Guides: Entrepreneurship & Small Business: Opportunities

Idea Generation

Books to help you develop the creative mindset that will enable you to generate compelling business and product / service concepts.

Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam
Call Number: HD30.29 .R625 2009
ISBN: 9781591843061
Solving problems and selling ideas with pictures.
Brainsteering by Kevin P. Coyne; Shawn T. Coyne
Call Number: HD53 .C695 2011
ISBN: 9780062006196
A better approach to breakthrough ideas.
Disciplined Dreaming by Josh Linkner
Call Number: HD53 .L56 2011
ISBN: 9780470922224
A proven system to drive breakthrough creativity.
Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko
Call Number: HD53 .M53 2006
ISBN: 1580087736
A handbook of creative-thinking techniques.
Best Practices Are Stupid by Stephen M. Shapiro
Call Number: HD58.8 .S4775 2011
ISBN: 9781591843856
40 ways to out-innovate the competition.
Little Bets by Peter Sims
Call Number: HF5386 .S546 2011
ISBN: 9781439170427
How breakthrough ideas emerge from small discoveries.
Juicing the Orange by Pat Fallon; Fred Senn
Call Number: HF5415 .F27 2006
ISBN: 1591399270
How to turn creativity into a powerful business advantage.

These databases are useful for researching consumer attitudes, behaviors and trends.

iPoll (Roper)
Statistics and data gathered from multiple surveys administered by organizations in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Data includes opinions and behavior on social issues, politics, pop culture, and international affairs. To download datasets, create a personal account.
Provided by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, Roper iPoll is the largest collection of poll data anywhere — from 1935 to present. Contains data from U.S. and international polling firms with broad topical coverage of opinions and behavior on social issues, politics, pop culture, international affairs, and more. International and U.S. datasets available for immediate download.

George R. and Martha Means Center for Entrepreneurial Studies
ISU's local resource for entreprenership opportunities and consulting.
ISU Startup Showcase
ISU's student startup competition.

Angel List
Matching entrepreneurs with investors.
Excelerate Labs (Chicago)
Founded in 2010, the firm has graduated 20 firms, most notably Groupon.
Kickstarter
A funding platform for creative projects.
LaunchNow
An online game that lets you build a real a real life company from the ground up or improve your current company.
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
A highly competitive program that encourages domestic small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) that has the potential for commercialization.
Small Business Technology Transfer (SBTT)
Program that expands funding opportunities in the federal innovation research and development (R&D) arena by expanding of the public/private sector partnership to include the joint venture opportunities for small businesses and nonprofit research institutions.
TechCrunch Startups
TechNexus (Chicago)
Founded in 2007, the clubhouse where Chicago’s technology leaders gather.
TechStars
Helps startups and other incubators alike.
Y Combinator
Since 2005 has funded 380 startups, including Loopt, Reddit, Clustrix, Wufoo, Scribd, Xobni, Weebly, Songkick, Disqus, Dropbox, ZumoDrive, Justin.tv, Heroku, A Thinking Ape, Posterous, Airbnb, Heyzap, Cloudkick, DailyBooth, WePay, Bump, Stripe, AeroFS, and Hipmunk.

Research the prevailing trends in thousands of different industries to look for potential area of opportunity for your new product / service idea.

Business Source Complete
Full text database of business information including scholarly journals, books, author profiles, and company information.
Includes sources published from 1886 to present
IBISWorld
Comprehensive full text industry research reports providing analysis and data on key statistics like supply/demand chain, market characteristics, product and customer segments, cost structure, industry conditions, key drivers, major players and market share, recent performance, and 5-year revenue forecasts.
Mergent Archives
Full text database of corporate and industry reports including corporate manuals, municipal manuals, annual reports, equity reports, SEC filings, key business ratios, and first research industry reports.
Includes reports from the following sources Dun & Bradstreet Country Insight Reports, Dun & Bradstreet Million Dollar Directory, Hoovers Handbooks, Commodity Research Bureau Yearbook, Mergent patent archives, Mergent Bond Record, Dun & Bradstreet Who Owns Whom, and FTSE Russell Index Reports.

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Visit me: Milner Library, room 418
Please contact for in-person appointment.

Email: dmfutor@ilstu.edu

309-438-5891

Subjects: Accounting, Business Administration, Business Education, Business Information Systems, Finance, Insurance, and Law, International Business, Management, Marketing, Masters of Business Administration

Franchising.com
Not as comprehensive in the variety of offerings for each industry, but notable for the sorting and ranking features of the database.
FranNet
Extensive information on buying a franchise and franchising your business. Includes links to franchise opportunities.

Springwise
Check out the "Ideas Database" for recent new products / service introductions.

Business Source Complete
Here, you can narrow your results under "Source Type" to include only product reviews.
Includes sources published from 1886 to present