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White Hutchinson Leisure & Learning Group, Kansas City, MO, USA

Business death spiral!

We liked this blog (sethgodin.typepad.com/ ) entry by Seth Godin so much, we decided to reprint it here.

“You’ve probably seen it. The fish monger sees a decline in business, so he has less money to spend on upkeep and inventory, so he keeps the fish a bit longer and doesn’t clean up as often. So of course, business declines and then he has even less money ... Eventually, you have an empty, smelly fish store that’s out of business.

The doctor has fewer patients so he doesn’t invest as much in training or staff, and so other patients choose to leave, which means there are even fewer patients ...

The newspaper has fewer advertisers, so it can’t invest as much in running stories, so people stop reading it, which means advertisers have less reason to advertise, which leaves less money for stories ...

As Tom Peters says, “You can’t shrink your way to greatness,” and yet that’s what so many dying businesses try to do. They hunker down and wait for things to get better, but things don’t. This isn’t a dip, it’s a cul-de-sac. It’s over.

Right this minute, you still have some cash, some customers, some momentum... Instead of squandering it in a long, slow, death spiral, do something else. Buy a new platform. Move. Find new products for the customers that still trust you.

Change is a bear, but it’s better than death.”

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