The Voluntary Life

If you want to become an entrepreneur but are not sure what kind of business you would like to start, what framework can you use to help you decide? There are two things to consider that will provide you with a strong advantage: 1. Starting a business to create a solution that you will be a customer for This is sometimes called "eating your own dog-food". To be successful, all businesses have to deliver value to customers: they have to make something that people want. If you use the product or service that your company makes, it helps you understand whether it is providing value. 2. Starting a business in an industry that you understand Industry experience provides valuable knowledge about the opportunities and constraints that your business will face. Some examples of industry knowledge are: knowing where your potential customers shop understanding why they buy knowing how potential distributors or affiliates work understanding what the major concerns of key contacts for your business are If you don't make something that you yourself would be a customer for and you don't have a good understanding of the industry, you are flying blind. Try to develop a business where you have at least one of these two advantages. Also, try to increase your awareness of the aspect that is missing.

This episode is about the pros and cons of being self-employed vs being a business owner. Both options have advantages and disadvantages, but mixing the two does not work well. In the self-employed/freelancer model, you sell your time, cover your own expenses and keep all profit. This works best when you have a valuable skill and lots of industry contacts, as you are able to undercut bigger companies on price but keep your overheads low. If it works, you get the advantage of a lot of flexibility to work or take time off.  The disadvantage is that you are dependent on work for income, so there is much less financial freedom in the long term. You don't build up value in business itself (nobody wants to buy a job) and it can be hard to keep your overheads low for longer (as you may need to start investing in marketing, new equipment etc). So it's a vulnerable model over the long term. The business owner model is the idea to create a value generating machine. The focus here is on developing standards and procedures to make yourself (the founder) unnecessary to the running of the business as quickly as possible. The advantage of this model is that you create an income stream and a source of value (the business itself) that you can sell in the future, or live from as passive income. This has the potential for much greater financial freedom as well as the freedom to step away from the work in the longer term. The disadvantage is that you have more risk in the initial period, as businesses take more investment. You also get much less free time in the initial period, as the startup phase of a business is more stressful than freelance work. Either model can give you a lot of benefits, but be careful not to get stuck between these two models- you can end up with all the stress and none of the benefits. If that happens, it isn't creating a business, it's creating a job (and the worst kind of job, because you can't stop doing it). I hope this podcast will help you be conscious of which model you are adopting and to move more clearly to one or the other if you are currently stuck in-between. Show Notes: The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss Anything You Want by Derek Sivers

This episode is about how to diversify your investments for lower risk and higher return. The issues covered include: The problems with a simple "buy and hold" approach, whereby you invest all your money in your one favorite asset (be that stocks, gold or anything else). The problems with the "market timing" approach to investing and why it doesn't work. The benefits of diversifying your portfolio How to properly diversify your portfolio by using different asset classes, rather than just different securities. How to use rebalancing bands to harvest volatility, increase your return and reduce risk. You can get more information about the concept of the permanent portfolio discussed in this episode in Harry Browne's book "Fail-Safe Investing" and in many of the previous Voluntary Life podcast episodes on investing. As always regarding investment, do your own research. I am not an advisor and this isn't advice of any kind, it's just my own opinions based on my experience.

It has never been easier to live and work abroad. If you are self-employed and work online there is nothing to stop you. Why nor sublet your apartment for a few months and live abroad in a fascinating (and potentially cheap) destination? Here is a list of all the things that make long term travel super easy: Have your home post rerouted to friend (or commercial service) who scans it into a Dropbox account for you. If a friend does it, buy them a multi-page scanner for this. Get a professional agent to manage the sublet of your apartment back home AirBnB for renting longer term accommodation (especially for whole apartments) TripAdvisor for short term hotel stays Cloud services for file storage (e.g. dropbox, google drive) Clound services for backup (e.g. Crashplan or Backblaze) A small scanner app on your smartphone for scanning any paper you need to keep (receipts etc) when abroad Get your online banking set up for all the transaction types you will need to do Get your Credit/Debit cards set for use abroad A password manager (e.g. LastPass, 1Password) for your online passwords An E reader (e.g. a kindle, iPad) to enable you to read as many books as you want while you are away A lightweight laptop for your work A Smartphone with a nice camera for taking pictures and getting online An external encrypted drive for local storage/backup International plugs for all your devices

An episode about how to use goals and visions to move forward in creating the life you want. Show Notes: Previous Episode on GTD Getting Things Done by David Allen

This episode is about the concept of limited liability and it's role in entrepreneurship. The purpose of the limited liability principle is not to protect the entrepreneur as director or manager of a business, it is for the protection of investors. There is a big difference between this principle and how the actual law of limited liability works in practice. The law is messy and confusing, with strange concepts such as "corporate personhood" granted by the State.  I argue that the principle of limited liability for investors could be implemented through contracts and that the whole messy legal implementation that we currently have is unnecessary to achieve investor protection. I argue that it makes sense for entrepreneurs to use contractual limits of liability wherever possible and to use insurance whenever you need to reduce risk in that way. The reality for small business entrepreneurs is that you will not be able to hide behind a shield of limited liability, for example you will be expected to personally underwrite loans. These are just my opinions. As always, you need to rely on your own due diligence and get your own legal advice.

This episode discusses the question of risk in investment, speculation and entrepreneurship. When is it a good idea to take risk and when isn't it? I share my own personal opinion. Podcast Episode

An episode on how to scale and optimise your business to make more profit and enhance your competitive advantage. The issues covered include: Standardisation: making one version of what you do Proceduralisation: making one version of how you do it Optimisation: speeding up and automating your procedures Knowledge Capture: maintaining and growing your operation within the context of staff coming and going Optimising at the level of the whole business: only doing the things that it makes sense to do

This episode is about employing people as an entrepreneur. Topics covered include: The destructive legacy of the reward and punishment paradigm from school Why pay isn't as important as you think The importance purpose, mastery and autonomy in motivation The problem with relying on interviews for hiring and alternative ways of finding great people The value of freelancers or independent contractors What employing people teaches you about taking responsibility for your side of a relationship and how it deepens your respect for individuality Show Notes: Dan Pink Talk on Motivation Discipline Without Punishment by Dick Grote Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type by Isabel Briggs Myers

An episode about the problems with Intellectual Property, from the perspective of an entrepreneur. I started off thinking that IP is an integral and necessary part of entrepreneurship. I thought that it would be very important for my business.  I have now come to see IP law as something that: prevents innovation, is immoral, promotes conflict, diverts resources to unproductive uses and is ultimately unnecessary for making money from ideas. Show Notes: Against Intellectual Monopoly by Boldrin and Levine Article about the Shopping Cart case Against Intellectual Property by Kinsella