Thread: Create Value. What does it mean?

Think of it this way. If you had 20 dollars and someone said they would sell you a crisp $50 bill for your $20 would you do it? Of course! Now think of a product that you think is easily worth $50, if someone can sell it for $35 they created value to you.

If most people think what you offer is worth the money they pay then you created value.

Originally Posted by Kak

Think of it this way. If you had 20 dollars and someone said they would sell you a crisp $50 bill for your $20 would you do it? Of course! Now think of a product that you think is easily worth $50, if someone can sell it for $35 they created value to you.

If most people think what you offer is worth the money they pay then you created value.

Hmmm. Ok. Thanks for this. Your reply made me realize that value is very subjective, depending upon which industry your in.

Bro, the best way to look at it is this: There is no such thing as "making money". Money is simply evidence/proof of your value contribution. Whether you cleaned toilets in public restrooms in downtown Los Angeles or whether you own a company. Whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur you contributed VALUE, except the entrepreneur leverages capital, and therefore can contribute MORE value than an employee. plain and simple. forget this whole non-sense concept of money that most people are totally stuck with.

Value is defined as delivering something that someone else needs to another member in society. An entrepreneur simply molds resources such as human capital and other economic resources such as plastic, wood, metal, computers, software etc. into something that someone else NEEDS. That right there is value.

Originally Posted by socaldude

Bro, the best way to look at it is this: There is no such thing as "making money". Money is simply evidence/proof of your value contribution. Whether you cleaned toilets in public restrooms in downtown Los Angeles or whether you own a company. Whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur you contributed VALUE, except the entrepreneur leverages capital, and therefore can contribute MORE value than an employee. plain and simple. forget this whole non-sense concept of money that most people are totally stuck with.

Value is defined as delivering something that someone else needs to another member in society. An entrepreneur simply molds resources such as human capital and other economic resources such as plastic, wood, metal, computers, software etc. into something that someone else NEEDS. That right there is value.

If this is what everyone was looking for, I am sorry for the oversimplified example. Great post buddy!

I would also say that marketing can create 'manipulated value' , e.g. look at products in the weight loss niche, most of the time its the 'marketing' which is creating the demand not the actual product itself, because its changing customers value perceptions. Could be something like adding a new benefit, or emphasizing a benefit more then others.

Originally Posted by socaldude

Bro, the best way to look at it is this: There is no such thing as "making money". Money is simply evidence/proof of your value contribution. Whether you cleaned toilets in public restrooms in downtown Los Angeles or whether you own a company. Whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur you contributed VALUE, except the entrepreneur leverages capital, and therefore can contribute MORE value than an employee. plain and simple. forget this whole non-sense concept of money that most people are totally stuck with.

Value is defined as delivering something that someone else needs to another member in society. An entrepreneur simply molds resources such as human capital and other economic resources such as plastic, wood, metal, computers, software etc. into something that someone else NEEDS. That right there is value.

This. Historically, money is an IOU for a barter system. Money is proof you provided service to another person, and the more money you have the more value you've provided to others.

To make more money, provide more 'value'. That is: be more useful to more people. Solve their problems, give them something. Doing something like google 'sniping' a niche site for adsense clicks, you provide questionable value, its more like hacking a temporary system to cheat your way into money, which is why a simple algorithm change can screw over your business. If you had a niche site that provided actual value (in depth original articles/advice/tutorials), you'd have a thousand people naturally linking to you, and that traffic would keep you alive no matter what google did.

A lot of money is also made by arbitrage and scalping where arguably no value is created. I create money this way.

You can substitute the word "value" with "need" or "want", create a need, or create a want and people will pay to get it.

The word value has a challenge within it. Especially for hippies like me. I just think value is whenever somebody will think it will make their lifes better, easier.. etc. So when I sell headphones, I give value. Why? because some people love to listen to music.

Another form of value could be to write an ebook about something you know a lot about. Or a service that gives people an easier way to do things.

It's so broad, for me the only distinction is: Just don't do it for selfish reasons.
But, whatever company you look at that makes big bucks does it by giving value, providing a solution to a problem.

The big problem for me always is to get not hung up with all these terms. "Shit, I need to give value"... It sounds really heavy.

I also got stuck with the sentence "do what you love won't make you rich". All it says is that you won't become rich with some weird activity nobody cares about. If you love coding, i would not say it can't make you rich.

So it seems that money, in most cases is evidence of value. What about power, influence, and branding? Are these things also a product of value?

I am beginning to believe that convenience is a form of value relative to saving people time. One example I can think of is McDonald's. Obviously they do not serve the best tasting or most nutritious food in the entire restaurant industry but they provide a quick solution to a problem that all humans experience. Hunger.

So is it safe to say that if I don't have the greatest product online I can offer quicker more convenient shipping (possibly even cheaper) and still create value via convenience? I am not trying to be too deep but if I can clearly define as many ways to create value and apply a few of them that should really compound the results.

The biggest companies didn't get there without ever being small. Atleast, with the little knowledge I have I don't know a company that right away where the biggest. So they have given lots of value and because of that are now very powerful in their industry. Look at Virgin, how much fun they brought in the lifes of people. Now, they are one of the biggest companies and they can use their money to build more companies. But, those companies will fail, I think, if they don't bring value to the people.

Again, I am not that knowledgeable. I also don't care to be. One thing I have learned last year is to stop looking at the big guys feeling shitty about my own progress.
Lets say you love playing music, you love to paint, you love public speaking and with that,.. you also are trying to build your company. If you look at Clapton, Picasso, Bill Clinton and Richard Branson to see how you are doing, you will always feel overwhelmed. But yes, MAC Donalds doesn't have the best burger, they bring value on a different level.

I think you are a bit like me.. Too much thinking. There is no map to build a succesful company. There are guidelines. One of those guidelines is that your company need to bring something to the people that will solve 'something'. Doesn't matter if that's noise canceling headphones for the people that travel and hate all the city sounds, or building a company that flys you from country A to Z.

Something I learned from Eckhart tolle: Words are just Words. So..even a word like 'company' got me stuck for some time.

Originally Posted by Skys

The word value has a challenge within it. Especially for hippies like me. I just think value is whenever somebody will think it will make their lifes better, easier.. etc. So when I sell headphones, I give value. Why? because some people love to listen to music.

Another form of value could be to write an ebook about something you know a lot about. Or a service that gives people an easier way to do things.

It's so broad, for me the only distinction is: Just don't do it for selfish reasons.
But, whatever company you look at that makes big bucks does it by giving value, providing a solution to a problem.

The big problem for me always is to get not hung up with all these terms. "Shit, I need to give value"... It sounds really heavy.

I also got stuck with the sentence "do what you love won't make you rich". All it says is that you won't become rich with some weird activity nobody cares about. If you love coding, i would not say it can't make you rich.

Your whys dont matter. As long as the customer gets what he wants. You can make your whys matter to the customer, and that is a form of marketing.

Originally Posted by Yussef

So is it safe to say that if I don't have the greatest product online I can offer quicker more convenient shipping (possibly even cheaper) and still create value via convenience? I am not trying to be too deep but if I can clearly define as many ways to create value and apply a few of them that should really compound the results.

Yes, look at Gap, INC. They own Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic. Each store basically offers the same things (pants, shirts) but the value is completely different.

Check out the book "Personal MBA", the first couple chapters are dedicated to this concept and how various businesses offer value.

I'm not a professional marketer, and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I do have some opinions on this.

Value means different things to different people, and it can be subtle. Good marketing can add a lot to value. Consider a simplistic example - Advertisements for a watch:

Craigslist Ad 1: For sale - men's watch. Works. $50

Craigslist Ad 2: For sale - men's G-shock watch in excellent condition [photo of watch]. Black with gold trim, no scratches. Automatically sets its own time to the atomic clock signal - no need to ever set the time again! Low, low price of $50.

The customer knows exactly what he's getting with ad 2. You've given him insight, which is value, and you'll profit by actually selling the thing instead of it sitting forever on your shelf.

There's also perceived value, which you can offer by making the customer comfortable with choosing your product over somebody else's. Again, good marketing can do this for you. Portray your product as the second coming, complete with over the top descriptions, glowing recommendations, happy happy words combined with a no BS approach and you can sway people into buying your product over someone else's.

At least that's the theory I'm going with.

What I use to think value was: Create a brand new product nobody has ever heard of and show them why they need it.

What I now think value is: Offer something people want or need. If you sell computers cheaper than everyone else, you've created value by saving them money. If you create a new gizmo that people want, you've created value by giving people something they want. If you sell toilets (or any other product that already exists) and market it under your own brand, you've created value by making it easier for customers to buy what they want. If you install solar panels, you've created value by installing something the buyer wouldn't know how to install himself. Making something cheaper, better, easier, faster, more professional. MJ writes about this in TMF. Think of value in terms of your customer's perceived perspective rather than in terms of your perspective, that was my biggest problem with understanding value.

Originally Posted by wade1mil

Making something cheaper, better, easier, faster, more professional. MJ writes about this in TMF. Think of value in terms of your customer's perceived perspective rather than in terms of your perspective, that was my biggest problem with understanding value.

This is so awesome about TMF (fastlane book). Some books have a certain quality to them, that when you read it again you just hear different things that the first time. The reason is obvious: The reader has a deeper understanding of the concepts and now hears different things. MJ's book has this quality. Not many books do.

Originally Posted by wade1mil

Create a brand new product nobody has ever heard of and show them why they need it.

Pursuing an idea that had already been done might actually be a GOOD thing. Because the concept is proven. You just do it better. If the concept has not been proven, there is a lot of risk. And maybe there is a REASON why it has never been done. Maybe the pros know something you don't, idk??

Originally Posted by socaldude

Pursuing an idea that had already been done might actually be a GOOD thing. Because the concept is proven. You just do it better. If the concept has not been proven, there is a lot of risk. And maybe there is a REASON why it has never been done. Maybe the pros know something you don't, idk??

Right, I use to think you had to reinvent the wheel and that any competition was bad. Literally the opposite is true.