Business models

Yes, it is on the forefront of most people’s minds. What is the best business model I could use? What is the business model that has the best ROI? And so on. This reminds me of a small joke from the 80’s (yes, I do not care whether it is not PC). There are three ways to lose money.

1. Women (prettiest method)
2. Gambling (fastest method)
3. Statistics (assured method)

It is an old saying that has been toppled a few times over, or has it? I was drawn to that equation in recent days, because the real deal behind that is not the method, it is the stage of the decision makers, most people miss that tiny part of the equation. And it matter, because it led me to another path. A path that I initially missed. You see a player like Steinway has options for an additional path to income, much income and it would be a service, more important there is no one else in play anywhere near ready to had that service.

Now, this is not some sales pitch. I will have over the idea without any expectations and Steinway should feel ready to use the idea at THEIR convenience. Yet before that we need to look at a business model.

So below you see two images, and would you believe it both are business models and both can be applied to a whole range of services, but what makes any of them a business model?

It is on you, the decision maker. When we see the lady, many will think fashion, the photographer might thing composition, colour, tone and so on, the non-lady on the right is a business setting of a business model. But for who? IT? Finance? Service?

We are told a story and we fill the image to fill the picture WE have, but is that correct? That was the mindset I had when I was admiring a documentary on Steinway piano’s and when I saw the Steinway Spirio, I thought it was a great idea to have in the living room, for whenever you are bored of your iPod. Now I get it, how is replacing a $299 solution with a $249,000 solution a solution? Well, for the most it is set to your limitations and your inability to think out of the box. And yes, you could have a case when the ROI becomes a player. Yet still there is a limit on someone else’s thinking path. Now consider the great change that the GoPro Hero made, the Hero 10 is still on route to many people and the idea of having a VLOG is on the mind of many. And there are a whole range of musical solutions as well, but what happens when you get. Service that offers 12 pieces of up to 15 minutes a year for $99? Music that is enabled TO YOU as YOU see fit. 12 MP3 files that you can tinker and tailor with. Not the music EVERYONE uses, but a piece you chose just for you and it was a music piece by Steinway. Thousands of classical works, thousands of Jazz, Ragtime, popular, Blues, Soul and so much more and as Steinway adds to its own collection (not the artiste sections) they end up with a business model they are already in possession of, now they merely put it in the Steinway store. And there is a need, I see more and more YouTube creators that use the same music again and again. So what happens when a cat video maker orders the Fugue in G minor by Domenico Scarlatti? Yes it will happen more than once, but someone will be first, and as more music is generically Steinway the rush for more music will come. It is a business model close to ready, Steinway has the hardware, the software and now it merely needs the store to offer it. 

And consider if Steinway does not offer it (for valid reasons), consider how many Steinways Spirio R’s are out there. How long it will take for any piano player to offer just that through other means? A business model that is ready to go and which of the two images did I use? Yes, the lady, but in my case I was staring at a piano and the mind put 2+2+2 and the mind created one change and came up with 8 (I will let you work that one out yourselves). 

We are so set to the settings other people are telling me to take an so far I have found way more than I bargained for by ignoring them. I learned the hard way that those telling me to take their advice, they for the most only considered their own advice and more importantly they were all about self, a lesson I learned slightly too late. We all face that over time. Yet I will let you consider where you go for YOUR idea and make sure that you realise that you and you alone (optionally your mother too) will have YOUR best path in mind for you. The rest caters to self.

Enjoy Sunday.