Doing Research On Businesses on the Internet

The Internet contains a wealth of business information. You can find executive compensation, potential sales contacts, and unadvertised job openings, when you know where to look. Unfortunately, there isn’t one site yet that has all the links that you need. However, bookmarking just a few sites will get you to the right business information quickly.

Fortuneand Incmagazines publish annual lists of the Top 500 companies worldwide. The Inc list also reports each company’s previous rank. If you view the Fortune list on their web site, you have the option of selecting companies in your area, by industry and several other views that can enhance your research goals.

Even when you are not in the market for investing, review stock quotes for publicly held companies. Looking up a corporation’s stock ticker at Yahoo Finance or MSN Moneygives you valuable insight into the industry and the company’s position within its industry category. However, Hooversshould be your first stop when you need to find key executives or their salaries.

You can find contact information about the owners of both public and private companies in their Secretary of State registration records. Get reliable business, labor and economic data from many government data sources . All nonprofits with 501c3 status (tax exempt) must file annual reports with the IRS. Their information is available through Guidestar . The MSU Global Edge International Business portal has company directories, international news links, and a variety of trade research tools. For reliable international trade data choose Stat USA .

Trade magazines , business association news and mailing lists can be a good source of sales prospects. Industry conferences and tradeshows can be valuable sources of company information that will not be available to the public immediately. Getting news updates from CNN Money about companies that interest you can be useful for tracking their financial health and any new developments or product lines. Major corporations often publish their own in-house newsletters and reports that they share with the public. Use Business Wire to track press releases about important staff changes or operations and management decisions that companies make.