Getting Started with Scott's Directories
Scott's Directories is a directory of Canadian businesses. It is updated monthly.
Directory entries (Company Profiles) include: the company's legal name, address, telephone and fax numbers, website address, executives, type of business, products or services, number of employees, sales and year established.
Searching
Search the directory with one or more of the criteria in the Search Criteria menu (shown below) on the left side of the landing page.
- select a criterion
- on the search-criterion page, enter a value or select a value from a menu
- select the green Search button*
- re-do the search with additional criteria for more focused search results
A list of company names in alphabetical order will be the result.
*On some search-criterion pages, you have to select a green Select button to move a value from a menu to a search window, then select the Search button. This allows you to search with multiple values.
Example:
You are looking for companies located in Toronto with 10 or fewer employees and established in the 1990s:
- search with the criterion City
- re-do the search with Number of Employees
- re-do the search with Year Established
Using NAICS (North American Industry Classification System)
When looking for a specific kind of company, use the criteria in the "Firmographic" category of the Search Criteria menu. But be aware that some criteria yield fuller search results than others.
Example:
You are looking for wholesalers of washing machines:
- search with the criterion Product/Service (Product Keyword = washing machines)
- re-do the search with Business Type (Type = Wholesaler)
But the results will be fuller if instead you use the NAICS search criterion.
It isn't easy to find the NAICS code(s) that you want on the NAICS page in Scott's (414220 - Household appliance merchant wholesalers).
One workaround is to do a Product Keyword search and examine the profiles of a few companies to see what NAICS code(s) have been used to classify them. Then, armed with relevant codes, do a search on the NAICS page in Scott's.
But a more thorough method is to do a keyword search on the NAICS page of the Statistics Canada website. It's more thorough because of the detailed descriptions of each class. These descriptions are searchable. You are more likely to find all relevant NAICS codes.
On the Statistics Canada homepage, scroll down to the Most Requested menu on the right and select the link to the NAICS page. On the NAICS page, select the link to the NAICS "classification structure" page from the HTML format menu.
Example:
You are looking for companies that employ traffic engineers:
- go to the Statistics Canada NAICS page
- search with the keywords "traffic engineer"
- review the results (541330 - Engineering services is the relevant class)
- go to the NAICS page in Scott's
- select 541000 - Professional, Scientific and Technical services from the upper menu
- select 541330 - Engineering Services from the lower menu
- select the green Search button
- limit the search results to companies that employ traffic engineers by going to the Product/Service page and searching with the Product Keyword "traffic"
Viewing search results
Page through the list of companies and their locations using the arrow buttons at the top right of the results.
Put the companies in alphabetical order, descending or ascending, by selecting the Company heading.
Group the companies by location (in alphabetical order of location) by selecting the City heading.
View a company profile by selecting the name of the company.
Go from one profile to the next using the arrow buttons at the top right of the profile.
Return to the list of companies by selecting Back to Search Results at the top left.
Printing search results
To print a company profile, display the profile and use the print command (Ctrl + P) of your browser.
To print a list of company profiles, you have to print it screen by screen:
- select Summary View under View Manager on the menu at the top of the list
- select Print at the top of the list
- use the vertical scroll bar to display the remainder of the list; or use the arrow buttons at the top right to display the next page of the list
- select Print again
The fields of information in a company profile appear from left to right in a list of company profiles. You may find that you can limit the information that you need to fields that will appear on the screen, thus simplifying your printing of the list.
To change the fields of information that appear on the screen:
- select Go to Summary View Setting at the top of the list
- use the tick boxes in the Selected column on the right to determine which fields are included and which are excluded from the list of company profiles
- use the up/down Display Sequence arrows on the left to determine the order that the fields will display in
Note: neither company profiles nor lists of company profiles can be exported.
For more information or for help, please contact our Answerline service.