Creating A Million Dollar Business

I'm creating a million-dollar business. I'll share in this space information and insights on the products and services I'm offering, my organizational design, client solicitation, marketing, PR and promotional strategies, and what I'm learning about attracting and building sales for my business.

Despite the pundits' gloom and doom economic projections and the herd mentality of stock market investors believing those doom and gloom scenarios, the reality is that there has never been a better time to start and operate a business enterprise.

We've just come off the greatest economic boom in the history of the world; if you check out Census statistics, you'll find that despite the fact that credit totals are at record levels, people have more cash on hand (stocks, CDs, T-bills, mutual and money market funds) and leverageable assets (real estate, gold, art) than at any other time in history. A recent ABC Nightline report demonstrated that people are still spending money, but they are much more disciminating about what they buy. And if they don't see a compelling reason to spend money, they will hold onto it. What' s happening to major U.S. companies now is that purchasers are voting with their dollars and saying that the vast majority of products and services being offered right now are not offering people a compelling reason to buy.

I was reading a Forbes Magazine article which criticized the U.S. automobile companies for not coming out with 2002 models that offer compelling new styling and features. The time to come out with new and innovative product, the article concluded, is when there is an economic downturn because it is during the periods when people are not motivated to buy that companies must create and market new and different products to get people excited about buying them. The article stated that Japanese and German car makers are offering new and improved cars for 2002, and that the U.S. carmakers are virtually conceding 2002 new car sales to them by not following suit.

The Internet has placed a vast amount of product and service info at everyone's fingertips, and the result has been a much more educated and discriminating customer. Businesses and individuals are going online finding and compiling information on the big ticket purchases that drive the economy, like homes and cars. They come in with comparison pricing information and are able to haggle more effectively than ever. As a result, companies have to be more aware of their pricing, delivery, and customer services practices than ever before. Even multi-billion dollar companies like HP and Compaq are finding that unless they offer new compelling products and services that provide for people a real reason to buy, they won't.

People are still spending trillions of dollars every year. But yes, it will be a much more difficult task to predict where and how they will spend those dollars. Those companies that can deliver the highest quality products and deliver the support and services people want are going to grow tremendously over the next few years. That's what I believe at least and I'm building a company with those philosophies in mind. See you next time.