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Retail Store Industry Benchmarks

By Becky McCray

Another great source for business intelligence: the Retail Owners Institute offers industry benchmark data on six key financial ratios. In a section called Store Benchmarks, they break down industry averages into 51 different retail lines. They give five years of data for these six financial ratios: Current Ratio Gross Margin Percentage Return on Assets Percentage […]

January 25, 2010 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, management, resources, Small Biz 100 Tagged With: retail, Support

Surprising business intelligence from your library

By Becky McCray

Your library is hiding some surprising business intelligence, or at least, I was surprised. At the Michigan Small Town Conference, I sat in on the session on economic gardening. The librarians presenting the session talked about all the cool databases of information they have access to, that the general public does not. And how useful […]

December 21, 2009 Filed Under: entrepreneurship Tagged With: Support

Business Intelligence from the USDA

By Becky McCray

“Business intelligence” means gathering the right information that can help you improve your business, or move up to a new level. If you have internet access today, you can gather a ton of amazing research, if you know the right sources to tap. So we’re starting a series on great sources for business intelligence for […]

December 14, 2009 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, resources Tagged With: Dreaming, Support

Stay Informed on Current Trends for your Home Business

By Small Biz Survival

[Another guest post by our great friend Denise McGill ] By Denise McGill To say the least, small business owners must be savvy in many areas of business. It often means you are the decision maker, bookkeeper, salesperson, office administrator and marketing manager. However…with having to wear so many hats, how does one person keep […]

September 17, 2009 Filed Under: entrepreneurship, trends Tagged With: guest post, Support

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