One of the advantages entrepreneurs have over larger companies is the ability to move quickly. In order to take advantage of that, you need a constant supply of information about your industry, related trends and news items, and your competition. For many years, companies paid a lot of money to PR firms to provide this, known as a "clipping service". Now, these tools are automated and free.

Google Alerts is a tool that lets you "subscribe" to new search results via email. You can monitor the web at large, or just what Google identifies as news sources. You can choose to have the alerts sent to you weekly, daily, or immediately as new ones occur.

There is a limit to how many alerts you can set up, but what many people don't realize is that you can put multiple search terms in a single alert by using the "OR" operator. For example, I have a single alert on:

entrepreneur OR entrepreneurship OR "small business"

As a result, I receive a daily e-mail typically with 5-10 stories from around the world regarding entrepreneurship and small business. It only takes a second or two to read each headline and excerpt, and occasionally I click through to read a full story. But that minute or two every day allows me to keep close tabs on what's going on in my field much more efficiently than reading multiple business periodicals.

That said, efficiency isn't everything, and you should till broaden your knowledge by reading and exploring topics outside your core area of interest. But as a daily practice, you'll appreciate the time savings of Google Alerts.

Related: Information Overload - How Do You Keep Up With All That Reading?