1.Education: Every employee of your organization and any independent contractors working in facility need to be briefed on requirement not to disseminate any technical and /or commercial information to anyone outside organization, except on a need-to- know-basis. This includes everyone from Chairman and CEO to maintenance staff. Few companies realize just how much significant information can often be parlayed at local watering hole. Merely "hanging out at local lunch or after work gathering spot" is an old, but tried and true technique that has enabled many a competitive intelligence gatherer to learn critical information. It is amazing what one can learn from production workers or administrative support staff over a beer or two, especially on a Friday after work. Casual conversation can reveal information such as production problems, order backlogs, customer and supplier names, quality problems, new product developments and strategies, capital expansion plans, hirings, firings, lay-offs and far more.

In addition, management, marketing, technical and contracts personnel should all be thoroughly briefed on applicable government technical data export regulations. This mandatory education for all should be standard for new hires, as well as reviewed periodically at company meetings and in newsletters and through other means.

Competitive intelligence gathering and industrial espionage are issues that are seriously underestimated by most companies today, especially in North America.

1.The Leadership should appoint a single Point Of Contact ("POC") with an alternate in cases of their absence, who must approve export of any documentation. This includes data released in hard copy, fax, electronically, verbally and by visit, either of foreign nationals or during visits to foreign companies or government offices.

1.A written policy regarding exchange of technical data between organization's U.S. and any off-shore company owned or representative offices and personnel.

1.A written policy regarding employees taking technical and business data, both hard copy and electronic, home or downloading it remotely to work on after hours.

1.A written policy regarding what types of technical and business data may be carried on laptop computers and/or downloaded when outside of country.

Although not exhaustive, this will form a good basis for beginning a program to guard against export law violations and loss of competition sensitive data.

2) You need to know where to look for information. Although there are countless sources of information, if you do nothing else but tap into world's largest source of free information, you can find virtually everything that you need. That source is U.S. Government. [I've spent 25 years of my life as an information broker, and I have yet to find a source of information more comprehensive than U.S. Government.]

Do you want to get an idea of just how vast government's information reserve is?

If you took all major commercial publishers in United States, they collectively produce 50,000 new titles in all libraries and bookstores around country in a single year. In contrast, one single publisher in government (the National Technical Information Service) publishes over 100,000 titles a year. Multiply that by number of government agencies that produce information, and amount of information becomes absolutely staggering!

The range of subjects on which you can find information is also mind-boggling: The government not only counts people, number of jelly beans manufactured in country, toilets installed, and how many potatoes grown; but also gives investment trends and opportunities likely to show up in Wall Street Journal in weeks; it also answers any legal question better than highest paid lawyer. There are 700,000 government experts in any field you can imagine, who will give you free information simply because you asked.

How to Use Information You Gather:

1) Find customers who need, and are willing to pay for, specialized information. Position yourself as someone who knows how to find information on practically everything, but do narrow down types of information you can get for your customers' specific needs. That way, you zero in with precision of a sharpshooter, instead of just firing a shotgun that goes in all directions.

As an information broker, always remember what Willy Sutton said when asked why he robbed banks. He said, "Because that's where money is." You need to live by same slogan if you want to stay in business. Choose path of least resistance. Choose a customer base that consists of rich people or big companies that have money to spend on finding out how they can get richer -- and are willing and able to spend it.

2) Gather specialized information that would be of great interest to a specific business sector (example: Internet marketers). Position yourself as an expert on a particular subject, then write in-depth special reports that feature specialized information you found, package them in an e-book, and make them available to Internet marketers for a fee. As an alternative, you may also create a newsletter that regularly updates specialized information - and make money on paid subscriptions.

More and more businesses are realizing value of having good information for good decision-making. Whether big or small, a business can't succeed today unless it keeps up on latest information.

What kind of information do businesses need? They need information on their markets, their competition, technology, money sources and regulations, for starters. Develop a sensitivity to needs of your prospects by asking them directly what they need. From that, you can determine kind of information that would best satisfy their needs.

Here's a useful tip: You'd do well to develop a 'hook." A "hook" is a marketing term that makes it easier for people to purchase your services. It's taking situation I mentioned earlier about "knowing how to find information about practically anything" and refining it down to a specialty. If you specialize is some interesting aspect of information brokerage industry, it's easier to attract your prospects' attention.

Define your niche by identifying customer group that you specialize in helping: small businesses, or non-profit organizations. Or, you can define it by area of information you want to deal with, such as health information, company information, or international information. Another way you can describe your business is by medium of information you want to provide, such as: only database searches, only document retrieval, or only interviewing industry experts.

I was fortunate enough to have started in Washington D.C., where I developed hook of government information. It gave me an instant edge over my competitors, even though I had no more experience gathering information then they did. To make a long story short, government information I've amassed over years have earned me a coveted position of being a New York Times syndicated columnist, and I've even authored two New York Times best-sellers featuring information that I've obtained for free. I have also been privileged to be regularly featured as nation's top expert on government information on TV programs such as Larry King, Oprah, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Today Show and Good Morning America.

The key to becoming a successful information broker is be first to find information, and deliver it on a timely basis to those who want it. Then sit back and watch money appear out of thin air!