June 9, 2008

Growing Your Business: Boom Time for Entrepreneurs

These difficult economic times are opening up doors for entrepreneurs that have never been opened before. Corporate America is shedding its excess weight at a pace that we haven't seen in years, and this shedding process will open opportunities for entrepreneurs who are sharp and who take action now.

Corporations are being forced to liquidate all operations that are not profitable. They are being forced to make tough choices and drop operations that are not only not profitable, but those which are not part of their core service or product offering.

This is an opportunity for entrepreneurs because as corporations move towards activities that are related only to their core business, these large organizations will be reaching out to entrepreneurial companies who can provide services to them on an outsourced basis. Hence, this outsourcing will fill in the gaps that are created from discharging unrelated business units.

One of my friends is a former senior executive with the Los Angles Times. He noticed such a hole that he could fill. The newspaper companies have traditionally had staffs of people who spend thousands of hours per year doing page layouts for newspapers and for their advertisers in the process of selling advertising. Because this process is very laborious, many of the newspapers are looking for ways to reduce their staff and reduce the work that they are doing for advertisers and others.

His idea was to provide this service to newspapers companies. It turns out that he was right — newspapers companies are adopting his outsourced model with great velocity, and his business is starting to take off. He first told me about this idea about a year ago, and when I saw him recently he told me that it's going gang-busters.

These type of opportunities exist for all entrepreneurs. If there is an industry or business that you know well, you should be able to figure out what services you can provide that big companies no longer want to provide for themselves.

There is no going back. These big companies will not be in a position to run businesses that are not part of their core service offering. Take advantage of the opportunity that is in front of you right now.

So, as you are working hard every day to build your company, or as you're building your career, make sure that you are looking for opportunities that larger companies are no longer able to handle (or no longer want to handle) because they are not related to their core business. The true entrepreneurs among us will spring up as the great winners. And you can take this prediction to the bank.

About Joel G. Block

Well known in the business community, Joel Block is a best selling author, speaker, and business strategist. Frequently a principal in his transactions, Joel has raised tens of millions of equity dollars for his ventures, which have included real estate syndications and privately held businesses.

Joel’s career is highlighted by the launch of a financial publishing company which he grew nationwide and later sold to the Los Angeles Times. More recently, Joel works with scientists, engineers, technologists and others to help them optimize their entrepreneurial opportunities. Would you like to get a private phone consultation with Joel? Visit www.joelblock.com/capital for details.

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