Reality Check: What's Hitting the Consumers?Reality Check: What's Hitting the Consumers?

While companies continue to slash and cut payrolls and expenditures, individuals need to focus on learning how to operate like a startup.

Technology is always changing, but how? Prices are always better--really? You can get more bang for your buck--if you're careful. Holiday shopping wasn't on my agenda but since I needed a couple of high powered SD cards I took a look at the consumer side.Electronics of all sorts are discounted, some with deep discounts but most with notable discounts over last year. The really deep discounts haven't hit across the board, but I suspect some may this year but most will by the end of 1Q2010. What I found interesting is that homeowners and even very small businesses can purchase for under $100 a telephone base station with voice mail and 3-5 wireless extensions with Intercom and other features. Then, there are numerous FREE calling plans that all require a not so free ATA (Analog Terminal Adaptor) and they vary in price but most are under $200 and some come with a telephone.

Hosted services are going to continue to win and gain ground each year. The problem that they face is obtaining that right marketing mix. Consumers have been using utilitarian hosted services for years--email, Chat, Web sites, blogs, Wikis and more. Many of these are free with a marketing hook that gives just the right amount more of capability for a low monthly subscription. Consumers that reduce their debt even marginally and save time will find that adopting simple technological changes will pay out long term.

So while companies continue to slash and cut payrolls and expenditures, individuals need to focus on learning how to operate like a startup. There are hosted solutions for numbers of things and I stumbled on Zumbox, the paperless postal system. The USPS started slashing and closing post offices to save costs and considered stopping Saturday deliveries. Consumers must reduce their costs too and learn to proactively manage their finances and personal operations just like a business. Technology should do to the USPS what it has done to the PSTN.

Individuals' residences will be conveniently utilized as an alternative exercise to save money on expensive office space. Still, the individual must catch up with the enterprise and remain solvent and be prepared to negotiate better terms. Bigger isn't better and key trends are already becoming mainstream--like smaller homes. Luxury homes are being built smaller to be sustainable; opulence is being sold at huge discounts and prudence isn't a bad thing. My song remains the same that "Cash Is King." Save your money -more is always better but never enough. The tax burden we face ahead is more likened to a noose. For jobseekers that are 50+ you should know for every job there are at least 6 applicants much younger than you competing for it. Challenging doesn't come close in describing the next decade. "Out with the old and in with the new" now, sadly applies to people.

Whether or not the technology changes enough to improve lifestyles, work flows and produces significant returns for users remains to be seen. What people are doing and buying speaks volumes about right now. The themes ahead are from the past, "Doing More With Less" and "More Bang For Your Buck." Are enterprises equipped to do both? Maybe the value will be "the experience."While companies continue to slash and cut payrolls and expenditures, individuals need to focus on learning how to operate like a startup.