Comments on: just a thought – more profit for less

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 01:50:55 +0000

The idea of treating your customers like employees is explained fairly well by the book Value Profit Chain.

Many business use that model, because, like someone else said above me, if you try to be everything for everything, you are setting yourself and your customers up for failure.

Learning to say no to certain customers is a wonderful relief.

By: final fashion » click click - 22-01-09

final fashion » click click - 22-01-09 — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:07:53 +0000

[...] the “more with less” theme, Nathalie offers up some interesting questions with the designers of [...]

By: Kevin Carson

Kevin Carson — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 06:55:32 +0000

In general, I think the wave of the future is a low-overhead business model, with microenterprises using spare capacity of capital goods ordinary people own anyway. With little or no overhead, it’s possible to ride out slow periods. It’s also possible to gradually ease into a business, using it to supplement income from the day job or gradually shift a few hours at a time from wage labor to self-employment, with no significant risk.

To run a brew pub out of my house, for example, using my ordinary kitchen oven and refrigerator, would require only a small bank loan to remodel a spare room for seating and buy a brewing kettle and a few fermenting tanks for the basement. Such a small loan, at most a few thousand $$, could be serviced with the margin from a few customers a week.

One effect of most regulation and licensing regimes is to impose mandatory minimum capital outlays, so that it becomes imperative to do business on a large scale and produce in large batches; one must either make the business a full-time project, or not do it at all, and the failure rate becomes enormous.

My brew pub example above would be highly illegal, because of “safety” regulations that mandate an industrial-sized oven, dishwasher, freezer, etc. To amortize that kind of capital outlay, I’d have to hire professional kitchen and wait staff and keep a large dining area filled up.

That’s the effect of the CPSIA’s mandate of testing each separate product line at enormous expense. It effectively mandates large batch production and push distribution, because you can’t switch between a large number of different product lines on a just-in-time basis when each product line requires an enormous capital outlay.

Take examples like unlicensed cab services using a car and cell phone versus “authorized” cab services with $300,000 medallions, and a thousand more, and you get the picture. The government criminalizes the informal and household economy, and makes us artificially dependent on wage labor.

By: serah-marie

serah-marie — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:17:11 +0000

I think many people look at a newspaper as a service rather than a business, where the primary goal is to disseminate information rather turn a profit. I guess now that the internet really takes care of the information part, newspapers need to rethink their purpose. Great post, lots for me to think about. thanks!

By: Labnotes » Rounded Corners 221 – Less of one, more of the other

Labnotes » Rounded Corners 221 – Less of one, more of the other — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 02:01:55 +0000

[...] As they say, “if a newspaper can turn a profit …” (via Finalfashion) [...]

By: Elaine Elizabeth

Elaine Elizabeth — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:51:30 +0000

not related to the post – I just noticed the link back to me. :) thanks so much for the love!

By: Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:06:25 +0000

Auntie Fashion – gawsh I wish I could pay off my debts by working for free. What’s your secret?

Ginevra – perhaps I will have an introductory paragraph on these posts for the lazy in the future. Glad you’re liking them!

Jas – we’re all trying to figure it out – hence, just a thought.

BONUS LINK – Comrags on balancing entrepreneurship and life, via Nathalie Atkinson – http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theampersand/archive/2008/03/20/l-oreal-fashion-week-comrags.aspx

By: jasbanwait

jasbanwait — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:57:23 +0000

One thing I’ve learned over the past year of running Savillian is that you can’t be everything to everybody. You have to focus yourself on a niche market. Mind you, half the battle is figuring out what that niche market is and then seeing if you can make money out of it. I am still trying to figure that out!

By: ginevra

ginevra — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:55:41 +0000

Any chance of an link back to last week’s post? Or a summary of last week’s concensus? (Yeah, I’m just being a bit lazy!)

I’m really enjoying this ‘just a thought’ series … only, can’t think of any insights to contribute at the moment …

By: Auntie Fashion

Auntie Fashion — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:03:44 +0000

My friends are always asking me why I stopped working for fashion magazines to write for free instead. I decided that I was tired of making money for other people who would never return the favour. I downsized my role in the industry to rebuild my stature in the industry. Maybe it’s working, or maybe it’s not. Either way, I’m a lot happier and I’m out of debt, so it’s not a bad thing.