The Digital Revolution has changed everything. New opportunities and challenges are emerging every day.
Google allows you to answer almost every question that pops into your head. Social media allows you to connect with like-minded individuals around the globe. E-commerce allows you to sell products to a global marketplace. Information is freely accessible, people are instantly connected and markets are globally available.
People have integrated technology into the fabric of their being. It’s hard to imagine a day without your smart phone, wifi or social networks. People have connected the dots with this technology and are increasingly finding new and transformational ways to use it to their benefit in business.
It’s now possible for a seventeen year old girl in her bedroom to start a group on Facebook or Instagram for free. She can have thousands of followers or fans worldwide for free. She can talk to them all on video for free. She can write to them all for free. She can get them excited about her ideas… all without spending any of her money.
This teenager can create or source a product easily and cheaply. She can design a brand easily and cheaply. She can have an online-store easily and cheaply. She can take payment easily and cheaply. She can send her products whizzing around the world easily and cheaply… all from her bedroom.
This is happening every day. Individuals as young as twenty are making six figure incomes from their ideas. Many people believe that these whiz kids are succeeding because they are especially good with technology – but this is not the whole story.
The difference is, they are not attached to the idea that a business has to be the way it used to be. They don’t think a brand needs to cost a lost of money, or that they need to live in a particular location in order to do business there. They don’t think their ideas need to please everyone, or that they need to meet their clients face to face in order to deliver a powerful experience.
That’s why they are succeeding – not because they are better at technology, but because they are better at letting go of traditional business structure, probably because they were never attached to this in the first place.
Consumers now experience brands on multiple platforms. They watch videos on their phones, read blogs, follow people on twitter and subscribe to emails. People experience the world through their smartphones and computers as much as the ‘real world’. They make buying decisions based on what they see and hear on social media.
Digital technology has impacted the business landscape at a scale last seen during the industrial revolution, and if you haven’t already – it’s time to make the most of it.