Free and Simple - Reducing overhead and complexity
Commoncraft blog has a nice post on making the simple choices that reduce administration overhead and complexity:
The Beachcomber Cafe has made choices in how the business is run. Sure, they have the potential to try to squeeze every dollar out of people who need wifi, but they don't. They provide wifi as a worry-free service and rely on the good nature of people to support the business in other ways.
Further, they put a priority on the lightweight choice - the wifi is always on, always free and open to everyone. Any other way would create more hassle than she needs. The store hours are even easy to remember.
I'm not talking about business practices, but philosophy - a philosophy that's built on shedding unneeded administration and focusing on providing opportunities that give people ways to feel good about the relationship.
The first step is realizing you have a choice. Your business doesn't have to operate like others. Sure, you can make 8 dollars a day on wifi, or you can smile at your customers and tell them the wifi is free and goes great with today's paper and a candy bar.
I think kind of simplicity as a philosophy is exactly what makes free business models possible, and is a driving force behind much of the web 2.0 innovation.