Before you begin your research, you need to establish goals. Begin by listing the questions you want to answer. Here is a list of some important questions you should be able to answer by the time you finish your research.

• What does the company do — what products or services do they sell?

• What industry is the company part of?

• Who are the company's customers or clients? Are they big companies, small companies, or individuals?

• Does the company have any subsidiaries?

• Does the company have a parent company?

• Who are the company's leaders?

• Where is the company's corporate headquarters?

• Does the company have regional locations? Where are they?

• Is the company publicly or privately held?

• Who are the company's competitors?

• How does the company rank in its industry? Is it considered a big player, a small player, or somewhere in the middle?

• What are the company's sales and profits trends?

• What are the company's plans for the future?

• Has the company been in the news lately? If so, why?

• What other companies are in the industry?

You should be able to answer all of these questions for many companies. However, information about some companies will be more readily available than for others. Publicly held companies, those that have shareholders (also called stockholders), are required to release a great deal of information to the government. Finding information on them is as simple as locating a copy of their annual report, which will be discussed later in this chapter. Privately held companies, by contrast, aren't required to release much information to the public. It could take much more digging to find what you are looking for.