Dig Deep
For example, if you plan to open a truckstop out on the freeway, you can’t simply enter the search words “truckstops, market data, competition,” press “enter,” sip your coffee and watch while paper billows out of your printer, neatly inscribed with pie charts and tables on:
     Target market by group, buying patterns, average purchase, interests and market trends.
     National and economic trends: population shifts, economic indicators, industry outlook and growth potential.
     Competitive companies: market share, strengths and weaknesses, profitability.
    Getting this important information is a tall order, and only on television can a whiz kid enter a few cryptic commands and get the Secret Formula for the Elixir of Immortality, plus the text of every book in the Library of Congress. You, in fact, might actually have to go to the actual, physical library to get much of the information you’re looking for.

Crack a Book
One advantage of going to the library is the reference librarian. You won’t have to tell him or her what you want in a precise sequence of words with plus signs and quotation marks and no misspellings. You can even mumble.
     Some of the useful reference books available at public and university libraries are U.S. Industry & Trade Outlook Information, Encyclopedia of American Industries, Standard & Poor’s Industry Surveys and the National Trade Data Bank. Since the trade association for your industry is an excellent source of data, ask the librarian for the Encyclopedia of Associations or National Trade and Professional Associations of the United States and Canada and Labor Unions.
     You might also consider purchasing (or checking out from the library, books such as Business Information Sources by Lorna M. Daniells (about $40), 10-Minute Guide to Business Research on the Net by Thomas Pack ($15), The Prentice Hall Directory of Online Business Information by Engholm and Grimes ($30), and Business Information: How to Find It, How to Use It by Michael R. Lavin (about $50).
     The most comprehensive online market and industry data can be very expensive. After all, it’s costly to gather and package information that changes constantly. Even Stonehenge yields new information, but at a leisurely pace. By comparison, the marketplace is a blur.
     One agency that does a pretty good job keeping up is STAT-USA, a non-taxpayer-funded part of the Department of Commerce. It costs $150 to subscribe to STAT-USA online, but hundreds of libraries offer free access. It’s worth the trip: STAT-USA compiles information from hundreds of federal offices.

Take a Hike
The Small Business Administration offers reports on federal regulations, business survival rates, technology, benefit costs and much more. Go to the SBA Web site to find out how to order reports from the National Technical Information Service, where you can ask for that study on The Role of Social Relationships in Financial Intermediation: Empirical Evidence from the United States Small Business Credit Market you’ve been longing for.
     Regional reports — “County Business Patterns,” for example, which includes data on housing, births and deaths, the labor force, retail and service establishments, personal income and much more — are available from state data centers across the country.

Get Yakking
Call the economic and business research office in your state, county, city or nearby university. Or check with the librarian, or call the always-helpful Small Business Development Centers and SCORE offices that operate across the country.
     If you just want to stay home, skip the library and shell out some cash, check out services like Dialog, LEXIS-NEXIS, Dow Jones and Dun & Bradstreet. Each has an online presence.

Follow the Links
If you want to stay home but not spend money, plan on a long but enjoyable online search. You might stumble across sites like the Report Gallery by IntraGrafix (www.reportgallery.com) and there’s also a surprising amount of free information available in the “small-business” sections of business publications such as Forbes and the Wall Street Journal.
     The Forbes Web site features, at no cost, the magazine’s “Annual Report on American Industry” (or you can buy the January issue at the newsstand). The report contains sales and profitability data on more than 20 industries and hundreds of companies.
     Of course, all this information is no substitute for beating the street yourself. Whatever you learn from sophisticated service providers and high-tech databases, or by calling local sources like the Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Office, or by analyzing thousands of printed pages — if you haven’t talked to your prospective customers, walked into your competitors’ stores, checked out their advertising and compared their strengths and weaknesses to yours, you haven’t really done your homework.

An editor since the age of 6, when she returned a love letter with corrections marked in red, Mary Campbell writes and edits for The University of Arizona College of Business and Public Administration and for dozens of entrepreneurs, publishers, and authors. She is editor of the midsized-business journal The FINOVA Quarterly.