New look, new data: YourEconomy.org Economic Gardening website gets major makeover

New look, new data: YE website gets major makeover

http://www.YourEconomy.org (YE), the Edward Lowe Foundation’s unique tool for tracking economic performance, has launched its redesigned website — with NETS data for calendar years 1995 through 2009.

In addition to the 2009 data, some of YE’s new features include:

* Sales information for all establishment sectors and stages.

* The growth-factors page now shows how many openings were due to new establishments launched by existing establishments (see Opened Existing column), which gives more insight into the economic contributions of existing growth companies.

* In addition to the 50 states, data is available for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

* The composition and growth sections have been combined to help with trend spotting.

* A single slider bar combines years and makes it easier to view different time periods.

* A dynamic time-series graph shows growth through time. Click on any point on the graph, and YE takes you to the numbers it represents.

* A help section can be accessed by clicking on an icon on the top left-hand page of data sections.

* The rankings section takes advantage of the slider bar and makes available any combination of years available on YE.

"One of the most significant aspects of the redesign is that the data has been built from the county level up through MSAs and states to the national level with industry codes," says Gregg Cole, the foundation’s information technology research manager. "Although this is a hidden feature that YE users can’t see, it strengthens our platform and helps us build a verification process by cross-referencing the data at a local level."

There are also a number of changes on YE+, the website’s subscription service, including two major ones:

* Instead of 20 two-digit NAICS codes, subscribers will now be able to select from a list of 100 three-digit NAICS codes – a fivefold increase that enables researchers to slice and dice data at an even more granular level.

* In addition to building customized geographic regions down to the ZIP code level, YE+ subscribers can create their own custom industry clusters using the three-digit NAICS codes.

Due to licensing considerations and the sheer volume of data being offered, pricing for the YE+ subscription service has increased slightly, Cole observes. "Yet with these upgrades, new features and enhanced customization capabilities, YE and YE+ not only provide a broader and more powerful set of tools, but also an unprecedented amount of data to gain a better understanding of our economy."

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About http://www.YourEconomy.org (YE) and YE+: YE and YE+ provide timely, in-depth data about business activity within communities, tracking the performance of more than 24 million active establishments between 1995 and 2009 at the national, state, MSA and county levels. Both YE and YE+ draw their data from the National Establishment Time Series (NETS), a longitudinal database developed by Walls & Associates in Oakland, Calif.

About the Edward Lowe Foundation: Established in 1985, the Edward Lowe Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports entrepreneurship through research, recognition and educational programs, which are delivered through entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs). The foundation focuses on second-stage companies – those that have moved beyond the startup phase and seek significant, steady growth.

Media contact: T.J. Becker at 269-445-4294 or [email protected].