Sell your by-products

When you make something, you always make something else. You can't make

just one thing. Everything has a by-product. Observant and creative business

minds spot these by-products and see opportunities.

The lumber industry sells what used to be waste--sawdust, chips, and

shredded wood--for a pretty profit. You'll find these by-products in synthetic

fireplace logs, concrete, ice strengtheners, mulch, particleboard, fuel, and more.

But you're probably not manufacturing anything. That can make it tough to

spot your by-products. People at a lumber company see their waste. They can't

ignore sawdust. But you don't see yours. Maybe you don't even think you

produce any by-products. But that's myopic.

Our last book, Getting Real, was a by-product. We wrote that book without

even knowing it. The experience that came from building a company and

building software was the waste from actually doing the work. We swept up that

knowledge first into blog posts, then into a workshop series, then into a .pdf, and

then into a paperback. That by-product has made 37signals more than $1 million

directly and probably more than another $1 million indirectly. The book you're

reading right now is a by-product too.

The rock band Wilco found a valuable by-product in its recording process.

The band filmed the creation of an album and released it as a documentary called

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. It offered an uncensored and fascinating look

at the group's creative process and infighting. The band made money off the

movie and also used it as a stepping-stone toward reaching a wider audience.

Henry Ford learned of a process for turning wood scraps from the production

of Model T's into charcoal briquets. He built a charcoal plant and Ford Charcoal

was created (later renamed Kingsford Charcoal). Today, Kingsford is still the

leading manufacturer of charcoal in America.

*

Software companies don't usually think about writing books. Bands don't

usually think about filming the recording process. Car manufacturers don't

usually think about selling charcoal. There's probably something you haven't

thought about that you could sell too.