Businesses in California: how to look one up, how many there are and the biggest headquarters

This page is for anyone dealing with California businesses: checking out a supplier or contractor before signing, researching a company before a job interview, sizing a market, or building a list of accounts to sell to. It starts with how to look up a single business, because that's what most people searching need first, then covers the whole market and the biggest headquarters.

How to look up a California business

Each state record answers one question. Use them together:

Sole proprietors and general partnerships don't register with the Secretary of State, so they won't appear in bizfile. For those, the city or county business license office is the record. A quick vetting routine for a supplier: confirm the entity is active in bizfile, check its FTB status, check the license its work needs, and ask for two references from customers your size.

How many businesses are in California

The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP) counts every business location with paid employees. For California in 2023:

That's 892,347 establishments with 1 to 19 employees, 114,955 with 20 to 99 and 22,387 with 100 or more.

Businesses are concentrated in Southern California and the Bay Area. These are the ten largest counties by establishment count, from the CBP county file:

Los Angeles County has 29.6% of the state's establishments. Santa Clara County has fewer than half as many businesses as Orange County but three-quarters as many jobs, because its employers are larger.

CBP counts establishments, not companies: a chain with 400 stores counts 400 times. It leaves out self-employed people and businesses without employees, and employment is for the pay period including March 12, 2023.

What kinds of businesses California has

Average pay is our calculation from CBP payroll and employees. The information sector, which includes software, internet platforms and media, pays more than twice the state average and accounts for 14.5% of all payroll, more than any other sector. For one industry in detail, see manufacturing companies in California.

The biggest companies headquartered in California

These are the 20 largest SEC-registered public companies whose latest 10-K names a California principal executive office, by the revenue reported in that filing.

Wells Fargo's figure is total revenue net of interest expense. TD SYNNEX says it has headquarters in both Clearwater, Florida and Fremont; its 10-K cover gives Fremont.

Three cautions if you build a list like this yourself. First, XBRL revenue databases can be badly wrong: one lists Tigo Energy of Los Gatos at $103.5 billion, but its 10-K reports net revenue of $103.5 million. Second, several companies people still think of as Californian now give Texas addresses in their SEC filings, including Tesla and Oracle (Austin), Chevron (Houston), McKesson (Irving) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (Spring). Third, private companies don't publish results and aren't here. For employers ranked by headcount instead, see the largest employers in California.

Selling to California businesses

California is too big to prospect as one market. Split it by county and by size first. The decision maker changes with size: owners buy at most of the 892,347 establishments with fewer than 20 employees, an office or operations manager handles most purchases from 20 to 99, and functional heads with budgets take over above 100. At the 4,587 managing offices (NAICS 55), purchases for many other sites are made centrally.

State rules give sellers specific openings. California employment law, wage-and-hour rules and licensing requirements change often, and businesses with 20 to 99 employees are often big enough to be covered but too small to have an in-house specialist.

Illustrative example. The company, rates and results are fictional, to show the method.

Harbor Compliance Partners (harborcp.example) audits HR and payroll practices for Orange County employers with 20 to 99 staff.

• Statewide establishments with 20 to 99 employees: 86,596 + 28,359 = 114,955.
• Orange County has 10.39% of all establishments, so Harbor estimates about 11,940 there.
• Branches of chains usually get HR from head office, so Harbor assumes 40% are independent: about 4,780 accounts.
• Working 300 a quarter at a 3% win rate gives about nine new clients a quarter.

The slow part is separating independents from branches. Bebop can search for "independently owned Orange County companies with 20 to 99 employees that added a location in the last year" and say why each fits.

Subject: [Company]'s new hires and California's wage rules

Hi [first name],

Congratulations on the [new location / hiring push]. Once a California company passes 20 or so people, a few payroll and scheduling rules start to matter that didn't before, and they're easy to miss.

We do a fixed-price HR and payroll check for Orange County firms your size and hand you a one-page list of what to fix. Would a sample report be useful?

[Your name], Harbor Compliance Partners

Next step: turn a county and size band into a target list with how to build a prospect list.