InfoGuides: Business Resources Overview: Where to Start?

Last Updated: Feb 10, 2021 2:33 PM

Background on Doing Business Research

People conduct business research for many reasons including personal interest, school projects, professional needs and sometimes simple curiosity. Most people have no experience doing business research and tend to rely on free web tools and basic searches.

Students at RIT have access to premium, fee-based business research tools with company profiles, market research, industry overviews and financials. Students at RIT also have access to an experienced business librarian who can coach business research skills, strategies and techniques. Learning which resources are appropriate for each project along with learning how to search and make the most of a resource takes practice and time.

Effective business research requires:

Knowledge of how business information is produced/gathered
Access to premium or fee-based resources in addition to free resources such as company websites
Opportunities to practice searching and applying information
Access to information professional to coach new researchers

Company, Market & Industry Research Starters

Mintel
Consumer market research reports from Mintel for the United States.
Passport
Consumer lifestyle and consumer industry market research reports for countries around the globe. Also includes downloadable economic, population, income, product and lifestyle data as well as company info. Passport Help Guides and Videos B2C only
Hoover's
Business database providing company overviews on millions of companies. Records for publicly traded companies include financials. Having trouble accessing Hoovers? Use your browser's incognito or private mode. This option is usually located in a drop down menu accessed from three dots or lines on the top right. Alternatively try a browser you never or rarely use or clear the cookies from your browser of choice. THE DATABASE IS NOT DOWN -- the issue is related to cookies stored in browsers.
Proquest Complete
Article database. Search for national, local and trade news. Lots of full text available but not everything.

Further Ideas to Help Advance Your Searching

The library subscribes to a few of the premium resources available for market and industry research. You must access them through library links. A few things to keep in mind:

Is my product/service for the consumer (b2c) or for a business (b2b)? This will help you know which databases might have info.
Is my product/service sold in the U.S. only or in other countries? This will help you know which databases might have info.
It is possible your industry/product/service has little or even no coverage in the resources you have access to. Always check the amount of information available to you before choosing your topic so you know what to expect.

Note that different market research resources offered through the library cover different audiences and different geographies. For b2c use Mintel and Passport and the databases listed for b2b. For b2b use IBISWorld, NetAdvantage, Investext and First Research.

Market research is extremely expensive because of the expertise and time that goes into gathering, analyzing and presenting information. We buy access to a lot of research but not everything. You will discover on the web many other resources we cannot afford which is exactly the same situation that happens when running a business.

The library does not at this time subscribe to Statista or IbisWorld. These are two sources that many students find via Google searches due these vendors' excellent use of SEO. Try the products listed on this page instead.