Free Market Research

Any successful business owner will tell you marketing your small business begins with research.  The experts can direct you to the best methods for performing research and provide you with successful strategies for marketing research, but a lot of the statistics and demographic information you desire can be obtained, for free, from the government.

The government collects oodles of data that is public information.  The data can be immensely useful when pulling together your marketing plan and can help you site accurate statistics without spending a ton of money on a custom market research engagement.  These tools certainly are not a substitute for quality market research such as surveys and focus groups, but rather provide helpful data to frame that research.  For a lot of start-ups; however, the research budget is minimal.  If that is the case for your business, these stats can be leveraged to build the framework of your marketing plan.

General government Statistics

Fed Stats gathers data across over 100 agencies, states, counties, congressional districts, and cities to provide a comprehensive purview by location or by topic.
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The Statistical Abstract of the United States, published since 1878, is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States.  The abstract is prepared by the Census Bureau, but collects data from many Federal agencies.

The Census Bureau also releases reports for business owners called the Statistics of U.S. Businesses including detailed analysis of companies, establishments, employment, and annual payroll. 

Another great resource for statistics specific to small businesses is the Small Business Administration’s Office of Economic Research.  Reports from this office include:

• Entrepreneurship: The Foundation for Economic Renewal in the Gulf Coast Region [PDF file] - The proceedings from the 2006 New Orleans conference include; presentation summaries, powerpoint presentations, and conference participants. 
• The Impact of Regulatory Costs of Small Firms (Update) - Analyzes the cost of regulations on small and large firms. This study updates two earlier reports from 1995 and 2001.
• Small Business Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - [HTML file] - Provides answers to basic questions about small business. [PDF file] - [Text file]
• Research Resources - designed as a portal to direct faculty, students, and researchers to small business data and research.
• The Small Business Economy: 2007 [Research Summary] — This is an annual reference source on small business' performance in the economy. To obtain a printed copy, see the U.S.Government Online Bookstore . (Text synopsis version) (historical versions (1996-2001) (2002-2006).

You can also subscribe to the Department of Commerce’s Stat USA subscription for updated information on federal business, trade, and economics.

Additional Resources

www.business.gov/market-research

Keep an eye out for Part II of Free market research for government information on demographics.