Glossaries - Report Companions: Financial Analysis Edge - Sales Class Selection

1. Balance sheet benchmarks and financial ratios can vary widely within an industry (but do not always) depending on the size and maturity of the analyzed pool of firms.

2. For that reason, the "best" benchmarking process should align with the character of your firm. BizMiner Industry Financial Profiles are offered in several versions: by various sales class sizes (corporate reporting format) and for small businesses. The Profit & Loss series displays Income-Expense statements, selected ratios, monthly and annual cash flows for startups and Sole Proprietorships within the industry.

3. The Industry Financial series aggregates all corporations in the analysis pool in that sales class and business classification. Small Business Industry Financials restrict coverage to single-site corporation firms with fewer than 25 employees. The startup version of the Micro Firm Profit & Loss Profiles analyze firms which have been in operation for one year or less. The sole proprietorship Micro Firm version applies data from single site sole proprietorships in the selected industry.

4. In general, we recommend Industry Financial and Profit & Loss-Cash Flow Profiles which apply data from at least 10 firms - the more the better. New firms should consider the Small Business Profile in addition to (or rather than) the Startup Cash Flow Profile due to the (normally) larger size of the analysis pool and the more detailed balance sheet metrics and ratios that are available. A very small analysis pool is more prone to distortion caused by a handful of very large or very small firms.

BizMiner's 75,000 Industry Financial Profiles are available in Industry, Small Business and many sales class versions. Our 2.5 million online Market Research Reports are available for over 16,000 industry groups. Market Research Reports are available in both national and local versions covering over 250 US metropolitan areas.