The great digital migration for businesses began as far back as the late 1990s.
Once people realized the Internet was here to stay and not some weird science fiction fad, businesses have been slowly but surely transforming everything from operations to generating leads to how they search for and onboard talent.
Today ads for going into the cloud are common, especially during sporting events like football and baseball games. (IBM is a big player in cloud services.)
The pandemic accelerated the digital migration timeline for many businesses, but did you know that there's still a long way to go before all businesses are fully digital?
One interesting stat I found when I was researching this post is this:
26% of small businesses still don't have a website.
If you've been online for as long as I have (13 years now) it can be hard to believe that not all businesses are fully digital.
The Great Digital Migration Continues
For anyone who has gone from being primarily analog to primarily digital, you know how much is involved to make that transition.
The list can seem daunting at the outset:
- Decide on and then buy a custom domain
- Register the URL
- Build a website
- Set up social accounts
- Identify your brand identity
- Develop key marketing assets
- Capture leads
- Close sales
And that's only the tip of the ice berg!
Once the digital migration is complete, a new set of challenges arise. One of the biggest is comparing your business with others online. When you look at someone like Gary Vaynerchuk, for example, or Glennon Doyle, it's easy to think you haven't achieved much, that everyone else is so much farther ahead than you.
In today's short video, I offer a perspective about your online business that came out of a new client discovery call I had recently.
On that call, I recognized how overwhelming taking an analog business into the online space can be. Having gone through that digital migration myself more than 13 years ago, I understand how uncertain and chaotic the transformation can feel.
My goal in this video is to give you some peace of mind about where your business is right now. The faster you can let go of thinking you need to be somewhere you're not, the faster you will see your business grow. That may seem counterintuitive but to paraphrase Ralph Waldo Emerson, "What you focus on expands."
Focus on running your own race. Set up your own milestones. Get help when and where you need it to achieve what's next.
Your own digital migration is happening exactly the way it needs to. Take solace in that and keep going. It's worth it.
