Employees of servcie providers daily ask about PCI, HIPAA, VoIP security, VoIP fraud, etc.

Credit card companies frequently update the privacy rules. (I get the paper updates by mail monthly).

The NSA spying. The cloud guys sharing data with the NSA. VZW and AT&T giving the NSA free rein. These things stir up a small percentage of the population. It is the new Luxury Segment in the Marketplace.

While many of you have been trying to compete on price forever, the luxury market for goods has been healthy – without price tag worries.

One partner of a client sells lots of white glove service.

I have seen a number of business models around professional services that take care of everything for the customer – a de facto outsourced department.

Security is getting so specialized that many carriers and data centers outsource it to MSSP (managed security services providers).

Privacy is lost. But what if you could provide some? Jeff Jarvis wrote a piece in the Guardian about “We need encryption for private communications”. That is the next luxury niche.

E-Rate has a niche of companies that consult on E-Rate opportunities. Rural Healthcare does too.

Next up will be privacy.

Mobile device management is one tool in this pie, handling mobile security, watchdog, lojack and wipe services.

Think about it. This could be your new niche. Not price sensitive at all. Oh, the bundles!!!

2018 is when the PSTN will be closing according to AT&T. So start planning for it – whether that is (1) ride it out; (2) some exit strategy; or (3) Pivot.

Pivot means change your business model. For some, it is easier to start another business altogether than to pivot the existing one.

Either way a little planning can make all the difference in the next 5 years.

And that is just banking on it not being escalated by storms and other happenstance. Some say WebRTC may hasten this along since anyone with a Chrome browser can make audio and video calls now. Vonage utilizes WebRTC on its mobile app.

How did we get to cloud?

Hosting, Managed Hosting, VPS, Grid Computing, Utility Computing and public cloud computing from 1995 to now.

This post – Tribe Building – had me thinking. I have been involved in a Master Mind group since 2003. It has been a way to push me and a way to get support. One of the items in the post is about “Support when you feel like giving up.”

Another post resonated with me at the same time, because Jim Rohn used to say that you are the average of the people you hang around with. Build a better tribe (or a master mind group) to hang around with so that you can grow, improve, stretch, be supported, support others, mentor, be mentored. Michelle Welsh reminds me to find people better than me to hang around with so that you can learn and grow (and not always be the teacher and coach).

Michelle writes about building your Dream Team. One of my coaches – who got me into master mind groups, a concept that Napoleon Hill developed – used to say that Wealth was a Team sport and you can’t do alone. You need a CPA, a book keeper, a Financial advisor, a lawyer, a partner/co-founder/spouse, a mentor, etc. She’s write and the post is short.

Forbes has another version of this with its article the 6 People you need in your corner.

All this is to say that you should surround yourself with people who will support your success.

“”I’ve spent the last thirty years saying the problem is we don’t truly put people first or put action ahead of talk or execution excellence ahead of planning ‘excellence.’ I don’t imagine that amounts to ‘reframing,’ but I’ll go to my grave saying it’s what we need to do to improve our organizations’ performance if excellence is our aspiration.” – Tom Peters at the World Strategy Forum

I saw him this weekend in Vermont. I flew up for TEDx Manchester Village just because he was the emcee. It was teh first time I saw Tom Peters live and even at 70 he is still a firebrand.

The theme for the event was Creativity is a Vital Element for Prosperity.