Open & Free Business Model
When Bright People Meet
I recently held a workshop and some of the smartest people in my community were there, great things happen when smart people meet, all you have to do is get out of the way. The workshop was on the topic of how to give your content away and generate revenue, the open & free business model, or free content business model. We discussed what was happening out there on the interweb, and we talked about what it meant to each one of them. The reality is, many of us are still trying to find our way, and most of us don’t know someone with arms length that has figured it out. Maybe it’s not important, maybe it’s more important to participate, build your plan, and then work your plan.
One of my goals in 2010 is to help 100 businesses with the new (old) business model, to show them which direction the tidal wave is coming from, and then help them ride it rather than get wiped out because they were looking the other way, Denial to foresight. When talking to business owners, the Internet is still just an add-on to their existing business. The concept of a social business or an open business is so foreign to them, a glazed look comes over their eyes after a few moments, which tells you they don’t understand. I suspect, many of these business owners don’t want to look stupid, or be viewed like they don’t know, so they act like they do. But when a business owners says ya I need to learn this stuff can you help me, I get pretty passionate about sharing and helping them.
I can tell you this, if you find business owners with an open mind, with a little humility, a desire to improve, feel they aren’t using the Internet effectively just yet, be gentle, then share the future with them before the details of what to do next. The future is actually easy to see if you’re looking at the world of business with the right perspective. Being out of the box means you are willing to adopt new ideas, it doesn’t mean you make poor decisions. Some things are right under your nose, like cell phones, everything is going mobile. In the future this mobility will be embedded into everything, your prescription glasses, contact lenses, even our blood stream once Nanotechnology matures. Our automobiles will be driven by computers not us, they will have sharper senses than we do. It’s already happening, just look around, the challenge is that this technology is not in the mainstream. It’s over most of our heads, so we tend to stay in and work with things we understand. Why, we are wired to be in control, being out of control feels like CHAOS, so we are very uncomfortable in it. The open & free business model promotes that chaos, we don’t know how to embrace it and more importantly trust it.
The best way to learn this new way of doing business is collaborate, to connect with those who are working on it, understand it, and show you how to get comfortable with the chaos. Is to create an environment where people can succeed, it’s as simple as putting a team of smart people together in a room and asking some key questions, then sit back and listen. Just get out of the way and take notes. When smart people meet, great things happen.
3 Things To Watch for By 2013
In the next 3 -5 years there three major things that will force how we think and how we do business on the Internet. You need to prepare today in order to adopt new ways of doing business online in the future. To adopt new ways of thinking, a paradigm shift unlike you have ever had to endure in the past. Giving customers what they want is paramount, if you don’t, word of mouth will work against you at a faster rate than you can ever recover from. The future is filled with change, how you embrace change matters more than ever today. The next 5 years will test your ability to make changes.
Questions to consider: 1.) Does the Technology you use today help fill your sales funnel? 2.) Does your current technology improve productivity? 3.) Do you have easy ways for your customers to connect with you or talk to you? 4.) Does your current technology help build your brand? 5.) Does your current technology match your business objectives? 6.) Is your company web-native, is the web your primary way of doing business? 7.) Does your current technology make paying for your product or service easy and in a seamless way? 8.) How easy is it to do business with your company online?
3 Things to pay attention to:
1.) The 3 Billion yet to come
In the next 5 years we will see the arrival of 3 Billion people, that’s 3 Billion more people online than there is to date. This will create a sound boom, an avalanche of new content and a serious need for filtering the noise. Filtering content will be more important than creating it, and you will need to be tagged to be heard. If you do business online, getting attention and converting will be much more difficult if you don’t prepare today. These new consumers will want more control and will not be forced into paying for something they can find elsewhere. Hence the phrase, Proudly Found Elsewhere. Your Ecosystem will need to harness the power of an open economy to survive.
2.) Web-Centric
In the next few years 30% of all commerce will be done online, do you have the right systems in place to adopt that 30%? It is expected that that number will eventually hit 60%, are you ready to serve them? Do you have a team working on creative ways to adopt to the web in a primary way? Are you still treating the Internet as an add-on to your business?
3.) Mobile & Social
The Internet is shifting from computers to mobile devices, eventually these devices will be embedded into eyecare and possibly bionic lenses. More text messages are being sent than actual vioce calls are being made in the USA today. Is your business channeling to mobile devices? Are designing systems to adopt mobile devices that integrate social networks? Each day new mobile devices are being developed, and each day more and more business is being funnelled through mobile social networks, is your business leveraging new technologies that maximize presence and attention?
The world is getting faster and very mobile, the web is central to everything being developed today, are you there, will you be ready? The world is coming like a tidal wave, will you ride it or be hit by it? It’s an exciting time, embrace the open economy and the open & free business model, adopt this new way of serving others and generate more revenue than the past.
Will You Embrace an Open Economy?
You will read much about this a great deal here, and you will hear about it in many other circles, the world has yet to arrive, but when they do, an Open Economy will emerge and swarm the Internet like never before. An open economy will bring about a new way of thinking, a new way of planning, and a new way of generating revenue. Much will change and then some things will remain the same, out of fear and creativity.
One thing that will change, regardless of you or your businesses participation, customers will take charge in this open business model, they’ve already started if you haven’t noticed. In fact, you probably are seeing a shift to where the middle-man is dead, small is the new big, it’s happening because we used to succeed by controlling, and businesses are no longer in control in this open economy. Good companies will have to find things users can do in order to keep them, open things, give users more control.
Jeff Jarvis, author of , What Would Google Do?
In the new model, attention will be the new currency, getting attention will be central to your success. In fact, if you want to be found, you will have to be in “the public”, in the open, the model will demand it. You will place value on different indicators, you will learn the value of being involved in the conversation, with your customers, do what they are asking you to do, will you listen to them?
Here are a number shifts that are going take place, some have already begun. Taken from Gerd Leonhard’s Slide presentation:
1.) A Web-Native Business Model – the Internet (Web) will be the primary way of doing business. It’s no longer just an add-on.
2.) Shift from the Network to Networked
3.) Mobile & Social 1st
4.) Open Platforms (Google)
5.) From Control to Trust
6.) From Egosystem to Ecosystem (Collaboration will be everything for survival)
7.) From walled gardens to the Jungle (You can’t keep things behind walls and generate new money)
8.) Everything will shift to the Cloud
9.) Friction to Engagement
10.) GUI (Graphical User Interface) to NUI (Natural User Interface)
11.) Linear to Fuzzy Logic
12.) New Qualifications
13.) A Shift from Denial to Foresights
14.) Yes / No to Maybe
The world is coming, and it bringing a new way of doing business, it’s called an Open Economy, an Open & Free Business Model, will you learn it, will you embrace it?
Autonomy, Mastery & Purpose
Ever wondered what it is that really drives people? What gets them motivated and what incentives will help them achieve greatness? I know, every single day, right? Well, watch this and learn everything you ever needed to know about motivation!
This is brilliant, very informative and very, very entertaining, sit back and enjoy.
Twitter Hashtag #openandfree
I recently started using the Hashtag #openandfree on Twitter to track my conversations on the topic (Open & Free as a Business Model), some very interesting things are starting to come out of these conversations. The conversations also trickle away from using the hashtag, but I still get the interaction. Whether I’m speaking or consulting, there is always a series of questions, How do I know what should be free content and what do you mean by open? I’m usually surprised by the questions because, well, when I dig a little bit, it becomes obvious to me. It’s not that I’m smarter than anyone, it’s just what I’m listening for and or looking for are the opportunities in and around their business. Most people are too close to the problem(s), that’s the difference, if they could step outside of themselves and look at their business the way they did when they worked on the first draft of their business plan, they might see what I see. I think it’s human nature to see other individuals challenges and have solutions for them rather than our own.
I’ll touch on the 1st question of what content should be free. It’s can be easy to figure out, but it’s mostly confusing for most, because business owners are trained for control, conditioned to old business models where free is not done. It’s always about what you can get, rather than what you give. Being open means you aren’t keeping all your content behind walls, where access is much more difficult to obtain. It put things out in the open and trust the quality of that content, and you need to learn to trust the people formerly known as consumers. They might pay for your content on their own, you can no longer force them to pay, because they will go and not come back. The new acronym is PFE (Proudly Found Elsewhere).
The thrill is when the lights come on after just a couple questions, and then show a simple effective way to get the creative juices flowing again, that’s all it is really. We need to think outside the box, even unlearn what we know about commerce and advertising. Sometimes we get stuck, sometimes we can’t see the forest for the tree’s, it’s like writer’s block and the like, you can sit and spin your wheels for what feels like hours, or hire someone to come in and kick start the creative gene.
By using the hashtag (#openandfree) on Twitter I’m collecting data, I’m looking for ways to help, and I will always direct you to come here for the basic steps. If you are a DIY (Do It Yourself) kind of person, then poke around here on my blog and chip away.
A recommended exercise is, ask yourself this question:
What is your CORE Business about?
Now we tend to struggle with the CORE because nothing is static anymore, press on and you will get the picture. Don’t stop on the first answer, drill down and ask yourself the question three or four times until you can answer the question in a preferably short accurate sentence. Get your answer down to a simple statement, crafted in a clear concise way that the masses will understand easily. Sometimes it can’t be kept short, but you want your prospect or the person you are sharing with to get it quickly, then you can move on to the next point or question knowing they understand.
Once you’ve arrived to a satisfactory statement, you now can begin the process of figuring out your content questions. But that’s another blog post.
This step also helps you design the why of your business, assuming you haven’t completed a business plan, that’s called the vision.
Does this make sense to you?