What comes to mind when you read this?
- closed on Sunday or open 7 days a week
- self-serve checkout or cashiers who know your name
- higher prices than across town
- negatively impacted by an imposed tariff on Chinese imports
- allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery or get or next day delivery
The ways that business gets done, successfully, with consumer and business owner feeling a sense of accomplishment is a dance in which all parties must be prepared to constantly learn new steps. What worked last year, last month, or last week may not be applicable in today’s marketplace.
Imagine just 20 years ago:
- Instead of immediate response via cell phone, you paged someone, and waited for them to reply.
- Instead of a GPS on your cell phone, you looked up directions on a map
- Instead of a Google search, you looked through the Yellow Pages for a business
Today’s business entities must be aware that consumers have a plethora of choices available to them for products and services that used to be limited by geography. The fact that Amazon can get a product to a consumer within 36 hours, and likely less expensive than a local business, is both an opportunity and problem – at the same time.
In essence, we can no longer do business as usual. And I am a firm believer, and a witness, that an opportunity exists in every challenge we face.
In 2002, I saw that video editing was gaining momentum using a computer; something called digital, non-linear editing. I had invested thousands of dollars the past three years in standard tape-to-tape equipment. Was I suspicious? Yes. Was I curious? Yes.
I bought my first Apple computer and a Media 100 software program; and began to learn how this new way of editing worked. Within five years I saw a non-tape video camera capture footage, have it imported via a Firewire cable, edit and upload to this place called YouTube. I knew my life, and my way of doing business, would never be the same.
What might you need to do in a “new” way? Something that you could not have imagined doing just a few years ago. Something that will set you apart from your competition. Something that will make you “the one” that consumers will trust to make referrals when asked the question, “who do you know that does…?” That is how we continue to be in business, and it will likely not be doing business as usual.
The Traveler Weekly 