Posts Tagged ‘Future of Business’
The Future Of Business – Your Profession May Not Exist
It’s entirely possible, that the profession you’re now in, won’t exist or will be dramatically different in the next 5 – 10 years. What you should be learning is, economies, big business, even small business, the financial infrastructure of business doesn’t care how long you’ve been with the company, it doesn’t care if you’re the best at the job, it does care about making money, and you mostly cost them money. Cut backs are almost always in the form of people, rarely have you heard of a business reducing the size of the building or plot of land before they cut back people, it just doesn’t happen, and it’s easier to let people go than to the other cut back ideas.
Many authors have written about the new big being small, because so many people are finding themselves being released all types of jobs, even the long careers that we think are safe and secure. The business world is not compassionate, it’s a bottomline beast, the margins matter, and you’re easier and cheaper to replace.
Soon we will have no choice but to adopt to the new work landscape, and that will be a world with fewer jobs and more self-employed / entrepreneurs. The Industrial Age system is fighting that movement, it wants you to stay where you are and to do as your told.
The biggest challenge with new world order of work, it’s a scary place, the level of risk is higher, but the rewards are also higher if you choose the road less traveled. The reason many don’t step out is because the old system provides you with just the right amount of something called security. That system also has just the right amount structure to make you think no one else could do what you do, you couldn’t be replaced. You must know that’s an untruth. This system we call the Industrial Age is crumbling, and soon we will speak of it as something that didn’t work well for people who were creative, and entrepreneurial in nature.
Your profession, should be you, mastering the best you, providing the best service you can offer, your investment will need to be in you. The term profession now takes on a new meaning doesn’t it, it’s not what you do, it’s who you are, and how you execute who you are. Leaving the Industrial Age behind is hard, but eventually, it will disappear, and you’ll have to figure out how to manage without it. Consider what your profession looks like, and build that.
The Open & Free Business Model, It Will Set You Free!
I was once asked what do I get if I use the Open & Free Business Model, it’s simple really, it sets you free. We are so afraid to change the way we think about business, how it really is, we forgot what it was like when we first started, the energy, nervous fear that it might not work, but we kept on going anyway. There is only one thing you really need to master, your fear. If you could identify it, you would probably be able to nail it down to one or two things.
I can only really speak from my experiences, my fears, they still live in me, but they don’t keep me from doing what I so desperately want to do. It doesn’t stop me from doing the thing, it may continue to haunt me from going bigger, growing my art to something far bigger than myself. The truth is, I actually care more about you than I do myself, I write, I share, I speak in public, I do workshops, all for you. But sometimes, all those exercises don’t work, sometimes you want my work the old fashion way. I can assure you, you probably won’t find it in the traditional format, it’s not who I am, and it doesn’t support my message.
Choosing to execute the Open & Free Business Model takes guts, courage, and persistence, it’s not easy to stay the course. It has the same slow growth as the stock market, it takes time to master the model, it takes time to figure out what part of your business can leverage the model. But once you’ve figured out it’s power, you’ll never go back, you’ll never stop giving your customers what they really want from you and your business.
What they want is freedom, freedom to choose, freedom to tell you how they would like to be served, how they would like to use your product or service. If you’re listening, and your practicing the Open & Free Business Model, your world will change, and your business will look different to you, and to your community. But first you must admit your business needs to change, it needs something different, it needs to attract attention in a non-traditional way. Otherwise, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got. That may be OK for you, but it also may be the very thing that causes your business to struggle, and maybe even go out of business.
Set you and your business free, learn the Open & Free Business Model, follow the three-step process, Create. Differentiate. Deliver.
The Blur
It’s been awhile since I wrote here, April 14th to be more precise. Much has happened since I last shared with you, I went out played drums, traveled with my bride, and spent a lot of time reading and researching, but most of all, I took a break. I took a break to experience some new and different things. I highly recommend you take a timeout to learn, and to have new experiences other than what your regular routine and work might be. Otherwise, everything feels like a blur before your eyes.
Many of you should understand what I mean by “The Blur”, and how the blur might impact you and your world, mostly your business if you own or run one. I’ve been talking about it for years here on this blog. Two things probably make you feel like you are out of control, by trying to keep up, and not willing to change how you think about the future of your business.
The world moves at a faster pace than we can possibly keep up with, and much of what we see doesn’t well into our daily routines, it’s just not easy or comfortable, it means putting ourselves and possibly our businesses in a vulnerable place. If you frequent this blog, you’ll know this is not a new, I’ve said this for many years.
Most people are trying to build the next Microsoft, the next Twitter, the next Facebook, and even the next Amazon. The problem with that thinking is this, you’re looking into the past, you aren’t looking ahead, you aren’t paying attention to what people want! Do they want another Facebook, another Twitter, and are I say it…..another Microsoft. I think not.
Yes those giants are building and getting bigger, even expanding. In November 2012, Microsoft expanded to Vancouver with another sweat shop called, Black Tusk Studios, a game developer. In March 2013, Amazon opened a new development centre in Vancouver. Facebook opened an office in Coal Harbour downtown Vancouver, and in June 2013, Twitter announced plans to open a world-class Global Centre of Excellence in Vancouver as well. So, you’re already too late aren’t you?
Why are they moving to Vancouver? They are trying to find more talent and take them south, you can’t compete with Twitter & Facebook on the recruiting front, they often pay software developers in excess of $100,000 per year right out of the gate. They are scooping up developers, and they MUST have a degree from a top 100 University. Unless you have large amounts of funding, and lower your standards, you should stop and regroup before you spend another dime.
My advice is, and always has been, if you want to build the next best thing, drive down main street and ask yourself what’s missing. Start there, and then do your homework, even if you think a value added service should be built to an already existing success like Facebook or Twitter, if yes….then do your homework.
Mobile is a huge market, 40% of Facebook’s action comes from Mobile, that should be an obvious indicator to what’s happening.
All this movement is happening fast, it’s a blur. It’s like life it’s self, time keeps on ticking, it never stops, but we tend to.
The best way to slow it down is to take time to regroup, spend time with those you care about most, then regroup, re-strategize, surround yourself with smart people, and get to work. Life doesn’t have to be a blur, and neither does your business. Take the time to bring clarity to your work, build a clear vision, not a something moving so fast it’s a blur.
The Future Of Business – The Secret To Customer Acquisition
It used to be, the only way to win at acquiring customers was to buy as much advertising as you could afford. The more you spent, the higher the results. That is and was the traditional advertising model that worked for a bricks & mortar business. Today the game has changed, yes traditional ways still work, not because it’s effective, because it’s what older generations prefer it, and they still have the money.
It’s easy to reach a traditional buyer, just run enough ads on traditional advertising vehicles, and you’ll get their attention. Today the customer with money is getting younger by the minute, and we need to market to them differently. We have to make offers that make us extremely uncomfortable. It used to be, if you wanted to get the greatest reach, you ran radio & television ads, newspaper has never had the same reach. You could run 30 second ads on radio for $30 a piece, but to get the frequency for it to be effective, you had to run more than 3 spots a day. The minimum would be 10 spots a day, because the life span of a radio ad is much like a Tweet on Twitter, about 20 minutes. So to have a successful customer acquisition campaign you had to spend significant amounts of money. The same held true for television, but at a much higher cost, not to run the ads, but to make the ad. Customer acquisition campaigns can also be considered branding campaigns, but they are different.
Today we have the Internet, we can reach more people via the NET than we could with radio & television together, for FREE! I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, I am wondering why there is still such resistance to it. The resistance has the power to kill your business, and you the business owner must guard against it, not succumb to it.
The challenge with having such great reach on the Internet isn’t the cost, it’s being found, and being heard. Hence, we have a new kind of advertising vehicle like Google, Yahoo & Bing. These powerful search networks have really just adopted the traditional way of advertising for the Internet. If you want to be found, land on the first page, you now have a sufficient budget to have that desired result.
Today you can purchase qualified traffic, which, if you speak to them the right way, will become newly acquired customers. The same challenge you had with traditional mediums, holds true with digital ad networks, you need to dedicate resources to get the desired results you’re looking for.
The secret to customer acquisition today, is by leveraging and Open & Free Business Model, where free is the driving force. Like the resistance, free has the same problem, for reasons unknown to me, entrepreneurs and business owners can’t seem to wrap their brains around free. We understand loss leader concepts, but not free, I suspect the fear of giving something away and not getting paid is far greater than we would like to believe.
Companies that have figured out how to use free, have also figured out how to generate revenue because of it. Companies like Google, Spotify, Skype, Vimeo, Twitter, Evernote, Grooveshark and many more. These companies have proven free works, and they have mastered acquiring customers, they have mastered list building to the 9th degree. It does work, but we seem to have more reasons not to use the model. Whatever the excuse is, it’ll work.
You want to get more customers, give them something they want….for free, and then figure out how to monetize your new customers. The old business models are in the genre of win-lose, the open and free business model is about win-win, where everyone benefits. Mater giving products and services for free, and you will have an entirely new market to sell to. The concept makes sense, it just sounds and feels foreign.
FREE is not the enemy, free is your best friend, learn to embrace free, figure out where free fits in your business, because free is the secret to customer acquisition.
Related articles
- The Definition Of The Open & Free Business Model (owengreaves.com)
- The Future Of Business – Build Small Loyal Communities (owengreaves.com)
- The Future Of Business – Create. Differentiate. Deliver. (owengreaves.com)
The Future Of Business – Deliver.
It seems rather obvious doesn’t it, at some point you have to deliver, you have to deliver something. You don’t start a business or any kind of venture without eventually delivering a product or service. Without delivering you don’t really have a business do you. Why would you go through the process of creating something if you didn’t want someone to see it or know about it. Sure you could create something for you and you alone, but you’re still delivering, you’re delivering to yourself.
If you’ve created something awesome, and you have a plan to differentiate your creation, you must deliver it to someone. How will you ever sleep at night if you don’t?
The only way to change the world, to make a difference, to influence others, is to deliver. Delivering can be as simple as showing up, but you will deliver something when you do.
This equation can be applied to anything, the only way to get good at it, is to do it. Read it, learn it, live it.
Create. Differentiate. Deliver.
