If you’re on top of your business, then sooner or later you will have to figure out what’s happening in the world around you. After all, fresh information is typically the way to identify opportunities that can be availed of.

In large organizations, this is what’s called environmental scanning, and it typically involves having the corporate planning group gather data about the industry, the economy, and the market, among others.

But for small enterprises, environmental scanning typically consists of the owner scrounging for any useful information that he or she can stumble upon. The newspapers become invaluable, as well as any bit of information that can be gathered from peers and from industry folks.

So how can an SME owner fine-tune the environmental scanning process? Here are some tips.

1. Network. And network aggressively. Simply put, the more people you know, then the more information you can have a chance of stumbling upon. Participate in industry roundtables if any, meet with your suppliers, distributors and partners, and engage in a lot of small talk. The kind of information that they may be able to share with you may surprise you. Take up golf, or any social activity that will give you access to quality people.

2. Read. Lots. And not just the newspapers. Find out what are the trends abroad via the internet. Pick up old magazines in related and unrelated industries. The more diverse your reading material, the more you get access to information that is typically unavailable to others who are in the same industry. More important, solutions that are presented in various literature may have a way of actually being applicable to your business as well, and when that happend, you may end up with truly innovative solutions.

3. Think. Lots. The more time you have to spare for deep thinking, then the more your brain has a chance of processing the information that you actually encounter. Because environmental scanning is not just about gathering data, it’s about figuring out what to do with them. And if you’re the head of an SME, then it looks like you’re the only person around who can actually engage in this kind of high-level thinking. So allot a generous amount of time regularly for you to just sit and think or even to meditate. What you might uncover may amaze you.