Naysayers, Doomsdayers and Cynics, Oh My!

  ...the doom and gloom of the "internet meltdown"


My goodness, Dorothy had plenty to be frightened of in her
travels through the woods of the Wizard of Oz.  Lions, and
tigers and bears, oh my!  This self-imposed fear practically
consumed Dorothy and her friends.

But what of the deep, dark forest of the internet?  Look
around.  It, too, has some pretty frightening characters...

Naysayers, Doomsdayers and Cynics, Oh My!

They growl, they roar, "Dot.com bombs!  Internet Meltdown!"
Everywhere you look there's a news story or article on the
doom and gloom of the internet.  Each time we see a failed
website or a large e-venture close its doors, the cynics of
the internet forest reference these as evidence that the
internet is dying.  We feel frightened, even threatened by
their bleak outlook on the state of e-commerce.

Do you believe them?  Are you going to let them destroy your
enthusiasm?

Who are these bullying cynics of the internet forest?  Well,
frankly, they're news providers — the media, the press and
self-proclaimed internet "experts."

Many years ago during college years, a question posed and
later answered by one of my husband's professors has stuck
with him all these years.  I'm going to pose the question to
you and see if you come up with the same answer.  Ready?

Q: How do we know there will be news tomorrow?

Don't search too deep now, the answer is more superficial
than you might think.  Okay, I'll tell you.

A: Because the advertising for the news has already been sold.

Think about it.  There will be news because advertising
commitments and contracts have already been made.
Simplistic, but true.

For the advertising that has been sold in the dozens of pages
of each daily newspaper and the hours of daily television news
reporting, there must be news fillers.  If there is nothing of
particular newsworthiness, news must be created.

Now, I don't want this to become a media-bashing session.
The media is a necessary and valuable entity of civilized
society.  However, for purposes of this article I do want to
make this one point: the media provides what we want to hear.
Very simply, the doom and gloom portrayed of the dot.com
bombs and the internet meltdown makes good press.  After all,
they don't call it the "popular press" for nothing.  They
came by their name honestly, and they print only what is
popular.

We have a choice.  We can either become consumed in the doom
and gloom or we can choose to rise above it and educate
ourselves.

Here are some thoughts to help you put these doom and gloom
pundits into a reality check:

· With the closing of a business' doors come job losses.
  Consider this: the number of brick and mortar business
  layoffs each year is far greater than internet business
  layoffs.

· Most larger internet businesses that fail are newer,
  sticking around for only about a year.  When a business
  fails that quickly, it's usually due to mismanagement,
  overstaffing and a bad business growth plan.

· Unwise investors opened the flood gates and threw obscene
  amounts of money at companies whose model had not yet been
  proven.  The companies' business plans were well-crafted
  sales pitches for funding, not a true plan for growth.
  This only served to over-capitalize e-companies and give
  them license to grossly mismanage them.  Seeing now that
  perhaps they, too, might have followed their own bad
  business plan, investors are becoming a bit more savvy.

· E-commerce is still very much in its infancy and its
  potential is still to be realized.  You and I and the
  larger e-companies are co-inventors of this new model,
  still at the stage of rough drafts for its blueprint.  We
  make a rough draft and then a crude model.  If it doesn't
  work, we go back to the drawing board.  Each draft brings
  us closer to a working model, but we're not there yet.

· Meanwhile, as these large, over-funded e-companies are
  closing their doors, the small to mid-size, bread-and-
  butter sites are prospering, most of them slowly and
  steadily.  They're taking their time to learn and evolve
  into a truly working e-commerce model.  Instead of
  putting their emphasis into marketing and gaining
  Herculean amounts of traffic, they're concentrating on
  how to take care of the traffic they do have — on
  improving their site and their e-commerce model.

Now, with all this said and done, their is one more
perspective that you must keep in mind.  It's very simple
and is a truism of business history, a common theme.  It is
this: first there is growth, followed by hype.  From this
come inflated stock prices.  Naturally, the stock falls,
often crashes.  This results in consolidation and learning,
thus forming a stronger, healthier industry.

Where are we in this cycle for e-commerce?

There has been a tremendous amount of growth.  The hype?
Well, it speaks for itself.  The stocks have been inflated
to unprecedented highs, and now the bubble is bursting with
stock crashes and some e-businesses having to close their
doors.  The hype has turned to the stock crashes.  Remember,
it makes awfully good news.

Let's see now, where is this taking us?  We are at a leveling
off.  The universal reality that it takes time to build a new
business model is setting in.  Eventually, we will have a
stronger internet economy built on a solid model, not simply
the hype.

The internet does, indeed, provide a tremendous opportunity
for building a successful, sustainable, low-overhead business.
We are very fortunate to be at the beginning of this
incredible new model in process.

Learn from an age-old, timeless business model — take your
time to build your e-business slowly, methodically.  Those
who tell you that you have to rush to make your fortune on
the internet are wrong.

The media's internet myth will prove to be wrong.  It won't
be the first time either.  We are the small business guys
who are already quietly proving them wrong everyday.

Don't let the cynics of the internet forest bully you around
into buying into the hype, whether positive or negative.

A strong internet model is coming.  You can bet on it.

------
Note: You have permission to reprint this article in its
entirety with the author's credits below.

Heidi Perry, the author of this article and a successful
entrepreneur, is editor of HomeBizBytes and co-founder of
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              Tip of the Day
_________________________________________

     The Basic Ingredients for Your Own
        Successful E-business Model

After reading the featured article above, you may be
wondering what it takes to build your own successful,
sustainable e-business model.

Here's a viable formula:

· Work on a sustainable business model based on making a
  measurable profit
· Provide a needed product or service that has value to your
  customers
· Write and follow a plan that helps you control day-to-day
  growth and your business' direction.  Re-write and improve
  on it as you go.
· Build a capable management team and smart advisory board.
  For us little guys that often means finding helpful
  mentors with whom you can sustain a long-term relationship.
· Watch your cashflow and keep expenses down.  Leverage your
  no- and low-cash marketing options.
· Reinvest in your business.
· Make sure your sales conversion rates are at least 5%-10%.
· Improve your customer service and treat your customers
  like gold.
· Concentrate on customer retention.

-----
If you have a unique tip you'd like to share, I'll post it
here with your credits.  Email your tips to me at
mailto:Editor@HomeBusinessOnline.com


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         Kind Things You Have Said
__________________________________________

* Editor's Note:
  Wow, some great feedback from two heavy-hitters today.
  Such flattery will get you everywhere!

---

  "Heidi,

  That was really nice. And it summed up exactly the
  thinking that went into the package...It's nice to see
  the thinking so clearly explained. Thank you."

  Paul Myers
  TalkBiz News, subscribe mailto:subscribe@talkbiz.com
  http://www.talkbiz.com

---

  "Heidi

  Yours is one of the few ezines I still take time to read.
  It's always interesting. So I have no hesitation in
  recommending it to people."

  Phil Wiley
  All the Secrets Marketing and Free Publicity Newsletter
  http://www.ozemedia.com

---
Send your feedback to me and I'll post it here with
your links.
mailto:Editor@HomeBusinessOnline.com


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