2001: a business odyssey

Entrepreneur, Dec, 1996 by Gayle Sato Stodder

Is this the dawning of a new age for entrepreneurs?

What's the hottest trend to hit this year and beyond? To figure it out, put yourself, for a moment, in the mind of the typical consumer:

The millennium is almost over, and you haven't accomplished a thing. You slave away 60 hours a week only to face downsizing. Your health is flagging, but your doctor seems oblivious. You suspect there is more to life than your mortgage and your car payment, but you can hardly find the brain power to contemplate dinner, let alone the major mysteries of the cosmos. You don't want a new attitude or a new perspective. need the deluxe package.

You need a whole new age.

You and an estimated 44 million Americans like you. Sociologist Paul H. Ray, in a study co-sponsored by research firms the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and the Sausalito, California-based Institute of Noetic Sciences, identified roughly 24 percent of the population as "cultural creatives" - folks who embrace globalism, alternative health care, spirituality, social consciousness and ecological sustainability.

While cultural creatives don't represent a majority of the population, they are a sizable market. Moreover, their values are rippling through society at large. Where New Age was once ridiculed as the refuge of pyramid-loving, crystal-worshipping kooks, it's now as mainstream as seeing an acupuncturist or buying a yoga video.

Have you read your horoscope lately? Tuned in to "The X-Files"? Gotten a whiff of aromatherapy? If so, you're not alone. As a culture, we may be a long way from enlightenment. But even if we don't achieve nirvana in 1997, it looks like our minds will continue the long, slow opening process - and unimagined markets will open along with them.

* AGE-OLD QUESTIONS

The forces behind the growth of the New Age movement are no passing fancies. Some say we've got a heavy case of millennial fever. Not only are major astrological and psychic changes reputedly underway, but so is the kind of cultural soul-searching that usually occurs during millennial shifts.

"There's a perception that the institutions of the Industrial Age are no longer equipped to deal with reality," says Gerald Celente, director of The Trends Research Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, and author of Trends 2000 (Warner). "People have lost faith in the political system, the legal system, the health-care system - and they're looking for answers, often outside the scope of reason."

Which is not to say people are being unreasonable. Rather, this is a time for innovation and spiritual introspection. "I think people are looking forward to great change" in virtually all facets of their lives, says Celente.

Demographically speaking, the time is right for renewal. "A lot of people don't get to a point of self-examination until they face a major life crisis," says Joan Duncan Oliver, editor of the bimonthly magazine New Age Journal. "The baby boomers have reached the age when they might be facing health problems, or questioning the value of their work, or even losing their jobs. These crises are often the initiation into a more examined life."

The confluence of millennial and demographic trends creates the right environment for change. New insights, new revelations, new approaches to old problems, revolutionary products and services - they couldn't be born at a better time.

* WELL, WELL, WELL

Cosmic thinking is great, but what's going to sell? No one has a crystal ball, of course, but several categories show promise. Under the general heading of New Age, Oliver reports Hinduism and Islam are in. Dwight Lucky, editor of Bellingham, Washington-based trade magazine New Age Retailer, says Buddhism is also continuing to experience a boom. And according to Candace Apple, owner of the Phoenix & Dragon Bookstore in Atlanta, "Feng Shui [the ancient Chinese art of environmental energy flow] is the hottest thing out there."

More generally, look for books, products and services that focus on wellness. Alternative medicines and self-care items will continue to thrive. "Health, fitness and nutrition are going to be key. People are going to be doing more to take care of themselves," says Celente. "But they're going to want more than the esoteric thought; they're going to want to bring these changes into practice."

Perhaps that bodes well for Lenox, Massachusetts, entrepreneur Gregory Dix, creator of the Get a Life store and catalog. Dix's product mix includes folding meditation benches, aromatherapy diffusers, ayurvedically balanced skin-care products, and books and videos that promote everything from yoga to artistic creativity. "The [store and catalog] are for people who are trying to figure out what's missing in life and who don't know what it is or how to find it," says Dix.

Is the mainstream ready for all this positive energy? Apple knows it is. One indicator: sales. Her Phoenix & Dragon bookstore recently expanded to 5,500 square feet, and Apple hopes to gross $1 million next year.

Anecdotal evidence is also compelling. "A lot of people used to come in feeling a little embarrassed about being in a New Age bookstore," Apple says. Today, however, there's no such stigma. In fact, Apple worries that the New Age is becoming old hat. "It's getting harder than ever to get well-known [New Age] authors to come in for book signings and events," she says. "They're all going to Barnes & Noble."