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(Another) New start


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 apparatus of starting a publishing company has never been easier to access, though creating profit from one is probably more difficult than ever before.

Share trading - app platforms allow us to invest in shares "from as little as £1". I always had an ambition to own a stock portfolio, having grown up in the grasping, Thatcherite 80s, although I'm almost entirely against share ownership these days, having lived through the exciting period of history that was Kwasi Kwarteng's tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer. As share trading is essentially gambling that is wearing a nice suit, I'm pretty sure that the distraction of watching share prices will be short-lived, as my capital dwindles with astonishing rapidity.

Trade 50p pieces - I have collected some averagely rare 50p pieces over the years, some of them no longer being legal tender. A super-specialised trading company, and being an expert in a very narrow field, appeals and - let's be honest - it's not the most stressful of occupations.

There are no barriers to entry into each of these markets, and the biggest hurdle is me. And now, seven days to set up the first business, whichever that might be.

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