What is Web research and how to find the owner of a business

Web Research for Beginners: How to find the details of a business and its owner?

Abhinav Girdhar
By Abhinav Girdhar | Last Updated on April 12th, 2024 12:27 pm | 4-min read

A business cannot stand in isolation. However, this becomes especially relevant when it comes to B2B model. Businesses need to connect with other businesses in order to find prospects or even potential vendors. In such situations and many others, it is natural for businesses to do a little prospecting and find company details to build up new leads. Hence, the question that arises is – how to find the owner of a business before pitching your proposal to them, or to invite quotations for their offerings. One of the most effective ways to do is – web research. What is Web research and how to find the owner of a business

What is web research?

Web research or internet research is a research method that involves gathering information on the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web is a rich reservoir of information about everything you know or may want to know about any topic. The process of looking up the information in a systematic manner is called web research. If you want to know more about the topic, here is a video that talks about web research:
(Above video is a part of a more elaborate course on Academy by Appy Pie. To access the complete course, please Click Here, or continue reading below.)

What is email extractor?

An email extractor is a kind of software that can be used to extract email addresses. The email extractor has the ability to generate a massive list of email addresses quite quickly. Though there are many email extractor available online, but the email extractor by Chrome is by far the most effective one! Here’s a video that tells you exactly how to use email extractor.
(Above video is a part of a more elaborate course on Academy by Appy Pie. To access the complete course, please Click Here, or continue reading below.)

How to find out who owns a business?

Though the internet is a treasure trove of information, it can get a little difficult at times to get to the right person, especially if you are wondering how to find directors of a company. We have listed a number of ways to answer the question – how to find company information.

  1. Call them up

    2. This is a really simple and direct approach. If you are wondering how to find the owner of a business or how to find company email addresses, you can start by simply picking up the phone and giving them a call. However, in this case you would need to have the number, which can be obtained by a simple web research on your favorite search engine. Once you have the phone number, you can make the call. Now, this would be a cold call, so chances are, you would be speaking with a sort of a gatekeeper. It is up to your conversation skills that would decide whether or not you can get past them. If you are having trouble finding the company’s phone number, here’s an awesome video for you!
    (Above video is a part of a more elaborate course on Academy by Appy Pie. To access the complete course, please Click Here, or continue reading below.)

  2. Company website

    3. If you know the name of the business, you can conduct a web research and find out if they have an online presence. Most of the companies today have at least a website and quite a few have a blog to go with the website. You can go to their “About Us” or “Contact Us” section and see if they have any information about the owner listed there. Here’s a video that tells you how to find company website.
    (Above video is a part of a more elaborate course on Academy by Appy Pie. To access the complete course, please Click Here, or continue reading below.)

  3. Social media profile

    4. Today businesses make sure that they have a strong presence on social media so that they can communicate better with the audience. You can go to social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook or other such sites to find company details that may help you find business owner information. In addition, if the company has been listed on Google My Business, then you can conduct web research on Google search engine. It can give you the entire listing for the business you are interested in working with. Here’s an interesting video that talks about finding social media links from a website.
    (Above video is a part of a more elaborate course on Academy by Appy Pie. To access the complete course, please Click Here, or continue reading below.)

  4. WHOIS lookup

    5. If you know the website for a company, but cannot find any relevant information, you can carry out a domain lookup to dig deeper. Now, every domain is required to have a registered owner and the business owners must provide their contact details when they are registering the domain with the registrar. All you need to do is, go to your preferred search engine and type “whois”. A whole barrage of services will come up in the results and you can pick the one you like. You can then enter the domain name of a business and see if you can find information about the business owner.What is Web research and how to find the owner of a business

  5. BBB

    6. Companies that want to be taken as serious players make it a point to register themselves with the BBB or Better Business Bureau. In fact, BBB may even have information about companies that are not yet registered members with them. Fair warning – the contact number in the listing may not be that of the owner and the information may not even be updated. It is prudent to check them once.

  6. State databases

    7. Every state requires businesses operating in the state to register with the state authorities. All this registration information is available to be viewed on the database for registered companies. Every state would have at least some information on any registered entity, but not all of them would have the name of the owner on it.

  7. Local authorities

    8. There are local authorities for licensing and regulatory agencies who can have the information you need about a particular business. You may have to first conduct a web research taking into consideration the location of the company and the industry that the business belongs to. Once you have figured out the regulatory body or licensing authority, you can request them formally for information on the business. However, it is tough to say for sure, whether they will divulge the name of the business owner.

Conclusion

A business cannot function in isolation and at some point in time may need to collaborate or liaise with other businesses. Whether it is for lead generation, scouting opportunities, finding strong vendors or any other reason, it is possible that there would be a need to search for company details or for the name of the business owner. The post has a detailed list of ways in which you can go looking for this pertinent information without having to spend a dime out of your pocket and just conducting responsible web research. Are you a small business owner looking for ways to create authority in your industry? You can create your own website and a mobile app without any coding! Try out Appy Pie’s app builder to make your own app and the website builder to create your own website in minutes!

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Abhinav Girdhar

Founder and CEO of Appy Pie

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