At the New Year, most people look to the future. But as entrepreneurs, we should be thinking about the future all year long. Staying on top of trends that affect your business, your customers, and your industry is crucial to keeping your company competitive. Here are 10 tips for keeping up on trends.
1. Read voraciously
Read all you can about your industry, your market, and the world in general. Regularly keep up with industry trade publications and websites; national, regional, and city newspapers; influential bloggers and business thought leaders.
2. Get involved in your industry
Join industry associations, attend their events, take training, and participate in online communities. Associations work hard to keep their members abreast of trends, so take advantage of their expertise.
3. Network
Get to know people in your industry—and outside of it. Regularly meet and talk with colleagues, partners, and clients about trends in their businesses. These conversations are sure to spark ideas.
4. Keep in touch with your customers
Social networking tools like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter make it easier than ever to find out what your customers think and want. Are they staying at home more? Spending less? Cooking more? All you have to do is ask.
5. Monitor your business
Use tools like financial projections and business dashboards to measure business benchmarks and spot trends. Which products are selling, and which aren’t? Are supply costs rising or falling? Tracking trends over time helps you predict potential problems—and opportunities.
6. Study statistics
Government agencies compile mountains of statistics that can help you pinpoint trends in demographic groups, regions, industries, and more. The National Bureau of Economic Research, the U.S. Census Bureau and Fedstats websites are great places to start.
7. Observe your competition
Visit their locations and websites; follow them on Facebook and Twitter. What new initiatives, products or services are they launching? Are they targeting new markets or expanding to new regions?
8. Get out of the office
Regularly go where your customers congregate–whether that’s the local restaurant row, mall, or office park–and observe what people are doing, wearing, and buying.
9. Think outside the box
Get beyond your own industry, market, and region to learn what people in unrelated fields are doing. Read news from Japan or New York City. Visit sites for skateboarders or commodities traders. Learning about trends in other “worlds” will spark new ideas for your own.
10. Think long-term
Trends differ from fads, so don’t get caught up in “what’s hot now.” Think beyond today to how a current trend might impact your industry one, five, or 10 years from now.
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