I have seen this person’s web site. It was last designed in 2001. It doesn’t even display correctly in current browsers because it is so old. He needs to fix his situation online, without a doubt, but with him, I wouldn’t start with social media. Though his web site needs attention, I’m not sure I’d start there either.

Ponder this . . .

Printing is a traditional business. But it is an industry hit hard by the global marketplace. In yesterday’s world, these companies would invest thousands of dollars to print on high quality paper using only four colors. The cost to do 200 business cards would start at around $250.00 and go up from there. Today, you can order 200 full color business cards from Moo.com for around $70.00. Vistaprint will actually give you 250 business cards for free (they have a Vistaprint ad on the back and you pay for shipping only).

The local printing businesses are seeing their profits dwindle. The only way they can compete is to do business online. But I recommend that before you look for a social media strategy, have a business strategy.

What situation do you want to create for yourself and your family? Situations just don’t happen. They have to be planned for. When you first opened your business and first started seeing success, you probably thought you were lucky . . . or you thought you just persevered until things finally started happening for you.

Actually, I speculate what happened is that you finally earned enough trust that people started taking you seriously. Today, customers are finding companies they trust all over the world, and also at lower prices. How do you compete with that?

Why did you get in business in the first place? I speculate some of the answers on “how you can compete” may be found there. That’s just a beginning though. Here are some practical questions to ask yourself. Please spend some time with these questions, thinking and talking to people, before you let someone sell you a solution to another person’s problem instead of one of your own.

1. Assuming that you want your business to grow, what will you do next? If you don’t know, don’t suffer about it. Many small businesses are so busy they don’t give themselves time to think. That must change. Be at peace and know that everyone needs help. Talk to your colleagues, customers or hire someone that can help you figure out what to do next.

2. The low hanging fruit for growing a small business is to increase sales. How can you sell more? Again if you don’t know, dont suffer. Take action by talking to others. Be careful about doing what worked prior, especially if that entailed “working harder.” I speculate that will just make you tired. I further speculate, as a small business owner, that you are already tired.

3. Are you running as efficiently as possible? This may be even more difficult to spot. Business owners who have been doing the same thing for years are likely blind to how something can be done more efficiently without help. A sign of inefficiency is how “busy” you are. If you don’t have time to be a business owner (you’re too busy running around like your employees either are or aren’t) and you can’t afford to hire anyone to help you, you are most likely inefficient. You can’t afford to waste profits and still be in business a year from now.

The situation we find ourselves in is a REAL opportunity for small business to compete all over the world. But having a business strategy to plan for a better situation than you’re in now is completely different than a social media strategy. If there is no business to talk about in a year, that twitter profile and facebook page will look pretty useless.

If you don’t know where to turn, please contact me. I’ll talk with you for free about your situation and there will be NO pressure to buy anything.

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Symptomatic of the times, in 2009, General Motors Company found itself in a situation as many other large companies. They were failing. Unable to compete because of an industrial culture, high cost and bloated process, from 2005 – 2009, General Motors Company lost 88 Billion dollars.

That same year, GM accepted a 50 Billion dollar bailout from the government and the presence of a non-executive chairman, a man by the name of Ed Whitacre. Having once led another traditional industry stalwart, Southwestern Bell, who acquired AT&T, before retiring, Whitacre remarked to a few GM dealers after taking the on the role,

“We’re going to get this turned around and if current leadership can’t fix the company, we’ll find someone who can.”

Within three months of accepting that bailout, Whitacre recommended the firing of then current CEO Fritz Henderson and grabbed the reins himself. Fritz Henderson, the former CEO, who only logged 143 days as the head of GM, but had worked for GM for years, couldn’t be trusted to be the agent of change the company needed.

Whitacre took this large traditional company and started running it like a small business. He organized his company around moving and making decisions quickly. How did he do it?

1. Change the Culure – He fired more execs who also had worked for GM for years and replaced them with executives who worked for the likes of Microsoft. Some of which had never led organizations near its size prior. Why was this valuable? They were loyal, passionate and brought in to make change.

2. Accept Failure and Move Quickly – Many leaders can’t admit they were wrong. Immediately after becoming CEO, Whitacre reorganized Sales & Marketing and, after three months, realized that his program wasn’t working so he reorganized it again.

3. Focus the Message – He changed the message to be about the cars and not about pitchmen or imagery. GM also is leveraging social media to be open and transparent.

4. Scale back the product line – He sold Saab. He buried the Hummer. This allows the company to reinvest in the cars central to the historic brand, Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC.

5. Have Integrity and Be Accountable – In April, he paid back 8.4 billion that he owed to the US and Canada that was originally due in June. The US government still owns 2 Billion in preferred shares. Whitacre indicates that GM will buy the shares back and go public in 2011.

6. Develop Relationships – He visited the front lines where other GM CEOs never dared to go. He sought advice from everyone, no matter their level. He also held employees accountable. As one exec said, “It was always blaming the untion, the government, or the economy. What we were doing didn’t work. The time of providing for everybody, no matter what their performance, is gone.”

GM is seeing results. Car sales are up over 17%. There are still challenges. Competition remains fierce. The cycle to produce a new car is around three years. Other companies are crowdsourcing the design of new cars and shipping them within months. It remains to be seen if GM can really be successful in this radically evolving economy. If so, it would signify an incredible turnaround and signify that a large business can do what many leaders are afraid to do . . . transform their company for the purpose of saving it.

What mistakes are you seeing that large companies are making that thwarts their ability to transform?

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The answer came once again from DeadMongoose (second week in a row) who answered:

DeadMongoose

In the article, BusinessWeek remarked that of the top 50 innovative companies, 15 on the list were asian (including Korean company LG). This number is up from 5 in 2006. Previous stalwarts, 3M, Starbucks and eBay were absent from the list in 2010.

This signifies a mind significant shift in the global marketplace. During the Industrial Revolution, countries in Asia, like China, Korea and Taiwan, thrived due to the outsourcing of manufacturing. Innovation wasn’t key to their growing economy. Hard work and long hours drove the culture. Innovation was led by North American companies. In fact, just five years ago only 6 of the top 20 were headquartered outside the US. This year, 12 of the top 25 were located outside the US.

This is a wake-up call for US companies. They cannot rely on what made them successful twenty years ago. They need new practices, new products and new services, made for a rapidly evolving economy.

Tomorrow, a case study on an old world US company committed to innovation in new world economy.

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