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Local Business Research

This guide highlights resources for researching local companies and industries in New York State, especially Western NY and the Buffalo Niagara region. This guide may be of interest to:

  • Job applicants looking to identify prospective employers or prepare for interviews
  • Students completing assignments that involve local company and industry research
  • Businesses looking to identify customers and sales leads

Directories: Identify Local Companies and Industries

Using a search engine like Google to find a company web site can be a good way to start researching a local company. However, some smaller companies do not have a web presence and finding local industry information by searching the entire web is not always the best approach. These directories can help you find more find targeted local information.

Regional Business Directories (focus on Western New York business):
  • Business First of Buffalo's Book of Lists (Ref HC108 .B8 B84): provides rankings of top local companies by industry and other criteria, including: largest employers, fastest growing companies, top women-owned businesses, most inventive organizations, WNY executive salaries and more. Available at the Reference Desk in the Lockwood Library.
  • D&B Regional Business Directory - Upstate NY (Ref HG4057 N7 D86): directory of the top companies in Upstate NY by industry, name and location. Available at the Reference Desk in the Lockwood Library.
Industry Specific Directories (focus on specific industries in NY State):
  • Harris InfoSource's New York Manufacturers Directory (Ref HC107 .N7 N49)
  • Thomas Register Upstate New York Industrial Directory (Ref HD9727 .N7 W4 and online )
  • Upstate New York Business-to-Business Sales & Marketing Directory (Ref HF3161.N7 U67)
National Directories (national in scope but have good coverage of NY State):
  • ReferenceUSA : Large or small, public or private - this is one of the most comprehensive online company directories available (13 million companies listed!). The database is national in scope, but over 15,000 companies are listed in the Buffalo area.
  • Hoovers : a directory of major public and private companies. While this database does not cover as many companies as ReferenceUSA, it does provide more comprehensive descriptions of each company. Tip : to search for Buffalo companies, click on “Advanced Search,” select “Location” from the pull-down menu and search on “Buffalo, New York”
For a more complete list of directories available in the UB Libraries, see the Company Directories Guide.

News: Find Articles about Local Companies and Industries

Once you've identified local companies and industries, dig a little deeper to see what the local news media are saying. These tools will help you find articles that profile or mention local companies and industries.

  • Business First of Buffalo : Western New York's Business Newspaper. Current editions are available online and in print at the Lockwood Library. The full-text of older articles back to 1999 can be accessed via ABI Inform .
    Note : the free online version of Business First of Buffalo does not provide access to all articles from the print edition; for more complete access use ABI Inform .

  • The Buffalo News : current editions are available online and in print at the Lockwood Library. The full-text of older articles back to 1992 can be accessed via Factiva .

  • Topix.net is a local news search engine. Check out their Buffalo News page for local news continually updated from thousands of sources on the web.

Government Resources: Local Facts and Statistical Data

Various government entities provide access to facts and figures and about local companies and industries.

  • Corporation and Business Entity Database from the NYS Department of State maintains records of business and not-for-profit corporations in New York State.

  • NYLovesBiz.com : a wide variety of state and local economic data from Empire State Development (ESD), New York State's economic development agency.

  • NYS Data Center : provides easy access to commonly requested data about New York State.

Regional Resources: Tap into Local Knowledge

Doing local research? Why not use local resources? The following resources were created by organizations located in Western New York.

  • The State of the Region Project : The University at Buffalo's Institute for Local Governance and Regional Growth project monitors Buffalo Niagara's regional performance in 11 key topic areas.

  • Guide to Western New York Resources from Buffalo State College highlights local research resources available through Buffalo State's EH Butler Library and on the web.

  • Buffalo Niagara Partnership : serves as the region's chamber of commerce. Their website provides information about area businesses and their membership directory is available online and in print (Ref HF296 .B83) at the Lockwood Library.

Historical Information: WNY's Business History

Use these resources to investigate Western New York's business heritage.