In one of the many articles regarding Obama, this one refers to him embracing the internet and thereby enabling children to compete in the 21st century by attending 21st century schools and using 21st century technology.

With so much emphasis on the internet and the associated technologies, it stands to reason that we, as business people, must also embrace this medium to ensure that we do not lose out to our competition simply because it's perceived as too much effort. 

Technology and marketing go hand-in-hand when it comes to maintaining a sustainable business.

Your business needs to be connected in order to connect to everybody else, well that's pretty obvious, isn't it!

But, if you're not, you won't be able to meet your competition head on and it will disappear - to another plane, and one that you're not able to compete with!. You'll soon find that there's less competition and ultimately you'll have less customers.

The market we are working in is changing all the time; over the past 20 or so years we've moved from a mechanical era to a digital era and now we're entering the virtual era. The price point or entry-level to this virtual market is time. Time to understand the impact on your business, time to understand the technologies that are available and time to invest in your staff to ensure that they are adequately trained.

Parliament has passed a bill that will force medium and large businesses to significantly reduce their carbon emissions.  This will now apply to shops, offices, banks etc.

So it looks like more businesses will be creating new jobs with new titles such a "Sustainability" or "Energy Monitoring" Managers.

What energy saving/monitoring  technology are you using to make your life  easier? 

Well, there you have it, one more quarter to go and if things don't improve and slide backwards, we're all in a recession, again.  Great!  I can hear Ricky Gervais making a suitably caustic comment about bankers  - but it won't change a thing.

The financial institutions have been bailed out with billions and the "normal" businesses will now have to weather the storm without the handouts!

I have got a few ideas up my sleeve;  download the ebook "How to Win The Overheads Game" and start looking at your costs.  There are 41 ways to save money for your business.  Its got to be the easiest no-brainer to date.  Start there for now.