{"id":1427,"date":"2010-08-17T08:23:54","date_gmt":"2010-08-17T15:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp\/2010\/08\/one_business_model_to_rule_the\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T08:23:54","modified_gmt":"2010-08-17T15:23:54","slug":"one_business_model_to_rule_the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/one_business_model_to_rule_the.php","title":{"rendered":"One business model to rule them all"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A favorite moment in my arts conference trek this summer was an Americans for the Arts panel on new business models in the arts. Clara Miller of the Nonprofit Finance Fund cut through the clutter with this little phrase:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8221;There is one business model: reliable revenue that meets or exceeds expenses. Any questions?&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This after I had been spending months exploring various business entities &#8212; B Corporations, Low-Profit Limited Liability Companies (L3C), co-operatives, holding companies, fiscal sponsors, hybrids &#8212; along with their various strengths and weaknesses for aggregating capital, shielding liability, coordinating complex activity, and advancing mission.<\/p>\n<p>It was a helpful reminder that business models are means, not ends. And, in fact, artistic endeavors can reach similar ends by many means. The essential first step in any enterprise is NOT to select a method, but to define the principles. Which suggests that most of our conversations in the arts about new business models have the question exactly upside-down. Says Ralph Waldo Emerson (forgive his gender bias):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8221;As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A favorite moment in my arts conference trek this summer was an Americans for the Arts panel on new business models in the arts. Clara Miller of the Nonprofit Finance Fund cut through the clutter with this little phrase: &#8221;There is one business model: reliable revenue that meets or exceeds expenses. Any questions?&#8221; This after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}