Being able to identify an industry to use for benchmarking your firm's results with similar companies is frequently not easy. Choose a type of business and go to

www.naics.com.

This Web site allows you to do a free search for the NAICS (North American Industry Classification System, pronounced Nakes) number for different types of businesses. Choose keywords "athletic shoes" and "auto dealers" to see the industry to which they have been assigned.

The "athletic shoes" has been assigned to the

industry and the "auto dealers" has been assigned to the

Retail Trade

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Manufacturing

Wholesale Trade

Transportation and Warehousing

industry.(Select from the drop-down menus.)