Sell your by-product
This is a translation of an article from the site 37signals.com
The software and web industries can learn a lot from the woodworking industry, the oil business, and corn and soybean farmers. They take production waste, and receive from it considerable profit.
The woodworking industry sells what is usually considered garbage - sawdust, wood chips, wood trimming - for good money. Today, these by-products can be found in fireplace fuel, concrete, soil cover material, plywood, fuel, animal bedding, road dusting materials in the winter and much more.
Refined petroleum products are used in plastics, cosmetics, food, rubber, artificial fibers, insecticides, fertilizers, toothpaste, detergents ... This list can be continued for a long time.
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Nowadays, corn and soybeans are cleaned and turned into almost anything. By noon, you probably consumed a lot of substances produced from corn, without even knowing it. It is in your food in the form of various additives (HFCS, xanthin gum, dextrin, maltodextrin, MSG).
All of the above are by-products. Logs were initially sawn into boards for construction, oil was mined for fuel production. Corn and soybeans were grown as food. But today, these industries have been able to use waste in order to produce more diverse products. They twist, press, clean, heat, cool and recycle waste in money in a variety of ways.
In a sense, we are lucky that we are engaged in software products. We have an easy job. We think, we type, we move the mouse. We produce the product by placing the pixels in the right places and the words in the correct order. In a nutshell - this is what we do.
But it also complicates the detection of by-products of our activities. The woodworking company sees its waste. They cannot ignore sawdust. But we do not see ours. Or we do not even suspect that software development leaves any by-products. This is a limited look.
When you produce something, you produce something else. In the same way, as they say that you cannot not communicate, in the same way you cannot not produce anything else. Everything has byproducts. Observant and creative businessmen find these by-products and notice new opportunities.
Getting Real is a by-product. We wrote this book without even knowing it. The experience we gained in the development of the company and in software development was a by-product of our work. At the beginning we made it into blog posts, then into a series of master classes, then into PDF, then into a paper book, and then uploaded to read online. This by-product brought 37signals more than $ 1,000,000 directly and probably another $ 1,000,000 indirectly.
Ruby on Rails is another by-product. He appeared in the process of developing Basecamp. We did not develop it specifically. We didn’t even know that we are developing it. But David noticed that the product was lying under his feet. We noticed this product, picked it up and processed it. This has changed the world of web development.
Think seriously about what you are doing. Take a closer look at everything you do. Surely there are by-products everywhere. Heck, even your office can be a by-product. You rent it for work, but what about the evening hours? Could you rent it for any events? Maybe you could have a comedy show like Mary's Futons in San Rafael, California. Sometimes consumers return to buy the sofa on which they sat during the show. It's nice.
Or maybe you could do what the Wilco group did by making a film about their experience of recording music. They would still solve problems with the label. They still had any internal questions. All these things happened in the process of creating a record. They simply would have lost it all if they had not turned on the camera in the process.
Selling your by-products is even more important during a crisis. Searching for new cash flows from products that you have already created can increase your income and keep your business afloat. And although we are in favor of taking money for using the product, but if you still can’t do it, you can charge for a by-product. Maybe these are seminars on how you created your product. Maybe these are lessons learned from user support. Maybe something from your code can be turned into something that will be profitable.
So remember: when you create something, you create something else. Find it, pack it and sell it. Money can be made from anything.
The software and web industries can learn a lot from the woodworking industry, the oil business, and corn and soybean farmers. They take production waste, and receive from it considerable profit.
The woodworking industry sells what is usually considered garbage - sawdust, wood chips, wood trimming - for good money. Today, these by-products can be found in fireplace fuel, concrete, soil cover material, plywood, fuel, animal bedding, road dusting materials in the winter and much more.
Refined petroleum products are used in plastics, cosmetics, food, rubber, artificial fibers, insecticides, fertilizers, toothpaste, detergents ... This list can be continued for a long time.
')
Nowadays, corn and soybeans are cleaned and turned into almost anything. By noon, you probably consumed a lot of substances produced from corn, without even knowing it. It is in your food in the form of various additives (HFCS, xanthin gum, dextrin, maltodextrin, MSG).
By-products
All of the above are by-products. Logs were initially sawn into boards for construction, oil was mined for fuel production. Corn and soybeans were grown as food. But today, these industries have been able to use waste in order to produce more diverse products. They twist, press, clean, heat, cool and recycle waste in money in a variety of ways.
We are lucky and not very
In a sense, we are lucky that we are engaged in software products. We have an easy job. We think, we type, we move the mouse. We produce the product by placing the pixels in the right places and the words in the correct order. In a nutshell - this is what we do.
But it also complicates the detection of by-products of our activities. The woodworking company sees its waste. They cannot ignore sawdust. But we do not see ours. Or we do not even suspect that software development leaves any by-products. This is a limited look.
When you produce something, you produce something else.
When you produce something, you produce something else. In the same way, as they say that you cannot not communicate, in the same way you cannot not produce anything else. Everything has byproducts. Observant and creative businessmen find these by-products and notice new opportunities.
By-product: Getting Real
Getting Real is a by-product. We wrote this book without even knowing it. The experience we gained in the development of the company and in software development was a by-product of our work. At the beginning we made it into blog posts, then into a series of master classes, then into PDF, then into a paper book, and then uploaded to read online. This by-product brought 37signals more than $ 1,000,000 directly and probably another $ 1,000,000 indirectly.
By-product: Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is another by-product. He appeared in the process of developing Basecamp. We did not develop it specifically. We didn’t even know that we are developing it. But David noticed that the product was lying under his feet. We noticed this product, picked it up and processed it. This has changed the world of web development.
What do you have?
Think seriously about what you are doing. Take a closer look at everything you do. Surely there are by-products everywhere. Heck, even your office can be a by-product. You rent it for work, but what about the evening hours? Could you rent it for any events? Maybe you could have a comedy show like Mary's Futons in San Rafael, California. Sometimes consumers return to buy the sofa on which they sat during the show. It's nice.
Or maybe you could do what the Wilco group did by making a film about their experience of recording music. They would still solve problems with the label. They still had any internal questions. All these things happened in the process of creating a record. They simply would have lost it all if they had not turned on the camera in the process.
More important in the current state of the economy
Selling your by-products is even more important during a crisis. Searching for new cash flows from products that you have already created can increase your income and keep your business afloat. And although we are in favor of taking money for using the product, but if you still can’t do it, you can charge for a by-product. Maybe these are seminars on how you created your product. Maybe these are lessons learned from user support. Maybe something from your code can be turned into something that will be profitable.
So remember: when you create something, you create something else. Find it, pack it and sell it. Money can be made from anything.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/54071/
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