Before I begin on this writing about business; I want to let you know that I am NOT a business owner. I do NOT have a college degree. I did go to school for physiology, that was less than 1 year. I did not make good grades in school and was in dropout prevention. I do study psychology and trends however. I go to seminars for management training, sales, marketing and how to interact with Gen X and Gen Y at the work place. I have ADD really bad and also work for a fortune 500 company. I do some consulting on the side from my other work. I modeled for a bit, made some money, but that just wasn't my thing, I never really did make the big bucks. I still do instructional safety videos and smaller stuff here and there. So in a nutshell I have absolutely zero business credentials, no credibility, little life experience and I am 27 years old. So why am I of all people writing a paper on business? Here's why.
Over the past few years I have dabbled in marketing and recruiting for businesses. It started when I was 20 years old. A close friend of mine in Atlanta GA wanted to speak with me about how to get him more business with people in my demographic or age group. He has a big company and is wealthy. He has been in business over 35 years. He is also over 60 years young. Much of his business comes from the younger demographics. Basically he needed some expert advice...from a 20 year old! He asked me a ton of questions and just listened to me blab on about my life. I look back now and realize exactly what he was doing. He wanted to pick my brain. I'm not an idiot so I sort of picked up on what he was doing during our conversations. What seemed the obvious to me was not at all the obvious to him. Even at times during some of our conversations I was like...Duh, Why wouldn't you do that? Neither he, nor his staff could see what I could. I had to explain why we younger people do some of the things we do.
I realized during this time that he may not be the only business owner that needed such incredible knowledge (ha). I asked him if he could pass my name and number to some of his friends that are business owners. I was sure that others needed the assistance, from a 20 year old, with no business experience and was fired from more than one job. I was right! Others did! After awhile my phone started to ring. Real business owners were calling me, asking me questions! They were asking me all kinds of stuff! I was excited. I didn't charge them a penny, I didn't know I could. Seems obvious I would charge, right? That's the whole point of this writing. What may be apparent to some may not be apparent to others, even the guys who seem to have ALL the answers. I also realized who you know does matter.
Many times business owners get so caught up "running" the business they neglect to stay up to date with current trends and strategically positioning their company for future success. This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.
Starting the company from the very beginning to handle growth will keep the business from imploding later. It's common sense. It is hard and a bit of a balancing act, but using some common sense will go along way. Whatever demographic your business relies on, "become" it. If your demographic is kids, follow your kids around, listen to them, or listen to other family members kids. Get the point? Don't rely on studies your wonderful staff provides for you. Compile that information with what you've come up with by "becoming" your key demographic or key buyer. Be one of them; it's common sense. Take the time to listen; don't try to sell them your stuff or your company, just listen. They will tell you exactly what to do next. I have met with three CEO's of major corporations.
For the record these are very large corporations. All three wanted to know about Gen X and Gen Y. Two of them were for marketing purposes and one for recruiting. When I met with them I could not believe these C level decision makers were listening to their personnel who were just as old and in some cases older than them, on how to go after Gen X and Gen Y. Once again, use common sense. I don't know about you. but I'd be talking to the intern Bobby on what's going on in his life. I'd also hire some kids for next to nothing to do a real life study; not statistics some company four states away provided. That really happened by the way. Unbelievable! They were way off! In just 2 months I came up with an entire recruiting program for the one company. I did some research, used some psychology, and a lot of common sense. I presented the outline to the VP of recruiting.
The first question he asked me is how I came up with program. I told him, research, some psychology, a lot of common sense and a whole lot of hope you didn't come up with the same idea. I didn't look into what they did before. In his office during the meeting and right after I told him that I started laughing. He wasn't laughing at all. He said it took them about a year and eight people to come up with what they had. He realized that a lot of money went to waste. They knew the job better than anyone. What they didn't know hurt them severely. They had no idea how to tap into Gen X and Gen Y. I didn't know anything about the job I was building the program around. I researched the basics but that's all I needed. I simply used some common sense and research after that. They are in the process of implementing the program. Sometimes taking someone a step removed will enable creativity you could build upon. In order to fix a problem you have to change the thinking that started it. Many times employees are so embedded in the company and what they were taught they can't see what they are not doing; many times they just want to do what they are doing better. But it's actually what they are not doing that is hurting them.
Did you know that there was a trial run of a program that ran on the internet for 6 months on how the movie rental business will be in just a few short years? It was out of Austria. I came across it while I was doing some research on the internet on the movie rental industry. I did this after reading an article on Blockbuster's loses. Blockbuster is in a huge transition period with their business. They are between the digital world and the going to the store to rent a movie world. This is a hard time for them. This is also their chance pull way ahead and positions themselves better for the future. I am willing to bet they have no clue that the trial run happen. The program was so successful they had to pull it off the internet to rebuild the systems. The system that they temporally built got clogged up after just a few short months by the clients they already had in their small movie rental store. According to blogs and boards on the internet it will be about a year before they will go forth with the full system. What they came up with was genius. They used the technology we have now and what other people are already doing then simplified it. They were making money on the same movie three and four times. The individuals that came up with the idea own a small movie rental company somewhere in Austria. More than likely they used a lot of common sense just by looking around to see what others are doing and fulfilled a need.
Blockbuster will more than likely spend the next three years and 20 million dollars figuring out what others already had come up with. They could be positioning the company now for future growth if they had someone to search for just that type of information. I did a full report on the findings. I will gladly charge them a million bucks for the report. That way they could save 19 million. Perhaps Netflix will buy it from me. I could sure use the million dollars! My point is they probably don't have anyone looking for this type of thing. This is common sense to me. This is a multi billion dollar company that thinks that they have all the answers. Little do they know a modest company in Austria and two people under 30 will more than likely change the industry. If I was Blockbuster and as soon as I would have come across that on the internet I would have been on the next flight to Austria. They should have a dedicated person just to get down in the trenches and find out what's going on.
So all business owners... ATTENTION! Crawl out from your mahogany desk and get in the trenches and listen to the people that want to buy your product. Look around on the internet and find out what's going on. Chances are, there are blogs on the internet that say why your company sucks. Use common sense and it won't be like trying to look into a crystal ball to see where to go or what to do next. Sometimes you have to lead the industry in the direction you want it to go. That is what those two individuals are going to do. Blockbuster will more than likely follow.
In closure, take this for what it is, written by someone with zero business credentials, no credibility, no college who uses some common sense and someday may want to buy your product.
