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Good news! You’ve met someone at a party or a networking event, and they want you to do some consulting work for their company. Now you just need to know whether these are really people you want to work with, and what kinds of issues they have. Here are some suggestions from the Bay Area Consultants’ Network May 27th, 2005 meeting on where to find out what you need to know.

SEC Filings at FreeEdgar: All the important financial information on any publicly traded company.

Reference USA, available through the San Francisco Public Library web portal.

EBSCOHost, available through the San Francisco Public Library web portal.

To use either of these, click on the link to the database of your choice, you will be asked to give your library card number. Any California resident can get a San Francisco Public Library card. Other libraries may also have these databases available online, but Contra Costa, which is my most-local branch, doesn’t.

Hoovers is also available at the SFPL, but you have to go there in person. There’s a new Hoover’s search site online as well.

BusinessWire Press Releases: What the company is announcing to the world.

Business Journal: Is this company making headlines?

OneSource: “When it’s your business to know their business.”

Google News for press releases and headlines about the company: Lets you create alerts for daily updates on any subject.

Technorati (what bloggers are saying about the company): Lets you create watchlists if you want to follow a company over time. Note that it doesn’t hurt to put your own name or company name in to see what people are saying about you online.

Other Options:
Google all the team members whose names you know.
Talk to the company’s competitors.
Talk to company employees (as if you were a customer).
Google the phrase “business journal” and the city name.

Add your own suggestions using the comments link!

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I first read about the PowerPizza in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on my way home from my 20-year high school reunion in May, but it turns out that Smart Computing had spotted it in April.

This laptop bag in the guise of a pizza box is the brainchild of London designers Mickael Charbonnel and Chris Vanstone of Human Beans, better known for their hilarious line of fictional products like the karmaphone. The 14″ PowerPizza is real, though, and if you’re tired of carrying your notebook in a bag that screams “Steal me, I’m a computer,” you can order one for £12.99 plus shipping and handling.

There is one wee flaw in the logic behind this product, though: the high rate of pizza theft world over.

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