ISP Independence Day
We Will Not Go Without A Fight

Despite the gloom caused by free ISPs, PC makers getting into the game, and the FCC declining to open cable systems for ISP access . . . here's an Independence Day look at the new opportunities awaiting ISPs.

by Christopher M. Knight [July 6, 1999]

ISPs unite! We will not go quietly into that dark night. We will stand and fight, holding our ground and marching forward with confidence. We will not be terrorized by creatures from another planet or any of the funny looking online content providers. This is our planet. This is our ISP market. We will continue to provide fast and reliable access. We will sell out to a larger fish and be rich someday soon, sipping our tropical drinks with the little umbrellas in them on warm sunny beaches.

Now, as I step off my soap box after watching the movie Independence Day a few times too many, I want to say that all is not lost, but the ISP winds are shifting. When you got into this game, you already knew—at least you should have known—that major change was going to be the name of the game. If you don't like change, you probably shouldn't have gotten into the ISP business in the first place.

A recent Red Herring article, Are ISPs Dead?, by Peter Henig, spawned a gloomy thread on the ISP-Marketing list last week In his lead, Henig says "ISPs have one foot on a banana peel and the other foot in the grave." Doomsayers have been talking about the death (by consolidation and competition) of the ISP sector since 1994. Has it happened? Nope. Of course, there has been, and will continue to be, consolidation in the ISP community, but isn't that what many ISPs secretly want (to sell out to a larger fish somewhere down the road)?

Weren't many of you shocked when, a year ago, prices on access switches dropped by half, allowing almost anyone to play ISP for a fraction of what it cost you to build your business? How about when the national providers made it easier and cheaper to become a virtual ISP without the huge up front capital costs that facilities-based ISPs had to shell out? All the current news is telling us, is that another shift in the marketplace is about to occur. It's not what happens, but what you do about it that counts.

This may not work for everyone, but I have a saying that's helped me navigate business decisions—in good and bad times. It goes something like this:

"Get Big or Get Out"

My thinking was that if I could not get big at what I was doing, then I was better off getting out of the business and looking for something that I could get big in. This doesn't mean that you should get out if you can't be the biggest ISP in the world. Rather, think of it this way: What if you were able to create a new ISP niche, or after doing a skills or strengths evaluation of yourself and your business, you decided to get big in a vertical ISP market and sell ancillary goods that would make up a serious core of your revenue stream?

One of the rules in the book, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (1994, Al Ries, Jack Trout), says that in time, all things divide. Maybe current happenings are a wake-up call that can help you to decide if you want to get big in one of the new divisions that are going to sweep through the ISP marketplace or get towed into the undercurrent.

Remember, it's not what happens, it's what you DO that counts.

A Dilbert cartoon I saw a while back pointed out "If you hear that your company is going to be downsized, it's best to get onto the committee that will decide who is going to be downsized". My point is this: There are still endless possibilities for ISPs to get rich, make a buck, spin a profit, build a serious customer base, deliver great service, and sell their ISP at a handsome profit down the road—if you're willing to adjust your sails a bit, focus on what you CAN do, and roll up your sleeves to make it happen.

 —End

To Your ISP Success!
Christopher M Knight—Founder and Managing Editor of The ISP-Lists