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

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Three Fivers is predicated upon being able to start a ‘business’ that makes money from just five pounds of investment. Today I could close it down as successful. In my first ever venture into share dealing, I bought £5 worth of Harland and Wolff shares at 4:05pm. At 4:38pm, I offloaded them for a 13p (2.6%) profit. Not enough to pay the mortgage, nor even to qualify as a side hustle, but profit nonetheless. 13p doesn’t buy much these days - not even a Freddo - but, 2.6% profit compounded does add up; my love of a spreadsheet shows how profit becomes more interesting over five days below. Over 12 months (365 days, although you cannot trade for at least 104 of these days) that would turn my humble £5 into around £5300. Not bad. I’m not especially enamoured of share trading, but it can be quite interesting I think if I add in additional rules; devote a maximum of 5 minutes a day to it and invest the whole of the capital at once - no portfolio. Whether this will survive even the next ...

Free is the magic number

There’s little doubt that late 2020/early 2021 will be calamitous for business. The combination of Covid-19 lockdown economic inactivity and Brexit will destroy vast amounts of businesses, large and small. And yet, from some perspectives, there’s never been a better time to go into business. The arguments in favour off this are as simple as they are brutal; people going bust sell their goods off at knockdown prices, businesses that begin and make it through what will almost certainly be the worst economic events since 1929 are fundamentally sound business models, and information technology has democratised business tools to an unprecedented level. Consider the children’s story, ‘The Indian in the Cupboard’. In the story, a boy receives a cupboard for his ninth birthday. Putting things in this cupboard changes them and brings them to life. By putting the right things in, complicated new things can be made, explored or brought to life. 3D printing is rather the same; things that you coul...

Three Fivers

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