Scrolling, Swiping and Clicking Your Way To Success

In today’s world the most essential skill to acquire is the ability to use technology in order to learn how to grow your brand - the brand of YOU and/or your product(s) and services. HOW you run a business is not directly related to your level of success - you can employ others to do the admin, marketing, accounts, tax, etc. But YOU need to embrace the technologies that can be used to provide advantages over those that shy away from things they don't understand and therefore avoid. It's important to keep an eye on the future rather than living in the past because things move very quickly leaving the unwary behind and at a disadvantage. Focus on the wrong aspects of your business and you could miss the opportunity to drive it forward. If you want to advance yourself and your business, it's important to work with someone with good experience and a record of working at the forefront of technological change, someone who can help you see things from a different perspective and help you make the most of the technologies that can ensure your success.

The future is always more exciting than the present (or the rose-tinted past) because we can see potential and forward-looking entrepreneurs and business owners thrive on possibility. BUT and it’s a BIG ‘BUT’, to reap the rewards you have to take serious action based on evaluation of risk, opportunity and your life goals, criteria which are often extremely difficult to assess accurately when new technology is involved so the risk is ramped up. As I’ve discussed in other articles, one such technology is currently easing its way into the minds of many people without huge fanfare because of the marketing route the inventor has chosen, but wearable neurotechnology is already improving the lives of over 5 million people since its launch in 2016 and is growing fast based on its drug-free delivery - it's a technology many would not recognise as life-changing but like others before it, this is one of those technologies that will become as common as drinking tea or coffee but initially will be seen as 'magic' due to the unbelievable effects it can have on users. It's one of those things you just have to see to believe. More here 

My expertise in technological markets doesn’t make me an expert on any particular brand, or product or in any sector. I am a generalist when it comes to technology, as I would advise you to be, using it as actively as possible to help the clients I am working with to minimise costs, maximise opportunity and where necessary, revolutionise (as in, change dramatically) their practices using appropriate technology. Opportunities are increasing almost by the day and new products and services are being introduced more rapidly than ever before - this IS the fourth industrial revolution and we are immersed in it and, in many cases, being swallowed up by it; some are even drowning in it. However small or specialised our businesses, we have to make it work for us!

Think your business will be impervious to the changes? Just ask yourself a few of these questions: What will technology do to the sectors in which you or your parents' generation have been reliant on for income? How will society respond to the threats (as well as opportunities) advances in technological processes are presenting to us? Will you be in it or outside it? What part will you play as you move towards finding your niche in the maelstrom of new products and services heading our way? And when it comes to getting valuable input to your decision-making, who will you turn to for help and support, for challenge and accountability, for brain-storming and calm, level-headed introspection when all around, many will be ‘losing their marbles’?  We live in turbulent times and we need to take stock but at the same time we may need to adapt to survive and identify new approaches to thrive.

A couple of examples of my tech-history:  

In 1985, whilst working with a publishing company, I was presented with the sixth Apple Macintosh to arrive in Britain and, having learnt the fundamentals, wrote about how this amazing 64kb ‘box of tricks’ would change the face of the design, advertising and publishing industries. The trade magazine refused to publish it as it might ‘scare their audience’. Obviously, my vision came to pass. I learnt a great deal simply by using the early versions of well-known programmes (apps, as they are now called!) such as Pagemaker, QuarkXpress, Photoshop and Illustrator and went into partnership with a fellow visionary to create a technology-based creative services business which ensured we moved forward quickly while others struggled to adapt to the new landscape. I learned more and more by using the technology and have continued to do so throughout my career. Tech is a tool box full of potential.

In 1996, having been sent the first issue of ‘Internet’ magazine by my sister who was living in the USA, I again jumped right in at the deep end and started creating websites, telling my clients to start looking ahead to the time when they could run their businesses from a computer. They laughed, I ploughed on, made some very interesting relationships and introduced e-commerce functionality to the (fairly) basic websites that I had built for several clients. I have to say that, whilst I could have taken this further at the time, I was diverted into a partnership with an American organisation which might have made a huge leap forward if it were not for the fact that the target audience was so rooted in the past - antique dealers! Back then, in the late nineties, not even Sothebys and Christies could get their heads around how the antiques market would be changed by web-technology - and change it did, within a further three years, by which time the partnership had gone its separate ways. The future was just slightly too far out of reach to benefit in the short term. You live and learn! You use your experience productively and apply it to help those that can see the potential. That's what has brought me to the present.

You don't have to go through that kind of learning process because technology has been reduced from complicated programming to sophisticated algorithms making useful tech accessible to everyone. The biggest question is HOW can you use it to optimise your business? I can help you discover the answers that suit you and your business and signpost you to the solutions you can make good use of to improve all aspects of your business and achieve success by adapting, implementing and optimising its use.

And the most important thing I've learned is this; in order to benefit from technology you don't need to know it inside out, you just need to think differently, hence my interest in neurology and mindset.