The face of change

And are they quite optimistic about riding this period out? How are they adjusting their businesses to the lower savings, less consumer hunger?

I did a couple of polls with the groups that I was working with recently and about 70% of the businesses that I’m working with are all up on their revenues versus a year ago. So they’re actually doing well, even though there’s a recession. It’s like they’re choosing not to participate. It’s kind of like I said: there was $14 trillion in GDP in the US, this year there’s $13 trillion. I mean that’s an awful lot of zeros. So there’s still a lot of money out there.

There is going to be a recession but it’s more government, it’s more broad based, it’s more kind of ‘across the board people’ who are going to be hurting. So what? You can still go out and target the ones who have money or the businesses that are doing well or shake the trees a little bit more. I think it’s just not going to be as easy as it was but there will be less businesses competing for it.

How do you deal with your sales team? You’ve got to try so much harder to get every single deal. How do you build up that team?

I’d be using lots of quarterly themes and contests, sales training and emotional support with them. And trying to get them to realise that what they saw was an illusion. The good times, those big bubbles, were those roaring parties and now there’s going to be a big hangover. They either need to suck it up and get on with it or kind of wallow in misery. In a way it’s the ones that are able to say ‘there’s an opportunity now, I’m going to be the best’ that will do well.

What are you seeing with technology? Are entrepreneurs in their cost-cutting frenzy turning their backs a bit on technology? What are the smart ones doing?

They’re starting to go with free software and cloud computing. There are lots and lots of products out there that are free. So they’re really starting to look for those and network to find out what those are instead of buying things. They’re definitely not making asset purchases. Except iPhones, they all seem to want the iPhone.

There’s been a big shift in travel. I talked to a client the other day about how he was going to work with his distributors and how expensive it was to be out in the field. And I was like, ‘being out in the field’ is so 1990s.

There’s really no point in ‘being out in the field’ anymore unless it’s to meet with 10 of them at once, but yes there’s big opportunities to use webinars, big opportunities to Skype, video conferencing or iChat. Hotels are making streaming deals right now. There are big, big deals if you have to travel to get 40% to 50% off the normal rate. So travel has gotten cheaper.

What about social networking? What shifts are happening with social networking with this recession?

That’s interesting. In the last month or two I’ve started to hear for the first time that people are kind of going ‘Facebook is dead’; that they don’t really see the point anymore. It’s kind of almost run its course. And Twitter is getting very spammy. And I’m actually big in both of them. I’m a big user and proponent of both of them but I think people are starting to say, they’re almost starting to put a return on investment on everything. So they’re getting a little bit more critical with everything, like, ‘Am I really getting a payoff from using this thing?’. I’m hearing more of that recently. Last week I had the CEO of a company say: “So, I’ve got 750 friends – now what do I do with them?”

What about LinkedIn?

Same thing. I’ve been on LinkedIn for almost 10 years and it’s like, ‘So okay, now what do you do with it?’. I can use it to propagate things in groups and send out notices and to research employees to try to get the word out, but it’s almost like you need to make sure there’s an ROI there. You need to make sure that you’re actually getting a result.

One of the new things right now is people are picking up the phone. They’re actually picking up the phone and calling people; they’re going and meeting person-to-person. It’s kind of like going back to the relationship. I don’t know if it’s out of that need for a human relationship.

Are there more events because of that or is it just phone? I’m just wondering if that’s bleeding into the events industry.

I don’t know. I’ve got a client from Geneva who runs trade associations in 18 countries and his business is still doing well.

Any other new trends that you’re seeing, are people more likely to be wanting human comfort if that social networking is changing, what’s taking its place?

Beer.

Beer? Alcohol?

Yes, I mean that’s pretty standard in any recession, right? Wine tends to do well and spirits tend to do poorly.

If you could start a business now, what industry would it be in?

Oh, here’s a big trend that I’m seeing. Everybody’s quitting their jobs and outsourcing their talent. It’s amazing and I’m all for it. I think it’s fantastic.

They’re starting their own businesses?

They’re all starting their own businesses to do the exact thing that they are great at. So they don’t have to go to meetings, they don’t have to handle emails and do ‘Reply alls’ and ‘Blind CCs’ and all the crap that they have to do working inside a company. So they get to work on the core two or three things that they are brilliant at. There’s a lot of that happening now.

And is this because the companies are putting them off or are they sick of their work or the whole thing?

The employees are basically saying, by using technology, social networking and my brain I can do things better and faster instead of working for $60,000 a year. There’s a lot of that happening.

I suppose with the marketing of Google and other things, it’s so much easier to get found. You put up a website and you can work it.

I was trying to convince someone the other day to quit her job and go out and do it on her own and at the end of our conversation she turned to me and said: “Yep, I’m ready”. She’d been thinking about it for years.

What did you say, what were the magic words?

I said: “How much time during the week do you get to work on the stuff that you love?” She replied: “About 20% of my time”. And I said: “So you hate 80% of your day at work?” And she said: “Pretty much”.

But when you run your own business Cameron, as you know, you end up having to do a whole lot of things that aren’t necessarily what you love doing anyway.

But it’s all for you now. Not for somebody else that’s telling you it has to be done. And you’re not at their beck and call. You can make your own schedule.

Sure, they’re going to people who are going to get out six months later and say: “Oh my god, my boss isn’t very nice, I don’t like working for myself. My boss is a slave driver!” But they’ll have to figure that out.

So has that reflected in start-up figures or is it still anecdotal?

Yes, I saw something recently that said there were more start-ups or more new businesses being registered than ever before. So it’s past anecdotal, it’s actually true.