LibGuides: Small Business and Entrepreneurship: ENTR 760

Social Enterprise Overview

The Social Enterprise Alliance suggests the following definition: "A social enterprise is an organization or initiative that marries the social mission of a non-profit or government program with the market-driven approach of a business."

Social Enterprise Alliance
Explore this website for ideas, research, and statistics about social enterprises across the United States. Note, some content requires creating an account.

Research Industries

Use the following tools to research the industry (or industries) of your social enterprise. What are features of your industry? What factors influence this industry's performance?

ABI/INFORM Global
What you’ll find here: Journal, magazine, and newspaper articles that focus on business, management, government and public policy. This is a great resource if you’re looking for news and trends, company financial information, or management practice and theory.
How to search this database: Look at the ProQuest help page.
IBISWorld
What you’ll find here: Market research reports for a wide variety of United States industries. These reports offer a look at the industry's performance and outlook, competitive landscape, and key statistics among other information.
How to search this database: Refer to the IBISWorld Help Center..

Research the Market

What's your target market? How big is it? Is it growing? What age groups/characteristics make up your market? Use the following tools to research demographics and other statistics about your potential consumers.

PolicyMap
What you’ll find here: a U.S. national data and mapping tool allowing users to create custom demographic maps, tables, and reports. Available data includes demographics, home sale statistics, health data, mortgage trends, school performance scores, labor data such as unemployment, and crime statistics, such as city crime rates. Use PolicyMap to create compelling maps of up to five layers, export trend charts with key benchmarks, download data for use in other tools, generate on-the-fly reports, and upload your own data to view it with ours.
How to search this database: Visit the PolicyMap Tutorial Page.
Check out this Video and Guide QuickStart Video and Guide
Mintel Market Reports
What you’ll find here: Market and consumer research on European, British, and U.S. markets. It includes information on products, brands, and industry trends. Requires acceptance of terms of use and registration using your ubalt.edu email address.
How to search this database: Read the Mintel User Guide.

Bureau of Labor Statistics
BLS collects data on employment, unemployment, and pay & benefits. You can browse using the subjects tab at the top of the page.
Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance
Browse 8 vital signs to get information on Baltimore City neighborhoods.
Urban Institute
This nonpartisan website provides data and links to other resources surrounding public policy and economic issues in urban areas in the United States. See their policy center for nonprofits and philanthropy statistics.

ProQuest Statistical Abstract of the U.S.
What you’ll find here: Provides a comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic conditions of the United States. You can browse or search for data tables, and download them as a pdf or XLS spreadsheet.
How to search this database: Visit their guide page.

Research Organizations

Use the following tools to research similar organizations, potential competition for your enterprise, or potential collaborations.

Charity Navigator
This organization evaluates charities on financial health, accountability and transparency, and results reporting.
Foundation Center 990 Finder
Search for tax forms filed by nonprofit organizations.
NexisUni Business
To create a list of companies based on a variety of features, click "Company Dossier" then "Create a Company List" tab.
GuideStar
What you'll find here: General, financial, and leadership information for U.S. nonprofit entities. Much of the information is self-reported by the institutions. The database values transparency and openness and includes a "legitimacy" rating for the nonprofits. It offers information on a segment of businesses not often covered in other databases. Sign up for a free account to access more information.
How to search this database: View one of the video tutorials included on the database's home page.
Business Source Complete
Search for a large, well-known company name and "SWOT" to find a SWOT analysis for that particular company.
Maryland Nonprofits
This organization is a resource for nonprofits in the Maryland region. Their goal is support and connect various nonprofits.
National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities
This classification system is used by the IRS and the National Center for Charitable Studies to report, identify, and group nonprofit organizations.

Vehicles for Change Resources

These links are specific to research related to the nonprofit organization, Vehicles for Change. for the spring 2020 Social Enterprise course.

Vehicles for Change
Official organization website for Vehicles for Change
Full Circle Service Center
Vehicles for Change's Auto Repair and Training Center
Automotive Service Association
International Automotive Technicians Network
National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence
BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook - Automotive Service Technicians
Overview of education, training, and average salaries for automotive service technicians and mechanics.
Restoration of Rights Project
The website compiles state laws related to ex-offenders employment and business licensing.
Business Source Complete Search "training of automobile mechanics"
This is a direct link to a database search result for the subject "Training of automobile mechanics"
U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration Grants
Explore their reentry grants and other funding sources.
Open Maryland: Business Resources
The State of Maryland's business resource page, which includes helpful links to registering and financing a business in Maryland, and a business property search.
Baltimore City Zoning
Use map to search for a particular address to find out the zone; use the new updated zoning code to find descriptions.
ESOP
The informational page of the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO), "a nonprofit membership and research organization that provides information on all aspects of broad-based employee ownership."
The People's Law Library of Maryland: General Maryland Small Business Articles
The Maryland State Law Library manages this website and provides an overview of relevant state codes for starting LLCs, cooperatives, and other businesses.
The Small Business Bible : Everything You Need to Know to Succeed in Your Small Business (e-book)
See section I, part III for information and overviews on franchises.
Business Plans Handbook
What you’ll find here: Sample real-life business plans from small businesses in a variety of industries. They can be useful templates for business plans in general or for specific information of different types of businesses.
How to search this database: Look at these video tutorials.
Part of the Gale eBooks collection (previously known as the Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL)).
Loopnet
Commercial Property Search
The Future of Retail: Creative Approaches to Place Based Entrepreneurship
Baltimore Main Streets Program

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