Business Plans and Entrepreneurship

Guides and Handbooks

Small Business Resource Center — ELECTRONIC
Small Business Resource Center is one-stop shopping for the entrepreneurial student. It covers all aspects of starting a business including finance, writing a business plan, accounting, management, and marketing. Take a look at sample business plans, read articles on entrepreneurship and small industries, or use the “how to” section to solve common problems for new businesses.
Search the library catalog for business plans.
Some of the guides are e-books and some are books that you can check out from Hagerty Library. You can also find helpful handbooks by browsing the stacks on Hagerty Library’s second floor. Use the call number HD 62 as a guide.
Anatomy of a business plan — PRINT/ELECTRONIC
Linda Pinson
Small business: an entrepreneur’s business plan — PRINT
JD Ryan
Successful business planning for entrepreneurs — PRINT
Jerry W. Moorman

Small Business Resource Center — ELECTRONIC
This terrific resource contain more than 10 volumes of business plans from the Business Plans Handbook series. Click on “Sample Business Plans.”
Bplans — WWW
Contains over 60 actual business plans
Build a strong business plan, section by section – WWW
This guide from Inc. Magazine offers a section-by-section view into what components your business plan needs.
Business plans handbook : a compilation of actual business plans developed by small businesses throughout North America – PRINT
An excellent compilation of business plans from a wide range of companies. Look through the tables of contents of the volumes to get a sense of the profiled businesses.
Business owner’s toolkit — WWW
From CCH, this page offers five downloadable business plans including plans for service providers, manufacturers, and retailers.

Business plan basics — WWW
From the Small Business Association, this template gives you the step-by-step elements needed for a business plan.
Business plan preparation — WWW
A terrific guide from the University of Colorado, the Business Plan Preparation page provides several business plans as well as four unique downloadable business plan templates.

Small Business Sourcebook — PRINT
This two-volume annual guide to small business resources includes a wealth of information on small business start-ups including associations, trade shows, consultants, and licensing information.
Encyclopedia of Associations — ELECTRONIC/PRINT
Helpful directory of international associations will give you basic information about trade associations. You can visit the associations’ Websites or contact them for more information.

Researching an Industry Research Guide — WWW
Use this Drexel University Libraries research guide to learn more about researching industries using library resources.

Marketing Research Guide – WWW
Use this Drexel University Libraries research guide to learn more about researching industries using library resources.

LexisNexis Academic — ELECTRONIC
LexisNexis Academic provides access to a variety of major newspapers including the New York Times and the Times of London. You can also use LexisNexis to look at magazine articles and news wires. Use the “guided news search feature” for more precise searching.
Business and Company Resource Center — ELECTRONIC
This database is great for getting to insider company information through articles in trade magazines. To search for articles on a given company, enter the name of the company in the “subject in article” box. After you get your search results, you can click on “narrow by subdivision” to view articles about your company by subtopic.
Factiva — ELECTRONIC
Factiva provides access to nearly 9,000 sources from 152 countries in 22 languages. Use the Search tab to find articles about your company. Or switch to Companies/Markets and look up your company. Note: Our subscription only allows for 11 concurrent uses.