Micro businesses

[7Wannabe5]

@AxelHeyst:

Any business can be rendered more passive through hiring employees, outsourcing, technology or internal specialization. For instance, I hired my own children and a couple of their friends to do warehouse and shipping work for my business which served the dual purpose of reducing my active work load and my parental expenses, and I used high-tech scanning devices to evaluate inventory. The ones that you listed as passive just happen to be highly reliant on innovation in the form of protected intellectual property.

Any business (or home economy) can be rendered less passive through vertical integration. For instance, instead of purchasing recycled packing envelopes from third party, I could have created (or had my employees create) my own packing boxes from recycled cardboard I scavenged for free. Instead of selling on market outlets created and maintained by others, I could have created and maintained my own market outlet.

This is why the combination of being extremely frugal (vertically integrated) in home economy, but extremely passive in business with large capital investment allowing all business functions (management, innovation, sales/marketing, labor) to be outsourced to ginormous corporate others, such as in pure FI- ERE strikes me as out of balance. I mean, it's just as much fun to learn how to wear all different business hats as all different household hats. IOW, it's being extremely hands-on in producing stuff/services for yourself, but extremely hands-off in producing stuff/services for others. Also, there are almost infinite possible markets in the world and with pure/basic FIRE, you are really only directly engaged in two: your household and the stuffy old guy stock market.

[Gilberto de Piento]

I will add my two cents:
1. Knife sharpening was mentioned. I have some knowledge of this as a business. Can sharpen other things too. Can offer money making add ons like pick up and drop off, sharp or extra sharp. Can do the work any time. Connect with kitchen equipment shops to get customers and have them provide a place for customers to dropoff pickup knives. Lots of customers in a ritzy urban area.
2. Gardening/landscaping was mentioned. Also have some known of this as a business. Can set yourself apart from competition by being a high end product. Be very knowledgeable and fussy, also be friendly rather than
just doing the labor. Many customers will be older and are looking forward to chatting. That let's you charge $20-30 per hour in my area.
3. Other ideas: pick up and drop off composting, filling up water softener salt, mobile car mechanic.
4. Be aware at least in the US you should set up an LLC, get insurance, etc to do this stuff. One lawsuit and you could lose a lifetime of earnings if someone gets cut using one of the knives you sharpened, slips on the pile of leaves you were raking, crashes the bike you just adjusted, etc. some people will see your small business as a lottery ticket.
5. Special message just for the intj ere crowd: in some businesses I think you can do much better by presenting a certain appearance and persona. For example, be a friendly older lady one woman gardener in a sea of young male big truck loud and fast landscaping employees. Or be a cool urban hipster knife expert among genetic drop off a box of knives sharpening services. You can do well by meeting customers other needs (to have a weekly friendly conversation, to let customers feel like they part of something cool) rather than just a cleaned up landscape or a sharpened knife.

[loutfard]

Any medium to high added value micro business ideas for which constantly being online is not a prerequisite?

Some context:
- I play a musical instrument at pro level, but I'm not very interested in exploiting that by teaching private lessons or performing on large stages. One possible answer to my own question might be busking. I did that a few times in my student days, ages ago. Not super profitable in the way I prefer, but certainly some income, and a lot of fun.
- I write passable code and manage linux machines fairly well. I have a rather large cv gap though when it comes to the it sector. Plus almost always, constantly being online is required, if not to produce code or deploy, then for meetings etcetera.
- I have some ecological construction experience: design, materials, participating in the actual build, remotely managing a small team of contractors.

[Ego]

I doubt this. Aren't best pieces in the second hands taken by their workers?

Bought for $3.99 from a Virginia thrift store, this vase just sold for over $100,000
https://www.cnn.com/style/thrift-store- ... index.html

This kind of thing happens more often than one might imagine, though it is an extreme example where the person who found the item solicited publicity. More often than not, people keep quiet for fear of a lawsuit from the person who donated the item to the charity. If workers at the charity took the items for themselves, they would have to return the funds to the charity when word got out.

Also, I happen to know a bit about selling outdoor gear on ebay. Take a look at some of European brands that are less known in the US like Salewa or Jottnar. You will often find them listed for sale on ebay from Ukraine, where they ended up after being donated to EU charities. I know from experience that incredible things end up in the second-hand stores of Ukraine.

I wish I knew high end fashion better than I do. Google Lens has made it easier for ignoramuses like me to figure out obscure labels.

[Sclass]

Over the pandemic I set up a few small businesses. Each one has a micro cash stream that buys diesel and pizza. For the record my ER expenses come 100% from stock investing. But that is boring as others have said. And I do get bored. I’m borderline ADHD among other things.

1) I sell a piece of electronic hardware. Originally it was supposed to be a software product but it was too easy to copy so I embedded the algorithm in a piece of non volatile memory on a circuit board for the customers. I got the idea from the movie Sneakers long ago and I actually based two businesses off this model. Keeps pirates away. Manufacturing is done in China. Upload CAD files and get finished goods in the mail. I unwrap packages, take orders and ship from my garage. Even that is kind of a pain. I’m a shipping clerk 90% of the time even though I’m a tech business. I still barely leave my house and PC. Everything is done online. Shipping is the only physical thing left.

2) I sell a bunch of 3D printed parts to restore old stuff. Vintage sewing machine parts and vintage Mercedes parts. Again, I order all supplies off Amazon. Hit print. Put prints in package and ship. Boring. I do recommend 3D printing for garage based businesses. Cheap to set up. Just find a 1) high dollar, 2) niche item, 3) low volume (3D cannot keep up with injection molding) and 4) small sized, 5) can be made of plastic item you can sell and hit print. Unlike many craft businesses the machine is great at making bankable quality parts repeatedly without a lot of craft skill. I aim for something that takes $5 of shipping, filament, electricity to get $30. That’s my pricing formula. It makes it worth my time to run the printers, pack boxes and ship. If you can find a market and constrain your product with these requirements you can generate a micro cash stream.

3) my favorite is selling remanufactured Mercedes window regulators online that I get from the self serve junkyard. I buy broken ones (they’re all broken now) and weld the stripped teeth back on the gears. New ones are unavailable so there is a market there. The fun part is I get to go out and slum at the junkyard with the folks too poor to shop at Autozone. The craft is easy once you get set up. Finding feedstock is the bottleneck.

I do agree it’s all about the markets. You need to find one that has some money and membership. The stock market has both of those but yeah, it is boring at the end of the day.

I think I should hit a swap meet today just to get out. Take a tip from Ego.

[Jin+Guice]

This is why the combination of being extremely frugal (vertically integrated) in home economy, but extremely passive in business with large capital investment allowing all business functions (management, innovation, sales/marketing, labor) to be outsourced to ginormous corporate others, such as in pure FI- ERE strikes me as out of balance. I mean, it's just as much fun to learn how to wear all different business hats as all different household hats. IOW, it's being extremely hands-on in producing stuff/services for yourself, but extremely hands-off in producing stuff/services for others. Also, there are almost infinite possible markets in the world and with pure/basic FIRE, you are really only directly engaged in two: your household and the stuffy old guy stock market.

This is something that has perplexed me about ERE for awhile. There are a lot of people who dream of owning a small business and ERE is the perfect toolkit for this. Yet it's almost 100% stock investors who are looking for a freedom-to...


I think another strong possibility is dream career. What was your actual dream or dreams? What are they now? Does someone pay for that? Could you do it part-time or just for a few years? Not all dreams are accessible this way, but many are... Or just learning through jobs.


Both of these have the downside of still need to interact with the world of people and current structures, while paper asset investing allows you to directly leverage 1 skill for a short amount of time and then be free of dependency on people for the money input. However, both of these also have the upside of still needing to interact with people and current structures, which allows one to be a bit more "in the world" use/ increase people skills and maybe takes care of the existential drift of life purpose that occurs for a lot of us.

[Western Red Cedar]

Any medium to high added value micro business ideas for which constantly being online is not a prerequisite?

Some context:

- I have some ecological construction experience: design, materials, participating in the actual build, remotely managing a small team of contractors.

We have a family friend who helps/consults on habitat restoration projects with a local crew. He is in his late 70's or early 80's. The restoration projects are primarily funded by municipalities around the region, and he helps design the project, develop a budget based on projected materials, and develop bids. It is primarily riparian restoration to enhance fish habitat.

I wouldn't necessarily call it a micro-enterprise, but he can pick and choose the projects he wants to work on and work a few months out of the year if he prefers. It also allows for travel around the Pacific Northwest and the opportunity to make meaningful change in local communities.

[Western Red Cedar]

This is something that has perplexed me about ERE for awhile. There are a lot of people who dream of owning a small business and ERE is the perfect toolkit for this. Yet it's almost 100% stock investors who are looking for a freedom-to...

I'm guessing it takes a certain personality and a high tolerance for hustle to go the small-business route. Particularly if that is a collection of micro businesses.

The traditional career and stock investments is ultimately much easier. DW made a serious attempt at doing the micro business route for six months after quitting a job with homemade jewelry, alterations, headbands, illustrations, and other odds and ends. She made a few thousand dollars over the years and still makes money around the holidays. She really enjoyed making things, but didn't want to set up at the local art festivals or farmers markets to sell her products. Her hourly rate ended up being really low.

Dreams are ultimately different than reality.

Her experience reminded me a bit of @ffj's experience with the mushroom business: viewtopic.php?t=12655

I'm sure there are dozens of journal entries where people dream about a small business cultivating mushrooms, but this thread shows the highs and lows of that pursuit. I'm sure it helps if one isn't actually relying on the income from the micro business.

It also reminds me of a permaculture story I heard about on YouTube a while back. They had a vision of setting up an independent farm and selling their produce locally. They quickly found that most of the demand and income came from farm fresh eggs. They decided to scale that up, and had a few hundred chickens. They were making money but they realized they were basically chicken farmers at that point. They decided to go back to their roots and just focus on producing a wide variety of products for themselves (and trying to make money off YouTube ).

I don't say any of this to discourage people from pursuing micro businesses. I've thought about it a lot over the years and personally just give products and services away for free in exchange for good will and social capital.

[Sclass]

Yeah I see the conflict in there. Shareholder or renaissance business operator?

I am not sure what the answer is. Maybe it’s because there is this flawed belief that all this has to make logical sense.

Perhaps moneygetting in its many forms makes about as much sense as something basic like eating. There may not be much logic in it.

[Jin+Guice]

@WRC:

I can see that I didn't clearly articulate what I meant.

I'm surprised that there aren't a larger amount of people who want the freedom-to run a micro-business or a series of micro-businesses after they achieve freedom-from. I would guess a high percentage of these people would open their "dream" business and then realized it sucked. But they might also do something more like your permaculture friends rather than just stop.

ERE also opens up business opportunities as (like 7w5 pointed out), the skills to run a low overhead high skill household correlate highly with the skills to run a low overhead successful business. I can only imagine thinking like an investor would enhance this further.

I would have also guessed a smaller number of people would rely on some of this income as part of their freedom-to plan. Remember that $1,000 of annual income =$25k (4%-rule) to $33.3k (3%-rule) or that a passive-income or "I would be doing this anyway" style business that generates $3k annually is theoretically equal to $75-$100k saved and invested.

I'm always remiss to recommend anyone take employment for others off the table unless they truly cannot stand it or possess obvious interest and talent as an investor/ entrepreneur.

[white belt]

I'm sure there are dozens of journal entries where people dream about a small business cultivating mushrooms, but this thread shows the highs and lows of that pursuit. I'm sure it helps if one isn't actually relying on the income from the micro business.

Not having to rely on income certainly helps with standing up a micro business initially. I believe it allows for creativity and gives a more long term buffer for a business to become established. Of course, it also allows one to dump money into an unprofitable business idea for longer so there's that downside.

Micro businesses can emerge organically from a web of goals, but they also can easily become entangled with various activities and hobbies. Be wary of ruining a hobby/activity you enjoy because you want to focus on making money from it. But then if you already have a lot of money and are working for lower wage than you could make doing other labor, is it really a business or a hobby? Things get muddled quickly.

I think "services for rich people" is a great umbrella for many micro business ideas. People with more money than time are very willing to part with a chunk of it if it makes their lives easier. The highest margins probably come from jobs that others don't want to do. For example, pest control usually requires some kind of local permit, but the hourly rate on it is insane in some areas. We had a pest control company come to DW's house in LCOL area for a possum in the attic and their minimum to get the actual pest controller (not the customer rep) out there was >$1k. Possums are one of the easiest animals to catch (raccoons are a different story). So you can easily have hourly rates of >$100-500 when doing something like pest control. I think it can be advantageous to do a "blue collar" job if you signal highly educated and/or wealthy in some cases because the customer will feel more comfortable with you being in/around their house to perform the service.

The other day on my street I saw a van parked in a driveway for a mobile dog grooming business. I know nothing about dog grooming but this seems like an interesting micro business opportunity (competition could be high?). Again, rich people will pay a lot to not have to drop their dog off at a dog groomer. I suspect you could make even more money by prioritizing nights and weekends, although maybe not if dog walking is bundled with the grooming? But I don't know anything about dog grooming, so I'd have to hire it out. Then it comes down to how much are profits after difference between the cost of labor, van conversion, and ongoing expenses. Then I think, maybe I could have the dog groomer just rent the van and have that be my money maker? Things start to get more and more complex until I feel like I'm ultimately just turning this into a job that requires the generic business skills of accounting and employee/customer management. I could probably make more hourly by just doing actual accounting or business management work.

ETA: Or I've found everything eventually turns into a job of me trying to automate various tasks with code at what is likely way below the market rate I could be earning as a programmer.

ETA2: Van dog grooming might already be oversaturated: https://wagntails.com/vehicles/ultra-groom/

[white belt]

Second: YouTube. Get a Go-Pro and start posting. Currently making $130/month or more and my channel is tiny. That's groceries each month.

That's impressive. I've seen a lot of channels sprout up in combination with solopreneur service businesses. Dog walker/groomer that films the dogs, beekeeper that films himself capturing a hive, lawn mower that transforms dilapidated yards into something more pleasing, etc. It's easy to see how you can double dip to make more money from labor you're already doing. The issue with all of these is that the barrier to entry is low and thus competition is high. I think it's also highly niche dependent. I've been doing YouTube for about a year with >77k views and >13k watch hours but I will never make a cent from that because I have <500 subscribers. Comparatively, I've made $9 in profit from having one patron who thought it was worth paying me $5 a month. I've been recognized IRL 2-3 times from my YouTube videos, which just goes to show you the power of the YouTube algorithm to blast out niche content to its target audience. My niche is small, with the largest channel at about 40k subs.

[jacob]

This is why the combination of being extremely frugal (vertically integrated) in home economy, but extremely passive in business with large capital investment allowing all business functions (management, innovation, sales/marketing, labor) to be outsourced to ginormous corporate others, such as in pure FI- ERE strikes me as out of balance. I mean, it's just as much fun to learn how to wear all different business hats as all different household hats. IOW, it's being extremely hands-on in producing stuff/services for yourself, but extremely hands-off in producing stuff/services for others. Also, there are almost infinite possible markets in the world and with pure/basic FIRE, you are really only directly engaged in two: your household and the stuffy old guy stock market.

This priority is because for some people having to deal with "clients/costumers/bosses" is the dictionary definition of not-fun. Domestic vertical integration and financial markets are two of very few ways to avoid not-fun.

It is conceivable that just like some need bosses, some (Type 2 helper personalities) also enjoy having clients or customers.

[7Wannabe5]

It is conceivable that just like some need bosses, some (Type 2 helper personalities) also enjoy having clients or customers.

Well, my helper tendencies are strictly tertiary (Fe.) If they were more primary, I'd just make one last big trade and contract for a marriage of convenience with a some stuffy old grouchy guy who was like Dow Jones personified, and rest upon my "laurels." For better or worse, I am Type 7, and we enjoy all kinds of free trade with all kinds of free partners in all kinds of free markets.

I used to attend live auctions quite frequently, and it was pretty easy to tell the dealers/traders from the collectors. The collectors hoped that they would get a good price going in and then hold as an appreciating asset. The dealers/traders, including me, would be calculating how fast they could recoup whatever they spent, because there was always another auction or sale to attend or other deals to be found, because you have to hustle to actually make a living on the margin. For most of our existence, humans had to hustle/explore to make a living on the margin, so some of us like the action, and find it fun. I think it would be nearly impossible for somebody with my exact (eNTPs may vary)personality type or wiring to invest all their money in an Index Fund and just leave it there for 30 years. I've considered day trading, but I'm not that cuckoo-bananas, and I'm not interested in learning more about corporations, because I think big corporations should be abolished ( or be regularly forced to divide and be granted less rights than human individuals), because they are abomible in favor of free trade at more human and other living things scale. Eco-Anarchy Today!!!

[Jin+Guice]

This is straying away from what I thought the initial point was.



I think some people are really well suited for a 40 hour a week job. This is what he world is set up for right now, so it's great if that's you.

I think others are really well suited to be freelancers for roughly 40 hours a week (but more variability bc of multiple clients, availability, desire, etc...). This is more or less what is described in the "working man" quadrant of the ERE book. It's relatively easy to do this as well, so great for you if this is you.

I think others are really well suited to run businesses. I think this is hard compared to working for others in the current world, but feasible if you really want it (=you are probably good at it).

I think others are really well suited to be the type of micro-business hustler described. I think this is hard compared to working for others in the current world, but feasible if you really want it (=you are probably good at it).



I'm assuming all of the options above take up at least 40 hours a week and in one way or another could be described as a job. I think a significant minority of people are temperamentally inclined to have jobs, or at least can be and so it works out well for them because the world is set up for job havers. A lot of these people might also enjoy not having a job, it's just that if you are inclined to do the default well you will not be inclined to question the default and will often be inclined to defend it.


I think the large majority of people would prefer to own their own time rather than have a job that takes up at least 40 hours a week. For these people we have FIRE.

One option for FIRE is to invest. But a lot of people find investing boring/ risky.
One option for FIRE is to set up passive income businesses that one works in less than 40 hours a week. But a lot of people don't want to deal with clients/ this is risky.
One option for FIRE is to achieve a 90% savings rate and earn the money that is to be spent over a lifetime (would only take 8-10 years at this level). But we are already trying to work less.

So there are the options and the drawbacks and the tradeoffs. Pick what you want or mix and match.

But as usual, the interesting part of ERE to me is not how you eeek back a couple of percentage points of passive return on the pile of money you accumulate, but what you will do with the realization that "normal" is wasting 60-90% of resources and time.


So when I read this thread, what I thought of was seeking freedom-to or perhaps taking your WL6+ skills to market as a way to test/ refine them. I don't think everyone would want to do this, but I also think a significant majority of people would want to either do some sort of paid work again AND/ OR have some sort of micro-business. Which is what I was getting at in my post where I said I was surprised that there aren't more ERE micro-businesses.

Under this model you could define success as having 1 sale or covering operating costs or making $1 of profit.

[7Wannabe5]

I think others are really well suited to be the type of micro-business hustler described. I think this is hard compared to working for others in the current world, but feasible if you really want it (=you are probably good at it)...

I'm assuming all of the options above take up at least 40 hours a week and in one way or another could be described as a job.

What I am thinking about is more like doing 3 or 4 different things to make maybe $10-$20,000/yr working waaaaay less than 40 hours/week. I mean Jacob gives the alternative option of working 4 hours/week at $35/hr ($7280/yr)in order to achieve ERE. I find that working up to 16 hours/week at a variety of micro-business hustles is enjoyable, so if my personal expenses were at eco-Jacob PPP <$12,000/yr and I was averaging more than $15/hr (more than $12,000/yr working less than 16 hours/week for myself/community) with at least 3 fairly independent sources of fun, reasonably sustainable, hustle/passive income, I would call that eco-ERE success.

Maybe you are saying the same thing? Or are you only thinking about the situation where somebody has FIREd passively and is looking to keep themselves entertained/in the game? I'm mostly trying to make the point that if your motivation is mostly ecological, and you don't mind working for money a little bit, then you only really have to work full-time for the man as long as it takes you to get your own micro-businesses going. If I was 22 that is what I would choose to do rather than working full-time for 10 years, but I am a weirdo, so MMV.

ETA: Actually, if somebody was only ecologically motivated and didn't care about having a lot of free time, they could almost certainly immediately just start their own micro-business of Scavenging for 40 hours/week at $5.75/hr =$12,000/yr = 1 eco-Jacob (PPP)

[Jin+Guice]

@7: I was trying to say that people are talking about 2 different things. One is running the micro-business semi-ERE scheme you're talking about, the other is running micro-businesses after one has FIREd... or more interestingly to me once "money is a solved problem*."

*Ofc I am always thinking in semi-ERE terms bc I am always living in semi-ERE terms, where one has an abundance of time and some extra money pretty much from the start.

When I initially read the thread, I was thinking in terms of the latter. Not that funding one's eco-ERE escape with micro-businesses isn't a perfectly viable thing to talk about in this very, just that those two things aren't the same and my previous comments weren't meant to apply to a full fledged micro-business lifestyle.

[jennypenny]

Focusing on the 'micro' part, I think there are two routes for the casual ERE, seasonal and occasional.

Existing seasonal jobs around me include hanging christmas lights, raking leaves, sealing driveways (usually done in the fall), and power washing houses (spring and fall). I know people who are lifeguards down the shore during the summer and/or ski lift workers in the winter. I've heard of people who 'open' boats and campers (and winterize campers), people who wax and prep skis and surfboards, and people who clean and sharpen tools in the fall. Another gig around me is driving cars to and from Florida for the winter season. Seriously, it's a big business. One guy I know bought a car hauler so he can bring several cars at once. If you're willing to drive their pets down you get bonus money.

I'm working on a seedling business. The last two years I've taken orders from a select few (gratis) and grown seedlings for them to plant in their own gardens. I have some final tweaks this year and then I might expand into a business next year. I'm growing seedlings anyway and it would only take a few months of my time during a time of year that I'm never away from home.


Existing occasional jobs around me include FFL license/transfers, seamstress work like hemming, sewing quilt backings and bindings, hanging doors (people hate that job), stump removal, dog walking, companionship/laundry for elderly, and grocery shopping (most elderly people will not use the apps). There's a guy around me who repairs lawn mowers and has a two-month waiting list lol.

Party rentals are another one -- not bounce houses necessarily, but nicer adult-themed ones (ok, not *adult* themed but themes appropriate for adults like Eagles or Penn State BBQs etc) -- but they seem like a bigger commitment and require more equipment. If you like to sew, cosplay costumes are a big side hustle.


Elderly visitation is a good one (if you can stand people lol). They pay good money for one day a week that includes a grocery shop, doing their laundry, and having lunch with them. They usually don't mind if you bring kids and can work around school schedules. You can add in occasional taxi service to medical appointments for an extra fee. Honestly, a stable of a few elderly people would provide as much extra money as you were interested in earning. They need people to set up Christmas trees, keep the porch pots full of flowers, clean out the gutters, and other odd jobs that they give up on as they get older but that make their home feel 'lived in' and make them feel safer. Some just want you to drive their car to keep it running and take it for inspection and oil changes when needed.


Personally, I can't see taking on any micro business unless it provides something to the individual beyond money. It has to involve something that would help keep a skill sharp, be easy to take time away from, or provide something needed, like dog walking which would provide exercise and give people who like dogs but can't have one some interaction.

[7Wannabe5]

Personally, I can't see taking on any micro business unless it provides something to the individual beyond money. It has to involve something that would help keep a skill sharp, be easy to take time away from, or provide something needed, like dog walking which would provide exercise and give people who like dogs but can't have one some interaction.

Absolutely agree. Due to still in recovery from serious illness to which I succumbed right after moving by myself to new city, my current activity mix isn't ideal (way too weighted towards my math skills/ too scheduled/not enough "action" and/or whimsy), and definitely takes up more than 16 hrs./week (maybe 30 hrs including grad class study time), but my grad classes sharpen a skill, and my tutoring of the disadvantaged tots although paid is more like a community volunteer activity because everybody gratefully acknowledges that we are over-skilled/underpaid, and my private tutoring is well-paid, highly flexible, and can often be doing-puzzles fun if/when I find myself challenged by an unfamiliar pre-calc textbook or some archaic geometric construction exercise.

Anyways, I find myself repeating myself a lot as I get older, and I think I already said everything I attempted to say here much better in the ERE Indicator thread. To add a grain of salt to the mix, I would note that I was doing High Indicator ERE or Semi-ERE quite a bit better in 2016 (when I posted in ERE Indicator Thread) than I am currently. So, it is possible that you can get to 90% Ideal ERE Lifestyle and then experience multiple net-snips or parachute-pops in short order. OTOH, the fact that I haven't had to resort to full-time employment by other in spite of the multiple "snips"/"pops' might offer evidence that the overall theory is sound. For example, I could still support my lifestyle, living by myself and being somewhat self-indulgent due to self-pity, even when I felt so ill I only had maximum 4 good hours per day to devote to productive activities inclusive of basic self-care/household activities.

viewtopic.php?t=8215

[Sclass]

I am happy to delegate my moneygetting to multiple purpose built machines. They don’t necessarily all have to play well together or support a single theme.

ERE philosophy is really good for organizing vertical integration. But it really depends on how you want to do what you need to do.

I personally want to build a soulless ATM in my garage that just spits out money when I push the buttons. It doesn’t have to do anything else to be good by me. I’ll fill in the rest of the picture myself.

The stuffy stock market with all its grouchy old men is a great machine to plug into. The nice thing is on my side of the ATM there’s plenty of fresh air to breathe. The only interaction is pushing the buttons then walking away.

Up in LA my neighbor is breaking ground for an ADU. He’s subbing out to a bunch of guys with Bobcats to do the grating. I’d much rather him do it with fair maidens wielding Jacob’s hand made rakes but they’re using Smokey loud bobcats. Rumbling small diesels with shrill hydraulic pumps. It’s all about how you want it done.

I do start out by wearing every hat with my micro businesses. But I think I actively try to remove myself from the process using machines and outsourcing. Then I become a boring shipping clerk and I feel dissatisfied. And then I have to create something new so I can start the process over again.

I can feel my mom nagging me, “Honey it’s not just having money it’s how you get it.”

ETA - hey maybe she said “Honey it’s not just having money it’s how you got it.” I cannot quite remember but there is a subtle difference between the get and got.