Serial entrepreneur and self-made millionaire Marcus Lemonis doesn't read business books.
They are "a little outdated," he tells CNBC. "If you're going to make business decisions and you're going to make them today, you might as well have the most recent information."
That's why the star of CNBC's "The Profit" — in which Lemonis invests his own cash into struggling businesses and tries to turn them around — reads the local and national newspapers on a daily basis.
"Whether that's The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times or your local paper, I think in order to get in touch with real-time information, you've got to study real-time data," he said.
It'll give you an understanding of what's happening with things like the real estate market, the auto sector, the stock market and jobs. "All of these things are very good trends for consumer confidence and where things are going overall," he said.
In addition to reading the paper, Lemonis likes to do online research, particularly if he's looking to get into a new business.
"I'll study people who have been successful and I'll look at what the big industries are saying about trends," he said. "And what I like about using those tools is that I can get a lot of information very fast."
