Market

I found an article on "market" in my grab bag. This is kind of interesting.

The term market has a double meaning. It means a "space" in which buyers and sellers interact. That's a market, i.e. the "real estate market," the "automobile market," the "stock market, the "bond market," that place is a "meat market," blah blah blah.

To market used to mean "to go shopping," as in "I'll go to the market." The food store or food market. You still find that once in a while.

Sometimes I would encounter this when I was cold calling and asked for the director of marketing and the receptionist would hand me off the head of the purchasing department. The first time this happened I wondered why they did that, but it dawned on me they had an older definition of marketing in their minds than I did.

There's a big bunch of stuff written about markets. If I just think about a market being a place with buyers and sellers, I'll be okay.

Market

A market is a set of buyers and sellers. That's it. Point, set, match. There may be other actors involved in a transaction. Attorneys, Agents, Loan Officers, Family members, Construction guys, Title officers, etc.

Bottom line is it's buyers and sellers.

If you have things for sale and a qualified, willing buyer who wants to buy it, market. If you have either nothing for sale or no qualified, willing buyer, no market. It's as simple as that.

Entrepreneurship is the life's blood of all my professional activities. It makes them go. And go read my mystery for free at wwww.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com or buy it from Amazon.com more cheaply than you can print it out.

Market

Tim's definition: A market is a network of buyers and sellers. Simply that, a space containing people or entities who want to buy "X" and people or entities who want to sell "X", related in some ways. No buyers, no market. No sellers no market. No products, no market.

There are lots of different kinds of markets. The stock market, very much on the minds of everybody now. But there's the oil market, food market, real estate market, clothing market, so on and so forth. A market is said to exist whenever anything wants to be sold and there are buyers who want to buy it. A broker is someone who brings together a willing seller and a willing and able buyer.

Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia says in a longer and more complicated way:

In mainstream economics, the concept of a market is any structure that allows buyers and sellers to exchange any type of goods, services and information. The exchange of goods or services for money is a transaction. Market participants consist of all the buyers and sellers of a good who influences its price. This influence is a major study of economics and has given rise to several theories and models concerning the basic market forces of supply and demand. There are two roles in markets, buyers and sellers. The market facilitates trade and enables the distribution and allocation of resources in a society. Markets allow any tradable item to be evaluated and priced. A market emerges more or less spontaneously or is constructed deliberately by human interaction in order to enable the exchange of rights (cf. ownership) of services and goods.

You might also see the word "market" mean a food store or an outside area where stuff is sold. They're all markets. A lot of markets now are virtual spaces, not actual spaces as in Medieval England.

What do you think? I'd like to know. Post a comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. My ideas on entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com

Values Statement

Hildy Gottlieb writes about the non-profit world. What she says has relevance to the for-profit sector as well. Here's what she says about values statements:

Mission Statements and Vision Statements are relatively common...But that is where most organizations stop. Vision and Mission. Statements of where we are headed, and what we will do to get there.

It is the rare organization that takes the time to then define HOW they will do that work - the talk they want to walk.

The only way we can create an amazing future for our communities. If we do our work in a way that reflects universally shared values. This ensures we do not squander our time and resources rationalizing our actions, and it helps ensure we are not potentially squandering our community's goodwill.

Further, if your goal is to create the future of your community - the lofty goals of your vision statement - then you will want to ensure your work reflects the values you want to see in your community.

A Values Statement provides the tools for the organization to accomplish that. First, the Values Statement will look outside the organization, to the visionary outcomes you want to create for your community. What values will need to be present in the community for your vision to come to pass? What values would the community need to emphasize? What values would have to be the norm?

From there, your Values Statement will look inside, to see how your own work will model those values, to teach those values by example. How will your work reflect those values? How will you ensure you are modeling those values to the community?When you have a tough decision to make, will you always err on the side of those values? (Hildy Gottlieb, "3 Statements That Can Change the World: Mission/Vision/Values," www.help4nonprofits.com/NP_Bd_MissionVisionValues_Art.htm)

Well, folks, what we used to call our "market" is not our "community." Whatever your enterprise, you're selling community. Entrepreneurs need to know this and to know what their values are and what values residen in the communities which will support whatever enterprise the entrepreneur is trying to start.

If you're interested in this, check Help4NonProfits.com website and read through all her stuff. As a old community organizer, I heartily endorse what she says. And Post a Comment.

Entrepreneurship informs all my professional activities. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.