Are you and your  membership business prepared for a crisis?

Statistics gathered here, by our Entrepreneurial Research Laboratories (ERL) in our un-scientific poll, show that all businesses fit into 1of 2 categories:

1. Those that have already experienced a crisis
2. Those that soon will!

While sadly crisis is a fact of life, for all businesses using the membership model – small, medium, and large, the adverse effects of a crisis can be easily mitigated by the entrepreneur who plans ahead, and takes the extra effort to construct a solid contingency plan.

Surviving a business crisis successfully and testing a contingency plan can surprisingly often be a great experience for any entrepreneur!

Entrepreneurs’, who have weathered a storm and emerged victorious, usually become ardent believers in the old adage, “What doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger.”   This is true because at the point of crisis, a good business with great leadership is given a rare opportunity to show off their true character, and core strengths.

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I was watching the BBC and was wondering what it was that is driving the “99%” to go out into the streets, occupy Wall Street, block bridges, face arrests, beatings, macings and even possibly being tasered for their cause?

Why is it that we are witnessing this social phenomenon now, nearly 4 years after the bailouts of 2008, rather than back at the height of the crisis, while the decisions were being made, and the faces of the decision makers were on the fronts of every news outlet worldwide?

Will this movement build to reach the level of violence and unrest seen in the recent London Riots, Lyon Riots in France, upheavals across Greece, and others of the EU nations, in the last few years?

These, are the twenty trillion dollar questions, being pondered, and addressed by the brightest minds in political science, economics, psychology, and sociology in the world!

I’m not sure, however, I do know one thing for certain.

Historically we can know that like any social movement that has come before, this movement will inevitably possess a predictable cycle of growth and decline, regardless of whether the movement’s goals and aims are achieved.

The outcome of this movement like any other depends solely on how well the emerging leaders can; (for lack of a better word) “CAPITALIZE” on the fervor, amongst their faithful, to grow membership numbers into a formidable force for change.

In this respect, timing is everything!

In this month’s post, we will ponder and discuss the “cycles” of membership, when it is most likely that you can CAPITALIZE on the “fervor” of your own members, and how to extract the highest social impact to increase membership growth organically, and increase your profits.

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