Should you disclose your company’s turnover? You may well think there that there are good reasons to keep that information confidential, if you’re not a public company and obliged to publish it.
But here’s just one example of why that might harm you. Crain’s Manchester Business published a list of Digital Media Agencies today. A client, Silkmoth Ltd, appears in the list of twenty five digital media agencies, ranked by turnover – and was mentioned in the accompanying article.
Readers who don’t study the fine print may well be unaware that the list omits some companies whose turnover would merit their inclusion. That’s because “Only companies that respond to the survey are included”. It’s a common way for lists that appear in the media to be compiled.
This type of list isn’t exclusive to Crain’s, by any means. They get used for many things, including:
- Buyers compiling short lists of potential suppliers.
- Journalists looking for companies that could feature in their articles.
- Companies looking for complementary services that can be part of a business partnership.
- Business owners and their advisors, looking for acquisition targets.
These lists tend to have a long life. People will be referring to this list months from now. It’ll even be republished at the end of the year and so be ‘live’ in 2010.
Bear in mind that if you really want to find out what the turnover of a company is, it isn’t hard to do.
So, if you’re determined to make your company well known, be aware that keeping some of your information hidden may also keep your company hidden. And you did want it to be noticed, didn’t you?