Production

Profits Without Production

Garth Beyer

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I got turned on when I saw Krugman’s NYT’s post, “Profits Without Production.”

I thought to myself, “Finally, he sees it too!” Alas, while I am sure he would agree with me, he sees profits without production in a different light.

Nevertheless, since you cannot read what I thought he wrote. I’ll write it.

It wasn’t until the start of the industrial revolution that “production” became mechanical, void of emotion, and downright dirty. Prior to the industrial revolution, to “produce” held power. Anything that was produced contained a bit of the person who produced it.

Production took hands (many of them), impromptu thought power, and personal insight (not mechanical). There were technicalities before there was anything technical. Then, once the industrial revolution hit, “production” took on an entirely new meaning.

It’s as you can expect, recall, and still see industries trying to continue. During the industrial revolution production was being carried out by robots, assembly lines, programmers, and chain reaction contraptions. No grit, no personality, and no heart. The only connection was between two wires. Profits came from faster production. As a result, the process to creating goods was a stale, monotonous, banal one.

Now, though, we’ve entered the post-industrial revolution which has – I don’t want to say returned, but has reconditioned “production” and given it an all new meaning. Production has maintained its sense of efficiency and multiplicity while involving the human spirit, a person’s passion.

This post-industrial revolution is the collaboration of the assembly line and creativity. However, not in the sense that one piece of creative work is repetitively created, rather, art (whatever your art may be) is continuously created, day in and day out.

For me, I write something different every single day. Alisa Toninato, instead of molding a typical metal pan over and over, sculpts something different, again and again. Now, those who are profiting the most (financially and internally) are those who have salvaged the key parts to production, but, generally, tossed the industrial revolution concept away.

Profits don’t come from production, they come from the interaction created from making more art. And making more art comes from doing enough weird things until they get noticed.

 

Stay Positive & Potatoes Pototoes, I Suppose

Garth E. Beyer

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Breaking The Long Tail Into Phases

Garth Beyer

Phase 1: It’s a common misconception that books, movies, music, etc., just make it to the top 10, to the best sellers, to the “most popular” categories – one day you don’t see them there, the next day you do. It’s magic. Phase one of the Long Tail is making whatever you make, big: big audience, big profit, and big exposure. 50 Shades is a prime example, it is average price and a bestseller.

For the mass, one day it just showed up and they had to have it.

Phase 2: This is when a slight price reduction takes place. Most commonly found in the form of a sale, a discount, a sweepstake or giveaway. Phase two of the Long Tail is making it (perhaps 50 Shades of Gray) slightly more available. The goal is to reach an even larger audience that without the price reduction would have never been reached.

Phase 3: While phase two slightly expands the range of those who would purchase the product; phase three involves an even larger price drop. By now the production costs have been paid, the creator has profited, and the goal is to reach as many people as possible while still making profit – small profit, but profit nevertheless.

Phase 4: By now, one can cut production completely and put the product online for instant download in multiple formats. The last phase is to offer the work for free, to reach everyone (at least with internet access). The goal is to catch even more eyes on the work you have shipped while you are producing new work that starts back at phase one.

This is the progressive and profiting idea of the Long Tail that most people see.

The problem with cutting the Long Tail into phases, though, is the sociological impacts that are created as a result. At each phase, you make those who participated in the phase before it more uncomfortable. “Why do they get it cheaper.” “I should have waited until the price went down.” “Next time I’m just going to hold off until it’s free.” While this has significant effects, there is one in particular that needs to be noted.

This effect directs more of those who participate in the first phase, to dig deep for the interesting, the odd, and the most creative items that are at the end of the tail. After all, everything ends up there anyway, right? In the consumer’s mind, inaction creates price reduction. In the producers mind, inaction prevents them from ever getting a hold of the work. With the Long Tail, the consumers right.

Looking back at all of this, it seems that the Long Tail actually has a negative effect. At least, if you follow it from phase one, it does.

But, what if I told you that the Long Tail was meant to work in reverse, from phase four, from the end of it. That before 50 Shades found itself in phase one; the author had produced shorter creative work, gathering a tribe of followers.

The beauty of the Long Tail is that people are able to go up the tail in short phases. All with the start of a niche product and a small, but close tribe. For most, the box office movies, the best sellers, the “top 10,” were overnight successes. When really, they worked longer and harder than one can imagine to get there.

 

Stay Positive & A lot Comes From A Little

Garth E. Beyer

Quality Over Quantity Is An Antiquity

Quality Over Quantity Is An Antiquity

Garth Beyer

 

 

Quality

It’s expressed over and over that quality should always be over quantity. It is one of three factors to profiting most from a product.

1. Lowest Price

2. Best Service

3. Best Quality

But I am not telling you to choose quality over quantity.

Quantity

Sure quantity over quality had its spotlight at one time. But the light has since gone dim. It flickers from time to time and that is how we got generic brands or bulk items. There are times in life that we can forget the quality of something for the quantity. Do you really want to spend 60 dollars on one new quality toy for your four-year old? Or purchase 10 toys for 60 dollars? Especially when you know that if you paid extra for the one toy, the chances of a four-year old breaking it is pretty high.

But I am not telling you to choose quantity over quality again either.

So What’s The Q-Fusion

Why is it that you have to choose quality or quantity with a product? Why do we have to place one over the other?

You know what you can do? Put them on the same level and see what happens. Yes, I’m telling you to use both. If we are talking about importance then sure quality is the most important, but that doesn’t mean quality can’t be completed at a steady pace. Nor can you argue that a quantity of quality will always make you — not just A winner, but THE winner. A winner in sales, in business…in life.

 

Abraham Lincoln said, “And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”  — Quality

I will add, “And don’t settle for a bit of life in each year, go all out” — Quantity

 

Stay Positive and Synthesized

Garth E. Beyer