Keep accurate records to track the health of your business. You won’t be able to easily spot patterns, calculate ratios, or make decisions in the future without these records. These records are also needed to support your financial statements, as well as when filing tax returns. These include income statements (profit and loss statements) and balance sheets.

Many states have corporate departments or secretaries of state offices that require companies to submit an official statement of ownership. These documents are accessible online in the majority of cases. You can look up these records using the name of the company, and the websites often provide a list with the names of the officers and directors, their addresses, and additional information about the business. Some private companies or why not try here private firms create business directories. They may include the headquarters city or city where a business is registered. They usually include contact details and the chief officer or officers of the company, and a brief profile about the kind of business in which the company operates.

Many cities require that any person or company engaging in an activity within the city register, and a number of cities have put these documents online. Some counties also keep an index of business names that are fictitious, where the top officers or partners of a partnership may be listed along with their addresses. Certain states have a master list of all business names that are fictitious and a few counties as well as the secretary of the state department or the corporation department have made these available online.