How to complete smart searches for company directors

If you’re looking to take on a new business partner or supplier, getting some background info on the company director/s should be one of the top priorities on your to-do list. Why? Because when it comes to doing business, do you really know who you’ll be dealing with?

The only requirements for anyone to be a director is that they are over 16 and haven’t previously been declared bankrupt, there are no special qualifications or tests to determine if someone is ‘fit’ to be a director and run a company well.

Therefore, checking a director’s history should be a high priority when assessing a company for new business. Even if the company has more than one director, each one usually plays a large part in the company’s ethos and strategy.

With our free UK director reports, you can easily check the history of a director’s current and previous appointments, including which role they held in the company and for how long.  

Were they a director for only a very short period of time? Are there a number of previous directorships where the companies are now dissolved or in liquidation? These can be indicators of how skillfully – or not – a director has run a company before and the likelihood of them being a good match for you and your business needs.

What information can you expect to receive from a director report?

For each of the companies mentioned, you can click on ‘More info’ to see an overview of the company, including financial summary and available company documents (you can proceed to purchase the full report for £4.99):

What happens when there is more than one search result?

When you complete a search for a company director it’s possible that your search name will bring up more than one result. For example, our search for Richard Branson gave us 12 results in all. This can occur for two reasons:

1. Directors genuinely share the same name so more than one report is generated
2. A director holds more than one directorship but there’s an inconsistency in how they’ve been appointed across these directorships (for example, in one variation they were appointed using their middle name but didn’t use it in another)

Because reports are free, there’s nothing from stopping you clicking on every result until you find the one you need. But that’s obviously not very time efficient. So, to streamline your search you should have as much director information to hand as possible, with the following being particularly helpful:

• Full name and variations on this name
• Date of birth/age
• Nationality
• Director number
• Company names (directorships)

This will help you filter the results and locate the report or reports that you’re looking for.

There you have it – how to complete smart director searches. Now you’re ready to do some digging … Search for a director (for free) now.