Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Most of us know a little bit about electricity. Nobody actually understands electricity, really, but we know enough about how it works to use it. And as regular people, we`ve learned such things as "circuit" and "positive or negative poles."

We know that electricity doesn`t go anywhere or move along a bunch of wires in a circuit unless it has someplace to go. That`s the "ground." Strictly speaking, electricity moves from hight to low potentials, but that`s a technical discussion. For our purposes, electricity moves to the ground.

The point of all this is that we can push electricity as hard as we want, but it isn`t going to go anywhere unless it`s also being pulled. The push-pull combination is fundamental to the movement. It forms a closed circuit. If there`s a gap anywhere, then we have an open circuit.

Likewise, you can push a business and push it and push it, but so what? Without the pull of the buyers---the customers---nothing is going to happen. The buyer is the destination. The market is the "ground."

We could make the analogy go the other direction. We can build a bigger and bigger area of ground, and "demand" that there be electricity flowing into it. But so what? Without a source for the electrical energy, there won`t be any movement. There won`t be a circuit. There won`t be any sparks.

Right now, there`s a fantastic market for fusion-powered flying saucers. Anyone who develops them will be a gazillionaire. So? The size of the market and the demand of that market are meaningless if there`s no such thing available.

We`ve had a number of topics about customer service. We also, most of us, have encountered business owners who don`t care if they have customers. Those customers always will be there, they`ll always buy something. They`re not necessary. Only the business owner and his or her actions and decisions matter.

Conversely, we`ve had discussions about how treating customers in some reasonable way improves the revenue stream of a business, not to mention the reputation.

Customers "pull" the movement of a business the same way the ground is the destination of electrical current.

Now think about incentive.

When you have a business, products, processes in place, great customer service, a fine attitude, good looks and a winning personality, what happens if you don`t have any customers? Further suppose that you know you have a viable product---it`s already been selling just fine.

The reason for this topic is that we`re seeing an interesting problem in our own business. I`m not sure if anyone`s noticed, but it seems as if the economy is slowing down lately? If you haven`t noticed this, there`ve been some articles in the papers about it.

At any rate, this would be an excellent time for us to make some backup inventory. We have lots of things we COULD be doing, but we find it hard to do them. How come?

I`m suggesting that it takes energy to do anything at all. And that energy, like electricity, needs a destination. It needs a "pull" in order to move. When we sit for long periods without sales or without customers, there doesn`t seem to be a strong incentive to "back-fill" and do make-work.

Anyone else notice this? I`m supposing it would mostly be in businesses where you make or create your own products, but maybe not?

We`ve spent countless hours doing marketing, selling, making, adjusting processes, getting more efficient, streamlining, and so forth. We DO spend a lot of time honing the business, getting things sharper and better.

But there`s only so much energy you can come up with when things aren`t going outbound. It`s like pushing and pushing on the wire, trying to get electricity to move. Without the destination connecting up, nothing`s moving all that much.

Have you folks noticed this? Is it harder and harder to be innovative, creative, energetic, disciplined or inspired? You`re already spending lots of time working on various things that need doing, or could be done better, or that you`ve put off for some down time.

I`m not saying that we don`t do anything. Instead, I`m wondering how everyone is filling the time that used to be, or ought to be devoted to actual business? Just curious... :-)

I see what you’re saying especially since I live in Arkansas just 3 miles away from the bull shoals dam.  When the need for eclectic is not as great then they cut back the number of generators running or shut them all down for awhile.  Does that mean the work inside the dam stops?  Not at all,  people still go to work everyday there, they clean the inside of the dam, and they make repairs to the generators and fix down or old lines.  I guess what I am saying is that even though the need is not as great doesn’t mean the work can stop. They could stop working at the dam but what happens in a week when the power need goes up because of a big ice storm?  They have to be prepared to move that electric again.

 

So I sit here and I work on my web site, I tweak my program I am going to market and I wait for the need to rise again.  Yes the economy is down right now but those that are not ready for when the surge happens again will be left behind.

 

Great example, on the dam and generators! That`s where I`m trying to go with this. Yes, the generators are taken off line when there`s less demand. And yes, work continues at the dam complex, fixing up the generators that temporarily are off line.

But if the demand remains low, the generators continue off line, and work continues on each generator? There comes a point where the generators are in mint condition. They`ve been tweaked, fixed, cleaned, improved, polished, oiled, and given every bit of work they could need.

Nobody can figure out what more work needs to be done on the generators. But just as importantly, we can`t just say that nobody ever will want electricity anymore! It`s not like there`s too much capacity, and a permanent change to the market has taken place.

So the catch-22 is that you need to keep the generators available, but there`s a long-term reduction in demand for power. How do the people who work on generators maintain their own psychological edge?

They don`t and that is the sad truth here. If the demand stays down for a long period of time then people will be lade off from there job.  The staff will be taken down to a minimal support staff.

 

So in a business such as one based on the web what do you do? Most of us really don’t have a staff to layoff so there is just us. We tweak and polish our sites as much as we can then in essence I guess we lay our self’s off until the need rises again.  Some will take on part time jobs to make ends meet, others will put there current project on the back burner for awhile and try and find a new need that this down economy wants and other will end up closing there web sites down all together.

 

One thing I hope that comes out of all of this is that people learn to be prepared for the bad times.  I think so many of us got caught up in the big ride that when we were at the peak of the wave we made our cost go up with us.  We should have been planning all along for the just incase.  Incase the economy did turn bad would we have the money to ride it out.

 

Kind of reminds you of the old children’s book the ant and the grasshopper I think is what it was. The ant worked all day to store goods just incases and the grasshopper ran around enjoying what life was giving it right now.  When it came winter time the ant had all his provisions stored and enough food to ride out a long winter. The grasshopper had nothing to survive on.