Most people don’t know what business they’re actually in.
I’ve been reading articles in the Dallas Morning News lately that feel even more unhinged from reality than they used to.
Part of the problem is obvious. They don’t seem to employ enough editors. I read something a while back that more or less admitted they don’t review a surprising percentage of what gets posted online.
What they do seem to employ is a lot of young people who think they’re there to save the world, without the life experience to realize they’re repeating feel-good ideas that don’t work in the real world.
When you talk to people about this, they’ll usually say, “That’s why newspapers are going out of business. They’re not serving their audience.”
That’s not really true.
Newspapers were never truly in the news business. They were in the advertising business.
More accurately, the eyeballs business.
The reporting existed to attract an audience. The audience’s attention was the product. Advertisers bought classified and print ads to access it. That’s where the money was. Always was.
It’s the same model Facebook and other online businesses use today. Anytime something is free or very cheap, you’re probably the product, not the customer.
Even back then, plenty of reporters thought they were saving the world. From a business standpoint, journalism was a loss leader. It supported the real business, which was ads.
At the time, those ads were a cash machine. Big enough that management could afford to indulge that delusion.
Now the ads are gone.
Nobody buys classifieds anymore. Circulation is down, so print ads don’t matter. The economic engine that supported the whole thing is dead.
What’s left is a shell. And the people still inside it are often the ones who never really understood what business they were in.
If there’s a lesson here, it’s simple. You have to know what business you’re actually in. And if that business no longer exists, you don’t fix it by pretending harder.
You get into a different one.
Real estate brokerage is what I do, but it isn’t my main business. I’m in the trust business. And I’m in the marketing business.
When the market is roaring, anyone can look competent. Most of those people disappear when things get tough.
But when you’ve built trust over decades with repeat clients, you can withstand market swings.
You may not be looking to sell today. You may think you’re never going to sell.
A surprising number of people who say that eventually do.
The time to prepare for a big decision is when you’re not under pressure. It may never happen. But if it does, you don’t want to start from zero.
I offer a free, no-obligation analysis on any non-residential property. It includes real sales relevant to your property, market trends, and nearby development information when applicable.
It’s updated for free anytime you ask.
And it comes from someone who does what he says, doesn’t exaggerate to get listings, and will still be in business if things change later.
Would it hurt anything to take a look?
