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ENTR 2P91: Entrepreneurship

A brief guide to conducting research for your assignments.

Financial Feasibility Analysis

These resources can help you to:

Understand industry cost structures and levels of capital intensity
Compare the financial performance of similar businesses in your chosen industry
Estimate your startup costs and forecast sales
Find sources of startup funding

Industry Financial Statement Data Sources

What is the cost structure of similar businesses in your chosen industry?
Is the industry capital or labour intensive?
It is possible to benchmark your pro-forma financial statement data by type of business, size of business, and by line of business (e.g., industry or NAICS) using these sources:

Financial Performance Data (Industry Canada)
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It includes information from T1 General Returns and T2 Corporation Income Tax Returns. Note that non-profit organizations may have to file a T2 return if they are incorporated.
Canadian Industry Statistics (Industry Canada)

Consult These Library Databases for Industry Financials & Other Data:

IBISWorld Industry Research Database This link opens in a new window IBISWorld's US Industry Report collection include industry financial ratios (measuring Liquidity, Profitability, Leverage and Efficiency) that can be used to benchmark company performance.

First Research Industry Profiles (via Mergent Intellect) Each First Research industry profile includes financial performance data for over 900 industries.

Statista This link opens in a new window Contains more than 1 million statistics on over 80,000 topics.Contains Statista dossiers and industry reports for 170 industries and 150 countries.Includes market forecasts, as well as market, industry and country outlooks and insights.

Estimate Startup Costs & Forecast Sales

How to estimate startup costs (Intuit QuickBooks)
- A beginner's guide to startup costs including how to estimate startup costs for a restaurant.
Bottom-Up Sales Forecasting for Pre-revenue startups (MaRS)
Building an early-stage B2B sales forecast (MaRS)
Finance - MaRS Startup Toolkit

Funded: the entrepreneur's guide to raising your first round by Katherine Hague
Call Number: Read this online
Publication Date: 2017
See chapter 8: drafting financial projections
Start-Up: A practical guide to starting and running a new business by Tom Harris
Call Number: Read this online
Publication Date: 2018
See Chapter 8: "How do you create a financial model?" for guidance on how to forecast sales, set prices, plan employment needs and costs, capital expenditure, etc.
The Startup Owner's Manual: the step-by-step guide for building a great company by Steve Blank; Bob Dorf
Call Number: Read this online
Publication Date: 2012
See Chapter 12, Validate the financial model. Includes a discussion of "burn rate" and metrics that matter.
Entrepreneurial Finance, Fourth Edition: Finance and Business Strategies for the Serious Entrepreneur by Steven Rogers
Call Number: Read this online
Publication Date: 2020

Find Sources of Startup Funding