Looking Back, Looking Ahead. And You?

Ken's Blog

New Year's Eve is a day for reflection and planning. What went well during the prior year? What did not? Were goals achieved? And what's the plan for 2009?

Let's think about the big picture that exists in the world today. Then consider the big picture of your life and where you are in it. Then set business and personal goals -- first, of course, review your successes and failures of the past year -- that gives you something to build upon as you plan for the coming year.

Every year, Janice and I go for a walk on New Year's Eve, down a snowy downtown street in Montreal. This year, it will be on a sunny beach in Anguilla. And for you? Let's start the conversation here in this post.

Goals break down, at least for me, into personal/family goals and business ones. And it's important to think of them, as I note above, within the context of your macro- and micro-environment. More on that in a second.

I'll go first with my own reflections...

I have one urgent goal for 2009, so before I start the serious talk, I have to get a rant off my chest...

Our top urgent goal? Move into our new home in Anguilla!! I know that sounds rather small, but this one grows out of a failure to meet a personal 2008 goal. And it's a huge one for our family.

We've been living in Anguilla since mid-August (Nori joined us in late-December). We started building in May/2007. In Feb/2008, we had expected to be in our home when we moved in August. Ha! By August, our move-in date was late-October. Ha ha! At that time, it moved to early/mid-December. Ha ha ha! At that time, it changed to early January. Now it's late-January.

Every time we reached a projected-move-in date, we had only progressed about half as much as expected, leaving half the amount of time still to go. A mirage that is slowly getting closer to reality.

The delays were frustrating, but things just move slower than anticipated when you're building on a tropical island. In the large scheme of things, it doesn't seem that terrible. After all, the family is together and the weather is great. So are the rum punches, as Nori likes to tease.

But it gets a little old living out of suitcase for this long, even if I've not needed a long pair of pants or socks since August. Janice and the girls... we all need a home. An anchor from which we all build our day-to-day rhythms and routines that form the structure of our lives. A familiar nest that is ours.

And I always remind myself... persistence overcomes all. We will get this done.

Business-wise, "the business" (I don't think of it as a business and if yours is built on passion, you likely don't think of yours as such, either) has gone well during 2008. Even after the Recession, SiteSell continues to grow. Speaking of the R word, let's move to the "macro-environment" within which we form our goals for the coming year...

We all have to be ready for the full impact of the Recession during 2009. You likely have already been impacted by it somewhat. Hopefully, you've not been foreclosed, nor lost too much in the markets. Whatever, the impact, expect things to get worse before they get better...

Businesses will grow more slowly. Many will close (ex., the retail sector will be decimated). This tremendous macro-impact will trickle down to your sites, whether you sell advertising or goods or services from them. And offline... if you're in retail, you're hurting. How secure is your job, if you still depend on one?

In short.... assess the impact of the recession on you and your SBI! site, realistically. Don't close your eyes to this or gloss over the impact it will have.

Be ready for things to get tougher, even/including your SBI! site. "Slower growth" is what you can expect, for the most part. Negative growth will happen, if you stand still. As always, the answer is persistence. Be ready to re-double your efforts, both in content creation and monetization.

We're not calling it a Depression yet, but we're not far away for one. So it's time to get really serious about your site. Advertising dollars are likely to go down as things get worse. So get serious about monetization -- it's time to review the Monetization HQ and implement additional ways to monetize your traffic.

Monetizing tends to push some people out of their comfort zone. Infopreneurial methods (AdSense, affiliate income, etc.) earn nice income, BUT...

Selling your own goods and products can bring you much more. So can joint ventures. Review the MHQ and carefully consider what fits the needs of your audience. Find the opportunities. They are there.

All is not doom and gloom, of course. Every Recession turns around. A new world will emerge from it, hopefully one that is less "spoiled" and ready to work, once again, for what they can afford.

The U.S., still the engine of the world, has a history of electing a president that makes a difference. Hopefully, Barack Obama returns America to what made it great.

-----SIDEBAR-----
I don't want to turn this into a political discussion, not
at all. So please, no political comments. I do admire the U.S.
as a success story that has proven the power of
capitalism and personal freedom and self-reliance. But it's
not a political statement. I recognize its weakness, but
none of that is the point here. This is not political.
-----SIDEBAR-----

Obama needs to inspire a return to the ideals that made America great, and hopefully inspire the rest of the world, too (I've never seen a U.S. president capture the world's imagination like he has)...

He needs to shame CEO greed ($100 Million dollar for the ex-CEO of WAMU??) by calling out these immoral thieves by name...

He needs to shame short-term goals that capitalize upon false promises such as sub-prime mortgages...

He needs to put terrorist leaders on alert that he holds them personally responsible for destabilizing the world...

He needs to inspire a culture of energy conservation and renewable energy because the U.S. is simultaneously at war with terrorism and financing it through petrodollars...

He needs to inspire individuals to end their lazy excesses, from mind-numbing reality TV to falling for sub-prime rates and easy credit. He needs to inspire people to work hard and save money -- too many people have been buying too much stuff that they can't afford. People have been trained, by both government and banks/retail/advertising/etc. not to take personal responsibility for lazy, dumb decisions.

It's time for all that to stop. Will that deepen the Recession? Yes, in the short-term. Short-term pain needs to prick this bubble of "buying on debt" completely. We need to get realistic about what we can afford and stop buying beyond our means.

Self-reliance. Responsibility. Independence. Ethics. I am hoping that one man can restore the bedrock.

-----SIDEBAR-----
The SBI! Forums are an inspiring example of the power of the
Web and the way the world should be. People of all ages,
colors, nationalities meet to collaborate and move forward.
SBIers already are self-reliant, or on the determined path
there. If only the rest of the world could get to this.
-----SIDEBAR-----

In short, Obama needs to return the U.S. to the revolutionary attitudes it had from 1776 through to the second half of the 1900s, when "the erosion" started. The U.S. has been the engine of the world, including the major force responsible for this incredible world-flattener called the Internet.

I'm hoping the U.S. will also lead the way in the next major industry... renewable energy, completely new forms of energy and smart grids. If it does not, another country will become the engine of the world. (China and India have the wherewithal, Europe and Japan already lead in some areas.)

And that's OK with me. I don't "care" about any particular country. "Empires" (I don't consider the U.S. to be imperialistic in the classic sense, hence the quotes) come and go. I don't care about which country is the engine. I do care about individuals and about how our globe, as a whole, progresses. So we do need an engine...

Right now, it is still true that no other country has the simultaneous culture of innovation and the sheer quantity and quality of engineering excellence to make this next major industry happen with excellence, in my lifetime.

-----SIDEBAR-----
We live in a very narrow window, historically, that will be
called "The Era of Oil." Oil will eventually be an
industrial material useful for non-energy uses, very cheap.
In the meantime, it and other forms of energy that come from
the ground are destabilizing our planet in many ways. I
would love to see that end in my lifetime.

It will end, sooner or later. And at that time, so will the
petro-dictatorships and global warming.

Our globe moves ahead.
-----SIDEBAR-----

I hope Obama can provide the inspiration to create the determination to take us to the new Energy-Internet-Smart-Grid revolution that this planet needs. Determination is the missing ingredient to making this happen.

I hope Obama is the man for the job. No, one man cannot do it, of course. But he can inspire it. He can form the policies that reward capitalistic instincts to go in the right directions. But those require hard decisions, even unpopular ones. We're about to start the most pivotal economic/environmental decade since anyone under 80 years old has been alive. It will be fascinating to watch this new president.

-----SIDEBAR-----
I'm usually very cynical about the political process. I do
not usually "hope." In Canada, the choices are so bad, I
never vote. Somehow, though, a man of apparent excellence
made it onto the ballot in the U.S.  I hope, with the
desperation of a cynic who doesn't want to be a cynic, that
he is the leader he portrays.
-----SIDEBAR-----

OK, that's the biggest of the "looking-forward big picture."

Next, on a "personal big picture" note, Janice and I are well into middle-age. We've made a life-changing move to a faraway nation that is still, in many senses, a frontier, a developing nation. Our children are young adults, getting ready to test their own wings. The consequence for all of us are unknown but full of potential.

We have been well off financially since before starting SiteSell, yet have worked harder than we've ever worked for the past 10 years. It's not really "work," of course. And the reward of impacting so many lives goes beyond words. Still, at this stage of life, it's time to start slowing down from those 100 hour weeks.

And so, I introduced our new CEO, Daniel Kornitzer, to you in September.  Daniel had been COO prior to that. You can read the whole story at...

http://forums.sitesell.com/viewtopic.php?t=92266 (Forums are password-protected.)

As a company grows, the administrative infrastructure grows.Government regulations, monthly tax filings, financial institutions, etc., etc. It would wear me down, into the ground, to run SiteSell today.

Instead, I focus on the things I like to do (ex., product development, participating in the forums, etc.). Daniel handles all the corporate stuff that is way beyond me, but that he is so good at.

You don't see him (or much of the SiteSell team, for that matter), but we are all here only because there is a truly earth-shaking team at work, headed by Daniel. Programmers, Support, Sysadmin, Content, 5P Program/Bus Dev, Education, Services, Admin... amazing teams within the team. Everyone focused on one thing... your success. Everyone moved by the same pride of knowing that they make a difference to others.

Finally, at the much smaller end of things, and in our own little way, I'll outline my business goals, followed by personal/family ones...

First, given all of the above, Site Build It! is more important than ever.  Massive layoffs are underway and more to come in 2009, together with the difficulty of finding a new job. Retail is devastated. Major industries are hammered. So building your own business, creating your own independence and self-reliance, is increasingly vital (the American Dream is now the World Dream).

On the business side, of course, the goal is to grow SiteSell and make SBI! better and better. BI! V3 and eLearning launch in January. BI! V3 is on an entirely new technological platform. It will rapidly be followed by 3.1 and 3.2, with exciting new features and ways to brainstorm, develop site plans, and even pick new keywords to write content about.

eLearning will open SBI! to an entirely new group of people, those who are not "Do-It-Yourselfers." The adult education market is massive -- many more people need the one-on-one/personal guidance, the discipline of weekly deadlines, the social interaction of a small group, etc. So eLearning will be an exciting launch.

There are no major new trends are on the horizon for small e-biz (such as AdSense, RSS, social sites have been in the past). So our development will focus on incremental improvements and re-writes of modules onto the new technological platform. We've been doing an exhaustive tabulation of "un-granted wishes" in the forums over the past 6 months, so expect to see continued improvement to SBI!, with many wanted features "coming to a computer near you, soon."

Looking forward personally, our family goals are pretty simple...

Enjoy family together in Anguilla...

Mentor Nori to build up her anguilla-beaches.com business before she goes to school in New York this autumn...

Watch and help Yuki grow as she experiences things she never dreamed that she'd do (she loves sailing, which totally surprises her, she's such an urban kid)...

Visit some Caribbean islands now that they're so close, and, of course...

Enjoy being with my bride of 30+ years. As the children get ready to spread their wings, we get ready to put ourselves back on the front burner. Until grandchildren. ;-)

Anguilla is going to be a new way of life. Leaving Montreal, moving, is something we've never, ever, done. A discontinuity. Those tend to bring risks (um, like living out of suitcases for months). They also bring excitement and new horizons. We look forward to what the future brings.

I wish you and all who you hold dear a stimulating, rewarding, increasingly self-reliant, happy and healthy 2009.

And do take the time to define your goals for 2009. After all, without goals, you have no roadmap. And if you have to roadmap in these times, you just might become roadkill.

Yes, it's a good time to look back... and then look ahead.

See you "next year."

All the best,