12/10/2007
How do you stack up against your small business competitors and colleagues? Are your operating procedures the same or different? Are your business strategies the same or different? Is your employee training regimen the same or different?
A new Web site developed by the NFIB Research Foundation, www.411SmallBusinessFacts.com, allows you to make these--and more than 1,000 other--business comparisons.
The NFIB Research Foundation will update the site with additional material eight times a year. While originally intended to help NFIB prepare testimonies and engage in other policy-related matters, the material on the site was too valuable to hoard. So, the service is now public and free.
The information on www.411SmallBusinessFacts.com has been developed by the Foundation over the past few years through national surveys conducted for it by The Gallup Organization. The survey questions and answers, focusing on acts and behaviors rather than opinions, are subsequently collated into facts about smaller firms and their owners and managers. The site also contains demographic facts about small business (Speech Material) for those interested in background information.
There are currently over 2,000 questions and answers on the site and about 400 more will be added annually. This volume of information could make the comparison you want difficult to locate. But www.411SmallBusinessFacts.com searches the accumulated information for you in four ways: The site performs a Google-type search, a keyword search, a subject category search and a survey title search. The site is therefore quick and easy to use.
There are other uses for www.411SmallBusinessFacts.com in addition to comparisons with competitors and colleagues. If you want to interact with public officials, you will find and facts and figures on a host of topics that hopefully support your argument. If you sell to other small businesses, you can find information that helps you approach your potential market. If you have children who are doing a paper for school about small business or a related topic, the site is perfect. Or, if you are just looking for a fact about small firms or their owners to satisfy your curiosity, the new site is an easy and potentially helpful place to start.
For more information, visit www411SmallBusinessFacts.com.
