Find Financial Benchmarks

Published: April 18, 2016
Updated: July 11, 2018

One thing you will need to do in the financials section of your business plan is discuss how you will price your products and/or services, and how this compares to your competitors. You will need to develop a financial plan that includes your projected revenues and net income. The following resources will help you find financial information on competitors in your industry.

Free Tools For Finding Financial Info

Finding your competitors' financial information as a writer is difficult. Since most writers operate as sole proprietors they do not have to publicly disclose their income. The next best thing is to use your list of competitors and see if they provide their hourly, page or word rates. You can then estimate their number of billable hours, or other pay scale, and calculate their income. Also, rely on your contacts and mentors in the industry to gain a sense for what are reasonable rates for writers or editors.

Database of authors working throughout Canada. You can search by name, location, genre, availability and services.

Database of editors working in Canada. You can search by keyword, skills, media/genres, subjects, language and location.

Alphabetical index of writers working in British Columbia who belong to the Federation of BC Writers.

Database of the Writers’ Union of Canada’s members. You can search the directory by name, city and province.

Finding Benchmarks & Ratios

Financial Performance Data (formerly SME Benchmarking Tool)
Tool for benchmarking your financial reports with others in your sector. Website also includes a collection of financial data and annual reports of various Canadian companies. For instructions on using the Financial Performance Data click here. To create a report using Financial Performance data click here.

  • NAICS: 711513

Financial Performance Indicators for Canadian Business
Offers current financial ratios by industry, based on data provided by Statistics Canada. The indicators are designed to serve as financial performance benchmarks against which individual firms and industries can be compared. Affiliates of UBC, UNBC, UVic and SFU have access through Abacus Dataverse. If you are visiting, please contact your local library about access.

 

Proprietary Tools For Finding Financial Info

UBC Company Research Guide
This research guide was created by UBC business librarians. Follow this link to go directly to the section of the guide that features various UBC Library electronic resources that are recommended for searching for financial information on competitors, such as credit rankings, stock prices and investment analyst reports. You can explore the navigation on the right-hand side to find more recommended research sources on the general topic of company research.

Library Resources

Access to the following sources may be available through your local public or academic library. For information on how to obtain a library card, and for additional information on using libraries in BC, please visit our Getting Access to Library Resources page.

LexisNexis Academic
Provides access to business and financial news, US and international company financial information, market research, industry reports, and actual SEC filings. Search features permit comparison of companies based on criteria such as sales, income, and number of employees. Follow the 'Business' link to find company annual reports, financial, and credit reports. Check your local library to see if they provide access. 

Mergent Online

How to access: If you are a UBC student, staff, faculty or in-person library visitor you can access this resource.

Provides access to US and international public company data. This database also contains data on companies that were acquired, went bankrupt, liquidated or merged out of existence from 1995 forward. Users can compare companies and export data into programs like Excel.

Tools For Calculating Your Own Financials