Emile Gauvreau, 1924

For those in the northern hemisphere, it’s summertime… and if you aren’t singing a new song (and maybe monetizing your own music), you may be doodling in the summer heat, in the sand or on paper.

And, you may just create some drawing of a cute cartoon figure or critter, and you may want to know how to monetize that cartoon character.  But if you don’t read the article linked in the previous sentence, the last line is “a character should have a goal and dream to make them interesting“.   Related to that idea is that it is key to being authentic in your own character – yourself – as you gain a following, online or offline.  Your plans & strategies are probably much more interesting to others than you think.  Sharing them may provide additional interest in you, and thus your service, product, cause, or organization.

Speaking of strategies, a slide deck was posted recently on blog monetization tactics, and you can view it below or download it from slideshare.net.  Among the new media marketing tactics shown, there is a slide with a picture of someone’s blog on an Amazon Kindle e-book reader, which is a great monetization-related tactic that is relatively new.  Opening up the Kindle for allowing people to have their blog subscribed to, they have added in the ability to generate subscription revenue.   There are several blog posts that are related to this topic, including some that are not as favorable to the idea.

And for years there have been teenage bloggers who are making some nice spending money, but this story about a teenager who runs a $100k+ business selling products is inspiring.

As always, if you line up your goals & dreams with your strategies & actions, you’ll almost always go farther.  As we will detail here, there is a lot of benefit in knowing yourself, and applying that knowledge to your activities.

The diagram below may help spur your thinking as to what area(s) you are strongest in. It also can provoke thoughts of what may be an area to focus more energy on.

If your business has a balance of all four aspects – products/services, reselling, online, and offline, then it’s in the area shown by the “H” in the center of the diagram (H = hybrid).

There are other ways to slice the view of business models, of course. It’s healthy to have a range of ways to evaluate your own model of operation.

If you’re just getting started, or haven’t thought much about the type of business models, then keep researching and learning. As in most areas, the more you learn – even casually – the more you will be able to improve the business you’re building.

Kenneth Bartley Boudrie, 1986

What shape is your business model?  (Have none? Start a written/digital version on the business model page). Is your business model round, square, … a pyramid, … a fan, or an amorphous blog of patterns & activities?

In researching business models, besides finding that there is a lot of conversational & article references to them, there also are visual representations in all shapes, sizes, and of course colors.  Upwards of three million images of “business models” are online (May 2009).

The definition of a business model may not really capture the complexity, unless you’re talking about a child’s lemonade stand.  So how can we look into business models?

Certainly the shape that the model is shown, when put on paper (or image), is not important.  Hopefully if you could, you would not use two dimensions, or even three dimensions, to describe your business model.

It’s a 4-D world of models

In case you don’t remember, the fourth dimension for most people is time.  The other three are height, width, and depth.

A seasonal or cyclical business has a sort of four-dimensional business model, but that is not the important part. What’s key is that any business changes over time, from a starting (and known) state to future states (some known/planned, some unknown).

An easy example of a changing model is from today’s headlines: the automobile business model.  Is the future business model one where electric cars & battery technology are the most dominant factors?  It’s unknown, but it is clearly not a static model.

And at the end of the day, for many organizations, there is a goal.  The purpose may be to sell the business, to create a single event (such as a large expo or international gathering), to pass legislation, to create a steady-state non-profit towards a social purpose, or any of thousands of goals that have come as part of an organization’s vision.

Future posts and pages will expand on the categorization of business models, and the ways to use the time element – the fourth dimension – to shape and grow your model of doing business.

If the word “goal” is not one you like using (“I’m allergic to goal-setting!“), you can use the word objective, or any other suitable substitute word. Eventually you can become used to being organized about your goals (objectives). You will recognize that the practice of goal-setting is not trivial “nice-to-do” activity, but something that you can become comfortable with adapting into your lifestyle.

Paul McCartney, 1996

What motivates you do one activity versus another?  Motivation is defined to include the reasons that someone starts or continues some activity.

In the context of this particular write-up, the assumption might be that a reader is trying to learn better ways to turn their energy (and others’ energies) into money.  The reasons are going to be varied, from trying to have money for a specific personal purpose, to learning because it’s part of their job or role, to curiosity as to whether or not they should start on a new venture.

Can you control your motivation?  In other words, is it possible to decide what will motivate you?  Yes, and in the context of setting goals, the goals themselves help shape what is motivating you.  And the journey of life – towards these goals – also brings in new chances to determine, understand, and change what is motivating your behavior.

If you are trying to earn more money online, you may be motivated to build a website and set up accounts to generate ads that bring revenue.  The motivation is the promise of income.  But after you build the website, you may determine that it has a bad look-and-feel.  It’s less than what you can do.  You may spend time improving the look of the website, even though it is not tied to your original goal of money… it’s tied to pride and personal self-image.

So, as many online entrepreneurs and website owners have learned, the distractions are many.  Focusing on the goals, while understanding the motivation that supports your energy, is part of getting to the point where your activities are congruent with your outcomes.   The Beatles and other songwriters don’t traditionally find motivation in creating art for a specific purchase.  They do what they feel will bring them satisfaction.

Bringing this to a close – understanding what motivates you can help you stay on track with your activities. In the case of someone who tweaks a website for personal satisfaction, it may be less important than creating more great content, or in promoting the site. More on goals, and planning to reach them, in future posts.