Is It Time to Reinvent Your Company?

Recently I had dinner with some friends and we got onto the topic of reinventing oneself. I found myself encouraging them to start using social media. As the conversation took a course of reflection on the past, naturally it evolved into the realities we face today. The market has changed, the ways that companies operate have changed, and in general life is very different then it was even a decade ago.

I started thinking about how my grandfather made a living. He was an immigrant who settled in Brooklyn. There were no jobs, his English wasn’t polished, and he came to this country without money or privilege.

He gathered up what he could and started a pushcart selling vegetables, then began painting houses, and ultimately wound up with a Kosher butcher operation, killing and prepping chickens and turkeys.

My grandfather was known as a survivor; today we call people like my grandfather entrepreneurs.

My dad, on the other hand, came into the workforce during a generation where getting a job was a career maker. Chances were that if you landed a job with a company or became a civil servant—or as in my dad’s case, a military man—you were a ‘lifer’. The expectation was that you would retire from that very job with continuing benefits and a retirement fund.

Then change began to creep into our lifestyles and careers. Technology began to evolve and then took off faster than you could say technology. Today, between change and the economy, sure ain’t what it used to be.

Change began to really impact careers somewhere around the 1960s. Where you could expect to work 20 to 30 years at one place before, in the ‘60s it began to average closer to 10 to 15 years, meaning at least one job change.

When I began working in the late 1970s through the early ‘90s, that 10 to 15 year span had dwindled down to five to seven years, meaning that the average jobs one might have was now four or five, not one or two.

Today, what I am witnessing is an average closer to two years of employment, with the distinct possibility of having gaps of unemployment in between. The economic turmoil, the radical change in the way companies do business, and the growth of the small business market has completely changed the game.

We are witnessing independent contractors growing in numbers—those not wanting their careers to be subject to these fickle employers and volatile markets—and a desire to be in more control. Sometimes there just doesn’t seem to be any other option. The more senior people with experience are often pushed or shut out of opportunities to make room for younger folks. The younger employees don’t get paid as much, work longer hours, aren’t as taxing on the benefits programs and are thought to be more flexible to the fast changing environment.

Those who struck out on their own and created businesses or built companies are also experiencing challenges. Where once you could build a business, get it to where it was profitable and growing, and run potentially for decades, today that is a recipe for disaster. Speaking with so many business owners, I find that those who are continually reinventing how they do things, or even what they do, continue to grow and expand. Those who remain at status quo have or will face a wall of devastating decline.

The first question to ask yourself is, are you are happy? If the answer is no, then it is time to change. If your answer is yes, then it is time to change. If you think that is a typo, think again, because happy or not, things around you are changing. To secure your ability to be productive and earn, you need to change, too.

You can start by embracing the social media world. If you are not at least attempting to use social media to grow your business then you need to know that your competition will soon be chatting with your clients, if they aren’t already. Your prospects will either forget about you or won’t even know that you exist.

Other reasons to dive into social media include seeing what your competition is doing, observing market trends, uncovering needs and opportunities, and connecting with people. People by the way, is what it is all about—people customers, people prospects, people influencers, people connections, people—millions and millions of people who can extend your reach, expand your thinking, increase your odds, and who knows, maybe even be helpful.

So, what do you plan on changing?