It was while I was working as a journalist at Motorcycle News that the news came through that legendary motorcycle racer Barry Sheene had died. After his death, a tribute poster was created for charity, with a suitable photo and the quote;

‘Don’t wait for your ship to come in… Swim out and meet the bloody thing’

That’s true of most situations, and especially in digital. The access to self-publishing, information and knowledge, collaboration, computer power, cloud storage and more means that there’s never been a time when it’s been more likely you’ll find someone else could be already implementing your idea, or your rivals are innovating in a new way.

'Swimming Boys' by TheWanderingAngel on Flickr (CC Licence)

But the flip-side is that all of that stuff is just as available to you if you go and make use of it. If you’ve been thinking about creating a website, for example, you could have a working example up and running on a free CMS in under 30 minutes. Most importantly from a business perspective, you start listening to your customers and monitoring your rivals quickly and relatively easily, all for free.

It’s already the time:

2011 is definitely the time to do it – in fact 2010 already was. You can still run an entirely offline business, but if you’re ignoring digital, you’re ignoring a huge source of revenue and opportunity. The repairman who fixed out cooker today was completely unaware that we found him via recommendations on an online forum, and he would have been equally unaware had anyone written anything negative about him (they didn’t, and he did a great job at a very reasonable price). The fact is that simple tools exist to allow him to be made aware when something business-critical is being discussed.

So why hire someone?

You might be wondering why I’d emphasise how quick and simple it can be, considering most of my living comes from helping people create and market digital content.

It’s really quite simple, and it’s the same reason I’ve paid for design and development help for my own projects. The opportunity is there for me to learn those skills (as far as any natural ability might let me), but I’d rather concentrate on content and marketing, as that’s where my natural skills and experience can best serve both my clients and my own projects.

Plus, there’s nothing to say you can’t get started, and come to someone if and when you discover areas in which you need help and advice.