Business and Economics Resources
at the Flint Public Library
Below is a list of resources that might be of assistance to business professionals, entrepreneurs, and those interested in learning more about personal finance and economics.
Business Books:
Company Directories, Entrepreneurship, General Business, Management
and
Marketing
Business Web Sites: Federal,
Michigan and General Web sites
Economics Books:
Estate Planning, General Economics, Home
Ownership, Investment
Guides and Personal Finance
Economics and Personal Finance Web Sites:
Financial, General Economics, Home Ownership and Personal
Finance
Business
and Economics Online Databases
Business
and Economics Periodicals
Magazines
and Journals
Company Directories
Headquarters USA
Offers listings of the headquarters of major businesses and organizations
in the United States. Also contains contact information for businesses,
non-profit organizations, professional associations, government agencies,
educational and cultural institutions, and high-profile individuals.
Michigan Business Directory
A directory of Michigan businesses, major employers, movers and shakers,
and manufacturers. This updated edition also includes SIC code definitions,
business analyses, national statistics, and Chamber of Commerce listings.
Million Dollar Directory
A five volume business directory that lists company headquarter address
and telephone number; names, titles and functions of officers; names
of the company's accounting firm and primary bank; stock exchange on
which the company's stock is traded and ticker symbol; SIC codes with
descriptions of the company's lines of business; annual sales and number
of employees where available; and more.
National Directory of Minority-Owned
Business Firms
A directory of U.S. businesses where one or more of the principal owners
or the majority of shareholders are members of a minority group specified
by federal or state regulations. Entries include company contact information,
president, NAICS code, number of employees, annual sales, and origination
date.
Entrepreneurship
The Business Start-Up Kit
This guide for aspiring entrepreneurs explains the necessary steps for
starting a business. Useful strategies, worksheets, and success secrets
are provided as well as necessary forms. Learn about corporations, partnerships,
sole proprietorships, SBA loans, franchises and many other essential
business topics.
The Entrepreneur's Desk
Reference: Authoritative Information, Ideas, and Solutions for Your
Small Business
An alphabetical compilation of solutions, advice, and ideas from small
business experts. Topics include accounting, audits, brand building,
employee benefits, firing and hiring, mission statements, and more. Entries
feature definitions, checklists, strategies, and other helpful resources.
The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Business Law
A resource for entrepreneurs that discusses potential legal concerns
from the initial stages of growth up to an initial public offering. This
updated edition also covers e-commerce and international issues.
Financing Your New or Growing
Business: How to Find and Raise Capital for Your Venture
A guide to raising venture capital for your business. Ideas such as borrowing
from friends and family, selling stock, using credit cards creatively,
factoring accounts receivable, and using federal and state loans, grants,
and tax incentives are discussed as well as the basics of negotiating
deals and avoiding scams.
General Business
Business Plans That Work: For Your Small Business
Learn the essential elements of creating a professional business plan.
Five sample business plans are provided along with detailed instructions
on how a successful small business should operate. This guide is intended
for both simple, one-person operations, as well as for corporations with
many employees.
Keeping the Books: Basic
Recordkeeping and Accounting for the Successful Small Business
Offers instruction on how to prepare and analyze financial statements,
how to set up bookkeeping systems for keeping track of financial details,
how to maintain the required IRS records necessary for staying out of
trouble, and how to plan for required taxes payments.
The Peter Principle
A business classic that explains how, “in a hierarchy every employee
tends to rise to his or her level of incompetence.” Learn how managers
frequently promote employees into positions that they can’t handle
and how this affects morale, productivity, and profit.
Power Freaks: Dealing With
Them in the Workplace or Anyplace
An analysis of why people act as power freaks at work. Learn how to recognize
power freaks and how to develop a strategy for getting along with them.
Readers can assess their own instinctual drive for power with the included
quiz.
RMA Annual Statement Studies.
This resource provides useful insight into an enterprise's financial
performance. Compare the financial condition and operating data of a
company to that of other similar sized companies within the same industry
using this collection of comparative financial data derived from more
than 150,000 financial statements of small and medium-sized businesses.
Management
The Accidental Manager: Get the Skills You Need
to Excel in Your New Career
Those who have recently been promoted into the ranks of management – even
if it was never their intention – can use this guide to make the
most of their situation. Learn practical management advice as well as
how to avoid common management mistakes.
The First 90 Days: Critical
Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels
Proven strategies for moving successfully into a new leadership role
at work are discussed. Learn how to accelerate the transitional process,
how to craft successful transitional strategies, and how to take charge
quickly. Also learn how to avoid common pitfalls that new leaders often
encounter.
Knock'em Dead Management
A guide to managing people, setting goals, and achieving success in the
workplace. This guide offers advice for first-time managers, such as
how to deal with employees, how to handle management duties after downsizing,
how to create and lead teams, and recruitment strategies.
Management: Tasks, Responsibilities,
Practices
A time-tested classic that attempts to prepare managers by giving them
the knowledge and skills necessary to lead effectively. Tools and techniques
used by successful managers are presented in a way that is meaningful
and accessible.
The One Minute Manager
For more than two decades, this essential management guide has taught
business professionals the basic principle that in order to manage effectively,
both positive and negative feedback must be communicated in a clear manner.
Marketing
Bang!: Getting Your Message
Heard in a Noisy World
Offers proven strategies for creating attention-grabbing messages for
promoting products and services. Learn how to create a memorable publicity
hook and how to design effective packaging.
Marketing to Women: How
to Understand, Reach, and Increase Your Share of the Largest Market
Segment
Explains why marketing professionals will benefit from allocating money
and attention to the largest untapped market in the world—women.
Learn why women make different purchasing decisions than men, and how
they react differently to marketing. This guide explains how to use gender-savvy
strategies to outsmart the competition and to increase profits.
Purple Cow: Transform Your
Business by Being Remarkable
Learn from the successful marketing strategies of companies like HBO,
Starbucks and JetBlue. This is a guide to discovering new ways of doing
business and creating products that are exciting and noticeable.
Wordcraft: The Art of Turning
Little Words into Big Business
The art of crafting the perfect product name is discussed, using as examples
brand names such as BlackBerry, Accenture, Viagra, the Porsche Cayenne,
and IBM's e-business. Learn how professional namers not only sell a name,
but also create a complete story to go with it. The characteristics of
a good product name – one that is both catchy and functional – are
also discussed.
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Federal Business Sites
United States Bureau
of Labor Statistics
Offers federal and regional economic data, plus links to other statistical
sites.
United States
Census Bureau
Provides statistics on people and businesses, as well as current census
news. Also includes a search engine for NAICS and SIC industrial classification
codes.
United States Patent
and Trademark Office
File for patents or trademarks, check the status of an application, or
search a database of registered patents and trademarks.
United States Small
Business Administration
A government organization whose mission is to aid, counsel, assist, and
protect the interest of small businesses. Includes many articles on how
to start, finance, and manage a small business.
Michigan Business Sites
Michigan
Department of Labor & Economic Growth
Provides career development resources for both workers and employers.
Michigan Economic
Development Corporation
Offers information about doing business in Michigan. Information about
starting and financing a new business venture as well as tips on licensing
and taxation are also provided.
General Business Sites
American Management
Association
This association is the world’s largest membership-based training organization.
AMA is dedicated to management education.
American
Marketing Association
This is the world’s largest and most comprehensive professional society
of marketers. The purpose of AMA is to promote education and assist in the
personal and professional career development among marketing professionals,
in addition to advancing the science and ethical practice of the marketing
discipline.
Bplans.com
A collection of free sample business plans. Helpful tools and advice on planning
and managing your small business are also provided.
Entreworld.org
Presented by the Kaufmann Foundation, this resource offers information on starting
and growing a business as well as links to organizations that support entrepreneurship.
Forbes.com
Offers current financial news, personal finance tips, information on top companies
and executives, and more.
SmallBizSearch.com
Subject guide and small business-topic search engine
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Estate Planning
8 Ways to Avoid Probate
Probate court proceedings can be both time-consuming and costly. This
consumer friendly guide offers eight strategies for avoiding probate
along with charts that show which probate avoidance techniques are available
in each state.
Living Trusts and Other
Ways to Avoid Probate
Learn the essentials of estate planning, setting up a living trust, and
other probate alternatives in this easy to read legal guide. An extensive
appendix includes living trust do-it-yourself forms and instructions
for various situations.
Plan Your Estate
This guide to estate planning discusses trusts, federal estate and gift
taxes, durable powers of attorney, living wills, and funerals and burials.
Sample estate plans are also provided, as well as a glossary of estate-planning
terms.
The Will Kit
This kit explains the estate planning process and contains the information,
forms, and worksheets necessary for understanding how to create a will.
It also explains how to estimate net worth and to how to ensure that
assets end up with loved ones.
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General Economics
The Affluent Society
Galbraith has influenced liberal economists since the late 1950s. In
this classic on “the economics of abundance,” he explains
the true meaning of economic security and warns of the consequences that
result from economic inequality.
Applied Economics: Thinking
Beyond Stage One
A discussion of economics as it applies to contemporary real world problems.
Issues such as housing, medical care, discrimination, and the economic
development of nations are covered in plain language. Economic policies
are examined in terms of their lasting repercussions.
Economics: A Contemporary
Introduction
An introduction to economic theory that utilizes numerous real-life examples
and presents concepts in an accessible and interesting way. The text
also includes references to relevant Web addresses and online exercises.
Free to Choose: A Personal
Statement
Dr. Friedman has been espousing the principle of freedom in economics
and social issues for several years. This work includes his theories,
and how to implement solutions to what he feels are society’s economic
and social ills.
Naked Economics: Undressing
the Dismal Science
Learn about productivity, trade, capital markets, relative wealth, human
capital, globalization, inflation, and other economic concepts in language
that is both comprehensible and appealing. Complex economic ideas are
demystified through the use of familiar examples.
The Wealth of Nations
First published in 1776, this classic economic analysis promotes the
concept that individuals are entirely capable of setting and regulating
prices for their own goods and services. This is one of the earliest
and most influential works describing the workings of a capitalist economy.
Home Ownership
Buying Real Estate Foreclosures
Take advantage of the increasing number of homes being auctioned as a
result of defaulted mortgages and forfeited property. This guide explains
how to locate and finance real estate bargains from many different sources
including banks, public auctions, and government agencies.
Condos, Co-ops, and Townhomes:
A Complete Guide to Finding, Buying, Maintaining, and Enjoying Your
New Home
The pros and cons of owning a condo, co-op, and townhome are discussed
in this guide as well as the basic differences between each type of property.
Helpful advice for searching, financing, purchasing, and selling a condo,
co-op, or townhome are included along with answers to commonly asked
questions.
How to Buy a Home When You Can't Afford It
Prospective home buyers who think that they can’t afford closing
costs or get approved for a mortgage might benefit from the strategies
outlined in this guide. No-down and low-down financing options, mortgages
for people with less than perfect credit, and creative ways to cover
closing costs are among the topics discussed.
Tips and Traps When Buying
a Home
As the name indicates, this home buying guide points out tips and traps
to consider when buying a home. It also advises on how to choose the
right time to buy, how to determine what is affordable, how to select
the ideal house, how to choose the most appropriate financing option,
and how to choose a competent real estate agent.
Investment Guides
Mergent Bond Record
This investment guide offers complete coverage of corporate bonds, convertible
bonds, municipal bonds and notes, preferred stock, commercial paper,
money-markets, and more. More than 68,000 issues are reviewed.
Morningstar Mutual Funds
A useful tool for mutual fund investors that consists of commentaries,
benchmark data, and performance data on 1,600 funds. Offers essential
information for making informed investment decisions and includes analysts’ recommended
picks for long-term growth.
Standard & Poor’s
Stock Reports
Contains information on more than 6,800 publicly-held U.S. corporations,
including details on each corporation’s activities, development,
performance, and finances for the past ten years. Historical earnings,
dividend data, and investment recommendations are also included.
The Value Line Investment
Surveys
A valuable research tool for investors that provides analyses, forecasts,
and recommendations on stocks. Includes Selection
and Opinion, Ratings & Reports and Ratings & Reports: Small and
Mid-Cap Edition.
Personal Finance
The Automatic Millionaire:
A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich
A conversational, common-sense approach to financial planning that offers
practical advice, such as using direct deposits to retirement accounts,
reducing debt, and minimizing spending on nonessential items. Other financial
planning fundamentals such as shopping for interest rates, creating a
balanced retirement portfolio, and consolidating debt are also discussed.
Free Money to Change Your
Life
A compilation of 15,000 government programs, including contact information,
that can help you to start your own business, buy real estate, be an
inventor, get an internship, get your GED, get a job, relocate, and more.
Girl, Make Your Money Grow!:
A Sister's Guide to Protecting Your Future and Enriching Your Life
A guide for African American women that explains fundamental financial
planning principles. Strategies discussed include reducing debt, creating
streams of income, investing in 401(k)s and IRAs, and buying real estate.
Worksheets and exercises are intermixed with words of wisdom, affirmations,
and inspiring real-life stories of African American women who have successfully
reached their financial goals.
How to Get Out of Debt,
Stay Out of Debt & Live Prosperously
Offers advice on how to get out of debt from an author who was once in
debt himself. Learn how to recognize the warning signs of serious debt;
how to negotiate with creditors, collection agencies, and the IRS; how
to design a practical plan for paying off debt; and how to remain debt-free
forever.
The Random Walk Guide to
Investing: Ten Rules for Financial Success
Investing basics are presented in this clear and concise guide. Asset
allocation, diversification, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, IRAs, 401(k)s,
and Education Savings Accounts are discussed in a way that is understandable
for the layperson.
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Economics and Personal Finance Web Sites
Financial Web Sites
American Stock Exchange
This U.S. stock exchange is also the second largest options exchange
in the world.
BigCharts
This website is an interactive online securities charting service giving
free and unlimited access to company economic charts, reports, indicators,
and more.
NASDAQ
Nasdaq is the largest U.S. electronic stock market. Annual Reports, market
activity, and market trends information are provided.
NYSE, New York Stock Exchange
www.nyse.com
News, current data, and other information from the official website of
the New York Stock Exchange.
QUOTE.com
Quote.com is a collection of financial products, providing market data
and analytical tools to serious investors, active traders, and third-party
clients and websites in the finance and investment industries.
General Economics Web Sites
American
Economic Association
This association encourages economic research, issues publications on
economic subjects, and encourages perfect freedom of economic discussion.
The
Whitehouse Economic Statistics Briefing Room
The latest Federal economic and social statistics available.
Home Ownership Web Sites
Department
of Veterans Affairs
Home loan program specifically for veterans. Loans are often made without
any down payment and offer low interest rates.
Michigan
State Housing Development Authority [M.S.H.D.A.]
M.S.H.D.A. makes available low interest mortgages, and provides down
payment and home repair assistance.
U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development [H.U.D.]
Contains information for home buyers, including financing options and
home buying programs available through the Federal Housing Administration.
Also lists H.U.D. homes.
Personal Finance Web sites
CNN Money
Up-to-date information on the stock market, real estate market, automotive
news, technology, mutual funds, and personal finance.
Internal Revenue
Service
The official website for federal tax forms.
The Motley Fool
This company is dedicated to providing financial advice to people around
the world.
Nolo
Provides general information on wills, trusts, power of attorney, retirement,
eldercare, and more.
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Business and Economics Online Databases
General
Business File ASAP
A source of broker reports, trade publications, newspapers, journals
and company directory listings. Available through our website www.fpl.info
and at the library.
Reference
USA
A directory of US companies and residences. Searching may be done by
name, business type, location, executives, etc. Residential searching
can be done by name, address, phone number, etc. Available only at the
library.
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Business and Economics Periodicals
Barron's
A financial weekly magazine that analyses recent market activity and
offers forecasts for the week ahead. Each issue provides useful insights
on trading, companies, and the economy so that readers can make informed
and profitable investment decisions.
The Wall Street Journal
Offers daily economic news, reports on companies and industries, and
performance statistics on stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, and more.
Also provides current news on politics, technology, travel, weather,
and international economics.
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The Flint Public Library also offers a variety of business and economics magazines and trade journals:
Black Enterprise
Kiplinger’s Personal
Finance
Business to Business (Flint Area Chamber of Commerce)
Business Week
Labor Link
Consumer Reports
Michigan Business Report
Crain’s Detroit Business
Michigan Oil and Gas News
Fortune
Money
Harvard Business Review
Monthly Labor Review
Inc.
Smart Money
Industrial and Labor Relations
Working Mother
Industry Week
Working Women
Plus many more!
<< Page Top >>
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Updated
07/03/07
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