Not every business owner has an accounting or economics background. In the digital age, our limitless access to information can be a double-edged sword – endless opportunity and potential for overwhelm. It helps to have a starting point with specific recommendations.
We chatted with a few members of the First West Capital team to get a few of their top recommendations for economic and business news, and see how they cut through all the noise and stay up to date with a busy schedule.
“The most engaging content for me is usually punchy, short form content – could be text, audio, or video, ” says Geoff Devereux, Director, First West Capital.
“There’s just so much information and long form content out there along so many dimensions. I would be completely lost if I jumped down every rabbit hole on the internet regardless of how interesting I may find the topic.”
The common practice across our team was checking headlines of trusted and established sources regularly to stay informed on global and local trends. Here are some of our team’s go-to sources for broad global and local news, and industry updates:
GLOBAL and NATIONAL TRENDS
CNBC – By browsing the headlines regularly, you can stay on top of what’s trending but also keep an eye out for leading indicators or events that may have an impact on a micro scale. It’s a great source for overall market news both locally and abroad.
BNN Bloomberg – A great source for business news, both domestic and international with a Canadian spin. Owned by Bloomberg, the large US-based business news juggernaut, BNN Bloomberg’s roots are very Canadian. Over the years, the name has changed but the high standards of reporting and Canadian business perspective have endured. It’s a great resource for anyone interested in the Canadian business landscape.
The Wall Street Journal. [WSJ] – For when you’re busy during the week, the WSJ is a subscription-based online publication with excellent news prompts and great content for when you have the time to read in the evenings and weekends across a multitude of markets and styles (news and opinion pieces).
The Economist – Another subscription-based online publication that is a great source of analysis and commentary to get above the daily news cycle and dive deep into factors driving the global economies.
LOCAL MARKETS and INDUSTRY UPDATES
Business in Vancouver [BIV] – It’s a great place to stay up to date on local business news and updates, especially where we see a client being featured!
Axios Closer – Axios is a new media company leading the way in business news. From their coverage of technology, venture capital, media, and the public markets. Axios Closer is a daily email newsletter focused on public markets. In just under three minutes, you can learn about the major moves in the US market indices and what names are gaining or losing and why. It’s a great quick check-in on the market forces shaping the economic conversations on any given day.
And last but not least, Linkedin!
Linkedin is great to keep up with personal networks, the broader local business community, and various international business thought leaders. With Linkedin, it’s important to know ‘when to say when’ since the scroll can be a bit of a time sink. Give yourself a time-limit like 15-20 minutes here, and you can still take away a lot of insights.
On that note, connect with us and our team on Linkedin and tell us what you’re reading or listening to that we didn’t mention?
There’s a great community element with Linkedin and it’s great to make connections and grow that ecosystem system together.
