This article describes the use of data to prospect for potential clients using Statistics Canada data and information from a company directory called “Data Axle” for the Metro Victoria area (Capital Regional District). The same type of information can be found for Metro Vancouver, and Metro Kelowna (Central Okanagan Regional District) on our website.
To support entrepreneurs starting and growing their businesses, Small Business BC helps provide prospects for business-to-business (B2B) sales.
Entrepreneurs can use a prospect list as a lead generation tool to identify potential new customers. These lists can provide details on the company staff of a potential client, the number of employees, the lines of their business, the number of years the company has been listed in the database, and their website. It encompasses much more than a simple Google search.
Looking for Leads in Databases
Accounting, law firms, bookkeeping, marketing, technology companies, and consultants can benefit from these lists because their specialty does not restrict them. Every business needs accounting, legal, and bookkeeping. service. A limited sample below provides some of the information on environmental consulting.
Once entrepreneurs discover this resource, the first step is to filter for the businesses to focus on. There are hundreds of business types to choose from. Which ones should you select?
Looking at Growing Business Groups
The best place to start is with business groups that are growing. This is where Statistics Canada can help us focus on these groups through a dataset called the “Business Register” that tracks over time businesses by the number of employees they have, their type of business, and where their businesses are located.
In this article, we will look at Metro Victoria’s top growth business groups. If you want further information on the list of business groups growing or shrinking, or you would like to analyze other parts of BC, you can contact Small Business BC’s Market Research Analyst, Mark Eversfield, at [email protected]. This list will maximize your results for the time spent searching for new customers.
The time periods that you choose to determine the growth are also important, especially regarding the impact of COVID-19. The Business Register publishes data twice yearly, once in December and once in June.
The strategy for this article is to use data that reflects conditions in post-pandemic Metro Victoria. By June 2022, business statistics had normalized, and we will use it as a base year. June 2023 will be a reference year to look at the business trends a year after the pandemic.
With this in mind, let’s look at the top businesses that grew in number in the first year into the post-pandemic period.
Growing Businesses in Metro Victoria
The table below shows Victoria’s growth in the number of businesses with employees at their location. The largest growth for this period came from “Full Service Restaurant” businesses and “Computer Systems Design & Related Services” businesses which excludes Video Game Design Development.
These businesses grew by 18 locations to reach 484 for Computer Systems and 442 locations for Full Service Restaurants by June 2023, a four percent increase over the year. Computer system businesses continue to grow, as they were the second-largest growing business type in Victoria during the pandemic. Victoria Full Service Restaurants, on the other hand, like it’s Vancouver counterpart, suffered during the pandemic, shrinking by a net 11 restaurants, only to rebound in the post-pandemic to grow by a net 18 restaurant locations. The increasing population of the Victoria area, over 36,000 since 2019, is driving the growth of many businesses.
The next step in pursuing prospects is to obtain a list of companies in the “Computer Systems Design” industry for Greater Victoria. We turn to a business directory database called “Data Axle,” which collects voluntary data on businesses. Unfortunately, not all businesses will volunteer their information, so some businesses are not in this database.
With this in mind, there are 230 independent Computer Systems Design companies in the Axle database for Greater Victoria, with a limited sample of this search below. These lists include information on the number of employees, years in the database, phone number, website, estimated sales, and other lines of business. These different fields can then sort the data. There is a fee for these lists based on the number of companies you want. The fee for this list would be $80 plus GST purchased through Small Business BC.
Setting Google Alerts
The next step in pursuing prospects is to Google the company and the person listed in the directory to get as much information as possible and also set a Google Alert on the company and person to gather information over time to prepare for a “cold contact”, phone numbers are also included in this file.
These steps will help you increase returns on your time invested by targeting companies in a growing industry group when searching for potential clients. If you have questions about this strategy or would like this type of information on other areas of BC, you can contact Small Business BC’s Market Research Analyst, Mark Eversfield at [email protected].
Small Business BC is Here to Help
These steps will help you increase returns on your time invested by targeting those companies that are in a growing industry group when searching for potential clients. If you have questions about this strategy or would like this type of information on other areas of BC, contact me at [email protected] or call me at 604 775 5699.
