Research Reduces Risks

Filed Under: All Posts, Guest Bloggers on September 15, 2009

Research? Yuk! Most people pop back to that 10-page paper they had to do in high school or college when they hear the word research. Or they think about stem cell, cancer, bio chemical or even social behavioral research. However, not all research is scary. In fact, usually not researching is scarier than the actual research.

I’m not here to try to convince you that research is fun (trust me…as a former grad student…I already know), but keeping brushed up on how to find information quickly and easily with new using new forms of technology comes in handy. Let me give you an example.

The other day my sister was looking for a specific one-act play to do this year at her school. She’d read one about five years ago that would be perfect for the cast she has this year, but she couldn’t find her copy and couldn’t remember the name of the play or who wrote it. All she knew is that it had to do with the farm crisis in America, that it was written sometime in the ‘80s and that the storyline had something to do with broadcasting.

In return for proof reading a grant I was writing at the time, I told her I’d help her look. “You aren’t going to find it online. I’ve already looked on Google for two hours the other night,” she said.

Now, I’m not discrediting my sister at all. She’s probably the smartest person I know, but sometimes it takes an outsider who doesn’t know quite as much about the research topic to bring a new light to the subject. Long story short, I found the play in about 15 minutes on Google, we did a quick celebration dance in her room at the school and ordered some copies.

The Internet makes research quick and easy. The more often you sit down even to look up the craziest of things, the more efficient you will be when looking up information that is pertinent to your business. In a matter of minutes you can find marketing ideas and strategies, information on how to use the latest networking site, and blogs about how to network more effectively. The information is already there, all you have to know is how to find it.