New business leads: where they come from, how they’re priced
Auspector ·
New business leads are businesses that have just started, with a way to reach them. They come from four kinds of source — company registry filings, licences and permits, compiled lists and opening feeds — which differ in what one record is, which address and date it carries and whether it has a phone number. In the 30 days to October 23, 2026, 2,183,676 new records entered our newly opened businesses section, 315,607 of them in the United States.
What is a new business lead?
A business that started recently, plus a way to reach it: an address to visit, a number to call. “Started” hides two different events. A legal entity can be created — a company incorporated, an LLC formed — or a place can open its doors: a café, a salon, a garage with customers walking in. The two often fall on different days and at different addresses, and many businesses only ever do one of them; the difference is laid out in newly registered vs newly opened.
For anyone selling to small, local businesses — card terminals, insurance, supplies, bookkeeping, websites — the opening is usually the event that matters: the weeks around it are when many suppliers get chosen.
Where do new business lists come from?
| Source | One record is | Address | Phone | Category | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company registry filings | A legal entity | Registered address | Rarely | Legal form or activity code | Incorporation |
| Licences and permits | A licence for a premises or a trade | Usually the premises | Sometimes | The licence type | Issue date |
| Compiled lists | Whatever the compiler collected | Mixed | Depends on the list | The compiler’s own scheme | Often only the compile date |
| Opening feeds | A place | Trading address | Often | What the business does | Arrival in the feed |
Company registry filings. In the United Kingdom, Companies House incorporates limited companies and makes their details public (GOV.UK · Companies House); in the United States, corporations and LLCs are formed state by state. A filing gives you a legal name, an address on file and a date. It rarely gives you a phone number, the address is often a registered agent, an accountant or a home, and sole traders who never incorporate do not appear at all. Registry data is the right list when your customer is the legal entity itself — business banking, bookkeeping, formation services.
Official statistics count something else again. The Census Bureau’s business formation figures are based on applications for an employer identification number (EIN): a good measure of how many businesses are being started, not a list you can call (U.S. Census Bureau · Business Formation Statistics).
Licences and permits. Cities and counties issue business licences, food-service permits, alcohol licences and sign permits. These usually carry the premises address — the place that will open — but they only cover regulated trades, and every office publishes them differently, if at all. Useful for one city and one trade; hard to run across a country.
Compiled lists. Lists assembled from several of these sources and resold as “new businesses”. Their value depends on what went in and when: ask which date makes a record new, when the list was last compiled and how often each field is actually filled — the number explained in fill rate: what to check before you buy a business list.
Opening feeds. A feed adds businesses as they appear: one record per place, with the trading address, a category that says what the business does and, often, a phone number. That is what our newly opened businesses section is — every day we re-scan the web and find newly opened businesses. The date on a record is the day it reached us, not the day the business opened.
What to check in any new business list
- What one record is. A company or a place? A chain with forty branches is one company and forty places.
- Which address. The registered address is where the paperwork goes; the trading address is where the customers go. A field rep needs the second.
- Whether there is a phone number — and how often. Ask for the phone fill rate in your country and your categories, not across the whole database.
- What the category means. An activity code says “beverage serving activities”; the owner says “coffee shop”. Filters only work if the category describes what the business actually does.
- Which date makes it new. Incorporation, licence issue, compilation or arrival in a feed — four different clocks. Ask which one the list runs on.
How are new business leads priced?
Prices vary too much to quote usefully, but the models are few:
| Model | You pay for | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Per record | Each row delivered | Empty fields and duplicates cost the same as complete rows |
| Subscription | Access for a period, a region or a volume | What is included: exports, regions, records per month |
| Per export | Each download | Whether downloading the same record again is charged again |
| Credits | Prepaid units, spent per action | Which action spends one: searching, viewing, exporting, reopening |
Whatever the model, the number to compare is the cost per usable record: what you pay, divided by the records that carry the field you need. A cheap list with a thin phone field can cost more per callable business than an expensive one.
How Auspector charges
Search and counting are unlimited on every plan, so you can see how many new businesses match your categories and area before you spend anything. A credit is used only when you open a record’s details for the first time; an export counts as an open, and a record you have already opened never costs a credit again. One credit opens one newly opened business or 5 established ones. Plans and credit volumes are on the pricing page.
How many new business leads are there?
By the time we measured on October 23, 2026, 58,686 new records had entered our newly opened businesses section that day; in the 30 days to October 23, 2026 the total was 2,183,676, across 246 territories and 4,976 categories, in a database of 222,352,264 records. In the United States the 30-day figure was 315,607, 71.6% of them with a phone number on record; in the United Kingdom 56,319, 74.3% with a phone number. The daily figure moves with the day records reach us, not only with how many businesses opened.
| Market | New records | With a phone | Share with a phone |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 315,607 | 225,844 | 71.6% |
| France | 61,825 | 46,748 | 75.6% |
| United Kingdom | 56,319 | 41,852 | 74.3% |
| Germany | 53,596 | 36,067 | 67.3% |
| Türkiye | 48,863 | 35,270 | 72.2% |
| Canada | 47,613 | 36,853 | 77.4% |
| Italy | 30,550 | 19,249 | 63.0% |
| Spain | 30,162 | 19,513 | 64.7% |
| Australia | 27,139 | 19,257 | 71.0% |
| Netherlands | 15,535 | 9,942 | 64.0% |
| Saudi Arabia | 9,919 | 8,663 | 87.3% |
| United Arab Emirates | 9,225 | 6,343 | 68.8% |
| Switzerland | 8,555 | 5,861 | 68.5% |
| Sweden | 5,427 | 3,149 | 58.0% |
| Singapore | 2,620 | 1,520 | 58.0% |
Are new business lead lists worth it?
They are when the record type matches your customer and the field you need is actually filled — the checks above. Registry data suits a customer that is the company; an opening feed suits one that is the shop. Two more checks before you pay:
- How many a week? Count the matches in your territory before you pay; a list that cannot keep your team busy is a one-off.
- Which sample? A random one from your own segment, not a hand-picked showcase.
The step-by-step workflow is in building a lead list from new businesses; five ways to find openings, with and without buying anything, are compared in how to find newly opened businesses; and the three kinds of business database in business databases: three kinds.