Giving up on ‘Business’
September 1st, 2009 | Published in cashflow, comment | 2 Comments
You can recognise a successful business because it has
- at least a €500,000 turnover
- 3 or more employees (with preferably 1 managing the other two and so on)
- an operating margin somewhere between 50% and 10%
- a Christmas party
- HR contracts
- titles
- Hours of work
I admire these businesses. They provide employment, structure and meaning to people and help the world go around. The only problem is, I don’t want to run one.
I’m more interested in spending less than I earn while not selling any time. With that in mind I’m dumping term building a business in favour of developing cash-flows. As for a title, I tend to stick with programmer but privately I try to think along the lines of an investor.
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:00 am (#)
Just wanted to leave a note saying I enjoy the blog, James, and appreciate the way you are baring your business soul!
Your approach reminds me of Gretchen Rubin’s “Happiness Project”. Perhaps you might consider hammering out a set of principles from your experiences.
Best of luck.
September 4th, 2009 at 4:45 am (#)
Hey Fin
Thanks for stopping by and leaving the comment. I have to admit, its a pretty nice feeling to get feedback like that.
I’m checking out Gretchen’s blog now. As for hammering out principles – well I guess all this is a work in progress and I’m by no means sure how its going to end. I could be making a massive blunder by moving down here and writing about all this stuff online. Let’s see.
cheers
James