How the Digital Revolution is Changing the Face of the Entrepreneurial World
July 28th, 2008 |I’m sitting in a diner with my children - a girl, age 16 and a boy age 10. We’re here because we’re local. We’re here because we know the place and the staff and they know us; its typical “hometown” stuff.
As we’re sitting, talking, the conversation turns to Myspace and then blogs in general; probably because I often joke with my daughter that, when she does something self-effacing, I’m going to blog it. Only, now the threat has turned from “I’ll blog you” to “I’ll youtube you” because I got a snazzy new cell phone with a camera last month.
So as I’m sitting there, conversing and listening, I realize that my children know so much more about the new technologies the rise of the Internet has given birth to then I ever knew about the old technologies that became obsolete decades ago. And it occurs to me, as I hear my daughter mention such bloggers as Perez Hilton and Dooce (I reference Mrs. Heather Armstrong, aka, Dooce a lot in my writing for a few reasons. Largely because in the world of women and blogging, she’s my idol and secondly because I just dig the hell out of her style), that the Internet, and in particular the insurgence of blogging and the so called “web 2.0″ revolution, has not only changed the face of the Internet, but is changing life everywhere.
Now, before you read any further there some points of interest you should know about me:
1. I am a born creative. Not necessarily in the fine arts sense, but in the sense that I have a knack for creating opportunity where there is none, and I have a knack for seeing the creative aspect of just about any new idea that comes down the pike.
2. I am a constant thinker. My brain goes 24/7. In fact, it goes so much that I dream about work, much to the chagrin of any so called “fantasy life” I may wish to have.
3. I am an entrepreneur and I have that natural drive that all entrepreneurs have, to take my talents and my skills and those dreams and turn them into something lucrative.
Granted, it seems that in today’s speed-of-light technology boom, a new idea is almost impossible to give birth to, but taking the ideas that are already out there and finding a way to make them my own, to ingest them and feel them on my creative pallet and develop my own twist on things is where I thrive.
And as I listen to my kids, it occurs to me that my niche is in bridging the gap between the old-style technology users - the ones who don’t understand say… the necessity and value of a corporate blog, or still refuse to use a credit card online because its “unsafe”, and bring them into the new technology age.
Bridging the gap is what the digital media revolution has always been about. Bringing that huge, unexplored “world out there” right to your desktop and making information, communication and yes, even profit, as easy as clicking a button.
I remember when I was a child, to refer to a grown up by anything other than Sir or Ma’am was highly frowned upon and good reason for punishment once out of the public eye. It was considered disrespectful to call a client or an elder by their first name; bad manners and bad for business.
But today it’s not uncommon to hear someone refer to Heather Armstrong as Heather or Dooce as if they’ve been sipping bourbon with her every Friday night since freshmen year of college, or to get lost in conversation with friends and refer to the CEO’s of some of the highest powered new media corporations as if they were old golfing buddies.
How does this affect business? It levels the playing field.
You know that even though Dooce may garner 4,490,000 page views per month ((Federated Media http://www.federatedmedia.net/authors/dooce)) she still gets up in the mornings, puts her skirt or pants on one leg at a time and does what a lot of us do - parents, deals with problems, hangs with friends and just lives. And how do you know this? Because its there, on her blog, for the entire world to see.
Since the birth of the Internet, many of the obstacles that used to hinder business are gone. It no longer takes 24 hours and a small fortune to send documents to a client in another state. Today all you have to do is scan to a PDF file and voila… instantly deliverable documentation that only takes a minute to download. Long distance phone bills are cut to practically nil with the advent of Net phone services and Smart Phones. Ad agencies no longer have to send full sized SyQuest discs when native format files can be zipped and sent in seconds. The Internet has closed the gap of business borders and broadened the markets that already existed, while creating new avenues for income every day.
Not only has the technological side of doing business become easier, but the intimidation factor that once throbbed like a bad vein in the hearts of many a small business owner has been lessened by this new global village. Suddenly Bob Jones of Bob’s Business Printing doesn’t feel that reaching out to communicate with the CEO of a Fortune 500 youfillintheblank company about contracting is all that much of a far fetched idea. Thanks to the World Wide Web and the blog revolution, the big dogs don’t seem quite so scary and the little guys don’t seem quite as small.
How has the Internet changed your business? Are you blogging your latest company news? Are you running an email advertising campaign? Do you have your own company website? What about reaching your target market? How do you reach them and draw them in? These were already top level questions to be asking yourself, but today they are two fold: What did I do then that I can do differently now, and how much more profitable will it become?
If you haven’t taken the time to explore some of the newer technologies that are available, you should. And if you’re still in fear of this “digital age”, don’t be. Its here to stay.
Cher Carter is the CEO and Creative Director of Carter & Company, http://www.carters-company.com a full service visual marketing design and marketing group serving small to mid-sized businesses with a special focus towards women entrepreneurs and women owned companies. She is also owner and sole photographer for Cherise Carter Photography http://www.cherisecarterphotography.com
