More of what matters

This week, due to “life”, I’ve only been in a position to do a couple of hours’ work each day. I’d like to report that I spent those couple of hours focusing on big-picture projects that kept everything surging forward. But no: I had no choice but to dedicate the little time I had to the essential tasks that prevented everything from falling apart – like making payments, replying to critical emails, and having a call with my bookkeeper. Effectively, the business has been in maintenance mode. So annoyingly, most…

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Before you go off to do that…

Last week we officially launched a new business. We created the website, got the business cards designed, opened the bank account, and began the hiring process for our first member of staff. Importantly, though, we didn’t do ANY of this until we’d actually been running the business for more than half a year already. In fact, for well over six months we also had no logo, no marketing materials, no formal agreement with our business partner, no documentation, and no plans for how to scale. We didn’t even have a…

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Skills? Pah!

Last year, during a week that will one day become semi-affectionately referred to as The Bonkers Week In Which We Did Everything But SleepTM, a lot went on. While dealing with the purchase of a new investment property, we juggled client calls, project deadlines and a visit from my parents alongside the general day-to-day running of our businesses. Most exhaustingly of all, Rob went on a hiring frenzy: 15 Skype interviews over two days with candidates for three new roles within two of our companies. Given the complexities of the…

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You might not be an entrepreneur… and that’s OK

I’m surrounded by entrepreneurs. Social media experts are entrepreneurs. Web designers are entrepreneurs. Management consultants are entrepreneurs. Accountants are entrepreneurs. Except they’re not – not really. “Entrepreneurs use money… to build a business bigger than themselves. Entrepreneurs make money when they sleep. Entrepreneurs focus on growth and on scaling the systems that they build. The more, the better.” (Seth Godin) If you provide a service in which you swap your time for money – like I do – you’re not an entrepreneur. You’re a freelancer. Using a business name in…

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From employees to Anywhereists: our full story (UPDATED)

Where it all began – a typically tiny NYC apartment

  There’s a brand new update (2014 onwards) towards the bottom of this post. WARNING: a lot of the links in this story are broken. Sorry! We’re working on it! When we see or hear successful entrepreneurs talk about how they “just fell into it”, or how they were working in a cubicle but then their “buddy Tim Ferriss called up with an offer to partner up on a business venture”, or how they were $x in debt and no one was buying their product but then “it blew up…

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