How can I find financial information (income statements, etc.) for businesses in my area?
Unless they are publicly traded on the stock exchange or otherwise required to report such information to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), it’s going to be hit or miss. Privately held businesses have no particular obligation to make their financial statements public and most don’t. Financials reported to the SEC are public records and are accessible over the internet through the SEC’s EDGAR system (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system). You can access it here: http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml Using EDGAR is free but is cumbersome and is best suited to searching for information on a single company. In addition, the information is not arrange in a way that is easilily understood by anyone who isn’t fairly well versed in reading complex financial information. Some large companies, particularly publicly traded corporations, often post their financials on their websites, as well. But again, you’ll have to seek each one out individually. You might try con
