Bad Economy Or Bad Decisions?

Posted on 8:47 pm by Paul Colligan

What a day, …

Dow is down (again).

Revision3 lets GaryV and Epic Fu go.

I start agreeing with Valleywag.

And then Kent Nichols starts responding to my Tweets.

I’ve had the makings of this post rumbling around in my head for awhile. It is time to post.

If somebody makes a bad business decision, it is their fault, not the economy’s.

If you read the Valleywag piece, they mention a company that “never should have launched at all.” You can argue with their suggestion but I dare anyone reading this to tell me that every company in the New Media space is being 100% smart with their money.

There is a lot of waste in an industry that can’t afford it anymore (let alone should have allowed it back then). It is time to change.

Earlier today, Kent Nichols suggested we “add Revision3 to the ‘Dead Pool.’” I had to argue with him (hence the Tweets mentioned above) - I don’t think it is that bad. But, as we all know, Kent is one smart cookie and, well, when he says something, we need to pay attention.

There are some things that need fixing.

I have to believe there is something in the middle here. I think we can actually respond smart and pull out of this.

I see companies with shows with a few thousand downloads per episode who earnestly hope that one day they’ll be able to pay the bills on this model.

That makes as much sense as lending money to people who don’t have the ability to pay it back - and then giving yourself an obscene bonus for meeting your quota.

And then asking the government to bail you out (at my expense).

So that you can keep you bonuses.

Cause you deserve them.

For bad business decisions.

I applaud Louderback (or anyone else like him) who decides to make the hard decisions. We need to read the spreadsheets, run the numbers, and make the right decisions.

Want to flush this economy down the drain?

Blame it on your bad decisions.

Or, … start taking account for your actions.

And make the hard decisions.

And come out o.k. on the other side.

You can do this.

What do you need stop stop spending money on right now? I know those new Macbooks are as sexy as all get out but, … twenty five hundred bucks growing your audience might be money better spent.

I know it ain’t easy for all of us to build a whole business around our content (like Kent has done) and would love to just produce and let someone else pay but, … maybe the industry ain’t ready for that yet.

Take control.

Make smart decisions.

Don’t blame anything on anybody but yourself.

And then do something about it.

I could care less who you vote for.

I care a lot about what you do the rest of November 4th.

Good decisions will make for a good economy.

Be part of it.

Produce content of value.