Is your business on the way of a tornado?

I have worked with thousands of entrepreneurs through the birth of the giants, my school for entrepreneurs. As a teacher and adviser to business owners with millions of dollars in revenue, there is a scenario that I encounter every few years that breaks my heart. It is when the rules of the game change and some business owners-that are so consumed with their daily business direction-can not see the big breaks that lie ahead.

This is what is happening now in “knowledge” businesses.

I started my career in New York City, so businesses where smart people gathered to provide wisdom and penetration to their customers were common. After all, no one builds a factory in the center of Manhattan. Advertising agencies, management advisory firms, public relations and communication firms – these are the types of businesses I encountered at the beginning of my career. They are employed by deeply creative individuals who want to unite people and ideas in life.

But there is a tornado run on their way. More precisely, Tornado has already arrived and most of my friends in these knowledge businesses are in the middle of it. Current tornades are a mixture of pressure, moisture and geography systems. The tornades that these knowledge businesses face are a mix of attention deficits, he/automation and ready-making.

What has changed

The world is moving faster, including product cycles. Anydo product or value proposal you offer should be reviewed annually, not every few years. In other words, the way you offer value to your customers and the way you create value in your business should be constantly under the microscope.

How do you offer value to your customers

What we know about your customers is that they are told to do more. America is in the middle of a productivity boom. Productivity is simply the income we generate shared with the number of hours we work to generate that income. Financial markets, which are always looking future, tell your customers that they need to become more productive or otherwise their shares prices will be punished.

Historically, this is a good thing for knowledge businesses because we remove work from the shoulders of our large enterprises clients so that they can reduce calculations and measurable watches. However, the economy of attention deficit has changed where we fit into their value chain.

Your best advertising campaign? Your most frugal communication campaign? In a world of attention deficit, its value is significantly reduced. You need to produce 10x the amount of creative content in a omni-channel world where customer trips, employee needs and sellers strategies are as unique as snow in a snowstorm and equally widespread.

Large amounts of data have replaced creativity. Remember “Nike, just do it”? That line of captured labels worked once. Now the successful ads of advertising is what collects and optimizes 100 parts of creative seconds before a user sees it. Not exactly the scenario featured on the television show “Mad Men”. In fact, there are no more agencies left on Avenue Avenue “MAD” (Madison).

What about our customers? A smart conclusion counseling given by the best educated management consultants by telling your client where to focus over the next twelve months is outdated before your PPT arrives in their email box. Oh, and they certainly don’t have time to read it anyway. In fact, although this article can help you save your business, it is likely to be 500 very long words. No one reads anymore.

Large data sets are more valuable than wisdom -based penetration. This is a profound difference for knowledge businesses.

How do you create value within your company

Your peers and friends with whom you came out – those experienced and knowledgeable people who need six figures to live? You no longer need so much. A smart “gray hair” of technology, who is ready to use him and talent in less expensive parts of the world, can do the work of ten experienced, well -paid individuals. This means that nine of them are now redundant or have to find work elsewhere. Not much more to say about it unless I was one of the nine oversized people, I would go to start my business and find a better way to do what I do. (For more about this, keep reading).

What to do for tornadon

If you are reading this message, you can present it in the box “Very little, too late” because you already know that your customers evaluation and recognition of your value has been diminishing since we recovered from Covid.

On the other hand, whatever I write about this is what I have shared with the entrepreneurs for the last few years and for them it has the “I told you” smuggling ring. If I’m honest here, I’m writing this today because so many amazing entrepreneurs have heard me talking about it, but I didn’t do anything about it.

However, here’s what I told them for years. If you want to know more about it, let me know in the comments below. Otherwise, I will simply end up in your boxes “very little, too late” or “I told you so” and hate there.

1. Choose customers that mitigate the risk for you. Our corporate customers are brutal. They do not pay us very quickly and do not want to make long -term commitments for us. And our contact points with these customers may not be there much longer. Factor that in.
2. Kill the legacy. Be honest with yourself for your value proposal. If you do not give enough value or the right value to your customers, change it. How? Go ask them what they want you to be. If you don’t like their answer, or find new customers or change your value proposal. You cannot continue to do it the same way and expect another result.
3. If you have strong positive cash flowsyou have two choices: or Invest in technology To make your business more important OR Invest in something completely outside your businessas a street shopping mall or bitcoin. Investing in your heritage model is probably not wise (see #2)

If these do not sound like light “nuggets” that appear to be the coin of most items online, you are right. The reason some of you are in the eye of the Tornado is that the valuable time has already lost and the ways to success are narrowing. I have run countless programs that have been extremely successful by showing entrepreneurs how to change, but the most difficult thing is to see those who do not want.

I’m sure some of you may think of this as a confrontation message, but for me it is a love letter to the unbearable spirit of the entrepreneur. Also also the same advice to take as a business operator themselves. You are agents of change and the world is changing. It’s a perfect match if you are ready for it.