Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Can you deliver the authenticity customers seek?

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Adam Smith, the father of modern economics and author of The Wealth of Nations (1776), identified writing as one of the three most important inventions of mankind – the other two being money and economic tables.

More than two centuries later, the Internet has powered the written word to levels unimagined only a generation ago, let alone during Smith’s era. Indeed, it is the driving force behind a handy new-media maxim, “Content is King.”

Today we’re consumers of many kinds of online content, including streaming audio and video. But even in the face of such multi-media majesty as iTunes, YouTube, and various social media platforms, most of the kingly content is still in the graphic form so highly regarded by Smith.

So what does all of this mean for small business owners? It’s simple: In an era when content is king, if you want to connect with customers competitively – and stay connected – you have to produce more written words than ever before. But not just any words – authentic words.

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Breaking news! Life is short: Enjoy every sandwich

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In a former life, I sometimes counseled small business owners who were going through difficult times in their businesses. The circumstances would be so desperate and the prognosis so dire that the person on whom the business’s buck stopped would be close to being unable to function.

Having experienced such a state of despair myself in the past, and calling upon what I’ve learned about perspective and what really matters in life, I would begin the visit with, “How are your children?”

“What?!” they always asked, incredulously.

When I repeated the question, they would invariably respond, “They’re fine. I’m about to lose my business. Why are you asking me about my family?”

To which I would reply, “Does anything else REALLY matter?”

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Why not an official day for small business owners

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Labor Day began as an idea in the mind of a 19th century labor leader — some say Matthew Maguire, others say Peter McGuire — who cared greatly for a very important segment of the marketplace, its workers. 

Regardless of paternity, such a day was first celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, when members of the CLU took an unpaid day off to demonstrate solidarity and, of course, have picnics. And ever since 1884, when President Grover Cleveland’s signature designated the first Monday in September as Labor Day, it’s been an official federal holiday.

In 1898, Samuel Gompers, then head of the American Federation of Labor, called Labor Day, “the day for which the toilers in past centuries looked forward, when their rights and their wrongs would be discussed … that the workers of our day may not only lay down their tools of labor for a holiday, but upon which they may touch shoulders in marching phalanx and feel the stronger for it.”

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In the new Age, the Force is with the customer

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Earth, Stardate 8507 (The Age of the Seller)

Once upon a time, in a galaxy that today must seem far, far away, sellers controlled all information about their products, services and innovations. Consequently, customers learned what they needed to know from salespeople, who traveled far and wide dispensing information to, and collecting sales from, grateful and beholden customers.

If one had observed such a meeting, the customer would have nodded his head in wonderment as the salesperson revealed the virtual magic that was his product.  And in this land, the Force—control and availability of information—was with the seller.

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Are you prepared for the inevitable business disruption?

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This week marks an ignominious anniversary. On August 13, 2003, a single outage in the electric grid cascaded across eight northeastern states, putting 55 million people in the dark for days, and thousands of businesses out of business. The Great Blackout of ’03 was a catastrophic reminder that we’re all one nosy squirrel in a transformer away from an instantaneous, put-you-out-of-business event.

Fifteen years later, the evidence isn’t in favor of less exposure for the next 15. Consider this report from CNBC: “The FBI warned Russian computer hackers had compromised hundreds of thousands of home and office routers.” And this one from the Department of Homeland Security: “Russian government cyber actors have been targeting U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, including energy, nuclear and commercial facilities, since at least March 2016.”

In 2003, most businesses surveyed reported they weren’t unaware of a potential business disruption, but incredibly, they also admitted they weren’t prepared for one. Thankfully, that response is different these days, as one of our recent online polls indicated.

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There’s nothing small about small business trade

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By now, most people aren’t surprised to learn that small business in America is actually quite big.

You’ve heard the stats from the U.S. Small Business Administration that there are over 27 million small firms representing 99.7% of all U.S. employers. And I love reminding that these little powerhouses sign the front of half of all private sector paychecks and produce about the same percentage of our nation’s GDP. Pretty impressive.

But here’s a 21st century stat that begs the next question: With 94% of the world’s customers outside of our borders, what’s the impact of trade on small business? You might be surprised to learn that, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, small businesses represent 98% of all U.S. exporters, producing about one-third of total export value. However, considering that all U.S. exporters number less than 300,000, it’s easy math to see that small exporters are a fraction of the total Main Street machine.

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