Research to be Competitive
You are competing with other applicants or job candidates and competing with other forces in the company for the attention, time and interest of the hiring authority.
The more relevance you can establish between your abilities and their needs, the more competitive you can be. Establish this relevance by learning about the company before making an approach, using:
- Trade association sites, such as CyberExpo and the World Trading Information Center,
- academic sites such as Madalyn, from Delaware University's MBA program,
- newsgroups,
- mailing lists,
- government repositories, and
- publications.
These same principles apply if you are an independent contractor or consultant wanting to check out potential clients.
Research resources
Finding their homepage:
BizWeb is a web business guide to 43163 companies listed in 192 categories.
ComFind lists company homepages
Computer hardware manufacturers and Software manufacturers
Digital City's businesses in Dallas, TX
The Fortune 500 and The Web 100
Also try Digital City's list of Temporary Agencies and Agencies in Dallas.Private companies are more challenging to investigate than public companies because they do not issue public financial statements or annual reports, and any information on private companies is expensive to research and update. The public library buys many of the best sources on companies locally and nationally in paper and electronic formats. Try also
- Hoover's Online - includes information on 2,000 private companies. "Capsules" includes link to company website.
- Forbes 500 Largest Private Companies Annual December feature.
- Companies Online A joint project of Lycos and Dun & Bradstreet, this site includes many private companies. Free information includes a link to company website. Dun & Bradstreet Business Background Reports ($20) provide number of employees & sales data for private companies.
Finding more information:
Argus Clearinghouse is a good index of online research sources, which lists other sites with their links (check the business category)
Better Business Bureau
Britannica
CEO Express - if you don't see it here, you probably don't need it.
Dallas Public Library Catalog
Use EDGAR to download documents filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Fuld & Co., Inc's research tools
Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce
Montague Institute, an information proficiency firm, has a database
Online newspapers and magazines
Richard Combs Associates
SCIP
TechWeb lists tech companiesGovernment repositories
Federal Web Locator Connect to regulatory agencies--a good source of information on industry trends, regulations, future events.
Public Company Directory
State of Texas Government Information
State of Texas Government World Wide Web server
Statistical Abstract of the United States Select State & County Profiles, click on a county and get a business pattern report showing the number of establishments in many industries.Maps
Information on the Dallas area:
- DFW info.com, North Central Texas Council on Governments' website, containing an almanac, maps, population estimates and much more.
- Telecom Corridor® in Richardson.
- Dallas Entertainment Guide
- DallasWeb Directory
- Links Across Texas from Texas Monthly magazine
- The Metro Online Directory is a Yellow Pages for Dallas websites.
- Metroscope lists Dallas links, including employers.
- No Place But Texas
- Texas Best
- Texas Mart
- Virtual Relocation - Dallas
- Waste in Your Town - see what the pollution is like here.
- Web Texas by the University of Texas.
- yeeHa! Texas Website Directory
Organizing your research
If your bookmarks are unmanageable, instead of using your Web browser’s "add bookmark" command to save a Web address, use the "copy" and "paste" commands to place the address in a database such as Microsoft Access or Claris Filemaker. You can also add a description (copy a paragraph or two from the Web site itself), subject headings and citation information for news articles (i.e. author, title, date of publication). The database becomes the "card catalog" of your "virtual library."
