"...keeping you great"
HEADLINES:
Economic Predictions 2011 -- what is a person supposed to believe about the economy -- and predict how one should plan for 2011? My serious recommendation (and one I've given to my own personal clients) -- contact your top ten biggest customers this month, especially if they are large firms, and find out what they are predicting for 2011. In many cases, this is all that matters anyway -- their perceptions will drive their decisions and if they are big customers of yours, it will have an impact on you. And August is the very best time to reach the top guys (they aren't busy and likely not vacationing the entire month) -- ask them "so what are you seeing/predicting for 2011." Then plan accordingly!
Case in Point -- one of my clients has several customers with billion-dollar plus revenues (he supplies a tiny part of their needs) -- and a handful of these customers make up over 50% of his revenue. These large customers already have plans and predictions for 2011, right or wrong. So his focus for August is contacting them and finding out what they have to say. This will give him a better outlook for his own business than reading some macroeconomic reports or the newspaper.
Crowdsourcing vs. Experts -- in general, you're best to trust the aggregate input from a range of your customers than any individual expert. And I would love to hear what you find out -- send me a summary of what you're hearing from your customers.
Five Bright Spots -- overall, I remain bullish on the global economy, especially the future of India. And all boats will rise with the dramatic increase in the middle class so you just have to take advantage of the turmoil and grab market share where it exists. Fortune features this week a list of five "frontier markets" where the future is especially bright. Fitting with my earlier focus on Africa, Nigeria, with 152 million people, is one of them. Take a couple minutes and glance through the list of the other four.
Vote Entrepreneur of 2010 -- our very own Gazelles 200 founding company member, FatWallet, has their CEO Tim Storm in the running for Entrepreneur of 2010. Those of you that regularly attend our Summits have met Tim and his team (they'll be there in Orlando, Oct 19 - 20). Tim is one of the best CEOs I've ever met. Jump on the bandwagon and vote for Tim. Go to "Storm the Vote", vote, spread the word and cheer loudly!
Vitamin C IV Update -- I received my latest infusion before heading back to Barcelona. Two latest articles highlight how Vitamin C blocks tumor growth and speeds strength recovery from ACL surgery. The key, in reading all articles/studies on Vitamin C (or any studies), is if it's being given in high enough doses -- in many cases, it needs to be intravenously to be effective. I'm so tired of reading half-baked studies (usually sponsored by big pharma) that claim there is no impact from Vitamin C when you read the fine print and find that they are studying people that take only small amounts.
Australia Sept 14 -- 16 -- one-day Rockefeller Habits workshops 14th Melbourne, 15th Brisbane, 16th Sydney -- plus coming in early for EO Sydney's retreat. The Aussie dollar remains strong and unemployment is expected to remain around 5%, considered full employment. Also, congrats to the founding member firms of the new BCGazelles 200 initiative that kicked off in Australia last week. Here's a link to the workshops.