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ENT 3315: Starting/Managing a Business

This guide contains resources to help students as they begin research for thier business plan.

Intro to Industry Information

Industry information - databases

These are databases that will help you find industry information .

Industry codes - What are they?

If you are not a business major, industry codes can be kind of confusing -- what are they and what are they used for?   Here is what you need to know:

  • Industry codes are used to classify like businesses together.  This is helpful so that businesses that grow oranges can be compared to other businesses that also grow oranges and coffee shops can be compared to other coffee shops.   They also help us gather some really helpful industry numbers such as industry revenue.
  • Businesses in the United States have used two (2) industry codes.
    • SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) code was developed in the 1930's
    • NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) code was developed in the late 1990's

Here is what the system of industry codes looks like:

The following shows the arrangement of the SIC code:

Major Group

48

Communications

Industry Group Number

483

Radio & Television Broadcasting Stations

Industry Number

4832

Radio Broadcasting Stations

 

The following shows the arrangement of the NAICS code:

Sector

51

Information

Subsector

515

Broadcasting (except Internet)

Industry Group

5151

Radio Broadcasting/ Broadcasting

NAICS Industry

51511

Radio Broadcasting

Individual U.S. Industries

51512

Radio Stations

 

  • Industry codes can be used to research industries,  Several of the databases listed on this page use industry codes as means of organizing or searching for information.
  • You can search for an industry code by going to the U.S. Census page and using the NAICS Lookup option (https://www.census.gov/eos/www/naics/).

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