By Dan Boudreau

Opportunities are never more than a stones throw away.

There is a chorus of voices telling us that life-as-we-know-it will end after beetlewood. As with any major challenge, the sea of red pine teases us toward a defeatist attitude. Rather than rolling over and playing dead, we northerners are more likely to view the problem as an opportunity.

If you beam yourself up to 30,000 feet and project into the future, most of us will still be here, working hard, sustaining ourselves and our families. I believe some of the post-beetlewood solutions will emerge in the form of e-businesses.

“E-business” is the use of computers and technology to perform business processes. It is also described as a system of suppliers, distributors, or customers that use the Internet as the basis for their operations. Simply put, you might start a small home-based e-business or enhance your existing business to sell your products or services to the world.

Consider the e-business opportunity. There are over 6.6 billion people on the planet, of which more than 1,244,449,600 are using the Internet. Internet usage has expanded by 244 percent since 2000 and it continues to grow with no end in sight. Anyone with access to a computer and a highspeed Internet connection can plug into a vast global marketplace. If you think of the marketplace as a fishing hole, the Internet is absolutely the biggest fishing hole we can cast into.

There is a learning curve. Though I am not a techie, I’ve been on a meandering e-learning path since buying my first computer in the early ‘80’s. Today’s work environment requires that we continually adapt to new technology.

Over the past few years I’ve been yanked into using various software and hardware applications. During the past year I’ve tiptoed into building a website and using content management systems to manage my websites. Egad, now I even have a blog.

If I can brave the e-world, there’s a good chance that you can too.

It’s not that you toss everything you already know and start brand new. The skills you have today will help you shift to the e-path. All our current workplace knowledge and skills are transferable. Knowing how to work, how to serve customers and how to meet deadlines; these and many other common skills give you a leg-up in tomorrow’s workplace.

Here are some actions to kindle your e-magination:

• Take advantage of e-business educational opportunities. Connect with your local college campus. Google “online e-business courses and workshops”. You will be amazed.
• Subscribe to e-zines. E-zines are electronic magazines, many of which are free, that just pop into your inbox on a regular basis. Google “e-business e-zines”. Your imagination will soar.
• Download and read Seth Godin’s free ebook, Unleashing the Idea Virus. Just Google it, you’ll find it. Seth will challenge your marketing paradigm.
• Read The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. Go to an Amazon website and search for it. Or Google it.
• Read Revolutionary Wealth by Alvin and Heidi Toffler. Did I mention Amazon? Google?

I envision many e-businesses taking root, growing and bringing new money into our northern communities; enterprises will arise from innovations that might never have happened without a kick in the seat of our pants by the beetle. There will be life after beetlewood.

Opportunities abound, but it’s up to us to identify and develop them. If we’re going to benefit from the magnificent electronic playground in front of us, it will be because motivated people roll up their sleeves, figure out what to do, and take action.

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