A couple of weeks ago I was having lunch with a dear friend who came along with David and I on the Arts Hub journey, Shane Hewitt.

Shane started his online venture Middle Eight Music a bit before we started Arts Hub and David did his website work and generally helped get the technology side of the venture underway. Middle Eight is an online specialist music store, which had a bit of a foray into the offline world as well, but the GFC put paid to being able to do both. In recent times Middle Eight Music has returned to its purely online origins and continues to delight customers around the world with the latest in show, cabaret and other hard-to-get specialist music product.

In fact you can find out how Shane Hewitt became the first investor in Arts Hub in our book about the experience, Niche Content Millionaire.

At lunch Shane was telling us about the highs and lows of trading through the global financial crisis, including the incredible drop off in sales as loyal long-term customers tightened their belts and stopped buying the little music luxuries that were helping them to stay happy, interested and sane. And how as the grim times eased, customers from all over the world were gradually returning and restoring their love of and involvement in show music through Middle Eight Music.

But one of the intriguing ways that the Middle Eight team got by was by doing a favour for a friend. During the midst of the downturn a friend who imported a very lovely goat leather bag from India and who sold them in Sydney at various markets, asked the Middle Eight folk whether they’d like to be a Melbourne distributor.

Goat leather bags really don’t have a lot to do with show music but as Shane tells it, the bags walked out of the Middle Eight Music store like hot cakes. Not a similar product, but a product nevertheless that traditional Middle Eight customers really connected with.

And so it was that a goat leather bag helped a specialist music retailer survive the volatile times of the global financial crisis. And since the bags are still selling like hotcakes Shane and Max (the other Middle Eighter) see no reason not to keep selling goat leather bags.

Just wondering if you run an online business, what your equivalent of the goat leather bag could be? Let me know in the comments section. I really enjoy hearing about the tricks of business that are really effective, but so unusual you’d never find them mentioned in a Business Plan.