You asked me to test whether the library database is actually worth it. I couldn't get into it — that needs your ID at a counter — so I tested the question underneath it instead: how much of your territory can you already reach for free? The answer changes what I recommended yesterday.
I've spent two days telling you the contractor licence file is the best thing on the table. On its own merits it still is — phone on every row, renewal dates nobody else sells. But I never checked how big construction actually is in your size band, and it's 1,054 companies out of 17,080. Six percent.
Restaurants and hotels are 4,061 — four times bigger — and you can only see the Santa Clara County ones. Retail is 1,974 and you have nothing. Professional services 1,886, nothing. Auto shops and salons 821, nothing.
So I undersold the library card, not oversold it. I pitched it as a nice free extra and spent the detail on a $104 mobile-number tool. It's the other way round: general coverage is the gap, and that card is the only free thing that fills it.
| Sector | 20–49 staff | Santa Clara | Rest of Bay | Can you phone them? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurants & hotels | 4,061 | 1,137 | 2,924 | partial county food file — Santa Clara only |
| Retail | 1,974 | 540 | 1,434 | none |
| Health care & social | 1,960 | 463 | 1,497 | yes care facilities + provider registry |
| Professional & technical | 1,886 | 461 | 1,425 | none |
| Construction | 1,054 | 289 | 765 | yes licence file, 100% have a phone |
| Admin & building services | 843 | 212 | 631 | weak injury file, no phones |
| Auto repair, salons, other | 821 | 193 | 628 | none |
| Manufacturing | 788 | 275 | 513 | weak injury file, no phones |
| Wholesale | 739 | 196 | 543 | weak injury file, no phones |
| Education | 583 | 168 | 415 | none |
| Finance & insurance | 566 | 111 | 455 | none |
| Information | 555 | 165 | 390 | none |
| Arts & entertainment | 397 | 103 | 294 | none |
| Transport & warehousing | 354 | 66 | 288 | partial trucking census only |
| Real estate | 299 | 77 | 222 | none |
| Company management | 170 | 26 | 144 | none |
Census County Business Patterns, 2023 — the government's own establishment count by county and employee band. Their band is 20–49; yours is 24–49, so these totals run slightly generous. Shaded rows are where you currently have no phone route.
I counted all construction and all healthcare as covered, plus Santa Clara restaurants, plus the 1,567 companies with a retirement filing. That's 5,718 of 17,080.
It's generous on purpose, and it's still only a third. The honest figure is lower because the licence file only covers licensed contractors, not every construction firm; the care-facility and provider files don't reach every healthcare employer; and the 1,567 retirement-filing companies overlap with the buckets I already counted. Call it a ceiling, not an estimate.
I tried three ways into the database itself and all three closed:
So the gate is a photo ID at a counter, and that's yours to do — one visit, and the main library downtown is walking distance from your office. Until then I can't tell you whether their employee counts are any good, and that remains the open question.
When you have it, the first test takes ten minutes: look up twenty companies whose real headcount you already hold from their government injury filings, and compare. That settles the estimate question with your own data.
A general directory gives you a company and a main line for the missing 11,362 — which lands you back with the receptionist. It fixes coverage, not access. The mobile-number problem is separate and still costs money.
Worth being clear about the order: coverage first, because you can't dial a company you can't find. Then the cell number, and only for the rows worth it.