We all have a destiny and in our material society one of the best ways to fulfill this is with service through a micro business. When we provide the most important gifts we can via commerce we are creating our pinnacle career.
We have special micro business opportunities today because customers are so defined by their generations!
Modern medicine has allowed six generations to all live together. Technology allows each of these generations to live in very different ways.
Welcome! Toby Scott Marsden
Two days ago we received the welcome news of the birth of our sixth grandchild Toby… born in London, another member of Generation Z.
Our Children are Gen Xs and Millennials.
Here are six generations that are generally defined in demographic studies.
2000/2001-Present – New Silent Generation or Generation Z
1980-2000 – Millennials or Generation Y
1965-1979 – Generation X
1946-1964 – Baby Boomers
1929-1945 – Lucky Few Silent Generation
1900-1924 – G.I. Generation
Each of these generations create a different type of micro business opportunity.
Shortly Merri (a Lucky Few Generation, me a Boomer and my Boomer sister will be with my mom who is a member of the Great Generation and our Gen X- Y and Z children and grandchildren.
Six generations… all brought up in such different ways. Each has different wants, needs and desires and attitudes plus vastly different ways of being reached. This makes micro businesses more profitable than ever before.
Understanding the generations and their differences can help us help us see which of these generations it is our destiny to serve.
Chart from West Midland Family Center (see link to entire chart below).
Every generation has evolved with a different view of the establishment.
Take for example the Millennials (GenY). A May 2013 article in Time magazine “Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation” by Joel Stein Monday gives us a clue. Here is a brief excerpt of this important eight page article (bolds are mine).
I am about to do what old people have done throughout history: call those younger than me lazy, entitled, selfish and shallow. But I have studies! I have statistics! I have quotes from respected academics! Unlike my parents, my grandparents and my great-grandparents, I have proof.
Here’s the cold, hard data: The incidence of narcissistic personality disorder is nearly three times as high for people in their 20s as for the generation that’s now 65 or older, according to the National Institutes of Health; 58% more college students scored higher on a narcissism scale in 2009 than in 1982. Millennials got so many participation trophies growing up that a recent study showed that 40% believe they should be promoted every two years, regardless of performance.
They are fame-obsessed: three times as many middle school girls want to grow up to be a personal assistant to a famous person as want to be a Senator, according to a 2007 survey; four times as many would pick the assistant job over CEO of a major corporation.
They’re so convinced of their own greatness that the National Study of Youth and Religion found the guiding morality of 60% of millennials in any situation is that they’ll just be able to feel what’s right.
Their development is stunted: more people ages 18 to 29 live with their parents than with a spouse, according to the 2012 Clark University Poll of Emerging Adults.
To put it more simply for them, since they grew up not having to do a lot of math in their heads, thanks to computers, the group is made up mostly of teens and 20-somethings.
Each country’s millennials are different, but because of globalization, social media, the exporting of Western culture and the speed of change, millennials worldwide are more similar to one another than to older generations within their nations.
They are the most threatening and exciting generation since the baby boomers brought about social revolution, not because they’re trying to take over the Establishment but because they’re growing up without one.
The Industrial Revolution made individuals far more powerful–they could move to a city, start a business, read and form organizations. The information revolution has further empowered individuals by handing them the technology to compete against huge organizations: hackers vs. corporations, bloggers vs. newspapers, terrorists vs. nation-states, YouTube directors vs. studios, app-makers vs. entire industries. Millennials don’t need us. That’s why we’re scared of them.
Your Pinnacle Micro Business needs to know which generations are or will be your customer/client. You may be reaching one or two or all. All of the generations are great markets. The population of each is huge.
One you decide this… then learn about the generation.
For example the book Marketing to Millennials says: The numbers cannot be ignored: eighty million Millennials wielding $200 billion in buying power are entering their peak earning and spending years. Companies that think winning their business is a simple matter of creating a Twitter account and applying outdated notions of “cool” to their advertising are due for a rude awakening. “Marketing to Millennials” is both an enlightening look at this generation of consumers and a practical plan for earning their trust and loyalty.
Based on original market research, the book reveals the eight attitudes shared by most Millennials, as well as the new rules for engaging them successfully. Millenials: value social networking and aren’t shy about sharing opinions; refuse to remain passive consumers – they expect to participate in product development and marketing; demand authenticity and transparency; are highly influential – swaying parents and peers; are not all alike-understanding key segments is invaluable.
Featuring expert interviews and profiles of brands doing Millennial marketing right, this eye-opening book is the key to persuading the customers who will determine the bottom line for decades to come.
According to the Pew Research Center Millennials are in the middle of this coming-of-age phase of their life cycle. The oldest members are approaching age 30; its youngest are approaching adolescence.
They are the most ethnically and racially diverse generation. Among those ages 13 to 29: 18.5% are Hispanic; 14.2% are black; 4.3% are Asian; 3.2% are mixed race or other; and 59.8%, a record low, are white.
They are starting out as the most politically decisive. In the 2008 election, Millennials voted for Barack Obama over John McCain by 66%-32%, while adults ages 30 and over split their votes 50%-49%.
They regard communicating via tweeting and texting, Facebook, YouTube, Google and Wikipedia, not as astonishing innovations of the digital era, but as everyday parts of life.
They are the least religiously observant youths since survey research began charting religious behavior.
They are more inclined toward trust in institutions than were either of their two predecessor generations.
We can all make the upcoming years the most relevant of our lives. To do so… know who it is your privilege to serve. This is an important step in establishing a Pinnacle Micro Business Career.
Gary
We look at ways to write to different generations in our write to sell course and at our Writer’s Camps
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GenerationalDifferencesChart.pdf
Time magazine “Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation”
Pew Research Center about Millennials
