Service

Wikipedia says:

A service is the diametrically opposed non-material counterpoise of a physical good. A service provision comprises a sequence of activities that does not result in ownership of the outcome, and this is what fundamentally differentiates it from furnishing someone with physical goods. Service provision is a process that creates predetermined benefits by effectuating either a change of service consumers, a change in their physical possessions or a change in their (in)tangible assets.

By composing and orchestrating the appropriate level of resources, skill, ingenuity, and experience for effecting specific benefits for service consumers, service providers participate in an economy without the restrictions of carrying stock (inventory) or the need to concern themselves with bulky raw materials. On the other hand, their investment in expertise does require consistent service marketing and upgrading in the face of competition which has equally few physical restrictions.

Providers of services make up the Tertiary sector of the economy.

Actually, I prefer the previous version's wording which said: "A service is the non-material equivalent of a good." There are some other differences in wording which I don't think improved it, but the change in phrasing from "non-material equivalent" to "diametrically opposed" is unfortunate.

To my mind, there aren't opposites in the world. Day and night, early and late, east and west: these are complimentary states of being not oppositional states of being. They all go to make up the reality around us.

Products and services are products. The first is tangible, the second intangible. One is a "product product," the other a "service product." We treat each the same when we conceptualize starting a business. Each has an originator, a medium, and a consumer, whether some one's providing healthy, nutritious meals to the home bound elderly or whether the "product" is selling basketball shoes to inner city youth.

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

Entrepreneurship 2.0 is my entrepreneurship course. The ideas in it supply the life's blood of my professional activities: teaching, writing, and real estate. For entrepreneurial real estate go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot/com.

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