One of my businesses is a mutual fund. We try & beat the stock market every day, what we sell is trust. The horse & buggy makers thought they were in the carriage market and not the transportation market. They got beaten by cars. Likewise, rail roads forgot they were in the transportation business and got beaten by trucks. Now they call themselves logistics firms and know they compete & cooperate with trucks & FedEx.

This story comes from The Knack by Norm Brodsky.
There once was guy named Fred who owned a fish company that supplied a number of restaurants.
“You want to know why I’m successful?” asked Fred.
“Because you sell to a lot of restaurants?”
“No,” said Fred, “because I know what business I’m in.”
“You’re in the fish business.”
“Not exactly,” said Fred, “I’m really in the banking business. I make loans to restaurants in the form of fish. You see, a restaurant is a seasonal business. Like any good banker, I know when my customers are short of cash, and I know when they’re busy. I carry them during the slow periods and collect after they’ve had a big week. They pay me not only for the fish but for the credit I extend to them. I build the cost of the credit into my price.”

You may not know what business you really are in at first. Fed Ex Kinkos, a copy chain, started out selling copies, pens, paper, posters and many other items at first before they figured out they not just sold copies but piece of mind to harried people needing to make copies.

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