Northwest Research

I was using Bizjournals.com today and found this

ALL stories from the Sacramento Business Journal print edition are available online to print-edition subscribers ONLY.

It appears that bizjournals may be going to a subscription only model, and that there will be many stories not available to us. I have an email in to the company and will update when I hear from them.

I was using Bizstats today and found this new disclaimer

This benchmarking tool provides national average results of US Sole Proprietorships and does not include operating results for corporations, LLC’s and larger entities. These are nationals averages only, individual results will differ, and the differences may be significant.

Bizstats does offer other business statistics on LLCs, and corporations, but then we have to do the work, not like the nifty benchmarking tool. I have suggested using Google Finance to also look at comparables for larger privately held businesses.

It is important to remember that most of the tools we use only provide us with good estimates, and we use those estimates to create gift capacity. I often include disclaimers in my profiles and I work really hard to explain clearly any estimates I use.

As a freelancer, I am often a nonprofit’s first experience with prospect research, and I try to make sure that my clients understand where these numbers are coming from and how confident I am with the estimates.

For beginning researchers, I suggest using the tools and numbers that you are comfortable with and that you understand. Using a tool without understanding it can really negatively effect your credibility