The Elephants Are Coming: Avoid Being Trampled

Dries has been pounding the war drums the past few years that the Elephants (IBM, Capgemini, Accenture, Oracle, Microsoft) are coming and that the landscape of Drupal is rapidly shifting to meet the needs of these corporate giants. The bring legitimacy, money and fear. The changes that I see today: 1. Drupal is growing rapidly beyond small sites and single developers. 2. The community is expanding 3. Drupal shops are taking a lead in the expansion 4. Drupal is becoming a business 5. The camps are getting bigger, more organized and larger attendance 6. Developers & Dev shops are specializing and finding specific niches (less generalists and more specialists) With the advent of Drupal 7, 7000+ modules and thousands of new developers arriving, now is the time to stake out your territory and your market. While negative unemployment exists today in the marketplace, it won't forever. The Gold Rush worked for those early in the game, the stragglers didn't fare nearly as well and were disappointed.  So how does a developer or a small shop not just survive but thrive? We'll cover some of these ideas to create smaller, nimble, more professional services. Some ways to grow WITH Drupal: 1. Brand yourself 2. Think about partnering 3. Become active in the local ecosystem (SDDUG) 4. Become active OUTSIDE the local ecosystem (Open Source) 5. Figure out what you do best 6. Figure out what you like best 7. Learn how to run a business 8. Learn how to manage people 9. Learn more about sales 10 Figure out your marketing strategy Go forth organize, strategize and code!