Future of Business
The Future Of Business – Homeplus Virtual Subway Store
Progress is being made in shopping virtually, shopping using your smartphone is the future for sure, here is a short video showing you how it is being done in Korea:
The Future Of Business – The Chamber Of Commerce & The Tribe
Most of us have routines, I have a regular habit of stopping into the same place for my morning coffee, no it’s not Starbucks or Tim Horton’s. It’s the Roasted Grape, the coffee is amazing and the food is even better. People think I own the place I’m there so often, or have shares in the business….I don’t.
One morning I stopped in for coffee, there was a networking group meeting at the time, I knew at least half of the people there. I sat off to the side drinking my coffee when I heard my name, they asked me to join them, I asked…are you sure? I know me, I’ll talk if you give me the floor : )
After the session was over, a number of people approached me to chat, that’s why we go to these types of events right? I tend to ask more question when I sit at these round tables, mostly to make people think, because that’s what I do. Much of my work is reviewing business plans, asking a thousand questions, consulting, and public speaking. Sometimes, 4 – 5 times a year I will hold a workshop on the future of business – the open and free business model.
After chatting with a number of people, I posed the concept of, I think your local Chamber of Commerce should adopt the Tribe Model. I was asked the big question of course, what would that would that look like to you? I had to stop myself, I didn’t want to just blurt out a bunch of thoughts without actually thinking it through more. I’m not even sure I have it clear in my head right now, but I want to get it down and ask you what you think of the idea?
The biggest difference between a tribe and a community is….PASSION! The leaders and the members of the tribe have a high level of passion for something, it could be anything, as long as it benefits the tribe. It could even be a cause. Communities are more of a “gathering place”, they’re kind of stagnant and are formed from common interests of community members, or the squeaky wheels. Great tribes are always in motion, communities are not, they tend to be pretty static and have a hierarchy that operates from the top down.
Communities are like churches to me, they think in terms of programs and projects rather than being in a constant state of flux. Flux merely means flow, and that flow is always forward thinking.
We should look for tribes within communities, but don’t assume the community is a tribe. Great tribes tend to be formed by people with expertise, desire and passion, but don’t put to much emphasis on expertise.
These are a few initial thoughts, it’s very high level, but you know who the people are within your communities that are passionate about something in the business community. The Chamber should let these passionate people build, rather than try to control them. But that would mean chaos, and very few are willing to let chaos happen, why, it feels to out of control.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this concept, or your ideas on how your local chamber could adopt a more open and free model, one where the members are in a constant state of flux. It would mean a radical new way of thinking about chamber.
Related articles
- Searching, Seeking And Belonging (owengreaves.com)
- The Future Of Business – It Will Get Harder & Harder To Get Attention & Build Trust (owengreaves.com)
The Future Of Business – The World Population
The Future Of Business – The World Population. As each hour, day, month, and year passes, the world population continues to grow at an exponential rate. That rate is made even more alarming when you consider the amount of land used to grow food for this growing population. It is even more alarming when you consider the amount of water needed to sustain the population in the next 20 years.
This illustration should also make you think about your business community, how do you become part of the solution, how do stop consuming and start providing. Your personal survival and your businesses survival will look the same in many ways. We should be helping each other, rather than trying to get as much as we can from each other.
Here is an interesting video to help you see the population growing before your eyes:
The Future Of Business – Making Money Slow
The Future Of Business – Making Money Slow. What do I mean by this, keep it simple. Most who tackle the online world of making money think in terms of getting rich quick, I would suggest you make money slow. Also, make your money goals achievable, trying to make a million in year one is not realistic. The future of business is about building, it takes time to build something bigger than yourself, start small and start building with the end in mind.
I get asked all the time, how do I make money online? In many ways, it’s not much different than offline, solve a problem, fill a need, provide awesome service, and be honest. Building trust offline is easier than building it online, mostly because it’s easier to hide.
When I started making money online (2007) I started with something I was interested in, something I could manage alone, and knew people need my service. I started with a private webhosting company, I serve clients and friends, it’s grown away from that model, but it’s still a size I can manage on my own. But I started with one question…do you know what it might be?
I asked myself how much I wanted to make per year from my webhosting, just using simple math, I did this:
$30,000 ÷ 365 days per year = $82.19 per day
That number is not only reasonable but achievable, that’s 7 days per week. Keep in mind, this is online hours not traditional business hours. You may have loftier goals, but I felt starting with something achievable was a better goal. It wasn’t about how fast or much, it was a building block, and then I would add another building block.
If you only want to work Monday – Friday, break the math out again:
$30,000 ÷ 312 days per year = $96.15 per day
It takes time and persistence, most people don’t want to wait, making money slow is better for a couple reasons. One, it’s easy to manage, and number two, it pays for itself rather than taking money from your household budget. In other words, I didn’t use my own money, the clients covered costs out of the gate. I still build business that way today.
I share this with you for one reason only, to help you stop making ridiculous goals. Don’t worry, if you stay the course and make money slow, your bigger dream and goals will most likely take care of themselves. It still comes down to simple math, providing incredible service, having a product or service people need, and then provide them with unbelievable support.
The old saying of “Keep It Simple” comes to mind, I once heard some say it differently, “Keep it simple, because simple is hard enough”. I hope this helps when you feel overwelmed, especially when you aren’t meeting your financial goals. This method may seem over simplified, but it works for me, it keeps me from getting out of balance, small moves are easier to overcome when they don’t work out, and sometimes that means investing smaller amounts of money. I always ask myself two questions before spending money or starting something new, what’s the worst thing that could happen, and could I survive it? If the answer is yes, I move forward, if it’s no, wait.
That to me is The Future Of Business – Making Money Slow.
The Future Of Business – Plumbers To Nano-Plumbers
The Future Of Business – Plumbers To Nano-Plumbers. Hard to believe I’m mentioning plumbers in a blog post, but I have a story to share. On Friday my wife noticed a wet spot in the ceiling down in our wet room area, you know, where we hang our coats and change our boots and such. It didn’t seem that bad but it was now showing itself, so I called a friend who recommended someone, I called them and they didn’t answer their phone. I tried a cell number and left a message. I felt better because I was dealing with the problem in a calm rational manner.
On Saturday we didn’t do much, a little gardening, house cleaning and I watched the Blue Jays Baseball Game, nice relaxing day in my books. My wife was fussing about this leak downstairs, so I went and look at it, it seemed to have stopped leaking as the ceiling was drying out. I called the number for the plumber again but no answer again, I left another message. We carried on with our day, we had a friend over for BBQ and sat back sipping some wine before calling it an evening. We didn’t even mention the plumbing problem to our company because we didn’t feel it was urgent I guess, we should of asked for a referral. It was a very nice evening, we merely took it easy and went to bed as if the world was all is we would have it.
Hee it is Monday morning, I slept in, I guess I was tired. I got up, had a shower, went to the kitchen, had a banana and went downstairs to my office. I have to walk right by the where the leak is so I took a quick peak. I ran for the phone and called my plumber friend again, only this time more frantically, NO ANSWER!!! So I grabbed the phone book and called the first one I saw. I have to say this, the girl on the phone could tell I was a little stressed, I mean it looks like the ceiling is going to crash to the floor because of the weight of the water. She talked to me as if I was calling 911, in a nice calm voice she asked me to describe the situation and then got the plumber on the phone. It turns out he is close by my home and said he would be there in 15 minutes, he arrived in ten minutes.
THE POINT
He walks in, assess the damage, and was able to find the problem I couldn’t find, that’s because it was well hidden and I really didn’t know what I was looking for (other than water) and where I should be looking for it. He knew where to go, and found the problem. It was actually two pipes that were leaking, and the water build up on the ceiling, he said it has been leaking probably for 6 months because the water was turning yellow.
He fixed the problem, now I have some drywalling and painting to do, but the problem has been solved. That’s what we pay people to do right, solve problems. But my point isn’t the leak being fixed, it has more to do with the plumber.
I talk about, you talk about it all the time. We talk about the future of business changing and how it will be done, but how will plumbing be different? How could this plumber fix my problem with his smart phone? How could he fix it remotely? He couldn’t, and I don’t expect that to change in my lifetime.
Some businesses will change very little, someone still has to be the plumber. I’m sure many types of businesses will be able to automate production lines and so on, but how would the plumber take his or business to that automated state? Today, they can’t.
Do you run a business like this? How will your business adopt the future of business? I suspect you will either use smart phones and the Internet on some level, but your work is very hands on.
I would recommend building a network of people, your current and old customers, get them to refer regularly, build a tribe online that is like-minded in the plumbing niche, and share your trade secrets on a blog, teach people how to fix simple plumbing problems. Steal the audience the TV audience by offering better information, even service. You will become the leader of your industry if you stick with it long enough, patience and persistence always prevail.
I’m grateful for traditional industrial age workers like plumbers, but how will that industry change in the new economy? The Future Of Business – Plumbers, how will they survive?
NANO-PLUMBERS
Let’s look ahead to the future where the plumber repair man may be extinct! Imagine this, you are building a house or an office building, it doesn’t matter. You have found a source for pipes or lines that have nanomaterial, so they are self-repairing. As soon as a weakness or the potential for a pin-hole leak to start, the nanotechnology instantly senses it, and repairs it. Or it sends a message to the installer for tracking purposes, that would be a fail safe for followup. The followup would be done remotely, because nanobots are wireless devices, they can be reprogrammed and or data can be downloaded from them.
Nanotechnology could serve in this way, it would revolutionize the plumbing industry, but who will adopt it? Today this type of product and service would be expensive, but in the next decade, it could be reasonably priced and accessible to everyone. Even older homes could be retro-fitted with the newer technology. From Nanosilver Coatings to Nanobots, there are many different types being worked on today, it’s a matter of time before this technology is in the hands of developers. The cost savings over time will out weight the high cost up front. The same arguement can be had with solar panels for your home, but that’s another story for another time.
How does this Nano-Plumbing idea make you feel?
