Every four years, the U.S. Census conducts a Survey of Business Owners (SBO) to document changes in the types of entrepreneurs and business formations.

The most recent SBO was conducted in 2007, and the main Census data release is scheduled to be made available this month. You can use this data to target specific industries (by NAICS code) for your geographic market area based on: the number of establishments, sales, number of paid employees and annual payroll.

Details also are available on business ownership in your market area by gender and ethnicity, and this data can be useful in targeting minority- and women-owned businesses. You can explore the details at the Census' SBO home page: http://www.census.gov/econ/sbo