I have used a couple of services to benchmark my company against the competition. I was wondering the experience of the forum as to whether others have found them useful and if so, why? How do you use the numbers?

We have used them in our business to set some general benchmarks but because the numbers are summaries on top of summaries it is difficult to draw a completely accurate comparison. They are helpful in spotting trends expecially i.e. if your revenue is growing at twice the rate as your peers that would be a very positive indicator

We use them frequently with our clients but you have to be careful about drawing conclusions with very general information. It is just an indicator to begin a more detailed investigation.

I just tried going through the process with a free P&L offered and it was very interesting the results we found. On the whole are bottom revenue and expense items were about the same as the benchmark but the details were much different. It helped us focus on some areas that we felt in our gut we were spending too much money on and also showed areas where we were doing better than I thought

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We have not found them to be that valuable because they are too generic in nature and provide you with little if any insight.

We have found them to be very helpful very early on in the process. If the client feels their expenses are too high or their revenue is too low, it is helpful to point to some areas where they may be improved using the benchmarks as an indicator. Of course it is one starting point but at least you get started!!!

I used them in a prior life just to make some casual observations but if you are in a firm with multiple industries it is very difficult to get a good comparison

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I could not agree more they are a great starting point that everyone should consider using.

Wow I am surprised so many small businesses use them - I guess we will have to take a closer look - I thought they were mainly used in public companies.

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