Business exists to create value -- value in the form of something people are willing to pay for.
Value can be created in various ways. Josh Kaufman identified 12 ways in his book, The Personal MBA (pp. 45-58):

1. Product -- sell something you made.
2. Resale -- sell something you bought from someone else, for more than your cost.
3. Service -- assist someone in need.
4. Lease -- give another person access to a desired asset, for a fixed duration.
5. Membership -- give many people access at the same time to a desired asset.
6. Subscription -- offer a recurring benefit, for a recurring fee.
7. Agency -- sell something for somebody else.
8. Audience Aggregation -- give access to the attention of a group of people
9. Option -- sell people the ability to take a pre-determined course of action within a fix amount of time
10. Insurance -- sell people the ability to off-load their risk to you
11. Loan -- lend money for interest.
12. Capital -- invest in a business in exchange for a portion of its profits and dividends

These 12 forms of value are as valid in Canada today as they were 5,000 years ago in Egypt and China. Technology has considerably reduce the cost of creating value, but it has not significantly affected the basic form of these value propositions.
So, what value are you offering to your customers?
And, have you ever consider other ways to add value in your business?
I'll talk more about this in the next post.
 
I look forward to your comments. You can email me or post them directly below.