Use your last brain cell for this...

Hey

James here.

If you’ve read Tuesday's deep dive into Taylor Swift's business empire, you know it was a beast - packed with insights. But if you didn’t, I appreciate that it’s been a busy week. 

So instead of letting those lessons sit unread in your inbox, I'm pulling out the gold for you.

Now, just to clarify - I didn't randomly wake up and decide to write about Taylor Swift because I'm secretly a Swiftie. I'm talking about her because she's not just one of the world's biggest artists - she's pulled off one of the most brilliant business heists in history.

She built a monopoly that generated $4.3B for the U.S. economy alone. Her Eras Tour broke every record in the book, and behind all the glitter was a business strategy so sharp it turned fans into a captive market.

And I can tell you, that when you strip away the scale, these are moves any business can use:  

(1) Corner the market before competitors catch on - She booked SoFi Stadium for 6 nights straight. Not one night - six. That locked every other major act out of LA's biggest venue for weeks. Do the same with your key resources - lock in that credit line, that partnership deal, that prime supplier before your rivals even know it's available.

(2) Own your customer's entire budget - The average fan drops $1,300 per tour. Not just on tickets - on everything. Vinyl, merch, streaming subscriptions, even paying to watch the same concert again in cinemas. Start capturing more wallet share from the customers you already have.

(3) Make hesitation expensive - Limited product drops, early bird pricing, or exclusive access windows. When people know something won't be available forever, they act faster.

(4) Let your customers defend your prices - When tickets hit over $300, fans didn't blame her - they went after Ticketmaster. That's the power of a strong brand story. Build something people believe in and they'll justify your high prices for you.

(5) Keep what's yours - She could've brought in partners to scale faster. Instead, she reinvested profits and stayed in control. Every dollar she made went back into bigger tours, not into someone else's pocket. Debt over equity when you can swing it.

This is probably the most important part - none of this was luck. Every move was calculated to build monopoly power while keeping control.

Anything unclear? Fire back a question - I love talking about this stuff (also helps that it's my job).

James

PS: If your business needs funding or funding advice, explore the options at my company FundOnion. We've helped 13,000+ businesses already.