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Information Services Industry Resources

Information Services- Sector Overview
This part gives you a quick overview of this industry sector, the number of businesses that comprise the sector broken down into large and small businesses along with a discussion about some issues and challenges facing the businesses.

Information Services - List of Businesses
This section provides our readers with a listing of the businesses that are categorized under this industry classification.

Information Services - Resource Directory
A great tool put together painstakingly by our staff that identifies the major associations and organizations that serve the various businesses in this industry classification.  Besides the name and website, you will also find a brief description about the organization.  Our small business owners always thank us for putting this tool together – we are confident that you will find it useful as well. 

EDUCATIONAL SERVICES – SECTOR OVERVIEW   

The first step in determining how to write a business plan at Trident Consultants involves identifying the correct business sector to which our client’s business belongs.  The information services sector is a vast industry classification as per the NAICS – North American Industry Classification System.  It covers businesses like newspaper publishers, periodical publishers, book publishers, software publishers, motion picture distributors, sound recording studios, record production, music publishers, radio broadcasting, television broadcasting, internet publishing, wired communication carriers, cellular telecommunications, cable program distributors, news syndicates and many others.  (A detailed listing of information service businesses has been included at the end of this page.)

There are over a 216k larger businesses (with employees) in this industry sector that employ over 3.4 million people with a total payroll of $203 billion.  On average the larger information services firms have at least 16 employees and the average income nationally for each of these employees is about $59k.

In the small business world covering firms with no employees, there are 290k such information services firms with total gross receipts of $10 billion and the average annual income as reported by each firm of around $34k.

The information age is upon us and with the growth of the internet and other emerging technologies the information services industry has faced the most dramatic changes and challenges. 

A business plan for the newspaper publishing for example has to include how tough it has been for newspapers who have been facing constant declining readership and circulation while many of their customers have moved on to the web.  Thus a strategic plan has to be included in the business plan for any publishing business that addresses the web and the challenges it poses.  It is a fair to say that any new newspaper publishing business that does not have an active web strategy will find it very hard to survive in the days ahead.

Yet another challenge facing the information industry in general is the massive proliferation of internet blogs which are independent news sites created and maintained by individuals or small teams of people.  Often these are specialists in the area that they report on and are able to bring a unique perspective and point of view as news breaks instantly via their blogs.  Competition from blogs must be addressed in the business planning process for any information company.

The record production industry too is facing challenges from independent artists using the internet to release their own music directly to the marketplace – this has resulted a drop in sales volumes for traditional record production – a sound business plan must include a strategy for the record production companies to compete with the internet and be able to release their own material online as well as in the traditional formats. 

Both internet publishers and paper publishers are completely dependent on advertising revenues and that of course means that they are subject to the vagaries of the larger economic cycle.  The business planning process must address these items and make provisions for those months where advertising revenues may be slower than normal.  Often having a business loan or line of credit may assist the business during its slow cash flow intake days.

Data processing firms are facing serious competition from overseas markets like India and indeed many companies have had to move their operations overseas to stay competitive.  Oddly enough the increasing cost of real estate and growth of local economies is now making these international markets uncompetitive and with the growth of emerging technologies it may well be possible for these firms to bring some of this business back to US shores.

If you are starting a business offering information services, or are already established but are looking to grow, secure a partner, venture capital or business loans, we would be happy to help. 

EDUCATIONAL SERVICES – LIST OF BUSINESSS:

The following is a list of the various businesses that fall under this industry sector:

Publishing Industries (except Internet)
Newspaper Publishers
Periodical Publishers
Book Publishers
Directory and Mailing List Publishers
Other Publishers
Greeting Card Publishers
All Other Publishers
Software Publishers
Software Publishers

Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries
Motion Picture and Video Production
Motion Picture and Video Distribution
Motion Picture and Video Exhibition
Motion Picture Theaters (except Drive-Ins)
Drive-In Motion Picture Theaters
Tele-production and Other Postproduction Services
Other Motion Picture and Video Industries
Record Production
Integrated Record Production/Distribution
Music Publishers
Sound Recording Studios
Other Sound Recording Industries

Broadcasting (except Internet)
Radio Broadcasting
Radio Networks
Radio Stations
Television Broadcasting
Cable and Other Subscription Programming

Internet Publishing and Broadcasting
Internet Publishing and Broadcasting

Telecommunications
Wired Telecommunications Carriers
Wireless Telecommunications Carriers (except Satellite)
Paging
Cellular and Other Wireless Telecommunications
Telecommunications Resellers
Satellite Telecommunications
Cable and Other Program Distribution
Other Telecommunications

Internet Service Providers, Web Search Portals, and Data Processing Services
Internet Service Providers
Web Search Portals
Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services

Other Information Services
News Syndicates
Libraries and Archives
All Other Information Services