Get general background information

Attard, J. (2000). Business know-how: An operational guide for home-based and micro-sized businesses with limited budgets. Holbrook, MA: Adams Media. (HD 62.7 .A875 2000)

Find articles

ABI Inform [on-campus] [help]
Coverage: 1970 - present. Indexes more than 1,300 journals on business, management, with 75% full-text.

Business Source Premier [on-campus] [help]
Coverage: Varies– present. Business Source Premier provides full text for nearly 8,350 scholarly business journals and other sources, including full text for more than 1,100 scholarly business publications. Coverage includes virtually all subject areas related to business. This database provides full text (PDF) for more than 350 of the top scholarly journals dating as far back as 1922. Funded by the Maryland Digital Library (MDL). Includes company profiles, many of which contain SWOT analyses.

Find books and reports

Catalog USMAI [help]
Books, journals, government documents and other materials in the University System of Maryland, including UB.

Digital Dissertations (Dissertation Abstracts from Proquest) [on-campus]
Coverage 1861 – present. Indexes U.S., Canadian, British, and other European dissertations and theses; dissertations abstracted since 1980, theses abstracted since 1988. A 24 page preview of dissertations published since 1997 is available. The full text of dissertations may be obtained by clicking the free download button.

NetLibrary [on-campus] [help]
Coverage: Varies. A collection of E-texts covering specifically chosen by Maryland Academic Libraries. Funded by the Maryland Digital Library (MDL).

WorldCat [on-campus] [help]
Coverage: Varies. International database of collections (including books, journals , dissertations, documents, and other materials) held by libraries worldwide. Maryland libraries that own copies of the items display at the top of the list of libraries so you can easily determine if local libraries own the material needed. Records of any type of material cataloged by OCLC member libraries. Includes manuscripts written as early as the 12th century.

Financial and other resources

Annarino, A. (1998). The complete guide to federal and state support of business incubation. Athens, OH: National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) Publications. (XHD 62.5 .A57 1998).

Jenkins, M. D. & Bartholomew, E. C. (1995). Starting and operating a business in Maryland. Milpitas, CA: Oasis Press. (XKFM 1434 .J522 1995)

This book has information and advice for the would-be business owner in Maryland. A summary of pertinent state laws is included, and a list of state agencies.
For laws in other states use

Lexis-Nexis Academic [on-campus] [help]
Coverage: 1970 - present. Features full text of many newspapers and periodicals.  Also offers business news, legal materials such as federal & state codes, case law and legal journals.

O'Hara, P. D. (1998). SBA loans: A step-by-step guide (3rd ed.). New York: Wiley.
(XHG4027.7 .O43 1998)

The basics of getting an SBA loan.

U.S. Small Business Administration - Maryland district (2001, March). Washington:
U. S. Small Business Administration. Retrieved September 26, 2002 from http://www.sbaonline.sba.gov/regions/states/md/ .

Designed to provide entrepreneurs and small businesses with online assistance.

Prepare a business plan

Covello, J. A., & Hazelgren, B. J. (1998). Your first business plan: A simple question and answer format designed to help you write your own plan. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks. (HD62.5 .C685 1998)

Pearce,L. (Ed.). (2004). Business plans handbook (Vol.10). Detroit, MI: Gale Research. (XHD62.7 .B865 v.10)

A compilation of actual business plans developed businesses throughout North America. Langsdale has vols. 1-2, 5-6 as well.

Business and Company Resource Center [on-campus] [help]
Coverage: 1979 - present. Profiles 400,000 companies. Provides company histories, business articles, industry rankings and analyses for selected public companies.