Scott Hersey Expert Guru

With a dozen years as a print reporter and editor, and another decade spent in the online world, on both the editorial and marketing sides, Scott Hersey has solid experience to draw on as LifeTips.com's Business Research guru. Scott's been an award-winning reporter and editor on all subjects, including business news, for newspapers in New England and Chicago. He's worked for online news sites in New Jersey and Maine as a web producer and editor. On the business side, Scott spent nearly five years in a web start-up in Massachusetts, where he developed a busy and successful web site that integrated community and business news, technical and information, and how-to guides and was promoted to VP Marketing. Today, he works in online learning for a Fortune 500 company, where he immerses himself in business research on a daily basis. And he’s been known to read business journalism for fun.

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How to Find Industry-Specific Business Research

It's one thing to obtain a company profile from a business information publisher. But to really do competitive intelligence, you need access to information across an entire industry or industry segment. So how to do you find sources for industry-specific business research? There are two ways -- both relatively easy. You can go to a business research umbrella site that offers up research across dozens, even hundreds, of industry segments. But with a little Googling, you should be able to find sites that offer industry-specific business research for the actual industry segment in which you are interested.

Take Business Blogs Seriously

If you're trying to do to research on a business -- competitive or investigating a potential partner or client -- a business blog can be a big help. Business blogs can often penetrate the PR wall and break news about what's really going on at the business you are researching. A couple of warnings: Not every business has business bloggers who write about the business -- but the big ones usually do. And business bloggers aren't held to the same standard as other journalists. So you can't believe everything you read. But as a source for inside information, a good business blog can offer a window you might not otherwise see.

Millions and Millions of Profiles

Company profiles are the backbone of business research. A solid company profile obtained from a leading publisher of business information should tell you about the company's finances, where it stands in its industry segment, any outstanding court cases or recent judgements -- even the names and contact information for current company officers. If you're looking for business profiles, they're easy to find online. You can even get some for free at sites like Yahoo Business. If you're looking to purchase company profiles from a commercial publisher, make sure you choose one that has a good company profile database -- in the millions -- and offers a free trial, or at least examples of what you'll find when you actually purchase a profile.

Find an Online Business Intelligence Specialist

You can try to do business intelligence yourself -- and sometimes you may have to -- but it's a lot easier and often less expensive in the long run to pay for access to an online business intelligence specialist. Dun & Bradstreet is the gold standard here, with millions of profiles of both public and private companies. You can buy service direct from D&B, or from one of many resellers on the web. Business intelligence information is usually sold either by the specific download or by providers who offer unlimtied access for a monthly or yearly fee. If you only have an occasional need for business intelligence, a per-download scenario will work for you. If business intelligence is part of your daily work, however, an unlimited plan might be the best answer.

Ask EDGAR

Public companies doing business in the US are required to release financial data on a quarterly and yearly basis. All of this information is available online in the SEC's EDGAR database. This is a great place to start if you're looking to do public company research. Also, try to find the company's annual report, and check for recent news articles about the company in online archives. You can also purchase a company profile from a business information publisher.

What About a Business Wiki?

What's a Business Wiki? It's a collaborative web site in which anyone can help to write and edit a business profile, which is then made available to the public. That's right, anyone can write and edit the copy. It's an interesting wrinkle in the ever-changing web world. And you'd likely be surprised at how much information you can find in a Business wiki. Of course, you have to take the information for what it is -- unverified. But if you're doing business-to-business research, a business Wiki might offer up some interesting facts that you can confirm through other research.

News Alerts and RSS

You can pay a clip service or Lexis-Nexis to keep you updated on current company news about any business that interests you. But it's not so hard today to build your own online news service. Between Google news alerts and blogs with RSS feeds, you can set yourself up relatively easily to receive email alerts every time current company news is published. Best part: It's all free and you can create as many alerts as you want.

Best Business Research Resources are Online

The best business resources for conducting business research today are Internet-based. Google "business research" and you'll find hundreds, even thousands, of web sites that offer business research. Which business research site is right for you? It depends on what you're looking for. If you're researching a public company, you can often find lots of information through the SEC's EDGAR online database, which is open to the public. You can also look for business blogs and archives of newspaper stories to help with your business research. Private companies, which are not required to give up nearly as much information, can be harder to research. You will likely have to pay a commercial provider, like Dun & Bradstreet, for specific business research about a private company.

Cheaper by the Download

Small businesses often don't have a lot of money for anything extra -- and business research is often considered an extra cost. But you can't ignore business research -- for competitive intelligence, building a business plan, or even finding sales contacts. If you're a small business owner without a lot of money, you can try your own Internet research. But using a business information publisher who charges by the download can be less expensive in the long run. Many leading business information publishers offer reports for small businesses. Pay for what you use when you need it and avoid monthly or annual fees.

How to Do a Company Credit Search

Doing a company credit search is surprisingly easy. Credit information isn't as private as you might think it is. The big three credit reporting agencies -- Experian, Equifax and Trans Union -- will sell credit reports on any business to anyone who can show a legitimate business need, which isn't too hard to do. You can also conduct a company credit search through many online business research sites, which will resell credit information as par of a larger company profile.