You just learned about a sales or business development opportunity. Or, perhaps, you encounter a new competitor. Now what? The first step is to gather information – and the Internet can be an effective and inexpensive source to do so. Here’s how:
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Business Intelligence Directories If it’s a relatively large business, you can find it listed with business intelligence directories such as Hoovers.com and Business.com, which provide detailed company information, including revenue, company executives, competitors, and more.
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Company Website Visit the company website. Read about the company and its management. Review management bios for current responsibilities and past accomplishments. Read the news section to see what’s been happening recently: big sales win; running out of money; lawsuit; lots of hype; or no news at all. And be sure to go back in history to see how the company has evolved, and discover any challenges and successes it has encountered.
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News Websites If the company is public, visit a news source such as Reuters.com or CanadaNewsWire.com, or the public stock exchange website to review news and press releases. Public companies are required to report both good and bad news, but they will often quickly remove bad news from their own website – something they can’t do on other websites.
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Media Archives The Way Back Machine at www.archive.org stores websites as they looked in the past. Other websites archive information from numerous sources. By searching and reviewing news articles written about a company – both present and past - you can gauge how the industry and media view a company, as opposed to press releases, which are written by the company.
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Search Engines and Newsgroups Conduct a general search on the company and its executives on major search engines and newsgroups.
You may be surprised at what you will find!
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Government Agencies Departments and organizations such as the Securities Commissions, Business Registration, Patent and Trademarks office, Superintendent of Bankruptcies, and others now offer free (or low cost) access to information on company directors, incorporation details, insider trading, and more.
Business Intelligence: Get the Goods on Your Customers, Partners, and Competitors - To learn more about this author, visit Mathew Georghiou's Website.
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Mathew Georghiou
(Visit Mathew's Website)
Mathew Georghiou, President and CEO,
MediaSpark Inc.
Mathew’s focus is on providing practical,
in-the-trenches business and technology
advice.
Mathew is founder of MediaSpark Inc – an
accomplished technology and design
company, with a focus on software
development and publishing, particularly
in the field of business education games
and simulations.
As CEO and lead software architect, he has
led hundreds of projects, including
multimedia CD-ROMs, Internet products and
websites, training programs, and
consulting projects. Mathew is also the
lead designer of the award-winning www.goventure.net>GoVenture
educational games and simulations.
GoVenture is a line of highly realistic
business and finance games for learning
that have positioned MediaSpark as a
pioneer in education and changing how
people learn.
Prior to MediaSpark, Mathew was an
engineer with IBM Celestica, where he won
several awards, including a national award
for innovation.
Mathew frequently speaks and writes on
topics such as entrepreneurship, business,
education, innovation, and economic
development.
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