniture was made.
While talking to Mike and Roger, she explained her idea for a set of standardized wooden components that would fit together in a variety of ways to form end tables, dining tables, chairs, desks and day beds. There would be no glue, nails or screws. She’d gotten the idea from watching her nephew playing with Tinkertoys. Now, she wanted to find a small company to handcraft the parts under her supervision.
Roger felt that if her design worked, it would have wide appeal to consumers, as well as to schools and other institutions. He thought they should go for it.
George was more cautious. So far, their two competitors in early American green furniture had decided not to produce any of the same products as Catawba. But if Catawba decided to take on Barbara’s idea, they’d be in direct competition.
Roger and Mike saw his point. They realized that they needed to identify their customers for the new product line and define their market potential. They needed to come up with appropriate prices. And most important, they had to make sure they could find and maintain a competitive edge. With all this in mind, they launched yet another market research project.
Their findings suggested that the novelty of Barbara’s designs gave them an edge over their competitors, so they decided to move forward. They negotiated a licensing deal with Barbara, updated their business plan, and started producing the interlocking pieces according to her specifications.
Today, they produce a limited amount of handmade furniture for the high-end market, and hundreds of building blocks for Barbara’s popular modular furniture (the local elementary schools love it). They now have 18 full-time employees and three part-timers. They’re still dreaming of building a local factory that will employ 100 workers or more, and that dream seems a lot less ambitious than it used to.
Part of our success has been skill. If I do say so myself, we’re very good at what we do. And part of it has been luck, for sure. But I think the single biggest factor in our success is that we learned early on to study our market and make sure there was a potential for long-term profit.
I would say that the most important thing we learned from our SBDC counselor was to always look before you leap. That’s how we got where we are today, and that’s how we’re fixing to get where we want to be tomorrow.
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Conclusion
Your marketing plan identifies your customers, your product, and how you’ll achieve your business objectives. It presents the specifics of your business’s marketing mix and the sales that you expect to generate.
It also aids management efforts. It synchronizes the different parts of your business, so that all team members understand how their interactions with customers affect the image and profitability of your business. A clear marketing plan helps you to communicate a consistent message about who you are and what matters most to you.
Research and write your marketing plan carefully, and revise it often. A good marketing plan can be your most compelling argument for the viability and profitability of your business.

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Keys to Success Don’t commit to an opportunity until you take a realistic look at it. Remember: There will always be new opportunities for the watchful entrepreneur! Do a thorough analysis of each major competitor. Make sure you have at least one important competitive advantage when compared with each competitor. Identify all startup costs. Obtain two or more cost estimates for each item. Research the financial averages for your industry. These averages represent the performance of existing companies in your industry. If your figures differ greatly, determine why. Check with your trade association and your accountant. Respect the competition. An established competitor is doing some things right. Don’t just focus on their mistakes; you need to understand their strengths, too. Research growth trends. How fast is the industry growing? What technological changes are expected? Research the role of small businesses. Is the industry dominated by large or small businesses? Are most sales online or offline? Which trends favor smaller retailers? Which ones don’t?

Interview Tips Know your background material. Write out your questions. Practice your interview technique with friends or relatives. Listen carefully, and don’t interrupt. Take notes! You won’t remember everything you hear. Say thank you!

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Industry Data Online North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). This federal classification system provides detailed statistics and background information for each U.S. industry.  www.census.gov/eos/www/naics Industry Statistics Portal. This site allows you to search for industry data by NAICS number or by industry name. www.census.gov/econ/isp Statistics of U.S. Business (SUSB). This site allows you to research firms by geographic area, industry and size. www.census.gov/econ/susb Industries at a Glance. This site compiles national industry data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), including workplace trends. www.bls.gov/iag Standard & Poor’s Industry Surveys provide information and forecasts on industry conditions and trends, as well key industry ratios and statistics. www.standardandpoors.com