Figured it would be a good idea to start logging the process. But first a recap to what have happened so far in my quest for financial freedom.
Being a software developer I have worked as such pretty much since I graduated. During those seven years I've had a couple of different employers but also my own small company. That company has been used to do projects outside my employment as a consulting business. Unfortunately a money chasing type of consulting and the enjoyment of working that way was about zero in the long run. Not a good road to travel for freedom.
So the initial plan was to work as employed, build a rental apartment in our too big house and also save and invest money like crazy. You know what I mean if you read Early Retirement Extreme or the Mr Money Mustache blog. This road to freedom works as there are several examples out there. But it requires that you give up a lot of luxury to be free and you really need to somewhat enjoy your employment for another 10 years to build up the necessary capital to fund your (early) retirement. And as things were I didn't enjoy my work that much because there were not enough to do as the company struggled to find new customers. So this road to freedom is not for me.
As I read a couple of books on startup such as The Millionaire Fastlane , Zero to One, Rework and Blue Ocean Strategy I realized that a money chasing consulting business is actually worse than being employed. But, on the other hand, I read books like Antifragile, Mastery and 50th Law which really helped me to see the downside of being employed. That combined with the book Mindset by Carol Dweck made me comfortable to go for my own business with the goal of financial freedom.
This realization to start my own real business has been a slow process over the last 2 years. I think that The Millionaire Fastlane book which I read a year ago, the Mindset book and Antifragile was those two which mostly changed my life. But reading all those books (60-70 non-fiction) is very valuable for my process as they help me with my self image and self-reliance. It's like I have all these great teachers and mentors right there on the book shelf to ask. But it's very easy to fall into the trap of doing nothing with all that knowledge and inspiration books can give so one needs to implement and take action also. I struggle with this.
Now we are getting closer to today. I quit my old day job two months ago, was scared and confused for a 6 weeks and finally 2 weeks ago registered to The Fastlane Forum. There I started read the GOLD threads and finally I learned how to get started finding my business idea. And it's really simple. Solve someones problem or just help people.
So that's what I did. I have a carpenter friend for which I built his web site back in 2011. It was horrible, not responsive, no contact details on landing page etc. So I updated it and then called him to come by to check it out. I did not ask for any money but he said that he absolutely wanted to pay for it. I just told him to pay whatever he think it's worth. Will see how that plays out.
Then I remembered that a business partner to my former employer had asked me a couple of months ago if I could build her simple business page as she just started her own company. Remember that I told her that it was a bit to simple for my talent to do that, or some similar moronic thing to say. Reached out to her again and asked if she still needs help with that web site. And sure enough she did. Plan to show her the first draft of it tomorrow. Once again, did not ask for any money to solve this problem for her. But as you may guess she wants to pay me.
Then I registered for a business network locally where I live where they throw a Friday breakfast meet-up every week. There I talked to a guy that I know since before about some sort of web portal to help local companies export internationally (mining industry).
And here we are now.
Being a software developer I have worked as such pretty much since I graduated. During those seven years I've had a couple of different employers but also my own small company. That company has been used to do projects outside my employment as a consulting business. Unfortunately a money chasing type of consulting and the enjoyment of working that way was about zero in the long run. Not a good road to travel for freedom.
So the initial plan was to work as employed, build a rental apartment in our too big house and also save and invest money like crazy. You know what I mean if you read Early Retirement Extreme or the Mr Money Mustache blog. This road to freedom works as there are several examples out there. But it requires that you give up a lot of luxury to be free and you really need to somewhat enjoy your employment for another 10 years to build up the necessary capital to fund your (early) retirement. And as things were I didn't enjoy my work that much because there were not enough to do as the company struggled to find new customers. So this road to freedom is not for me.
As I read a couple of books on startup such as The Millionaire Fastlane , Zero to One, Rework and Blue Ocean Strategy I realized that a money chasing consulting business is actually worse than being employed. But, on the other hand, I read books like Antifragile, Mastery and 50th Law which really helped me to see the downside of being employed. That combined with the book Mindset by Carol Dweck made me comfortable to go for my own business with the goal of financial freedom.
This realization to start my own real business has been a slow process over the last 2 years. I think that The Millionaire Fastlane book which I read a year ago, the Mindset book and Antifragile was those two which mostly changed my life. But reading all those books (60-70 non-fiction) is very valuable for my process as they help me with my self image and self-reliance. It's like I have all these great teachers and mentors right there on the book shelf to ask. But it's very easy to fall into the trap of doing nothing with all that knowledge and inspiration books can give so one needs to implement and take action also. I struggle with this.
Now we are getting closer to today. I quit my old day job two months ago, was scared and confused for a 6 weeks and finally 2 weeks ago registered to The Fastlane Forum. There I started read the GOLD threads and finally I learned how to get started finding my business idea. And it's really simple. Solve someones problem or just help people.
So that's what I did. I have a carpenter friend for which I built his web site back in 2011. It was horrible, not responsive, no contact details on landing page etc. So I updated it and then called him to come by to check it out. I did not ask for any money but he said that he absolutely wanted to pay for it. I just told him to pay whatever he think it's worth. Will see how that plays out.
Then I remembered that a business partner to my former employer had asked me a couple of months ago if I could build her simple business page as she just started her own company. Remember that I told her that it was a bit to simple for my talent to do that, or some similar moronic thing to say. Reached out to her again and asked if she still needs help with that web site. And sure enough she did. Plan to show her the first draft of it tomorrow. Once again, did not ask for any money to solve this problem for her. But as you may guess she wants to pay me.
Then I registered for a business network locally where I live where they throw a Friday breakfast meet-up every week. There I talked to a guy that I know since before about some sort of web portal to help local companies export internationally (mining industry).
And here we are now.
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