6. The one thing that nobody publishes on the Web, that everybody who has been in WebBusiness for a while knows is true.
If you can find someone that has been around the Web for a while to chat with, they will tell you that you need to be prepared for the following:
You walk in one morning and your WebBusiness has been “smartbombed”. Some examples:
i. Your major service provider has changed his business model and now wants to charge you outrageous fees for what you have been receiving free. His change in pricing strategy forces you to:
1. Double your prices so you can theoretically stay in WebBusiness with a lower profit margin and reduced sales volume.
2. Find another vendor, maybe.
3. Redefine your WebBusiness and start over.
ii. The ads on your "Ebay-style" store have been erased by for some violation of their Terms of Service (TOS) which you unknowingly and inadvertently made because you could not find their TOS and print them out and read.
iii. Your competitor or some guy you never heard of has made you obsolete with something he has come up with. Consider the impact of Twitter on bloggers.
iv. Your content has been stolen by hackers
v. Your bank account raided by hackers
vi. Your customer email list has been spammed.
vii. Your prospects cannot fully utilize your content because they are stilling running XP on old machines with slow processors and basic amounts of RAM, and your vendor no longer supports you.
viii. Your software vendor upgrades his service and closes the help desk
on your old version of his best selling software.
ix. Your software vendor has been acquired by another company with whom you had a bad experience with or whose business model does not support you.
x. The big dogs decided they wanted to get in your business and all you have left are crumbs.
xi. And the list goes on, you get the picture.
xii. Expect the same from FB as it evolves.
Rule #2: From day one of building your WebBusiness, invest $1 in control for every $1 you invest in exposure.
Briefly, I worked with a street business one time that produced and sold a product that we shipped on big flatbed trucks. I did not own any big trucks or employee any truck drivers. I contracted with independent truckers for delivery. Guess where my biggest headaches were?
If you have a choice between renting an online service on a monthly or annual fee basis and paying a programmer $500 to write you a program, pay the programmer and make sure you own the hard code, all other things being equal. If your web-guys say they will do this for you and you don’t own the hard code, you are no better off. The only difference is you know the web-guys because they are down the street and you don’t know anybody who works for MS, Ebay, Google, Adobe, Amazon or Facebook.
And then build into your business plan as much flexibility as possible and hope for the best.
If you can find someone that has been around the Web for a while to chat with, they will tell you that you need to be prepared for the following:
You walk in one morning and your WebBusiness has been “smartbombed”. Some examples:
i. Your major service provider has changed his business model and now wants to charge you outrageous fees for what you have been receiving free. His change in pricing strategy forces you to:
1. Double your prices so you can theoretically stay in WebBusiness with a lower profit margin and reduced sales volume.
2. Find another vendor, maybe.
3. Redefine your WebBusiness and start over.
ii. The ads on your "Ebay-style" store have been erased by for some violation of their Terms of Service (TOS) which you unknowingly and inadvertently made because you could not find their TOS and print them out and read.
iii. Your competitor or some guy you never heard of has made you obsolete with something he has come up with. Consider the impact of Twitter on bloggers.
iv. Your content has been stolen by hackers
v. Your bank account raided by hackers
vi. Your customer email list has been spammed.
vii. Your prospects cannot fully utilize your content because they are stilling running XP on old machines with slow processors and basic amounts of RAM, and your vendor no longer supports you.
viii. Your software vendor upgrades his service and closes the help desk
on your old version of his best selling software.
ix. Your software vendor has been acquired by another company with whom you had a bad experience with or whose business model does not support you.
x. The big dogs decided they wanted to get in your business and all you have left are crumbs.
xi. And the list goes on, you get the picture.
xii. Expect the same from FB as it evolves.
Rule #2: From day one of building your WebBusiness, invest $1 in control for every $1 you invest in exposure.
Briefly, I worked with a street business one time that produced and sold a product that we shipped on big flatbed trucks. I did not own any big trucks or employee any truck drivers. I contracted with independent truckers for delivery. Guess where my biggest headaches were?
If you have a choice between renting an online service on a monthly or annual fee basis and paying a programmer $500 to write you a program, pay the programmer and make sure you own the hard code, all other things being equal. If your web-guys say they will do this for you and you don’t own the hard code, you are no better off. The only difference is you know the web-guys because they are down the street and you don’t know anybody who works for MS, Ebay, Google, Adobe, Amazon or Facebook.
And then build into your business plan as much flexibility as possible and hope for the best.
Upcoming:
The Culture Clash between Business and Facebook
The Culture Clash between Business and Facebook
