Keep accurate records to monitor the health of your business. It’s difficult to spot patterns, calculate ratios, or make decisions in the future without them. These records are also essential to back up your financial statements as well as when filing tax returns. These include income (profit and loss) statements and balance sheets.
The majority of states have departments of corporations or secretary of state offices that require companies to file a formal statement of ownership. Many have these documents on the internet. You can search for these records by company name, and often the websites will give the list of officers or directors, their addresses and other information about the company. Some private companies or organizations make directories of their businesses. These may list the headquarters city or the city where a company is registered, and often include contact information, as well as the chief officer or company’s officers and a short description about the type of business with which the company is involved.
A lot of cities require that any person or company that operates a business within the city register, and a lot of cities have placed these documents online. Some counties also keep fictitious business name indexes, where the most important partners or officers of a partnership can be listed, along with their addresses. Some states have a master list of all fictitious business names and a few counties as well as the secretary of state or corporation departments have made these indexes available online.