{"id":1519,"date":"2018-06-09T10:57:22","date_gmt":"2018-06-09T10:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ppscloud.com\/issf\/?p=1519"},"modified":"2018-06-09T10:57:22","modified_gmt":"2018-06-09T10:57:22","slug":"how-to-investigate-and-evaluate-a-resource","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inventors-society.net\/dev\/how-to-investigate-and-evaluate-a-resource\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Investigate and Evaluate a Resource"},"content":{"rendered":"<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td class=\"td1\" valign=\"top\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>How to Investigate and Evaluate a Resource<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Type &#8220;research a company&#8221; using\u00a0the Google search-engine prompt, and press the Enter key. Review the return listings and scroll to ones that meet your needs, such as where you will find a business research tutorial presenting a step-by-step process for finding free company and industry information online! Other research options include:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"ul1\">\n<li class=\"li3\">Visit your state&#8217;s web site to research a business. Type the format www.state.xx.us, where xx is the USPS abbreviation for the state (e.g. www.state.ut.us). The current web site for the state will appear or a link to it. Find the Business link to search for company filings.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sec.gov\/\"><span class=\"s1\">www.sec.gov<\/span><\/a> and search for company filings.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">Visit your county clerk online or in person to search for legal documents such as releases, judgments, liens and many other transactions.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">Visit the county clerk online where the company is located (corporate and local addresses).<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">Search the BBB online where the company is located (corporate and local addresses) to search for consumer complaints and company standing.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">Contact industry groups in which the company may have membership. Is the company a member in good standing? Do they participate in member functions?<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">Use a search engine like Google and type the company name with location (e.g. Hines Faucets Florida). Look for information about customers of the company on the web pages listed.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">Use a search engine like Google and type the company name followed by the word &#8216;complaint&#8217; or &#8216;customer&#8217; or &#8216;customer service&#8217; or whatever else you want to learn about the company. No web sites found is a good indication but is not conclusive due to search engine rankings and website availability. Remember that Internet information is updated constantly.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">Use a search engine like Google and type the email address of the individual. Look for information about the person&#8217;s business bahavior that might impact your prospective business relationship.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">Visit your public library and ask the reference librarian to guide you to books with information about the company\/industry of interest. They will direct you to the Thomas Register and industry specific books that may be of use. Also, ask about periodicals and newspapers relevant to the company&#8217;s industry.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">Contact Chambers of Commerce in the area via email to inquire of the company&#8217;s membership and community presence.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">If the company has a web site, search it for a client list, business address, contact person, telephone numbers and email address. The client list may offer a hint of where the client may be contacted. Try contacting the client. If the website lacks contact information (such as no geographical address, named individual or telephone number), move on.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">If a company website or business profile lacks details about the people behind it, move on.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">Contact a nearby competitor of the company and suggest that you are calling because the company seemed a bit pricey for the products\/services offered.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">When you speak to a company representative, ask for three clients you may call for references. If they give you three references this is a positive indication, although they could be ringers.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">Network: speak to your other team members and business associates about the prospective company; they may know about the company or can ask someone who may know.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">When you introduce yourself at the next inventor meeting, ask the attendees if any of them know anything about the company!<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">Make inquiries through an inventor forum or business forum relevant to the product\/service the company provides. Be sure to use a brief, specific and meaningful title for the subject field of your posting.<\/li>\n<li class=\"li3\">Attend a business fair that this company would likely show its products\/services and make inquiries of other vendors, perhaps by way of comparison. You need to be familiar with the offerings of the company you want to evaluate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How to Investigate and Evaluate a Resource Type &#8220;research a company&#8221; using\u00a0the Google search-engine prompt, and press the Enter key. Review the return listings and scroll to ones that meet your needs, such as where you will find a business research tutorial presenting a step-by-step process for finding free company and industry information online! Other &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/inventors-society.net\/dev\/how-to-investigate-and-evaluate-a-resource\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;How to Investigate and Evaluate a Resource&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[185],"tags":[77],"class_list":["post-1519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-upcoming-events","tag-how-to-investigate-and-evaluate-a-resource"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inventors-society.net\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inventors-society.net\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inventors-society.net\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inventors-society.net\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inventors-society.net\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inventors-society.net\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1520,"href":"https:\/\/inventors-society.net\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1519\/revisions\/1520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inventors-society.net\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inventors-society.net\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inventors-society.net\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}