How to use Reference USA A Guide To Creating Your Own Targeted Company Database By Tom Jackson Business Development (5-2010)

Reference USA NOTE Reference USA is a database of over 14 million US companies, both private and public. Keep in mind: -Participation in the database is voluntary and not all companies do post their information. -Some companies will be listed but not have their revenues posted -Some companies will have only their corporate office/location listed but not all subsidiaries – others will have every local sales office The US Census Dept. maintains the data that is the database for Reference USA.

Reference USA - Quick Start to finding more companies like those your know

Find a local library that has Reference USA (most do) and verfiy that they support remote on-line access to the databases. You only need a Texas Drivers license to get a card – do not need to live in the town where the library is located. Start by clicking on the US Business (circled in Red) Reference USA – Getting Started

The fastest way to find your INDUSTRY’s NAICS/SIC codes to start your TARGET LIST is to search on a current/potential client or employers name. This search will provide you with the NAICS information on that company. A search on this NAICS information will result in a TARGETED list of your former company’s COMPETITORS. (YOUR former employer’s name here) Targeted Accounts – Quick Start

Select your company’s name from list. You may see the name listed more than once. You typically want to select the main office location to get the greatest amount of information. Targeted Accounts – Quick Start

With your employer’s NAICS / SIC code number(s). Your can now enter these number(s) to get a list of ALL companies in that industry subset – this includes competitors!! SIC NAICS

Targeted Accounts – Quick Start Go back main menu: 1)Click on Custom Search 2)Click on Business Type 3)Click on Keyword/SIC/NAICS 4)Click on Search All NAICS (or SIC if using SIC codes) 5)Enter NAICS code 4

Targeted Accounts – Quick Start Click on View Results to see a complete listing of Targeted Companies. Now you can go back and use the various filters to size the listing to something more manageable. You can also download from this page – however you may only be able to download 10 or 15 companies at a time. Depends on library

Reference USA - Tips for using additional features

The above is the main Reference USA screen. From here, click on the Custom Search for more advanced options. Or just use the ‘quick search’ field to search on company name or any of the other basic fields. Reference USA – Tips

From the Custom Search page you can select the Geographic Region (I prefer MSA) and the Business Type (I prefer Major Industry Groups to get to the NAICS codes). Then select which Industry by NAICS code you want to export. Click on Update Count to refresh the data set. You can also filter on number of employees and revenue by selecting Business Size.

Reference USA – Tips This is the search results page with a listing of all companies that meet your search criteria. From here you can either click on the company name to see more detail or export the companies you selected (download)

Reference USA – Tips From this page you can download your file (I prefer.csv and Custom for more detail).

Reference USA - Detail on the custom search fields

Reference USA – Custom Search Fields From the main screen click on ‘US Businesses’. On the next screen click on ‘Custom Search’

Reference USA NOTE Reference USA is a database of over 14 million US companies, both private and public. Keep in mind: -Participation in the database is voluntary and not all companies do post their information. -Some companies will be listed but not have their revenues posted -Some companies will have only their corporate office/location listed but not all subsidiaries – others will have every local sales office The US Census Dept. maintains the data that is the database for Reference USA.

Reference USA – Custom Search Fields Main Custom Search Page These nine parameters are the key fields to filter your search results on. By using any number of these filters you can narrow your results to a targeted focused group. When doing a search make sure to click on ‘Update Count’ to see how many total companies are being returned.

Reference USA – Custom Search Fields ‘Company Name’ and/or ‘Brands and Products’ Can filter on just what the names imply. Can use separately or together

Reference USA – Custom Search Fields ‘Executives’ These three fields can be used separately or together. Note: The amount of executive information is fairly limited. Therefore the results on these searches may yield only few companies.

Reference USA – Custom Search Fields One of the most powerful search fields is ‘Business Type’. Keywords: Lets you search by keywords (ie Oil, PC, Software, Physicians). From the list you can choose which to add to your selected filter. You can also type in your NAICS or SIC codes here to search on those companies. Major Industry Group: This search lets you choose whole industry NAICS groups for maximum coverage. You can also click through the hierarchical structure of each industry classification.

Reference USA – Custom Search Fields One of the most powerful search fields is ‘Geography’. Can set filters for any number of geographical or regional qualifiers. The ‘Metro Area’ is a very useful one to focus in on a large metropolitan area from any state(s).

Reference USA – Custom Search Fields ‘Phone’ Can filter on just what the names imply. Can use separately or together

Reference USA – Custom Search Fields One of the most powerful search fields is ‘Business Size’. Number of Employees: Lets you narrow your search to specific company size or sizes (ie can pick 1-4 and 20-49). Sales Volumes: Lets you target specific company sales. Note: Dollar amounts are from most recent public information. Note: ‘Show more options’ Lets you set your own custom Boolean search parameters.

Reference USA – Custom Search Fields ‘Ownership’ Can filter on just what the names imply. One of the fields is Private or Public Companies. Can use separately or together

Reference USA – Custom Search Fields ‘Financial Data’ Not actual dollar amounts (these are found in ‘Business Size’) Can filter on specific financial metrics – similar to Hoovers

Reference USA – Custom Search Fields ‘Special Selects’ This is the ‘Misc’ of the filters. A number of less common, yet valuable search parameters

How to use the NAICS Hierarchy Level 3 Level 2 (20 base industries) Level 4 Level 5 (competitors & suppliers) Level 6 (competitors) All Industries All Companies All States (14+million of companies) Your Industries Your Companies Your Locations (10,100,? companies) Filters (region, industry, sub-industry, revenues, public, private, etc)

DFW COMPANY DATABASEPRESENTATION Where Can I get the DFW COMPANY DATABASE and the PRESENTATION? ****All I ask in return is that you “Link-In” to me**** Click on this link to go to the DOWNLOAD page Tom Jackson