Jeremiah Owyang has a good post describing how the current recession is diminishing the value of the guru and putting more focus on the things in business that matter:

The recession. This is going to cause a purging of the opinion-makers, pontificators, and the gurus to be passed up as companies need to make decisions based off intelligence, information and references of previous success. Why? their very jobs are on the line, as they have to be accountable for their budgets within their corporations, and demonstrate a return on investment to their management beyond ‘awareness, buzz or thought leadership’. 

Must admit my time for opinion has been set aside in place of doing things that produce measurable results. When you are in the process of rebooting and rebuilding your business you measure where that time is spent and what it did, if anything, for your business. You also measure what dollars you are spending and if you are financing the right causes.

The Chamber promoting businesses that aren’t in the city where we’re located

Like the Chamber of Commerce renewal that I’m currently deciding on. Last year it didn’t seem like the local chamber did much of anything for our business, but they seem to have some plans in place where they might be useful in 2009. There are three other insurance agents in the Chamber, none of which even have an office in the city where the Chamber is located which kind of bugs me. Shouldn’t the Chamber be for businesses who offices in town, creating client foot traffic in town, not just those who live in town but have businesses located elsewhere?

As I explained to my wife, when we have a client travel to our office, they travel through town and see other businesses and signage. We are creating business traffic in the city and benefitting the other businesses by simply having an operation in town. Those who don’t have a business in town are not providing the same benefit. While a business owner who lives in town may have a right to be a Chamber member by not having a business location in town they are not sharing any client traffic back into the pool for other members. I realize that there are many home-based businesses, heck we have one too, but I don’t believe home-based businesses with no foot traffic that travels through town provide the same benefit. Agree, disagree?

So we’re comparing the Chamber membership to the local Eagles club membership.

We’ve never been Eagles members before but we have a bunch of clients who are Eagles members. Any readers Eagles members? Tell me about it in the comments area. It seems like our dollars might be better spent being a member there instead of the Chamber and it costs less to join too (like $80 versus $200). To join, according to the Eagles official website (emphasis mine):

To be eligible for membership in the Fraternal Order of Eagles, you must be a citizen of the United States or Canada over the age of 18 who believes in God.

Citizen of U.S check, 18+ yup, not an atheist, so ok there (I think). We have more than a couple sponsors to get an application so ok there as well. Guess we’re onto phase two. In the Chamber there is no initiation or interviews, just paying the $200 fee every year. Less business, more community focus in the Eagles versus the Chamber as well as social focus. When people talk about how effective social networking is online, I wonder how joining the Eagles compares offline.

Back to the gurus

I don’t feel sorry for most of these gurus. Don’t see spending a penny on them for either of our businesses but if I ran into one online or offline who had a particularly good business idea, I’d open the wallet. So I’m not completely discarding their value.

However if they are as good practicing what they preach then they don’t need clients to listen to their opinions, they can use the advice to generate work for themselves in these lean times. This might be my biggest problem with people who talk a good game: can they do anything with their advice or do they just think others can benefit from it?

Now there is a difference between someone who consults that also does work. Like a programmer who offers consulting on the side while they have contracts and are doing programming work regularly. I have huge respect for these consultants. These are gurus that should rarely fall on hard times.

Truth is many people around the country right now are having to buckle down and work harder. I think at the end of the days, weeks and months the country will be better. We’ve got to get the loan channels open again though. It’s not helping individuals or businesses when the bank purse strings are super glued shut. 

Did this post make you go hmm?

Maybe Related Posts (plugin generated)

• Egosurfing via newly launched AOL local search
• Cold calling humility
• Get the checkbook Microsoft, Blog Explosion for sale
• Strip mall and housing developments moving the world backwards?
• Local bank asks: “does your business need a blog?”
• Business blogging not for every business