The standard business principles that your grandpa taught you 30 years ago, may not all apply to in today’s Internet environment. Take the Indie Connect Magazine article 10 Business Principles. Some of these principles may be stale in today’s business strategy. Here are some examples:
- The Law of Supply and Demand The article explained that if there nobody wants your product or service, you can’t sell it to them. This may be fine for the corner fruit stand, but not when you have a world at your fingertips…In the old school of business, you were restricted to a geographic location by your resources. Today, at the time I am writing this blog, there has been over 2 1/2 billion google searches (See World Metersat the time you are reading this.) This means that if you develop a proper Internet strategy, you can attract a substantial market somewherein the world. Demand can be misleading in the Internet, because of the sheer numbers of individuals that are available to find you. You can almost sell anything to anyone, even if the demand seems absent.
- You Spend Money to Make Money I can’t think of another principle that has been shattered by the Internet. 30 years ago, a local business person may have placed $1,000s of dollars of Yellow Pages ads in different cities to get the attention of hundreds of people. Today, if you spend mor time than money in establishing your product on the Internet, you can be successful. The one who wisely spends money in these slim economic ties, will be the one who will go the length.
- Every industry has its own set of ‘best practices’ Yes, but these best practices may be a crutch that forces you to swim in a red ocean instead of a blue ocean where competition becomes irrelevant. You become a commodity. (See Blue Ocean Strategy article). To be successful, you have to examine what your customer is looking for from the industry, not what your industry is delivering to the customer. Sometimes, they can be very different.
Read the other priciples listed in the article, but look at them through the eyes of one in the 21st century.
Chances are, if you are reading this article, it is because you found the link on a social network like Facebook and Twitter. However, the strategy dicussed in the following article will probably be obsolete within a year…bummer. Music Think Tank published a cool article