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County Business Patterns (CBP) produced by the U.S. Census Bureau "is an annual series that provides subnational economic data by industry." Their web site goes on to report that the "series is useful for studying the economic activity of small areas; analyzing economic changes over time; and as a benchmark for statistical series, surveys, and databases between economic censuses." The series provides data on the total number of establishments, mid-March employment, first quarter and annual payroll, and number of establishments by nine employment-size classes by detailed industry for all counties in the United States and the District of Columbia.
http://www.census.gov/epcd/cbp/view/cbpview.html

The CBP allows the entrepreneur to analyze local business establishments. Think of the CBP as a business establishment counterpart to the population census analysis of families and individuals. “Establishments” are not necessarily stand-alone companies, but more often “outlets” for franchises. No names of franchises, however, appear in the tables. In addition to the Economic Census taken every 5 years, the CBP is the only U.S. Census Bureau work to cover the entire spectrum of economic activities listed in the NAICS Code and is provided annually. CBP data are extracted from the Business Register, the Census Bureau's file of all known single and multiestablishment companies. The Annual Company Organization Survey and quinquennial Economic Censuses provide individual establishment data for multi-location firms. Data for single-location firms are obtained from various programs conducted by the Census Bureau, such as the Economic Censuses, the Annual Survey of Manufactures, and Current Business Surveys, as well as from administrative records of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Social Security Administration (SSA), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The FAQ for County Business Patterns provides answers to most commonly asked questions on the type of data found in the reports. This is an excellent place to learn about the usefulness of this database.

It is easy to access data from the CBP database. In a later exercise we will go through the process. Data is reported in two separate tables for establishments. One table covers establishment payroll by NAICS code. It lists total dollar payrolls for the year and for the first quarter of the year by the NAICS code number. The second table covers employee size by NAICS code in 11 employment-size classes (annual totals, first quarter totals, and ranges from “1-4” employees to “1000 or more” employees).

Using a minimum of three years’ statistics to study change in number of total establishments, change in total number of employees, and change in payroll totals for the proposed start-up to create both an operating profile and to watch the competition allows the entrepreneur to plot future business expansion and contraction as well as showing your banker you've done your homework.

Although the CBP series began in 1946, only the last 15 years currently appear on-line. Consult the nearest GPO depository library for paper copies of these earlier years. GPO depository libraries may also lend their CD-ROM versions to library patrons, making its purchase unnecessary.