What is your NAICS Code?
If you have been involved in any kind of business, you should then be familiar with the business planning process. Part of this planning involves understanding the industry that your business is going to be part of. This includes knowing:
- how the US Federal government and other reporting agencies define the industry.
- what stage the industry is in as well as the yearly financials of such an industry.
- who the big players are and even what other variations of this industry are out there.
Fortunately, the US Federal government (specifically, the Office of Management and Budgeting) has jointly developed a coding system with Canada and Mexico that classifies all businesses in North America into standard industries. It is called the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).
NAICS is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.
The NAICS replaced the older Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system that contained industry classification for US businesses only and therefore covered a lot less industries.
There are a lot of services out on the web that allow you to search for a NAICS code however I prefer to use the search that is available at the US Census Bureau website. Enter in the keyword(s) of the main activity that your business will perform, say landscaping and this will return that the NAICS code for such an industry - 561730 (Landscaping Services). The reason I like using the US Census Bureau search (besides the fact that it contains official data) is that for each NAICS code that it returns, it also gives a clear description of the industry along with all the other related industries.
Armed with your industry code, you can use it to search through publications, articles, and business directories at your local library or online business databases like BizMiner or Standard & Poor’s NetAdvantage.
