Spreadsheets for Business – Using Excel to Help with your Small Business Questions

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NAICS codes can be used to perform market research on businesses. The information you gather from NAICS market research will help you, as a small business owner, to make confident decisions in targeting customers.

Here’s a link to the NAICS section of the United State Census website.

*By the way, if you’re looking for the actual NAICS code for Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling – it’s 541910.

What is a NAICS code?

NAICS stands for North American Industry Classification System. NAICS codes consist of between two and six digits. This code is used to classify businesses by activity (what products or services it provides).

Note that the first two letters of NAICS stand for “North American.” This means that NAICS codes are also used by our neighbors to the North and South – Canada and Mexico. The NAICS has, in large part, replaced the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system. You might remember SIC codes if you attended business school anytime prior to the year 2000.

The first two digits of a NAICS code represent the sector of the business. The third is for the subsector. The fourth is the industry group. Finally, the fifth and sixth represent the NAICS industry and national industry respectively (Source).

Any business might have more than one NAICS code. In fact, each location is given its own NAICS code.

Why NAICS is important

The NAICS exists to efficiently compile, create, and analyze business data. Data that is collected includes employment, revenue, and inventory; among many other things.

Since this much of this data is made public by the Census Bureau, you have the ability to use the NAICS for market research. Particularly if your business currently does, or plans to market to other businesses.

Beyond market research, NAICS codes can also help your business generate leads. In order to get the contact information, you’ll probably have to purchase it from a 3rd party vendor.

How to use the NAICS for market research

The first step to utilizing NAICS is to know the code you want information on. From the NAICS website, you can search by keyword on the left-hand side of the page. Searches can be performed on current or historical NAICS information.

The search should return codes that will link to a list of example businesses. This helps you be sure that you have precisely the right code.

Industry Statistics Portal results

Once you know the NAICS code you want to research, click on this link to be taken to the Industry Statistics Portal. After entering your code, you’ll be given links to related data sources.

Most searches will return you to to the same four results: County Business Patterns (CBP), Statistics of U.S. Businesses (SUSB), Economic Census (ECN), and Survey of Business Owners (SBO).

The CBP includes annual reports with information on the subnational level. Employment, number of establishments, and payroll data are included.

The SUSB pulls data from the Census Bureau. Most of which is in Excel format.

The ECN includes data on people, places, and businesses. Most of this data is from the Census Bureau FactFinder. If you’re technologically sophisticated, you can also pull data via an API.

Finally, the SBO can also be accessed via an API. Beyond that many of the links also end up at the Census Bureau FactFinder.

There’s a link in the lower left-hand corner of the page to Selected Visualizations. From what I saw, this was potentially interesting information about the industry in question. Furthermore, it would allow you to drill down to the state level. But, unfortunately, as of this writing, it’s a dead link.

I sent an email to let them know about it and to see when it would be working again. No response as of yet…

Market research with a NAICS code

What are some other circumstances where you would use the NAICS for market research?

Are there other marketing opportunities with NAICS codes besides lead generation?

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