We humans are creatures of habit. Like it or not, as a rule, we aren’t mad keen on major change. In business, of course, we have to embrace it – because if we don’t evolve, we’re dead. Entrepreneurs are a weird subspecies of the human race – and I count myself as one of them. Among our number are those who buck the trend completely. They constantly change what they do or how they do it, just for the hell of it. Take Rupert Murdoch for instance (what was that…? ‘Yes, please – take him!’???! Yes, well, that’s another topic, for another blog…). I once heard from someone who used to work for him that he would implement an idea on Monday – and by Thursday it would have been replaced by something else – just because he could; but for most of us – even if we’re mad enough to go into business for ourselves –while we might see some kinds of change as opportunities, others aren’t so welcome.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently because I’ve made major changes, at work and outside. On the work front, there was the rebrand a few weeks ago – the best thing I ever did, incidentally, but quite a scary prospect beforehand.
Personally, I’ve just changed what I drive. No, I’m not talking about swapping a Ford for a Mercedes. I’ve just decided that after twenty-five years of driving Labradors (guide dogs), it’s time to switch to a long cane. What’s the difference? Well, it’s like driving an automatic for years, then suddenly moving to a manual gear box. When you drive an automatic, you still have to know where you’re going and pay attention to what you’re doing and to other road-users etc (as you do with a dog), but there are things you don’t have to worry about. Behind the wheel of a manual car – and behind a long cane – you’re responsible for absolutely everything! Right now I feel I should have L-plates – but this time, I’ll make it work. I’ve tried before and given up – because I didn’t have the motivation to make it work with a cane. This time, for reasons I won’t bore you with, I really want and need to make it happen – so I will.
Coming back to business, I’ve just started reading ‘Fusion: the new way of marketing’ by David Miles and David Taylor. The book is, in a very small nutshell, all about how, whether we like it or not (and those of us over a certain age may like it slightly less than our younger counterparts), our websites must now be at the heart of our marketing and social media has to be a main artery through the body of that marketing.
Last Thursday, at the CEWE conference, organized by the University of East London, I met members of the next generation of entrepreneurs, including two new graduates whose dissertations were business plans. We’re now following each other on Twitter. For them, the need to use Twitter, Facebook etc to promote their new business is as obvious as it was to my generation that we needed a website, or to the previous that they needed to produce leaflets.
Plenty of us who are a little older are getting into social media, of course – it hasn’t been the preserve of teens and techies for some time – but we need to get to grips with using it intelligently, strategically. Without giving too much away, if you’re around my age, you have at least twenty years of working life to go – so, like me, you’re way too young to get left behind.
On that note, I’m off to tweet about this post – and put it on Linkedin … and Facebook … and the website … and …….