Win/Win Business

There are good business reasons to make sure your business is a win/win for you and your customers. At the same time, think of win/win in a broader sense as well.

The main principles should be that win/lose solutions are not real solutions and that we win the most (feelings, practical goals, mind, heart, spirit, lifetime happiness) when we find %s to support all people with winning with income.

For example, the highest priority win/wins could be not hurting others, not hurting prioritised development goals, and helping the maximum number of people globally have high enough income, wellbeing, dignity and choice.

This needs to be balanced with the understanding that we haven’t been able to achieve this yet over the tens of thousands of years so far.

However, we are in the age of information and if there was ever a time to move this forward, % by %, it should be now.

This is a very broad area, and I really hope that lots of new industries and business focuses can be invented to help support the entire world population to get enough income, wellbeing, dignity, choices and material happiness.

At the same time, if you don’t take care of your own life time financial goals first, then you will suffer from this later on.

Lifetime Finances

Do you think about finances in a short-term or long-term way? It might be a good idea to think about finances up to the age of 95- this way, if you live longer, your family can pay the remainder, and if you live shorter, you can bequeath the assets to your children.

A lot of people globally live month to month or week to week, and this is perfectly fine.

But coming up with ways to extend your cover forward can saves you a lot of problems later on.

Do you want future you to love you or shake their fist at you because of your financial planning now?

Humans are incredibly adaptable, but why cause yourself additional problems instead of having more time later on to get to spend on your sports, hobbies and bucket list/ fun list?

Business Ethics

We have 8 billion people on earth, and we want to keep growing industries and businesses that are win/win:

• we want to keep growing the types of industries and businesses that are real wins for the people who create and work in them

• and also >>> to strongly grow the industries and income types that push the maximum number of people on a path to adequate then high enough income, wellbeing, dignity, choices, and needs met.

This is a different view from the economics of the past, where we only tried to take care of ourselves.

Added Value

Have you heard about the idea of added value?

When you add value to a product or service, this might increase the demand for this good and service, and customers might be willing to pay more.

Therefore, the purpose of adding value is usually to increase the sales price of items. However, there are other goals to adding value such as increasing demand for your product or service, increasing the number of sales, increasing repeat purchases, increasing positive word of mouth, among other goals that you could choose.

You can add value to a current product, service or business via substance, style or both.

• Will you save customers time or energy by including something in the product? Will you make something easier to use? Is there high enough customer demand to actually pay for this in enough quantity in the short term, medium term, long term?

• Is your product higher quality, in a way that customers are willing to choose to pay for this higher quality? As an example, potential customers with higher disposable incomes are more likely to pay more for higher quality, organic vegetables.

• Is there something unique about your product or service that makes it better than most other products or services and that customers are actually willing to pay for? This is called a unique selling position (USP). Remember that the world is rapidly changing, however, this is still a good strategy.

• Have you created a brand that customers know about, trust, and are loyal enough to buy from? Please be ethical with this.

• Is your product an “experience”- are the style features of the product something that excites people enough to buy for the packaging?

• Are there socially responsible parts of your product that customers with more disposable income are willing to support via money? For example, is your product sourced locally, supporting local businesses, where other products are not sourced locally? And do your customers (1) have enough disposable income and (2) are genuinely willing to support this economically.

• What are other ways to increase your sales price?

Disposable Income

This is one of the most important ideas for incomes.

When people make an income, they need to use the first part of it on things that they most need, savings, rainy day funds, financial commitment to (e.g. a mortgage), and for taxes (so the government can cover joint needs like hospitals, safety and similar areas).

Industries and incomes that serve needs employ a certain % of people, however, they try to keep becoming more and more efficient with the resources they use and people they employ, so this isn’t usually an increasing source of employment.

Disposable income is the income that people have left over for spending after paying for needs, savings, rainy day funds, financial commitments and taxes.

Different people will have different amounts of disposable income, and will spend it on different things. For example:

The poorest 20% might spend close to all of their disposable income on priorities like local treats that are either a reward or full of extra vitamins.

Different types of the next poorest 20% might have different lists of priorities, for example, nicer clothes for higher status and self-esteem.

Different types of the middle 20% might have different lists of priorities, for example, organising a day trip, weekend trip, or nice experience.

Different types of the second wealthiest 20% might have different lists of priorities, for example, to organise a large party or event.

Different types of the wealthiest 20% might have different lists of priorities, for example, brands for status and self esteem.

The question is- how can you create products and services that are ethical? How do you create win/win industries for everyone?

The Internet

How does the internet affect business? Obviously, people use it to research potential products/services, to compare products/services, and to get information on products/services. It also helps people to get educated on the best product/service that they can produce (i.e. they get educated via the internet).

Researching Potential Markets for Products and Services

This could be explained in a lot of different ways, and is a very creative area, and this topic will be explored further in this blog.

At its core, what this area is trying to do is to find areas

• where high enough quantities of profitable sales could be made

• that match with current product or service creating skills that people have

• or that match with potential product or service creating skills that people have

Profit

Is your business, product or service likely to be profitable enough over the time frame it needs to be?

Profit = Revenue - Costs

Revenue is the total dollar value of sales that you make- for example product/service one x number of sales + product/service two x number of sales + product/service three x number of sales, etc.

Costs are the costs involved with each product/service (e.g. the cost of buying a product for resale, the cost of adding value to it, the cost of your time) plus overall costs spread across all or several products/services (e.g. rent, transport costs, staff, marketing costs).

Salary

A common mistake people make when thinking about profit is not taking into account their own salary, whether based on hours of work, ideal salary or comparative salary compared to other Opportunity Costs.

For example, someone might make $10,000 profit, which seems like a lot. But if you compare this to how much they could have made in a job, it’s a loss.

So to make sure to take this into account when calculating profit, especially for the medium term and longer.

Opportunity Cost

You should also consider something called Opportunity Cost. Opportunity Cost is thinking about the other areas you could have spent that time and energy on, and comparing the profits to this.

For example, what is the profit you could have made if you had started a product/service in something else? Or if you had been employed by someone in something else?

It is a good idea to think of Opportunity Cost in a wider way:

1. A lot of people start a businesses because they want a better lifestyle, or because they want to help people, or because they want to work in something that they really care about, or because they want new adventures.

• These are not financial, but they are benefits.

• For example, a lot of people interviewed at 100 years old said that one of their highest regrets over their lifetime was not choosing a job and lifestyle that was more aligned with their values.

• Money is not everything. Happiness and quality of life matters a lot too.

• These are Opportunity Costs too.

2. Some people think of Opportunity Costs in the short term because they feel the short term intensely and have to deal with Opportunity Costs in this way.

But because a lot of businesses take a longer time to become successful, it is a good idea to calculate Opportunity Costs at longer time intervals too to think of future benefits.

What could be lost Opportunity Costs in the short term could become really worthwhile in the medium and long term.

However, this also needs to be compared to what you could lose if your business, product or service fails, and what your plans are around this.

Recessions

Because one person’s spending is another person’s income, recessions occur when spending across a society reduces, starting off a chain of businesses getting less profitable, laying off employees or cutting back hours, those people spending less, other businesses laying off employees or cutting back hours, those people spending less, etc.

Recessions occur when what is good for individuals (saving for a rainy day because of worry/ their job being cut) is not good for wider society.

Sustainability and the Environment

If you would like to quickly overview the 50+ sustainability and environmental areas and find out which areas are most relevant to your business, scroll down to the bottom of our Environmental Areas page or click on the 5 minute solution stimulators for the main areas:

www.bettermindbodyhealthhappiness.com/topics/environmental-blog

However, remember that you also need to compare the profitability and risk profile of your business venture to the other potential options. If you’re going to spend years or decades on something, you need to (1) make sure that it is financially viable, (2) make sure that you have assessed risks carefully, and (3) make sure you are making the right choice for you. Because more people want to work in feel-good businesses that help people, the profits are often on average lower (although people often choose base on a mix of 5-10 factors including profit, lifestyle, value, location, etc)