Research industry trends

This afternoon you are going to block out two hours of time, close the door to your office and start surfing.

No, you’re not going to spend the time on holiday websites or online retailers or playing Stick Cricket.

Instead, you are going to do some serious research into industry and business trends.

Start on smartcompany.com.au and get up-to-date with all of the current news on the Australian start-up scene.

Then head to SmartCompany.com.au to see what high growth companies are doing and thinking about.

Then head to Inc.com, Entrepreneur.com and FastCompany.com to get the latest trends out of the US, particularly out of Silicon Valley.

After that, spend some times looking at management trends. Harvard Business Review is a great place to start, but there are lots of good management blogs and sites that will give you ideas you can use in your business.

This is not wasted time. You will find concrete ideas for your business which should be circulated among your team and discussed further.

And it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than bringing in a consultant.

Get it done – today!