New year - new start

So in a year and a half, I've done nothing with this; I've not blogged, not bought, sold, come up with ideas etc etc.

The reasons for this are many, and too boring to go into here (this is supposed to be somewhat entertaining, after all), but can be summarised by one word:

Laziness.

Not just the laziness of I can't be bothered, but the laziness of I haven't needed to.

My job is always quite busy, I've had promotions, pay rises etc. The comfort of a monthly pay check has meant that I've constantly been looking at getting this project up and running tomorrow. Or tomorrow. Or tomorrow.

But a conversation I had this morning with my friend Callan has punctured my complacent balloon, in a wide-ranging chat he said, "my biggest fear - leaving here and not getting another job."

The economic conditions are worsening and, as I told him, I've been here before - back in 1992, having successfully done dozens if not hundreds of mortgage repossession court appearances as a trainee Solicitor, I was made redundant and lost my training contract. Suddenly I found that I couldn't get a job in Iceland, for a manager who when I was being interviewed was writing out signs saying "potatoe".

So, as we are headed seemingly back to these times, I'll restart Three Fivers (with some important tweaks to what I want to achieve) to see if one can start a viable business with just £5, and keep hunger, homelessness and despair at bay if the worst should happen.

I hope you'll join me.

Comments

Three Fivers - the idea of spare money

The Covid-19 virus and lockdown have changed things, somewhat. Brexit changed things somewhat. Things will change again, somewhat more. Having worked, over the years, for a number of corporations either American or with strong American influences, the path we are headed down, is strongly American. American colleagues get PTA (paid time off), not holiday. They are guaranteed only 8 days annually - everything else is discretionary. They got into work when they are ill, because labour laws allow arbitrary dismissal. They, by and large, have a ‘side hustle’ going on; a secondary source of income. They quite often have second jobs too. And what has this to do with an obscure blog called “Three Fivers”? The title is a nod to the Three Tenors concert which was huge, way back when, because something popular (football) mixed with something relatively unpopular (opera). I wanted to explore whether it is possible to create money - wealth - from limited means, ten or fifteen poun...

The Runners Up

I once worked with someone who had done some consulting for Richard Branson directly, as opposed to working for one of his companies. He told me of his excitement on the first day of the contract, to be going in to meet the man himself. Being a creative, he was expected to go into his presentation straight after the introductions. His presentation - effectively a pitch - was about a new venture for the company. He began his presentation. Within a minute or two, Richard spoke with an idea - "what if we create a...", that being briefly debated and parked, the presentation continued for 30 seconds. Again, a voice interrupted, "why don't we market a...". And so it went on. Fizzing with ideas, Richard interrupted time and time again. The presentation's impact was lost and the whole experience was a dreadful chore. A while later, the company got back in contact to offer another similarly lucrative contract, complete with a presentation. My acquaintance found that,...

Failure is not the same as a business failing

Already, I have failed. It's not terminal to the project, maybe not even to the strand of the project, but it's failure nonetheless. Despite literally *minutes* of trying, I've been unable to link Google's AdSense to this blog to (hopefully) monetise the blog. (If anyone can explain to me how I get round a circular set of "Press this to verify > You need to do this in blogger.com > Go to Google AdSense > Press this to verify", I'm all ears.) Now, I'm pretty unmoved by this - I've lost nothing and I'd be writing these anyway. Everyday I hear of more and more businesses that are laying people off, closing UK operations or just plain going under. That's heartbreaking, because they're not just venturing a fiver and writing stuff in lunchbreaks. Fortunately, I still have a nominal five quid left - having used no resource other than my time - to invest into another venture. Comments are open and I'm open to ideas, before I start ...

Three Fivers

Search This Blog