New Year, New Trends

Your customers, colleagues and vendors should be the source of new business and marketing ideas. If you need a how-to, check out Romanus Wolter's article Sharpen Your Edge in Entrepreneur Magazine, October, 2006.  He offers 4 steps worthy of your attention.

1) Set specific investigative times: If you don't schedule time to focus on emerging trends, you won't do it.  Speak to customers and friends who are active online and see what they are doing.  Learn what's new and think about how it effects your business.

2) Make trend spotting part of your daily routine: Trends are happening around you.  Be alert to things that change in your normal day.  Are you offered new ways to do things? Do you see people buying differently? 

3) Persistently investigate competitors: Make sure you know what your competitors are offering on a daily basis.  It's hard to tell if they are doing better than you at a micro-level, but be focused on WHAT they are doing and how that will change your customer's expectations.

4) Make reporters part of your research team: Read magazines, news articles, set Google alerts for important topics, set up a Bloglines account and monitor blogs.  With all the tools out there you can have the media come to you.

Don't be lazy about doing this research or act like it's a waste of time.  Things are moving too fast for you to be at a dead stop.