Business development

The simple swap - How to Make Money - exchange value for it

How is this for a new marketing plan.  I go down to my local shop and buy two brand new plain white t-shirts for $20.  On one of them I have this printed:

“T-shirt space for rent - enquire within” 

The other one I leave blank, in the hope that soon I’ll be printing it with the advertising for my very first client.  I put on the printed shirt and bravely walk out into the world expecting to be knocked over at any moment by hoards of frantic advertisers, throwing money at me, trying to be the first in line to advertise on Tom O’Leary’s shirt.  Late that night I drag myself home, after spending the entire day walking around, hoping to be noticed.  I am dejected, exhausted and most of all, puzzled.  What did I do wrong?  Did I walk around the wrong city, did I choose the wrong colour t-shirt, was my printing badly designed, or was it simply that I didn’t have anything valuable to offer in the first place.

Making money is quite likely the most straight forward concept you will ever see.  Offer something valuable to someone who both wants it and can afford your price and you can make money.  The concept is very simple, but the practice can be exceptionally hard.  My story above, is a ridiculous parody of a business start up, but it accurately describes the sort of mentality that many people cling on to.  This has become particularly clear in our internet world, where so many conventional rules are no longer relevant.  Believe me, even in the online world, this concept still applies.

The sort of thing that we have to offer must be valuable.  One way  to be valuable is in a global, indisputable, market-price sort of way.  This would be the case with some physical goods and particularly durable classics like diamonds or real estate.  Otherwise it must be at least personally valuable to the purchaser, in a way that means that the person likes, appreciates or could use what you have to offer.  What you offer will only be valuable if it can’t be had elsewhere in the same way for free.  It is this scarcity that is the key to establishing value.  If you have the only blue banana in the world and people really want blue bananas, then you can expect to receive a lot more for it than you would for a whole bunch of yellow bananas.

This helps us to realize that on top of scarcity, what you have to offer must be what your purchaser wants.  It must satisfy a current or future need for them.  It must not simply replicate what they already have.  It must appeal to a problem or deficiency in their situation and it must work.

If what you have to offer, is valuable and desirable to someone else then it is possible to make money from the exchange.  So what do you have to offer.  What do you, your life, your possessions, your situation allow you to share with others and make money from the exchange?  And the next question is - even more importantly - what is your price?

If you find someone who wants and values what you have to offer and will accept your price then you will make money.  If not, you will be like the other millions of people in the world who struggle from day to day trying to cover their costs of living with not enough money.  The primary difference between these two groups of people is not their education or their upbringing, or their lifestyle or the country that they live in.  It is simply that one group has worked out how simple the system is and are striving to make it work for them.

The classic value exchange is time for money.  You go to work and the boss pays for you to give the company your time.  I, personally think that this is the least savvy exchange for most people.  It may be necessary, but realistically the exchange rate is usually very poor.  Who decides that one hour of your life is worth the minimum wage or even 10 times the minimum.  Time is worth so few dollars to a company because hours by themselves are in no scarcity on a world scale.  Everyone has hours on the market, it is only when you are able to differentiate your time from everyone Else’s that it starts becoming more valuable.   If you went back later to try and buy back the hours that you sold to the company, do you think you could manage it.  You can sell your time for a few dollars, but it is impossible to buy it back even for much more.  Our days are limited and so I try and make sure that I sell as few of them to anyone else as I can.  This leaves the rest of my time to achieve my goals in the world.  

So back to the original story, why wasn’t I able to make any money in exchange for my t-shirt space?   Because the space was not valuable to anyone and nobody wanted it at my price.  Sure if I was a rock star the situation would be different but as a relatively small fish in a big pond, my t-shirt space is only as valuable as the next guys.  As you might have noticed, I have put this lesson into action with the design of this site.  You can probably see quite clearly the number of adds that are not on the page you are reading.  This was a deliberate realisation that in these early days, there would be no reason for legitimate firms to provide advertising that is meaningful to my readers at a price that makes the deal worthwhile.  In these early days, I have realised that I won’t make any money from this site and so I have decided to totally ignore any forms of monetization for the moment.  As time goes on, and readers keep coming and bringing their friends, then I will have something more valuable to offer to advertisers that I choose.  This will put me in a position of greater power to choose companies that provide value to you, rather than just any old garbage that AdSense comes up with.  Anyhow that is my strategy.  Increase the value of what you have to offer and then you have more options as to who you can exchange it with.  And of course, the benefit for readers is that LifeGoalAction will keep being served up to you daily at no cost or obligation. 

End Note:  While this article is specifically about making money, I was hesitant to write it because I didn’t want to get lumped in with all of the other “get rich” type personal development.  This article is primarily about effective living, and getting value from your life, the concepts could be used to create wealth and riches, but it is up to each of us to keep that in balance with the rest of our life.  Money is important in life but it is not life.

Thanks

Tom