We interrupt the usual flow of upbeat missives found in this space for a serious message.
There's not much good news these days, but that doesn't mean you have to suffer, too.
Surely, you've noticed that many businesses are hurting. But that's only part of the story. As a business consultant, my job is to provide perspective and advice, so let me connect a few dots for you.
The number of broken industries is staggering, but the real news is the number of industries that are probably going to go under or undergo major shifts. The following industries are in serious trouble. Notice how every downside offers opportunity:
1. The book publishing business is a mess. People aren't buying or reading books. Many more publishing jobs will be lost as a result. Publishers aren't paying new authors squat, driving many to self-publishing, which is the new business model.
2. The United States Postal Service (USPS) has huge problems. The USPS lost $7.9 billion in the past two years. How long before it takes a place in the long line for bailouts, bridge loans and rescue plans?
3. The music industry is broken. It's fitting that the music business just marked the 50th anniversary of "the day the music died." The quote is a poetic lyric from the Don McClean song about the tragic plane crash that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, but you can take the phrase literally now. Free downloads and a reluctance to deal with the Internet has caught musicians, record moguls and retail distributors with their collective pants down. Musicians are marketing themselves online and cutting out the midde man.
4. The newspaper business is whacked. The Detroit newspapers agency have become the first major metropolitan enterprise to announce it will cease daily delivery of its core product. The agency has urged readers to "check them out online," and will probably become a newspaper company without a newspaper. Similar dailies will probably follow suit. Meanwhile, TV's The Daily Show and Web sites like The Huffington Post (not a real newspaper) and Rocketboom are kicking ass and taking names.
5. The housing industry is not even close to recovering. Home values fell for the eighth consecutive quarter. The mortgage problem, as you know, was partly triggered by lax standards on the part of lenders. Now the problem has spread throughout the credit industry like cancer. People in a cash position are getting the house of their dreams for pennies on a dollar.
Are you depressed? Don't be. Every ending is a new beginning. The pendulum always swings both ways. When one door closes, another will . . . well, you get the idea.
But, if you want to not be affected by bad news, you must do something other than observe it.
When problem solving, it helps to look for patterns. The Internet, for example, is directly involved with four of the above scenarios. Another pattern indicates the Internet isn't going away anytime soon. Hey! I've got an idea! Maybe you should get involved with the Internet.
You'd think people would've figured this out by now, but consider these facts:
/Tons of people buy on e-Bay, but relatively very few people are using the site to sell goods and services.
/One in four people still don't use the Internet. Amazing.
/Facebook, Linked In and Twitter have gained popularity, but a stunning number of people abstain using excuses such as, "I don't want to put myself out there." Hello?!
It's probably too late for the newspaper business, the music industry, the United States Post Office and the book publishing business. The World Wide Web has forever altered their existence.
But it's still early for you to take advantage of the Internet. Dig your well before you need the water.
-Michael Angelo Caruso, http://www.EdisonHouse.com.
