Micro businesses

[suomalainen]

Interesting ideas. Fwiw, and everyone has different tolerances, but I hated doing retail work. The closer a job (business) is to retail, the worse my reaction to it. So the idea of taking something I find fun and trying to eke out a few bucks from it by dealing with retail customers makes my skin crawl (let alone all the other non-customer-facing chores a small business requires). The idea of taking something I don't find fun and trying to eke a few bucks from it by dealing with retail customers doesn't even interest me enough to have a reaction to it. This is ultimately what keeps me on the traditional path of keeping money and hobbies completely separate.

[mountainFrugal]

Micro-businesses in my town-
Food prep for backpacking guides/trips (seasonal)
Spring plant starts of varieties bred to the local environment
Tamales
Sourkraut
Veggie and Pork Spring Rolls
Hotdogs (events)
Wood (various parts- harvest, split, dry, delivery)
Yard Waste Removal (we get a hand written note by neighbor every year if we have not raked yet... passive aggressive business plan! Have not taken them up on it.. haha)
Mushroom Foraging

[7Wannabe5]

Fwiw, and everyone has different tolerances, but I hated doing retail work. The closer a job (business) is to retail, the worse my reaction to it. So the idea of taking something I find fun and trying to eke out a few bucks from it by dealing with retail customers makes my skin crawl (let alone all the other non-customer-facing chores a small business requires).

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 agree with you on the routine chore aspect. The simple solution is to hire somebody else/automate/or outsource the repetitive boring parts of the business. Young people who would like to acquire some skills or job experience for their resumes or college applications are good candidates. Give them as much responsibility/autonomy/complexity as they can handle and the alliance will be mutually beneficial.

Also, it has been my experience that with the exception of the 5% of humans who are PITAs in any setting, I tend to like/value other humans who like/value the same things I do, so selling stuff/services I like/value to other humans who like/value the same stuff services (as opposed to generic "retail customers") is fun. This is yet another example of how giant corporations (and other giant organizations) ruin things for everyone. For instance, consider the difference between working in a generously stocked independent bookstore in the most-educated city in the U.S. and providing thoughtful recommendations to engaged customers versus working in that same bookstore after it has been taken over by lowest-common-denominator-corporate-idiots who have mandated "suggestion selling", as in "Would you like some fries with your burger" horrifyingly morphed to "Would you like the latest Danielle Steel novel to go with your purchase of "Object-Oriented Ontology"?

Similarly, even though I wouldn't say that my young students share my appreciation for mathematics, I feel like with every little rung I help them up the ladder of math skills, it is like I am providing them with a high quality, classic tool that may serve them well for their lifetime. As in, okay may never master the calculus, but at least no longer counting on fingers.

Selling and entrepreneuralship get a bad vibe due to those individuals (like the Wall Street Player crew) who believe and promote that taking advantage of the weaknesses of others is the way to profit. If you just want to make a quick buck, sure this is definitely a way to go, and I would definitely give a pass to those who are clever enought to take advantage of the weaknesses of the entrenched and powerful( I will personally buy a drink for anybody who can make some money running an arbitrage hack on J.BozoZon, or by publishing expose of her work as Dominatrix to multiple CEOs, but not for somebody who made their first million as a negligent absentee slum-lord or fake cancer-preventing nutriceutical hawker.) However, for those who are frugal enough that money is already nearly a solved problem, a lifestyle business or businesses should be able to afford respect/liking/appreciation/care for your customers/partners/employees etc. Nobody can achieve mastery in every possible realm, so trade/barter of quality goods and services with others who appreciate them must be towards the good.

Another extremely simple example. Jacob has achieved mastery of woodworking. He could set up a card table on his front lawn with some of his woodworking items on it and a sign indicating that he is willing to trade for bags of rice, lentils or any assorted canned goods. His hourly wage would likely be trivial, but his expense line would go down, and all parties engaged would benefit, and so would the planet due to his sustainable wood-working practices. Zero interaction with customers necessary. If you think about it, a good deal of the friction on interaction with other humans when exchanging goods/services is due to lack of trust.

[7Wannabe5]

Another thought I had was that the math could be made cooler (more fun for me) for "semi" or non-stock-market version ERE if SafeWithdrawalRate was generalized towards SustainableGrowthRate. The SGR takes into account Owner Draw (how much you need to pay yourself to be happy to do this activity(s) and survive), how much Equity you can/want to Invest/Retain in enterprise, and net income of the enterprise. This is pretty much why (not exactly) the SWR is very close to average GDP growth rate.

Most small businesses fail for the same reason that many overly optimistic retirement plans fail. Owner cash draw proves to be more of a problem than profit making. Of course, at the other end of the spectrum, it become interesting to consider how much equity you assign to your ownership of you. Breaking this up into sub-categories could also be revelatory of dependencies. For instance, how much are you worth to yourself as a bodyless brain (e.g. doing math on the internets) vs. how much are you worth to yourself as a brainless body (e.g. being a sugar-baby or UPS truck loader)? The upside of a completely passive, highly capitalized investment scheme is that "you" will be able to maintain owner-draw even in the eventuality that you become virtually brainless and bodyless. Unfortunately, that is also the downside. EcoERE requires that you at least wear the second hat of Frugal Home Economist, so avoids this dilemma.

https://cfoperspective.com/sustainable- ... e-formula/

[ffj]

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.

It took me a year to get monetized so don't despair. Thirteen thousand watch hours for 77K views is pretty impressive actually, you just have to get over 1,000 subs. YouTube pays you for hours watched, not necessarily for the amount of subscribers, so once that second metric is met you'll do fine.

[Ego]

Another good find that made the news:
https://bidstitch.com/blog/15000-jacket ... will-bins/

[bos]

A friend of mine has a micro-business. It's a mix of youtube and 3D printing. It sounded very romantic, but I was surprised when I joined him for a day of work. It comes very close to my understanding of a sweatshop. He is folding boxes, labeling, cleaning 3D printed parts, fixing broken printers, customers receiving broken items, packages lost in mail.

Each job will come with customers and the more customers the more friction. That's why I personally see consulting as a possible mini job in my last stage. You can already start consult from 1 day a week and only need to maintain communication to a single client. At the same time I have never consulted so maybe I am romanticising this again

[jacob]

ETA: I think I'm just repeating what Sclass said above.

What's important is not so much what one does to make money, but how one makes the money. I think the salaryman/workman/businessman/renaissanceman quadrant describes this well. The "feel" of acquiring money or generating value is very different in each quadrant. Indeed, if one has one ever tried one of them, making money in a different way can be very exciting, mindblowing even, to the point of "I can't believe that I'm making money this way".

To give an example from the OP post: Tutoring/teaching.

Salaryman: Teaching one of more classes for a semester. You show up, teach the class, and a fixed amount rolls into your account every two weeks.
Workman: Tutoring students. You likely have a revolving client list. You charge each client individually, probably by the hour.
Businessman: Hiring tutors and dealing with clients. Perhaps a website where students and tutors log in to chat and you charging for the infrastructure.
Renaissanceman: You write a textbook, set up you own publishing company, perhaps you hold seminars and charge entrance (basically all of the above).

I've tried all of them and not surprisingly, I gravitate towards the renaissance quadrant. Personally, in my experience as soon as money gets involved, it alters the experience materially. This can happen both in a good way and in a bad way. Money is not the only extrinsic motivator than can alter the experience. Popularity or ideology can do the same. "Audience capture" is real and soon you might find yourself working in a way that does not make you happy because you're more concerned about money, ratings, etc.

On the other hand, since most of the world runs on money, focusing on whether one's activities actually make money is a good way to stay connected with the rest of the world.

[ducknald_don]

For me a large part of it is just being able to say no. This is something I couldn't do as an employee and was difficult when I was consulting. Once I started to develop a product business it became easier as dropping one client out of a hundred doesn't make much difference to the bottom line.

I guess you can do that as an employee providing you are in a strong financial position. I think I'd still find that unpleasant and stressful though.