Wendesday 19 December

Predictions, as many businesses find out to their cost, are not an exact science. If they were, around one in three start-ups wouldn’t fail to make it to their third birthday, as they do currently.

But it’s clear that Australian businesses are in the grip of several long-term trends, from customer habits and demographics to the evolving challenges of technology.

Today, we gaze into our crystal ball and pick out five of the leading trends set to impact entrepreneurs in 2013.

We’ve also got the story of how RetailMeNot’s founder is tracking the progress of more than 1,700 start-ups in a new side project and web guru Fred Schebesta looks at whether you should outsource your social media presence.