Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash
Is your product or service obsolete due to its age? Accounting doesn’t change much. Debits and credits stay the same. There is something exciting about the pace of technology and innovation. In technology, the expectation is that your product, service or software will be obsolete before it hits the market. Microsoft’s Flight Simulator Program has defied those odds. Originally launched in 1982, long before the days of a computer in every home or even every school for that matter, the program has had a handful of revisions and improvements over the years. The 2020 version has all the bells and whistles of current technology, graphics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR) to come, but the core product remains.Â
Big Tech doesn’t necessarily reflect typical Main Street business. Big Tech does pose a great question – How old is too old for your products and services? We are always so quick to jump on the new, hot thing in our markets because we believe that is what the customer wants. Dropping offerings from our business because they aren’t the brightly colored shiny things that we believe attracts customers. .
Does changing or removing a staple product or service really benefit you?
You have to ask yourself a few basic questions…
- Are you generating revenue from this product or service?Â
- What resources are you using to generate this revenue? Are you using equipment to create a product? Or headcount to service your clients?
- Can this product or service run on ‘autopilot’?
If you are selling a product or service with little use of capacity it may make sense to leave it alone until the time is right to pull it out and shine it up for a new market just like Flight Simulator. That once wrong idea may find new light because it is the right time to freshen it up.
Are you considering pulling a product or service out of moth balls? Learn more or share your stories with me at bodhi@bodhibusinessadvisors.com, or on LinkedIn. Â