Three Fivers

One of the first, most immediate, effects of starting Three Fivers was the realisation that I don’t have what it takes; I’ve no interest in the acquisition of money. In part this is environmental - I’ve pretty much always had enough, and in part it’s attitude; money is only a utensil. I know people who are very wealthy and the happiest of these are the ones that also treat money as a means, not an end. A secondary realisation is the polarisation of society in recent years is demonstrated perfectly here; my idea of how the three businesses might thrive is polarised, I’ve imagined only having too little or having an absurd amount - the idea of earning ‘a decent living’ has been lost. Like becoming a reality TV star - in lieu of actual talent - people focus on trying to be the next Elon Musk, ignoring that this role is already taken. What these nuggets of self-knowledge do, however, is re-focus the real purpose of this experiment; can a viable business come from a £5 cash injection? The a...

  So, it turns out that the collectible 50p market isn’t as dynamic as I’d hoped. Who could have predicted that. There may yet be a viable business in it, maybe not, but it will be worth critiquing. Before the next week is out, a full update on the publishing company idea.

I've largely been the only person in my department this week, so the update is brief and hardly illuminating; I've looked, downloaded but committed to nothing. It has also been freezing cold which is irrelevant other than for the fact that I'm extremely grateful that my entrepreneurism isn't how I pay the utility bills. Update: - Downloaded Trading 212 app, largely based on the promise of zero fees, "invest from as little as £1" and buy fractions of shares - Been scouring eBay for 50p pieces for sale to gauge how much mine could go for. With Christmas and postal strikes, this is not a time to be selling collectable but relatively common coins, it seems - Start a publishing company; some actual positivity here - I've researched names, self-publishing routes, markets and copyright law, plus some technology. A full update in next week's post. (I've also thought of a name I like for the publishing company, so I need to find a way to reserve it/protect ...

For reasons that I won't bore you with, this is an attempt to, beginning this week, do 52 blog posts for the Three Fivers project. As ever, I've taken it to the wire and this is the final day of the first week. Failure, as ever, is tantalisingly close. To summarize, I want to see if three viable businesses can be created, capitalised each with a crisp £5 note. Over the many months of inactivity, I've decided upon the three areas that I'll work on. I'm going to tell you exactly what they are, so that you can copy/compete/scoff at my efforts. They are: 1. Start a publishing company 2. Trade shares 3. Trade 50p pieces I have a back up idea which, if I can make £5 of profit from any, or all collectively, of these ventures I'll start. However, here is the rationale behind each of these businesses. A publishing company - I love books and the process of making books, having dabbled a little in that industry. What with the upsurge of self-publishing platforms, the appar...