However, if you were to ask a selection of folk 'What is a business model?’ they might suggest it is about pricing or the exploitation of IP or what a customer wants. The answer to the question is all of the above and more. The standard definition is a business model explains how a company creates, delivers, and captures value.

In this blog I want to lift the lid up on the term ‘business models' and look at what it really means. 

According to a variety of sources including Business Model Generation the segments of a business model are the following:

Customer Segments - This is the different groups of people your content/product/service is for. You also need to think if your users and customers are different i.e creating content for broadcasters. You have both the broadcaster and the viewers.

Customer relationships – How to build a relationship with your customers - do you need different styles depending on who you are targeting? Does the interaction need face time or an automated process?

Value Proposition – A light bulb moment for me was starting to ask customers not what you need but what ’job’ are you trying to get done. This approach changes the thought process for both the customer and you and jointly moves you into an innovative space. What do your customers consider valuable? What will they pay for?

Revenue Streams – How are you generating an income? Are you being paid for a job? Or licencing your content? Do you have a residual income? Who is paying the users or customers?

Cost Structure - How much are you charging for the value you are delivering to your customers and users? What is your cost structure? How much are the materials etc to create your value and what is your pricing structure?

Channels - How are you distributing or delivering your content/product/service to your customers?  What methods are you using to deliver the value you are offering?

Key Resources – What resources, people do you need to make your business model work effectively? This could be physical assets or skillset.

Key Activities –What activities do you need to do to build relationships, earn revenue, to achieve your business model?

Key Partnerships –What partnerships do you need to build and maintain your business model? This could be suppliers, distributors or a new collaboration to reach new markets or launch an innovative product.

There are many elements to make up a business model. Obviously, each section contains a greater depth and complexity than shown above but it is useful to look at an overview to map out and strategise your current activities, then see if any changes or tweaks can be made to improve the way you are doing business. If you are interested in seriously reviewing your business model check out our free worksheet which has questions based on each section above which can enable you to evaluate your business.

It is worth mentioning that although internal resources and activities are not as sexy as pricing and IP, they can still offer a lot of value. Changing the way you do things internally can impact on, cost, customer relationships and profit.

To conclude I would like to share with you one of my favourite quotes from Joan Magretta, former editor of the Harvard Business Review : ‘Business models are the stories that explain how enterprises work’. Taking that one stage further, just as in a story there tends to be characters, action, and motivation, in a business you have customers, users, their motivation and what the company needs to do to deliver. Customers, partners buy into your business story. This will be how you will differentiate from your competitors. So one thing you can ask your self is what is the story of your business?

For additional info here is a video guide by Tom Hulme, Business Design Director from Ideo.

We chatted over dinner about what digital entrepreneur need to support them, the challenge of developing a business as well as running the day to day activities. We also discussed the current level of understanding about business models, how to move from a gun for hire company to creating and selling IP.

All the companies mentioned they were interested in continuing the relationship and discussion and so we will be running another one over drinks in a month or so. The format would be we would have a short talk by an expert, another by one of the companies who would be attending then a chat. If you are interested in joining us please drop me a line at Mel@media-sauce.org.

Interactive Scotland asked me to run a workshop on how you can accelerate sales and generate income (hence the title) for their digital and creative sectors. We had around 180 people at the workshop and in approximately one hour we whizzed through how a company can apply a few new business development techniques to increase the amount of customers they have. Thanks to Alisdair and the Interactive Scotland Team for making me very welcome and for running a fantastic event. I look forward to returning soon.

Calling all company owners, join us for the Business Leap Day Challenge. Spend your extra leap day this year to review the way you are doing business with our experts in order to take your business to the next level.

Why we are doing this..

A recent study by IBM interviewed 1500 CEOs from around the world and revealed that nearly all of them are adapting their business models - two thirds are implementing extensive innovations, with more than 40% re-defining them to be more collaborative. 

This is aimed at company owners and CEOs who are successful, but who would like to stay ahead of the curve to secure their future. Most companies are re-evaluating the way they do business to keep up with technology disruptions. Join them to review your business model

Register now for your free worksheet written by our panel of business experts   bm@creativeindustriesktn.org

By stepping back and thinking how you can change your business model it can bring so many opportunities to your attention. This is exactly what the leap day business challenge is all about- you only get an extra day once every four years, we’re calling on companies to really make the most of it!

The ‘leap day challenge’ will be followed up by further events, including a free invitation only round table for senior execs, expert blogs, interviews which will be housed at our business model community http://bit.ly/yp5rQc.  Businesses are being encouraged to share their experiences to create a valuable dialogue about the future business models in the creative industries.

If you think your company could benefit from reviewing your business model, join the challenge today!

Register now for a free work sheet by sending your name, company name and why you would like to participate to bm@creativeindustriesktn.org. We will send you the worksheet for you to fill out alone, or with your team. All participating companies will be entered into a prize draw to win a prize kindly donated by MOO, £150 credit to spend on Business Cards, Stickers, and other print products.

 This Leap Day Business Challenge has been made possible by – The Creative Industries Knowledge Transfer Network (CI KTN) and Media-Sauce

How will you challenge your business model to maximise opportunity?What will be your main revenue stream in 3-5 years time? Will your current one still be as strong?

What are the benefits? Through blogs, events, interviews and discussions, my personal aim is to deliver the best;business model knowledge that exists to creative/digital company CEOs and business;owners in a jargon free format so you can grow your business, move forward on your journey of adapting your business model and save time researching.;Join us at the business model group on theconnect site where we will provide a space for learning, sharing and debate and signpost you to further knowledge inside and outside of the creative industries.

The conference focused on how Facebook links in with marketing strategy and we covered everything from the latest changes announced at the F8 to FB ads, pages, apps, metrics and more. 

For a summary of the event and links to all the slides go to http://bit.ly/p3v1nl.

cc chinwag.

However, done right, both can be really valuable to your company, can sustain it for years to come, attract the right business and partners and maintain your relevance, irrespective of market changes.

This 2 part blog will look at:

• How to build a visionary company - Create a company which will be here tomorrow
• Mission Possible- Maintaining your relevance, by understanding one of the biggest mistakes you can make in your business.

Why is this all this important?

Companies have been telling me for a while that their budgets have been cut, and more businesses are competing for contracts/briefs. When you have to work harder to stay afloat and have 100 both urgent and important things on your list sometimes the last thing you want to think about it is the big picture. Here is why it is exactly the thing you should be thinking about now to stand out from the crowd.

What is the difference between vision and mission?

Simply put, a vision is big picture and future oriented while the mission is focused on the present. It is the vision that defines the end game and the mission is the road map that will take you there. For vision think leading, for mission, managing.  

How do we create one of these vision things?

A vision is something that will set you apart from other digital, social, corporate companies that are doing something similar, it will bring your brand to life.

Many experts have concluded that a vision should be made up of two parts:

Core ideology - defines what you stand for and why you exist.

Your envisioned future - is what you aspire to become, to achieve, to create—something that will require change to maintain. This should be made up of huge goals, ones that would take 10-30 years to achieve and a colourful picture of what it will look like when you get there.

Core ideology is made up of:

Core values - the 1-3 things that you stand for that will not ever change i.e. if you had enough money never to work again would you still adhere to these values?

And, Purpose – why are you here and doing what you are doing?

When looked at in this way vision contains some big answers to some really big powerful questions. By asking these questions you can really get to the heart of what you are doing and why you are doing it.  

How to find your purpose?

The key part to understanding purpose, it is it never reached but will guide you from afar.

One of the purposes I love is 3M’s. They define their purpose as’ the perpetual quest to solve unsolved problems innovatively’. This statement will automatically lead them into new sectors and innovations whatever they create and links all the things that they do.

To find your companies purpose ask ‘Why?’, a lot. Generally, it is useful to do this as part of an exercise but if you fancy doing it anyway it can really throw your colleagues when you start acting like a 3 year old in meetings. The kinds of ‘whys’ you could include are: ‘Why do you offer this product or service?’ ‘Why is that important?’ After 5-6 whys are the verbal equivalents to a giant spade, they help you dig deeper; you will get to why you do, what you do. That is your purpose, it is not something that you can fake, pluck from thin air or ask people to follow like a rule, it is intrinsic to what you do and why you do it.

Visionary companies understand what should change in a business and what should not.  Your core values are core to your business. Everything else is not. It can create agility in larger companies and should infuse everything your company does both internally and public facing.

This blog post is only a guide for what you can include in a vision statement, yours might be one sentence, or a paragraph but try and define one and see the difference it can make in your business.

Checklist for your vision statement

It need to be short, and use non-management speak

It should not be ordinary but extraordinary and colourful

Does it inspire you and bring your mission and people to life?

Next week we will look at :

Mission possible- Maintaining your relevance, by understanding one of the biggest mistakes you can make in your business.

 Picture by Todd Huffman

Guest blog for Chinwag.

Building a collaborative event is not for the faint hearted. Many event producer has run for the hills when faced with a large committee of partners let alone trying to lead a large team of stakeholders.  If, however, you are brave and follow a few guidelines the benefits of collaboration can be mind-blowing and much bigger than you could ever manage on your own.

Here is a guide based on my learnings directing Social Media Week (SMW) the London Games Fringe & Onemedia.  During SMW we had over 53 event partners, 50+ venues, 110 events and 40 experts on the advisory board. All of this was accomplished in under 16 weeks and here is how:

Choose passionate people to be part of your A team.  More specifically, make sure they are passionate about what you want the event to be about!  They have to be motivated to work for free, donate time and problem solve throughout the process of creating the event not just at the beginning.

Know what you want to achieve – What are you asking people to buy into? You need to have a clear vision, whether you create that yourself then find people who also share it or whether you build it as a group, it has to be a strong vision that does not change. How you get there will change day by day but you all need to head in the same direction.

Some people will contribute more than others , it is easy to get frustrated at this but try and remember  80/20 rule  10% + will be very active and 10%+ will be pretty active, the rest will contribute in their own way and can still make a good contribution i.e contact for a venue, a speaker suggestion also unless you are paying them wades of cash, they are doing this voluntarily.

Hand over responsibilities- probably the hardest thing to do, let go of some control, especially if you have not seen the results in the time you expected, but you need to let others have some ownership. It is easy to think, I will do this myself, but then you will create a habit of picking up the pieces. Co-ownership  and responsibility is good and people will surprise you, mostly in a positive way.

It might take longer to see results- as the group of people learn to work together and share ideas, things can look a bit chaotic for a while. Breathe through it, when it starts to come together it will grow and grow…

Create a fun environment – lots can happen virtually but there is no beating a physical meeting fuelled by food and/or drink. You might not be paying people but you can certainly make being a part of your event enjoyable!

Have a collective online system /space– when you can’t meet but need to brainstorm, solve problems. Make sure that everyone knows how to use it as that can be a barrier to entry.

Share achievements – When things go well, you can’t take all the credit for it, share achievements and also share when things aren’t going so well.

Photo curtsey of Brownslakeaquaducks

Yes this is a picture of a seemingly naked man with chickens. Why, you may ask. Well, am not sure about the lack of clothes and have my fingers crossed that the bubble coming out of his mouth does not contain some expletives but I wanted a picture to represent the battery farming of employees’.

A friend confided in me the other day about his job (let’s call him Sid) and how it the company he was working for had decided to deal with the current economic changes. Sid mentioned that like many organisations in the current climate, his were trying to cut spending;  they merged with another organisation, froze pay, and cut costs. Nothing new there unfortunately, but the thing that shocked me the most was the other conditions that he was working under:

Being kept in the dark- Employees  at his organisation were not informed of decisions that affected them. They were given very little notice when the company merged and some of the staff were told the week before Christmas that a letter would arrive on Christmas Eve letting them know if they had a job or not.

No basic rights – New rules came into play if you are sick, you lose pay for the days that you miss and you will receive £30 fines if you are 10 minutes late for work no matter how late you stay in the evening. New responsibilities are added to their jobs, without consultation, and they are told do it or lose your job.

No room to grow/develop - Not surprising, what was originally an environment for productivity, creativity and laughter has now been replaced by fear, stress and doing only what you need to do. Sid’s colleagues are scared to say or do anything for fear of losing their jobs. 

Obviously, this is only one side of the story and yes, companies are having tough times but there are things that you can do even when times are tough to improve the way you work and become sustainable.

How to free range your employees

Ask for help and listen - Each year this organisation would make thousands of brochures that no one ever used.  In Sid’s office alone, the cost for this ran into 5 figures, enough to pay for a person for a year. As someone on the front line, he knew what was working and what wasn’t. Let’s imagine that each employee would have at least one idea to cut costs or improve productivity, what could that do to transform an organisation?

Collective growth – Apologises for continuing with the chicken analogy but people, like chickens, are sociable, intelligent animals which need to be free and grow. By giving them space to collaborate, to jointly solve problems and build a workplace that is strong enough to overcome problems will improve moral, create a stronger culture and create ownership.

Be open – Even after all of the above has been taken into consideration, there still might be a need to make difficult decisions but do it openly, by involving  your employees.

We are in the 21^st not the 19^th Century but some practices are very antiquated and until companies make changes it will destroy their business.

Please feel free to share and post some of your stories or companies that are behaving badly or those that are being really innovative with their employees. By Mellissa Norman

Picture by @modalaci some rights reserved. 

Pitching is only one 7th of the process that you will go through with clients to win business. Learn the other 6 steps to:

 Increase your incoming business.

 Overcome the ‘don’t have the budget’ objection, without lowering your fees.

Cut the time it takes to make a sale.

Where -www.01zero-one.co.uk in the heart of Soho

When - July 7th  9.30-5.30pm

                                               Price- £300 early bird discount before 24th June, £395 afterwards. (Price includes tasty grub.)

  Click here to read reviews from previous workshops     

 Who is it for? ‘Beyond the Pitch’ is for you if you have to pitch, write proposals or approach new clients. You are an accountant director, sales director or company owner who is responsible for business development or a creative who is involved in the pitch process. This is a tailored workshop to sharpen your skills and take you from good to great.    Book now for Beyond the Pitch

Beyond the Pitch’ is specially designed for our industry enabling you to increase the value of the business you can bring in and reduce the time it takes to do so. Most pitching workshops just focus on the pitch itself and the time you spend in front of a potential client.  This is an intensive workshop, on the whole sales process, giving you the skills to sell ethically by focusing on your client’s needs. 

This is a 1 day workshop that will limit your time out of the office. It is interactive so you will get chance to practice, ask questions and apply your learning to your day to day activities. We will also have some lovely food to fuel your brain cells. 

 By the end of the workshop, you will be able to:

Mellissa Norman - Mel has worked in traditional and digital media over 16 years and won the ‘Socially Responsibly’ category, part of the 360 degree competition at MIPtv. She has also worked as a sales consultant with over 50 different companies including BBC, Npower, NixonMcinnes and Business in the community to develop their ethical sales and business development process.

Mel recently directed Social Media Week in London, with over 110 events along with partners Nokia, Microsoft and Market Sentinel; We are Social, Brightlemon and Propel amongst others.  Mel has been trained as a trainer and tends not to use jargon and big words for things that are, in fact, quite simple.

Press here for more info

 Book now for Beyond the Pitch