Would You Stay the Course If It Took You 7 Years to Profit?
By now you’ve probably heard about Amazon buying Whole Foods for 13.7 BILLION dollars.
I can’t even wrap my head around that number… crazy.
Like many of you, I’m a huge fan of Amazon, but my love for them is a little bittersweet. On one hand, you have all these major retailers who are on the brink of bankruptcy, malls have way less traffic, and people like the convenience of shopping online. On the other hand, Amazon was built from simply an idea.
And innovation.
There was a California retailer that went out of business years ago called Mervyns (a small little department store with their own brands. It was great for clothes for my kids when they were toddlers). I remember going to look at their website… only there wasn’t one.
They liquidated all their stores by the end of 2008.
I remember wondering how they thought they could get away without having an online strategy? (side note: I had just started my online business in March of 2008, so it’s not like I had a ton of insight into any of this).
Clearly, they couldn’t.
Before you think this is to depress you about the decline of physical retail stores, it’s not.
It’s about persevering.
Here are some facts about Amazon that might give you hope… and remind you that it takes time and commitment to grow a business:
- Amazon was founded in 1994 (that’s 23 years ago! My kids don’t know the world without Amazon)
- The original name was Cadabra (what the what?)
- In 1996 Jeff Bezos & his wife met with executives at Barnes & Noble about what they were doing… while they admired him they said they were going to build something that would dwarf Amazon (guess Jeff got the last laugh on that one)
- They tried doing an auction site like eBay, it didn’t work ( I remember this)
- Amazon didn’t turn a profit until 2001 (that’s SEVEN YEARS you guys!)
- In 2004 Amazon launched a search engine called A9.com (and tried something like Google Street view called ‘block view’… clearly didn’t work)
- The Kindle was originally names Fiona
- In 2015 Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the U.S.
Pretty amazing stuff.
Yesterday I talked to you guys about mastery.
Mastery is vitally important… but so is evolution. There are fundamentals that build strength and skill, but you can’t get complacent. Anyone remember article marketing? MySpace? How about non-responsive or non-mobile-friendly sites?
I can totally understand how this can be overwhelming when you’re getting started or feel like you’ve just gotten the hang of something.
How do you decide when to stick with something and when to pivot?
Take a look at the huge change in WordPress the last few years with page builders.
There are tons to choose from and I’m sure we’ll see more. The amazing thing is how the leading page builders continue to evolve. The builders that have the most market share are constantly updating and improving. The other thing I’ve noticed is that the successful builders are doing more than simply creating a great product.
They’re building a community around their products.
They create content, they engage with their audience, and they educate their customers on how to use the product.
We can learn a lot by paying attention to what these companies are doing.
Two of my favorite builders are the Thrive Content Builder and Beaver Builder. I use both (and will continue to) for different reasons.
The exciting thing?
BOTH page builders have massive updates coming out! Beaver Builder 2.0 has their alpha release available now and Thrive Content Builder teased us about a month ago with a sneak peek at the new builder.
My guess is that pricing may be going up with these tools, so if you’ve been on the fence with getting these, I’d grab them now (summer projects maybe?)
Get Beaver Builder here
Get Thrive Content Builder here
