01. Basic Information
1.1 Location of headquarters (address, phone, fax)?
1.2 URL of company web page?
In beginning research on a specific firm it is important to ensure you have the correct name for your target firm. Check its location and webpage to confirm. It is also important to determine what kind of a company your target is. This is crucial in that the sources of information are different for different types of firms. For example, companies that trade stock on one of the exchanges are governed by the SEC in the U.S. and SEDAR in Canada and are required to disclose information regularly which provides important primary documents for corporate researchers. If it trades on one of the exchanges find out its stock ticker symbol, which you can use to streamline searching. Nonprofits in the U.S. and charities in Canada have very different reporting requirements and different kinds of information are available.
Spend some time and get to know the company web site. The scope of the web site will likely vary by the size of the firm.
Businesses must register with the Secretary of State office in the state they are located. Search Systems provides a meta search for all states in the U.S. and provinces in Canada. The best way to proceed is to choose “Corporations and Companies” and then select the state or province where the firm is headquartered. This will bring you to one or more corporate directories. This may vary by state or province. You can also search by state or province alone and explore all the possible information that is collected.
Open Corporates provides access to public records on privately held firms worldwide.
The Dunn and Bradstreet Report on your firm may contain additional information. You will need to purchase it from D&B.
Paid Resources (Requires Subscription)
Business Source Complete provides general information on privately held firms, and depending on size, also provides a Medtrack or Market Line report.
Mergent Market Atlas provides more comprehensive information on privately held firms. You can find of detailed company data on over 50,000 US and foreign public companies, current and historical (past 15 years) firm descriptions, statistics, financial information and ratios, SEC filings and annual reports, ESG scores, economic time series data, industry analytics and reports, and more.
Directory of Venture Capital & Private Equity provides some basic information on executives, fund size, industries and portfolios.