A Will to Win
A Will to Win By DAVID McCONNACHIE Part II Share: Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on linkedin Share on reddit Part III Canadians
ARE YOU OPEN TO CHANGE?
The new OPEN sign is digital business – and your business needs to be open to leveraging the power of Big Tech to survive and thrive.
By DAVID McCONNACHIE
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Not too long ago, the word OPEN was a sign that flipped or lit up to let your customers — and prospective customers — know that your business was ready to do business with them.
You prepared by stocking the shelves, filling the till, checking the paperwork…and then you flipped the sign and opened your doors. After a set period of time, you ended your day and flipped the sign to CLOSED.
Today, smart businesses know that the OPEN sign is always on, helping to capture sales, market share and new customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. The new OPEN sign is digital business — and your business needs to be open to leveraging the power of Big Tech to survive and thrive.
But “Hang on a second !” you reply, “. . . my business is still just a small business (even if we do have big plans) and we can’t afford to spend money unwisely.”
Good point!
For most small business owners, CASH FLOW MANAGEMENT is THE vital skill set to possess to successfully navigate the ups and downs of entrepreneurial life.
But we also know that you need to make ‘investments’ to have the necessary tools to achieve success. After all, a baker can’t make bread without an oven.
I’ve spent a fair amount of my working life in close proximity to academics, marketers and editorial types. All three use (or overuse) acronyms as part of their communications efforts. So I’ve become trained to look for patterns in everyday words that could become meaningful acronyms. And one business-school acronym that I learned long ago is even more relevant to small business owners in today’s digital age.
O = Ownership
P = Progress
E=Entrepreneurial
N = Networked
Ownership is used to convey the importance of accepting the responsibility for decision-making, even when the decisions may seem unpleasant. The civic leaders didn’t like what they saw on the horizon for the local economy and took meaningful steps to prioritize growth and key growth-drivers. The store owners saw the writing in the demolition dust and made the decisions to put the power of digital evolution to work for them to sustain operations. Progress represents the core idea that if you are not moving forward then you are falling behind. Every small business owner has plans for growth, even if modest and humble. If you haven’t yet adopted technology to drive new sales or improve efficiency, there’s still time to make the leap. But those that fail to adapt and adopt will be left behind, like the shuttered storefronts left in the wake of LRT construction.
O = Ownership
P = Progress
E=Entrepreneurial
N = Networked
Ownership is used to convey the importance of accepting the responsibility for decision-making, even when the decisions may seem unpleasant. The civic leaders didn’t like what they saw on the horizon for the local economy and took meaningful steps to prioritize growth and key growth-drivers. The store owners saw the writing in the demolition dust and made the decisions to put the power of digital evolution to work for them to sustain operations. Progress represents the core idea that if you are not moving forward then you are falling behind. Every small business owner has plans for growth, even if modest and humble. If you haven’t yet adopted technology to drive new sales or improve efficiency, there’s still time to make the leap. But those that fail to adapt and adopt will be left behind, like the shuttered storefronts left in the wake of LRT construction.
Entrepreneurial means, to me, the idea that most small business owners want to be their own bosses, and aren’t exactly enamored with the same-old/same-old. New ideas, new recipes, new markets….these are the things that populate the dreams of the bold entrepreneur that you are. And technology represents that next-step that your business needs to take if you want to keep up with the Jones’ Inc.
Networked, when it was originally used, meant the old fashioned Rolodex, the circular card index of contacts that took up real estate on the desks of business people in the pre-internet era. Today, networked means having the digital tools at your disposal to engage with customers, vendors, bankers and government officials in the global marketplace accessed through your website.
OPEN. A sign that tells the world that you are ready to do business today.
OPEN. A reminder that it is never too late for an old-dog groomer (let’s say) to learn today’s new digital tricks — and to do so profitably.
Seems like an open-and-closed case to me.
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