We are facing a shift in how we think about making a living.
In the agricultural age, those who owned the land controlled the wealth. On that land, they could do what they wanted, grow crops, command rent, etc. They controlled their own means of production, and therefore the cash flowed to them.
In the Industrial age, those who owned factories prospered. They adapted to new technological advances (like steam) to harness an even greater means of production.
Wealth, it seems, flows from those who didn’t control their own means of production, to those who did. In the past, there were two options, you either owned the factory, or worked in it.
In the information age, the barriers put in place by ‘big corporate’ for so long, are crumbling. Today, owning your own ‘means of production’ requires nothing more than owning a laptop and a soft seat at Starbucks.
The media is decentralising. Global production and distribution channels are accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Communication and collaboration tools give savvy go-getters the ability to co-ordinate highly skilled multi-time-zone teams cheaply and efficiently. Global payment gateways have allowed real time peer to peer trade to explode logarithmically.
There has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur.
So, you have a great idea huh?
Prove it.
The transparency of social media, combined with tools like polldaddy.com and facebook ads have made it easy to find and survey your fans, wherever they are in the world.
Google adwords lets you to advertise only to the enthusiasts who are actively searching for the things you’re offering. No mess, no fuss, no waste.
10 years ago, it would have been impossible to find enough people in your local area who were interested enough in your widgits to allow your passion to be anything more than a hobby. Times have changed. The world is your marketplace.
Got a niche? It might be bigger than you think.
It’s never been easier to design, create & source a product.
Gone are the days when if you wanted to make something that didn’t exist, you needed to build a factory. Now, reliable, highly customised short (or large) run factory production capacity is available to anyone.
Alibaba.com
Inventables.com
Globalsources.com
Henry Ford, I’ll have mine in pink.
Are you an expert in your field?
In the ideas economy, your thought leadership is more valuable than ever. You may not need to create a physical product, and your refined expertise may only be relevant for 1000 people… but that’s enough to start. Who knows, they may have friends.
Your global shop front… no explanation necessary other than if you’re taking this for granted, you’re missing something important.
Amazon.com
volusion.com
bigcommerce.com
venda.com
Integrate (and automate) global distribution that is fast, efficient, reliable and trackable by your client in real time.
If someone in northern Peru finds you on facebook and wants to buy your tshirt or DVD, how on earth are you going to get it to them?
UPS.com
DHL.com
Ebay.com
Amazon.com
It’s easy to recruit a highly skilled expert (or team of experts) that are happy to get paid for results (while their work is guaranteed by a 3rd party).
Odesk.com
Elance.com
Taskcity.com
Communication and collaboration tools make it easy to manage non-local teams.
Skype.com
basecamphq.com
huddle.com
It takes seconds to set up an online payment gateway that will allow you to accept money from anyone, anywhere in the world.
Paypal.com
Amazon.com
Ebay.com
Cut through the noise and make sure your at the leading edge of the most important news and trends in your industry.
google.com/reader
feedly.com
readitlaterlist.com
Access 1750+ of the most important legal and business document templates and save a fortune in legal fees.
simply-docs.co.uk
Crowd funding.
If you have a vision that is compelling, there are people who have the resources to help make it happen. Now, you can pitch to investors from anywhere in the world. (this, just quietly, is cool)
kickstarter.com
rockethub.com
quirky.com
undbreak.com.au
more…
Brand Building.
buildabrand.com
Design.
99designs.com
Media.
Twitter is one of the leading sources for breaking news. Youtube, facebook, Digg et al position you as the media mogul. Venture capitalists have invested billions of dollars so you can use these tools for free.
All you need to bring it all together is a bit of hustle and an apple.com
Have I missed anything? Let me know.
(if you like it, share it!)
Cheers,
Twitter Updates
Written by Glen
Topics: Blog