It Isn't All Negative

Today I went to our LINK Luncheon and listened to Ursula Mentjes talk about "Selling in Tough Times". Anytime Ursula speaks it is empowering and I can see mental sparks flying around our audience. One of Ursula's points today,"Thinking about different ways to do business", really tapped my spark.
Being in the Chamber business for 4 years I have seen changes in how business is being done. I realize 4 years doesn't seem like a long time, but it has been long enough to see trends.
It seems to me, let me remind you this is just my personal opinion, that when times were good it was very easy to be successful. I mean the homeless guy down at the beach who wanted to sell hats and crickets made out of palm frawns was even doing well! It didn't take a genius to make money.
It still doesn't take a genius to make money...just a different mindset, some creativity, and great customer service. Business is still booming, people are still making connections and our economy will keep going despite the negative news we are fed through the press. Yes some things have dropped to the wasteside and those opportunities are no longer, but isn't that how the world works?
How many people do you see buying and using typewriters any more? Think about how stressed the people who made those gadgets must have been with the invention of the PC? Or how the people who made VCR and VCR tapes felt with the invention of the CD? All of these industries had to rethink how they were doing business and then reposition themselves in the face of change and technology.
Today is no different than any other time of rethinking, repositioning, and coming up with ways to be innovative and stand out from the competition.
I personally hate "Well, this is how we have always done it" type of thinking. One of my challenges in the Chamber is taking an event that I do every year and giving it a different spin, a fresh prespective, and coming up with something you haven't seen or done before. It isn't easy, believe me. But, as you can see the Chamber is trying new avenues of business as well.
Scott has been instumental with our Blog, Twitter account, and all of the Social Networking type of tools available to us. Our Chamber has been amazing with outreach to the other San Diego Chambers, and we will continue to look for new avenues of opportunity to help each one of our members thrive in the face of adversity.
If nothing else, if we all have to try just a little bit harder than we had to in the past, can you imagine how strong we will be when we pull out of this rough spot.
Let's take our businesses to the A+ level and have some fun doing it!