The Global Financial Crisis may have been the first major lurch in the carbon based economy. Rapid carbon based global economic growth triggered an oil spike that saw oil pass US at $140/barrel. The financial fuel was cheap credit that spewed out of the US, helping to ignite the final blow off and ultimately burned the financial markets.

Today, with an aging first world population licking their financial wounds and staring into a debt ridden future, the information age is well and truly alive and well. While the GFC saw industrial production plummet, the growth of information flowing on the digital super highway never missed a beat.

Carbon based life is proving to be awfully expensive at the end of the industrial age. Carbon based life not only requires other carbon based life to support its' existence; it also needs water. As both carbon based energy & water become scarcer and therefore more expensive, expect to see changes in consumer behaviour. Here are some that we can expect :

• Use of energy saving appliances such as electric cars
• Smaller more energy efficient residences
• Renewed focus on the environment
• Thrift as a new social standard
• Remote work or working from home instead of travelling to the office will be become the norm rather than the exception
• We'll rely more on communication technologies and we'll spend more time in virtual environments and on the internet
• A return to home grown food & vegetables

How you prepare your business for this future is critical to your success.

The life of a small business owner is incredibly tough. Small businesses are often under-resourced especially when it comes to the array of skill sets and time required to improve the business. Information systems need upgrading, marketing plans need to be developed & implemented, staff need to be trained and a huge range of other tasks have to be considered, usually all by the business owner or owners. All of these business upgrade & improvement projects have to be performed alongside whatever service is offered or goods sold by that small business.

All too often the enormity of the task set leaves the small business owner in a state of paralysis or simply promising him or herself that the business improvement projects will be attended to at some later date.

These task sets ultimately have to be scheduled and then performed in parallel with usual business routines. Once the decision is made to implement a project, nothing should be allowed to derail the implementation of that project. Discipline in implementation is critical even under the most trying of circumstances. Disciplined project implementation becomes habit forming allowing the small business owner to engage in a never ending series of business upgrade projects always in parallel.