Goodbye 2022 and hello 2023! Are you ready to tackle what the new year brings?
The digital age is ever-evolving and changing the way we do business. We now have robots that write for us, automation that removes the need for manual tasks, and applications that help us run our businesses from anywhere in the world.
We’re seeing a huge shift in the way we build and run our businesses. From how customers interact with us and our products to the data we’re collecting and analyzing, the landscape of digital entrepreneurship is changing quickly.
Like what’s up with AI taking over and how you can use it as a tool to produce more… What you need to know about the upcoming recession… How business owners can take advantage of new opportunities in the knowledge economy… How to leverage specific social media platforms to generate more leads and traffic… And the one quality business owners need to become successful in 2023 and beyond.
Most business owners want to create more freedom, make more money and have more impact. And in 2023, that’s exactly what you’ll do when you use new tools, technology and trends to become successful.
We’re talking all about the top five trends and our 2023 predictions for digital entrepreneurs who want to launch, grow and scale their businesses in the coming year and beyond.
Prediction #1 Macro-Economic: The Ripple Effect of the Rising Cost of Capital
Whether we like it or not, our economic environment is changing right before our eyes.
And as a business owner, you must be able to do two things:
- Delegate
- Predict
As a CEO, predict what’s coming next and delegate to your team on what to do next. The main economic indicators show that we’re entering yet another economic slowdown. And when people hear the word “recession” they tend to go into instant panic mode. But here’s the reality: the world’s most successful companies emerged from the ashes of the biggest economic downturns in the last 100 years, especially 2008.
Did you know that the ASK Method was born in 2008, during the last global financial crisis? This is a message of hope for business owners to show them that there’s tremendous opportunity during recessions.
Let’s touch on a few important points on a macro-economic level and the predictions we have for 2023 surrounding it:
1. Rising Costs Of Capital:
Since the pandemic, interest rates were less than 3%. Now, they’re over 6%. This is the highest it’s been since 2008. Not a historic high, but now the home you considered buying last year with a $2000 payment is now $3500. More and more people are not able to move up and out because of the rising housing market costs. In turn, sellers have to reduce their prices to sell, which lowers the equity in their homes… Not exactly what they had hoped for. Now, we’re seeing more people downsizing everything from their homes to their cars, instead of upgrading.
When you combine this with a 25% drop in the stock market and a 70% decline in crypto currency values in the last 12 months… People don’t feel as wealthy as they did a year ago and you might be seeing a drop in sales, and you might be feeling the instinct to save and not spend.
Entrepreneurs are not as aggressive with the risks they take, either. Warren Buffet says that
“When others are fearful, that is the time to be greedy, when others are greedy, that is the time to be fearful.”
When the majority of the world is afraid to invest, spend, or take risks, that’s when the greatest opportunity presents itself. Look at the ASK Method, Uber or Lyft or any tech company that started during a recession – we came out on top by taking risks and betting on ourselves, and we won.
So, who will thrive most? The bootstrapping, cash flowing entrepreneurs selling something of value. The companies most affected by the recession will be the ones relying on short-term debt, and those facing cash flow crunches. We’ve seen massive layoffs in the tech industry like Meta, Amazon and Twitter but here’s the thing – this isn’t a “doom and gloom” situation.
I see MASSIVE opportunities for anyone prepared to take advantage of them. Don’t miss your opportunity to start the business you’ve always wanted. Now is the time to invest in your business and grow when things get slow. This model has proven successful for many companies, including ours.
Prediction #2 Unlimited Opportunities For Course Creators & Coaches To Sell Their Knowledge
As for coaches, consultants, and course creators, in 2023, they will dominate the knowledge-based industry and be well-positioned to ride out the economic downturn.
Back in 2020, Zoom exploded out of nowhere. They already existed and had a foundation, but what happened? The pandemic hit, remote work became the “new normal” and they ADAPTED. When the environment changed, they rode the wave and they succeeded.
Here are The three BIGGEST trends we’ve seen:
Reinvesting in Education
Did you know that after the Great Recession of 2008, post-secondary education increased by 16 percent? Older Americans wanted to go back to school to learn a new skill. And enrollment for 2-year programs increased by 33 percent! People took advantage of the time they had at home or because they got laid off to finally finish school, or to learn something new or change their careers completely.
Starting Businesses
New business starts increased from 3.5M in 2019 (pre-covid) to 4.4M in 2020… to 5.4M in 2021.
People were being laid off and took it as a sign from the universe to start their own business using their severance or savings. We’re not only seeing the gig economy, we’ve now shifted to creative hybrids of people who work for a company, have a business, and have multiple sources of income.
Over 100k Tech Workers Laid Off
The amount of layoffs is incredible. And of those people, many want a career change, to learn new skills or start a business. They’re now navigating a new world and who better to help them do that than the people who run the knowledge economy?
There are THREE major opportunities here:
1. If you are a course creator, or a consultant or coach of any kind, you can help people acquire valuable skills that will serve them in this new environment; people shifting careers, people who want to become an artist, people who want to enter a new industry. That represents a tremendous opportunity for YOU.
Change is accelerating at a rate like we’ve never seen before.The opportunity here is for course creators to produce content quickly as opposed to spending time on production value or quality. You no longer need expensive cameras, a big production, or fancy tech to do it. There’s a surge of short-form and in-the-moment content that we’ll be seeing way more of in 2023.
“If you are a course creator, or a consultant or coach of any kind, you can help people acquire valuable skills that will serve them in this new environment; people shifting careers, people who want to become an artist, people who want to enter a new industry. That represents a tremendous opportunity for YOU.” – Ryan
2. Speaking of bite-sized content, Youtube released a statement that the platform’s single fastest growing feature is Youtube Shorts. 60-second consumable Youtube Shorts (produced on phones) have generated 30 BILLION views up from 6.5 billion since 2021 – that’s 5x in 12 months – Wowza!
Youtube plans on offering ads on that platform in 2023 which presents a huge opportunity to deliver content and attract more customers. This data shows that people want to consume digestible content.
So instead of building eight-week courses or three-month programs, course creators can keep their lessons shorter, and focused on content and transformation. Eight-week courses or three-month programs can be delivered in three days, one day, or even three hours! Short form, laser-focused training on what’s relevant for your audience will serve you well in 2023.
And on the topic of remote learning – virtual events are here to stay, folks. “When covid is over, we’ll meet in person and won’t rely on online events anymore – soon we’ll be “back to normal.”” That comment is far from the truth. Based on the data, air travel is still 5 percent lower than it was in 2019 (pre-covid) and travel hasn’t recovered in the last four years. International travel is still 30% lower than 2019.
This trend of reversal globalization is happening right before our eyes. The cost of travel, the hassle, and inconvenient mandates are all reasons behind the decrease in travel. But here’s the reality behind the trend. Localized existence is becoming the new normal.
Have you noticed the lack of stock on grocery shelves? Have you tried purchasing furniture but it’s been on backorder for months? Or have you tried to buy a car that’s not available due to supply chain disruption? What’s likely happening is a relocalization of shopping, engaging and producing.
If you’ve wanted to get into digital business with physical products, it may be too risky to lean into right now. Instead, start a knowledge-based business and use your expertise to build something sustainable.
People’s problems aren’t going away so double down on how you can show up and solve them in 2023.
Prediction #3: AI Will Dominate The Digital Landscape
Word on the web is that the rise of AI is taking over… Well, everything! We’re seeing it within the copywriting industry where robots like Jasper.ai and Chat GPT write like humans, worrying copywriters about the fate of their careers.
AI is a useful tool for entrepreneurs to grow their business and combine their raw skills and talent with a smart robot. AI can be What we do need to understand are the fundamentals… leveraging your creativity will be more important than productivity.
These tools are great to rely on for performing work at a faster, efficient and inexpensive rate, but they won’t overtake raw, human creativity. In 2023, we’ll see more digital entrepreneurs adding AI to their marketing stack to run their businesses successfully
Prediction #4 Traffic: The Platforms Taking Over Your Traffic Sources in 2023
The lifeblood of businesses is traffic; converting more leads and driving more sales is the name of the game. Digital Marketer Neil Patel surveyed 8000 marketers to evaluate where they want to invest more time, energy and money in their business.
Here what’s interesting:
There’s a reduction in Facebook / Instagram Spend and Organic Socials
People are migrating away from these platforms. The once-popular social sites are slowly declining due to their ineffectiveness and headache-causing algorithms, and we’re seeing an upward trend in two areas instead:
- Increase in investing in content creation, and
- Increase in TikTok, LinkedIn, and Podcasting
Tiktok is becoming more of a viable advertising platform as older generations become more active there – it’s not just for Gen Z anymore. LinkedIn is advancing and will have the best targeting capabilities. And podcasts are still not saturated, so there’s a big opportunity for digital entrepreneurs to hop on and share their voice with the world.
In the background, Apple has been building out an advertising platform (Bloomberg announced in August 2022). Of the trillion dollar companies – Apple, Google, Meta, and Amazon – Apple is the best positioned. As of today, Apple is worth more than Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet…. Combined. And, to boot, there’s a juicy rumor circulating that Apple is pushing to launch a search engine to rival Google. So, thinking about advertising with Apple could be a game changer for businesses in 2023 and beyond.
“Be careful when building your entire business on a platform
that could disappear tomorrow.” – Ryan
Prediction #5: Your Success in 2023 Depends on Your Adaptability
The only constant in life is change. And, the most important evolutionary trait as an entrepreneur is not speed, or strength, or even smarts… instead it’s adaptability. The reason why human beings have become the dominant species on planet earth has everything to do with our ability to adapt as a species; adapt to different climates, environments… And as you work on cultivating your own skill sets as an entrepreneur, that’s the one to focus on:
“Continuing to improve your ability to adapt. Seek comfort in the discomfort.
Lean into the uncertainty. Embrace it.”
At the ASK Method Company, we have three timeless truths that guide everything we do:
- Courage & Grit
- Continuous Improvement
- Customer Success
It will take immense courage and grit to navigate these economic and technological landscape changes. There is no destination – only the journey itself that we’re all on. Customer Success is why we exist as a company; to help our customers become more successful.
In 2023, we will continue to predict what comes next, test and experiment new tools and strategies to see what works and share that wisdom with digital entrepreneurs that want to launch, grow and scale their businesses in the coming years and jump on the opportunity to succeed and monetize.
If this episode was insightful for you, stay tuned for the upcoming predictions and trends we’ll be discussing in the coming weeks