Business.com
Buy Buy
Home » Directory » Management » Strategic Planning » Business Information » Company Research

Company Profile Research

Run a business background check on a competitor or client with data from these providers of competitive intelligence and business research.
Business Information for Company Research
Get unlimited access to company profiles for all U.S. businesses. View detailed company information and build lists of sales leads. Free 7-day trial.
www.selectory.com
Full Company Profiles
Research Global Companies & Execs. Detailed Business Info - Free Trial
www.OneSource.com
Dun & Bradstreet
Grow & Protect Your Business. Trust D&B For Credit Information.
www.dnb.com
Company Research
Access Business Information For All U.S. Companies & Build Lists Now!
www.selectory.com
Find Company Profiles
Free access to Company Profiles, SEC Filings, News, and more.
www.SECFilings.com
Unlimited Sales Leads
Double Your Sales w/100 Free Leads! See Our Super Bowl Ad 866-313-0396.
www.SalesGenie.com
Market Research, 24/7
Infiniti Research is a leading intl bespoke market research company.
www.Infiniti-Research.com
Free Company Name Search
Incorporate a C-Corp, S-Corp or LLC Free corp name search for visitors!
www.enitia.com
Business Search?
Hands Free Home Based Business 12+ Income Streams, No Work. Free!
www.PPCvirus.com
Company Research Info
Check to see if a company has any lawsuits or court judgment filings.
www.KnowX.com
Business Search
Quick Set-Up, Easy to Configure, Powerful Enough to Meet Your Needs.
www.Microsoft.com/EnterpriseSearch
Company Profiles
Exclusive Bios of Top Companies in Portfolio's Company Database.
Portfolio.com
Listings
Business Information for Company Research
Get unlimited access to company profiles for all U.S. businesses. View detailed company information and build lists of sales leads. Free 7-day trial.
www.selectory.com (Paid)
Company Information Via the Net
Ithaca College Library guide presents company research techniques in outline form, followed by a list of links to directories and other sources of company information.
www.bondra.com
CorporateInformation
Reports feature analysis of sales trends, profitability, stock performance, financial position, research and development expenditures and dividends on corporations in several countries. Directory is searchable by stock ticker or country.
www.corporateinformation.com
CorporateInformation.com - Free Profiles on 31,000 Companies
A global research service with free profile reports and subscription services covering over 31,000 publicly traded companies in over 55 countries.
www.corporateinformation.com(Paid)
KnowX.com
Public Records research for business & background checks.
www.knowx.com
Researching a Company: Babson College Library Guide
Subject-based summary of company research techniques and information sources. Some resources are available only to Babson College faculty and students.
www.babson.edu
Securities Law
Designed to provide information to the Internet community regarding the law as it relates to the US financial markets.
www.seclaw.com
Stock Market Yellow Pages
Search public companies based upon their business information for free.
www.stockmarketyellowpages.com
UK Companies
Directory of UK companies and related news, provided by UK Business Park.
www.ukbusinesspark.co.uk
  • Edgar Online, Inc.
  • Equifax, Inc.
  • Hoover's
Full Company Profiles
Research Global Companies & Execs. Detailed Business Info - Free Trial
www.OneSource.com
Dun & Bradstreet
Grow & Protect Your Business. Trust D&B For Credit Information.
www.dnb.com
Company Research
Access Business Information For All U.S. Companies & Build Lists Now!
www.selectory.com

Jason Agard explains the best uses of competitive intelligence

Guide to Company Profile Research

Use business information to ace a job interview or sales pitch


 
 

Competitive Intelligence 101

  • Learn to do business research with public records available on the Web
  • Distribute competitive intelligence freely in your organization
  • Make an ongoing commitment to keep business intelligence up to date
 
 
A company profile is a summary of a company’s lines of business, company history, executives, financials, and other business information you can use to prep for a job interview or sales call or to gather business development opportunities or competitive intelligence.

Business information publishers sell company profiles as part of extensive corporate info databases or as single company research reports but there’s also plenty of free corporate information profiles out on the Web.

A company profile should deliver an easily digestible dose of business info including:

1. Company information such as subsidiaries and office locations to give an idea of how the business is organized.
2. Important products, lines of business, info on markets served and other facts that show how the company competes.
3. Lists of senior staff in the company, profiles of major executives, and possibly contact information.
4. Recent company history.
5. Recent reported financial performance, but typically not stock performance or Wall Street-style company research.

Action Steps for Gaining Competitive Intelligence

The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Competitive Intelligence Action Step Company profiles from D&B D&B is a vast storehouse of business information - just about every U.S. company gets a DUNS number from D&B to establish a credit rating.

I recommend:  D&B’s two main company profile research products are Selectory, aimed at sales people, and Hoovers, a more robust database for general corporate use.

Competitive Intelligence Action Step Company profiles from infoUSA infoUSA is a powerhouse in sales of marketing information on consumers, but its researchers also compile tons of corporate information.

I recommend:  infoUSA offers general corporate profile research via its OneSource arm, and corporate info on high-firm firms via CorpTech.

Competitive Intelligence Action Step Company profile research from LexisNexis LexisNexis is a major information provider to libraries and law firms.

I recommend:  The LexisNexis Company Dossier blends company profiles with news, financial data and legal information.

Competitive Intelligence Action Step Research companies with Gale The Gale Group is another big provider of general and company research to the library market.

I recommend:  Gale’s Goliath service sells company profiles as a complete database or as single documents.

Competitive Intelligence Action Step Corporate info profiles from Standard & Poor's Standard & Poor's rates the credit of major corporations and is the keeper of the S&P 500 stock index among other financial information services.

I recommend:  Standard & Poor’s sells company profiles with a financial bent under the Capital IQ brand.

Competitive Intelligence Action Step Free company profile research Buy a subscription to a company profile research database to get the deepest information and the most ability to sort the data. But first, take advantage of the many free company profiles available on the Web.

I recommend:  Find free company profiles written from the employee point of view on job-hunting sites Monster and Vault. Search 9,000 profiles of big companies from financial news service Reuters and more than 360,000 profiles at BusinessWeek magazine’s Company Insight Center. The investment-oriented Yahoo! Finance integrates Capital IQ data into its company profiles; search using the company’s stock ticker symbol. And, although it’s a subscription service, Hoovers offers much of its company research database for free.

Tips & Tactics for Best Use of Business Intelligence

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
  • Company profile vendors offer free trials, so you can comparison shop easily.
  • A good source of company profiles are the annual company rankings published by magazines, like the Fortune 500, the Inc. 500 and many more industry-specific rankings from trade magazines.
  • If you're looking for credit reports or sales lead generation tools, you're better off going with services more targeted to those needs than using company profiles.

Directory Listings  |  Company Profiles  |  Web Listings  |  Advertise With Us
Checkmark

How-To Guide from WORK.COM

Guide author
By Jeff Copeland
Use business information to ace a job interview or sales pitch.
A company profile is a summary of a company’s lines of business, company history, executives, financials, and other business information you can use to prep for a job interview or sales call or to gather business development opportunities or ... Read more
Sponsored Links

B2B search marketing Free B2B search marketing whitepaper, 2008 B2B Search Marketing Strategy Guide: Advice From the Pros.
To advertise on Business.com, click here

Refine Your Search

Subscribe to

Try our free weekly WhatWorks
newsletter, with business how-to advice
& resources from Work.com.

click here to view a sample issue

Advertising Center | Advertiser Login | Featured Listings | Management and Strategy | News
© 2008 Business.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy | Terms Of Use | Help | About Us | Jobs | Work.com