Reference USA - Database to search for businesses

Reference USA is a well-known database that is available on all of our Saint Louis Public Library reference computers.  I like to recommend our entrepreneurs to use this database when they are beginning to write their business plan. Why you may ask do I recommend it? Because you have the ability to use North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) to search for your type of business.

Before you start using this database, you must decide if you want to create a custom search. I personally recommend doing so, as you will then get exactly the type of business you are searching for as well as the location. I suggest selecting the geographic location (by zip code) and then by NAICS code. If you put in the city and state it will over ride your search by zip code.

Searching by zip code, combined with the NAICS code, provides the entrepreneur with a list of all the names of potential competitors. Once you have selected custom search for geographic location and NAICS code, you then add your specific search.

By selecting the specific result, you will find a screen that provides much, much more information. On the detailed screen you will have the following information to use: Competitors, names of executives, along with their gender and contact information, number of employees, volume of sales, if it is a head office location, and even articles where that company was in the news.

When you have your Saint Louis Public Library card and four digit pin number you can conveniently access this database from outside the Library.  First select "Online Learning and Reference," then select "Databases."

If you have any questions about using this database, please do not hesitate to give us a call.

Book Review: The Lemonade Stand

The Lemonade Stand: What Every Entrepreneur Should Know to Succeed in Starting and Running Any Business by Ara Bagdasarian and Nick Gustavsson, 192 pages

The Lemonade Stand focuses on entrepreneurs and starting small businesses. As in other business books, the authors offer up a list of principles for their "Lemonade Stand" method; what makes this one different is that Bagdasarian and Gustavsson have some fairly unorthodox principles, including forgetting about a business plan and investors, and not setting out to compete. When they explain themselves, these actually make sense, especially for someone with a small business in mind (they often use the example of someone starting a lawn-care business or car wash). There's also a LOT of emphasis on optimism and learning from problems, which are probably pretty good ideals for everyone, not just entrepreneurs.

What I didn't particularly like about this book was the fact that they pushed the "lemons into lemonade" analogy a little too hard; it's not a bad metaphor to use, but it gets old quickly. I wish they'd introduced the idea at the beginning and maybe touched on it again toward the end rather than referring to problems as "lemons that must be squeezed" on nearly every page of the book.

On the whole, however, this was an easy-to-read book with some good ideas. Anyone thinking of starting a business would probably appreciate some of what the authors are trying to say.

Business News Roundup

Governor Jay Nixon announces he's matching $10 million in funds for University of Missouri-St. Louis' Business School (St Louis Post-Dispatch)


Give STL day surpasses $2 million in donations (St. Louis Business Journal)


Missouri jury awards woman $77 million for mismanaging funds in case against Wells Fargo (Business Ledger)


Bridge Bread will be opening a storefront on Cherokee Street in South St Louis City, set for June 1! (Sorkins Directory of Business and Government)