The Similarities Between Mother Nature and Our Economy - The Sun is Shining.

Nature has an unwritten rule: “Survival of the Fittest”.  During fat times species flourish, populations grow and animals get fat.  Then Mother Nature unleashes her fury; there are droughts, hurricanes, volcanoes, tornadoes, earth quakes and asteroids all creating despair.  After the fury and, as again, the sun shines, the strongest, most innovative, most persistent and most prepared survived - weeding out the weak and making for a stronger balance in nature for the times ahead.  Mother Nature’s Fury repeats itself.  We recognize it as a thinning process; as terrible and cruel as it is, we accept it.

Disruptive Innovation

When I was doing volunteer work for SCORE, I frequently spoke to small businesses about the difficulties of a recession using the 'Mother Nature’s Fury' analogy.  Recessions are about survival for many businesses; those that survive will be stronger as they learned to be innovative (even disruptive) and persist.  The survivors will find there is less competition and more opportunity in post recession times..

The sun is shining.

Further Note on Current Times: Even though we are long out of recessionary times, we still have an economy that has a pent up demand and money sitting on the sidelines looking for a place to go. It (the economy) will likely get better in our near future - in spite of what people say, this is not the new norm.

bob
 

Localization - It's about Much More Than Printing.

Let's make this country a better place and there is no better place to start than in our own hometowns.

As anyone who follows this blog or knows the Time4 and LightsOn initiative; it is quite simple: Make Our Customer Succeed.  We are all about recreating local in a world that knows more about a Jersey Shore celebrity than their own neighbor.  Lets fix this by starting in our own home town.  The following three past articles give some background to this idea.

• Collaborative Marketing Efforts Make The Impossible - Probable. 
• Followup on "Who Me, Who Three - Fixing the Local Print Business" Can the Local Printer Survive?
• The Post Offices (USPS) Encore or the Beginning of the End

Over the last couple months we have been testing our "Buy. Eat. Live. Local." concept with the purpose of moving "Buy Local" from a lip service to a way of life - our lives and our future.  We have made the objective of "Buy. Eat. Live. Local." a product (evolving as it is) to help communities across the country by providing it to local entrepreneurs who, most importantly, live there, work there and buy there.  Have you ever been there?

"Buy. Eat. Live. Local." is the coming together of many environmental, business, social and economic factors.  One of the biggest factors is the forth coming re-urbanization of America over the next 20-30 years which I will be writing about extensively.  For those as old as I, think about it as Megatrends 2013.

How well grasped is this concept?

Here is the Town of Windham Maine's ad - a paid ad - giving 10 reasons why this just makes sense.  So Shop Smart and Shop Local.

 ....and here is what we say:

”Natural Communities Form Around Community and Commerce Centers”.

Buy. Eat. Live. Local

In almost all cases your Windham merchant will provide
Better Service at a Better Price with Less Hassle.

Why?  You know them – They depend on Windham people and they live in Windham.

Buy. Eat. Live. Local and watch Windham grow.

 This is not a concept coming to your home town, it's already there !!!

 

Similarities between Mother Nature and Our Economy

Within nature there is the unwritten rule of “Survival of the Fittest”.  During fat times species flourish, populations grow and animals get fat.  Then Mother Nature unleashes her fury; there are Droughts, Hurricanes, Volcanoes, Tornadoes, Earth Quakes and Asteroids (Duck) creating despair and a  shortage of food and shelter.  After the fury the strongest, most innovative, most persistent and most prepared survive weeding out the weak and making for a better, stronger balance in nature for the times ahead.  Mother Nature’s Fury repeats itself.  We recognize it as a thinning process and as terrible and cruel as it is, we accept it.

Between 3 and 4 years ago, I was doing volunteer work for SCORE and frequently spoke to small businesses about the difficulty of a recession (Mother Nature’s Fury).  Recessions are about survival for many businesses and those that do survive because they were strong, innovative, persisted and prepared will find there is less competition and more opportunity as the sun begins to shine again.

The sun is shining.