Business Writing Toolkit
Business Plans
The books below help in the process of building a business plan. Read over the titles and decide which meets your needs. Once you follow a link, you will be taken the library's record of the item. To view or request the item you may be asked to login. Please use your U credentials.
The Financial Times Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan: How to Win Backing to Start Up or Grow Your Business by
Call Number: EbookISBN: 9780273757986Publication Date: 2011-12-15Whether you seek financial backing or board consent, this book will give you the critical knowledge you need to get the go-ahead.
Another great read when preparing to meet with a bank for a commercial loan is the article, 5 Cs of Credit (5 Cs of Banking).
If you are not looking for a traditional commercial loan from a bank but rather have meetings set-up with potential investors, then you'll want to check-out the books below. Also, participate in the Planning Your Pitch tutorial to learn how to find information in our databases.
One Perfect Pitch: How to Sell Your Idea, Your Product, Your Business--Or Yourself by
Call Number: EbookISBN: 0071837590Publication Date: 2016-03-24
Company Research
Below is a list of databases available with the Marriott Library. They provide detailed information regarding both national, international, public and private companies. Read the descriptions and follow the link to the resource that fits your needs. If you are asked to login, use your U credentials.
For pointers on how to conduct a company analysis, check out this Strategic Analysis of Starbucks Corporation.
Databases
Public Companies
The databases below provide details about public companies.
- Mergent Online This link opens in a new windowThis database contains searchable data for more than 10,000 companies on the NYSE, AMEX and Nasdaq exchanges. All financials are provided as reported and include information on balance sheets, income statements, expenditures, assets, liabilities, cash flow, performance trends, and more.
- Business Source Premier This link opens in a new windowIncludes the full text for more than 2,300 journals. Full-text results are provided back to 1886, and searchable cited references back to 1998. This database covers many business disciplines, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. Additional full-text, non-journal content includes market research reports, industry reports, country reports, company profiles and SWOT analyses.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowNexis Uni™ features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis with an intuitive interface that offers discovery across all content types.
- Gale Business Insights: Global This link opens in a new windowProvides students and researchers with the broad yet detailed coverage of international business.
- BCC Research This link opens in a new windowAcademic institutions around the globe subscribe to BCC Research to utilize the vast library of market research reports that aid students, professors, and technology transfer professionals in conducting research projects. Students appreciate the depth and specificity of BCC Research reports, finding it easy to uncover all of the data they need, from growth trends and market opportunities to geographic breakdowns and company profiles.
- Mergent Intellect This link opens in a new windowMergent Intellect is a collection of worldwide business information.
- Value Line This link opens in a new windowThis database provides access to documents and financial information for a variety of companies.
- Factiva This link opens in a new windowThis database provides access to licensed content from Dow Jones journalists, media outlets, trade and consumer publications and business Web sites. Factiva also contains in-depth company, executive and industry profiles, expert analysis, market data and other reports.
- IBISWorld This link opens in a new windowThis database contains a variety of industry reports including risk reports, industry summaries, market research, market conditions and forecasts, supply chain information, and competition data. Items can be viewed online or downloaded for offline use.
- Pitchbook This link opens in a new window
NOTE: The information from this database may only be used for academic and noncommercial purposes. Your use of the database constitutes acceptance of this restriction. Individual accounts expire every summer and will need to be renewed every year.
PitchBook allows you to search private equity and venture capital deals by various criteria. PitchBook also contains information on mergers and acquisitions. Use PitchBook to establish benchmarks, find real time data on deals and gather information on investors. This database requires individuals to create a personal account which expires annually. Create your personal account while on campus using your uNID, for example, u0000000@utah.edu email address. The PitchBook database is only available to students, faculty, and staff at the University of Utah.
- Mergent Archives This link opens in a new windowDating back to the mid 1800's, Mergent's Historical Annual Reports collections offers over 1,000,000 documents available in .PDF format for the United States, Canada and Europe. Access an extensive library of high-quality historical documents featuring rich textual details and in-depth analyses on thousands of global companies.
Private Companies
The databases below include details on private companies.
- Factiva This link opens in a new windowThis database provides access to licensed content from Dow Jones journalists, media outlets, trade and consumer publications and business Web sites. Factiva also contains in-depth company, executive and industry profiles, expert analysis, market data and other reports.
- PrivCo This link opens in a new windowNOTE: This database requires (free) user registration before use. Licensed for academic/research, non-commerical use only.
PrivCo is a source for business and financial data on non-publicly traded corporations, including family owned, private equity owned, venture backed, and international unlisted companies. - Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowNexis Uni™ features more than 15,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis with an intuitive interface that offers discovery across all content types.
- Markets and Markets This link opens in a new windowNOTE:Access limited to University of Utah students, faculty, and staff. MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth emerging opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of globalFortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets™ is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledgestore" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets.
- Pitchbook This link opens in a new window
NOTE: The information from this database may only be used for academic and noncommercial purposes. Your use of the database constitutes acceptance of this restriction. Individual accounts expire every summer and will need to be renewed every year.
PitchBook allows you to search private equity and venture capital deals by various criteria. PitchBook also contains information on mergers and acquisitions. Use PitchBook to establish benchmarks, find real time data on deals and gather information on investors. This database requires individuals to create a personal account which expires annually. Create your personal account while on campus using your uNID, for example, u0000000@utah.edu email address. The PitchBook database is only available to students, faculty, and staff at the University of Utah.
Free Resources
The US Small Business Administration (SBA) identifies two types of business plans Traditional and Lean. Below are the examples of the two provided by SBA.
- Traditional Business Plan TemplateThis example business plan is provided by the Small Business Administration.
- Lean Business Plan TemplateThis example business plan is provided by the Small Business Administration.
Below are more resources on how to develop your business.