A good source of public company information are the filiings at the Securities & Exchange Commission. Most companies will post these documents on the company webpage in the "investor's section" but you can also go directly to the SEC. Search for a company by name or ticker symbol. The best source is the 10-K, so limit your search results to that filing only.
It's helpful to start with general overviews of a company. Background information will make it easier to search for company specifics on the Internet or to find articles in the business press.
Many public companies will have SWOT Analyses available in Business Source Premier.
Using Procter & Gamble as an example, tjhe easiest way to find these reports is to enter the company name with the word SWOT in the search box. Note that some companies names can be difficult to work with. so in this example the search terms procter swot are sufficient.
For private and non-profit companies, you will have to use the materials on the organizations webpages in additions to articles in a variety of news sources. The databases will be particularly useful for these types of organizations. For a small business such as a restaurant, you probably won't find much written about the organization, except perhpas reviews. In this case, it might be useful to learn more about the industry in addition to examining the web presence of the company.
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