Let's build fun & healthy businesses

[liberty]

Most businesses focus on only one thing: Earn a shitload of money. After achieving FI, we don't need to work for the money anymore, and can instead focus on:
- Having a good time, only do work that provides more pleasure than pain (unlike most corporate jobs)
- Let each person choose how much, when and where to work.
- Do work that actually makes the world better (unlike many corporate jobs)

Any experiences with this kind of "fun businesses"?

[jacob]

I'm almost tempted to say that you can have fun, healthy, or business: pick any two but only two.

The main problem, as I've experienced it, is that any business requires some amount of "shite work". If you're working alone you have to do it to get it done. However, if you're working with others, especially on a "fun time basis" the bystander effect increases significantly and the shite work never gets done or gets done poorly leading to the eventual failure of the business.

Maybe a more precisely way of putting it is that if you're putting "people together to have a good time and work on what they want and however much they want", what you have is not a business as much as a "hobby"-club. It'll not make the world worse, but it's not going to make the world a whole lot better either beyond the "good" of the members of said club.

[ducknald_don]

Most businesses focus on only one thing: Earn a shitload of money.

I'm not sure that really is the case. I remember reading a paper that showed business owners earned roughly the same as they would in a full time job up to the 9th decile. The business was an alternative to a job which they couldn't put up with for whatever reason.

[Frita]

Best of luck, I sincerely hope it will work and look forward to any updates.

My spouse and I seriously considered buying the property next door for a small hostel with a rental unit from the existing casita in the backyard. After crunching the numbers, this was a no-go as it would have cost us money. It made zero sense, and I need to save my coping bandwidth for schemes that seem like good ideas at the time. We would rather selectively host friends and family as well as Couchsurfers again when COVID isn’t such a concern. This is actually more fun/manageable/cost-effective and doesn’t commandeer all of our freetime.

Other ideas that were scrapped earlier include a tapa bar (Who wants to work at night and deal with drunk people?) and a nonprofit community tool lending library (This was nixed due to cost, liability, and grunt work issues Jacob mentioned.).

[chenda]

My general feeling is that running a business is generally more trouble than it's worth, particularly if you are taking on employees.

Some low level entrepreneurship might be fun; a retired lawyer say doing some occasional pro bono work or a small scale landlording business. Or getting involved in some community betterment project.

[GardenDee]

I stopped when I read the term 'shite work'....I thought only Irish people used that phrase No thank you- I'll stick with the fun and health aspects!

[shaz]

If you define fun as "more pleasure than pain" then it can probably be done. If you define fun as "never needing to do tedious or unpleasant things" then it isn't possible because every business requires record keeping, paying of taxes, etc.

I once started up a comic book dealership with a friend. Overall I would say it was more fun than not (spent time with a friend, met new people, learned new things). We weren't doing any great good for the world but we also weren't doing any great harm and we did give a number of young people something to do besides cause trouble. I always thought it could be fun to have a used bookstore/homemade ice cream shop. Ice cream isn't healthy so maybe used bookstore/teahouse would be better.

My sister has started a non-profit dog rescue. The work provides her with more pleasure than pain and has greatly reduced the number of dogs euthanized in her county. She doesn't draw any salary from it (100% of funds raised go into the rescue work or spay/neuter clinics) so maybe it isn't what you had in mind as a business. But I think you could do something like that and draw off a small salary for yourself without undermining your good works too much.

[Kriegsspiel]

With profit not being a high priority, you could have more opportunity to outsource or hire people to do the unpleasant tasks, and mix and match until you get the best situation for your temperment.

[liberty]

That's right, @jacob, there will always be some unpleasant tasks that just need to be done in order to make it a real business that provides value for others. I think I'm satisfied if there is more pleasure than pain, so that the job is "net positive" from a hedonistic point of view, like the one @shaz describes. I think the painful tasks should be spread evenly across the team, and there needs to be some discussion on these tasks to avoid one person to get all the shit in his hands.

@chenda I would work only with people who have the same goal of having fun, and who are not so dependent on salary income. Also I think all the employees should own a fair share of the company, ideally everyone owns the same share. Then they will care more about the company and feel more engaged. They will share their ideas when the company's profit is their profit.

Kriegsspiel Yes, outsourcing the boring tasks is a great strategy, at least when they are not very central for the business. It would require some income before hiring, though, as I won't spend much money on the business. As "retirees" we can invest our labor instead of asking others for money. But when we have some income, I think it would be great to outsource some of the boring tasks.

It could also be a non-profit, like @shaz's example. Maybe it's easier to find something "more pleasure than pain" in a non-profit.

[WFJ]

The only "fun" business I can think of require massive capital and a monopoly to remain profitable where a few business owners can freeride on other's hard work. Something like owning an NFL/NBA/MLB franchise where even complete failure will result in growing profits due to the monopoly power of the business. If you have a spare few hundred million sitting around, this would be a fun business to have.

It is possible to find fun businesses, but most will be highly subsidized and take advantage of waste. Think of a track/pool/athletic facility at a high school/college that must be maintained year-round but might be left vacant for months of the year. Finding a way to utilize this waste could result in a fun/profitable business that makes the world a better place. You are freeriding much of the "shite work" done my school officials which makes the entire operation dependent on the whim of a bureaucrat.