10 Rules Of The New Economy
I was going to post this to our company (internal) site - but also thought I related to it personally. This company [EasyDNS], is one we use to manage the URL’s that our customers web systems use. Since we started working with them we’ve found them professional and reliable - in general a really well run business. We’re thinking of using one of their other services and I was surfing around their web page. The section I was on (FAQ) is part of their internal site so I hope they don’t mind me quoting it here. It’s their answer to a question our company gets asked as well - Are you going to be around [in business] six months from now?
We get this a lot, given the current climate and “the .COM shakeout” going on around us, its a perfectly valid question.
Briefly, we are in uncommonly good shape for an internet company. This is the direct result of ignoring what was called “conventional wisdom” from about 1998-2000. When we started the company, various industry “experts” advised us to do all kinds of things, be a one stop shop, give away DNS for free and make it up in volume, take on venture capital, go public, sell our source code, bundle domains with e-cards, the list goes on.
We did none of these things. Consequently we are still here. After launching in 1998 we find ourselves with no debt, no outside investors and no outside controlling interests. We are profitable, cash-flow positive and our growth is in the triple digits. In short, we broke most of the “10 Rules of the New Economy” and in retrospect our customers and us are the happier for it.
At the end of the day an internet business is like any other business. Stick to your core competencies and try not to sell dollar bills for 75 cents. Be the best at what you do and compete on service and reliability. Do that well, and everything else looks after itself. We’ll be around for a long time. We’re the DNS “pure play” everyone said wouldn’t work in The New Economy and we’re happy to be here serving you and your domains.
It’s a great answer and one I can relate to. Well done guys! We’ve followed a similar path (with the help of some good friends and forward thinking customers) and its funny how you sometimes end up breaking the rules in your attempt to follow them. It’s cool to see another Canadian company serving their market so well. In the end all that matters is to ‘be the best, and compete on service and reliability’; probably why there’s so many shipping companies still around too.