I was having coffee with a friend this week. As with many conversations with friends as it turns to business I was discussing the similarities and differences in my industry and hers. As with most people and industries I am familiar with we were discussing the increased competition and diminishing distribution options due to the prolonged downturn in business over the last 5 years. She told me, "hey, you should write about the lessons you've learned over the last 5 years. I bet a lot of people in your situation would be interested to hear how you are overcoming the challenges you've been faced with over the last several years. My response? "Um, I kind of already do that." Then I gave her the name of my blog.
Even though I am approaching a milestone birthday early next year I am happy to say I still try and usually manage to do quite well learning something every day. The last few years I have been working on a PhD from the school of Hard Knocks. Here are a couple of lessons to discuss briefly this week. Creativity and resourcefulness.
Creativity has always been important no matter what you do. You need to stand out from the crowd and do more things to get noticed. This is never more true than in 2013 when terms like IMing, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest - words that did not exist in our vocabulary just a few years ago- demand that you be different and act different if you are going to make a difference. I call it BAM but you can call it whatever you want as long as you're doing whatever you can to make sure you remain relevant to your customers or audience or whoever you are trying to appeal to.
There are plenty of people and companies out there that continue to operate in the arena of insanity trying to do the same thing they have done for years and expecting different results. Good luck with that in 2013! What are you doing to get noticed? What other industries are you seeing breakthrough ideas that could be incorporated in to yours? How are you changing to meet the needs of your customers? Do you know what your customer's needs are?
Resourcefulness is also a key to success in the future. I define resourcefulness as making more out of less. Maybe it means something different to you but the truth is I bet you wish you had more customers to sell to and less competitors vying to earn their business. The reality is how can you become a more valuable and trusted resource to the customers you have? Better yet, which customers earn you the most profit? What can you do to become a key resource for those customers? What other customers exist that posses the same characteristics that can earn you higher margins.
We don't necessarily need more customers but we need to maximize business with our best customers. How often are you communicating with your best customers? Are you part of their planning process for the future or are you working backwards and hoping to sell something? Anything?! That's a tough way to make a living today.
Combining the strengths of creativity and resourcefulness will lead you to ask questions in new ways, look at problems and resolutions from different angles and bring results that will deliver long-lasting results. It's not easy but it beats doing nothing. I guarantee you'll learn a few things along the way.
