5 things you don’t need when starting a lifestyle business (and 2 that you do)

A very short list

Seldom a day goes by when I don’t invoke the Pareto Principle, or 80/20 rule: the observation that in most situations, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. (Apparently it’s not quite as often as I liken something to a venn diagram, but that’s a whole other blog post.) When it comes to starting a new business, there’s an obvious benefit to focusing on the 20% that matters: you’re overwhelmed with things that need doing, but if you just do the crucial 20% you’ll get there a…

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The big problem with living in a cheap country (and how to deal with it)

cheap hotel in bangkok

Yes, it's a five-star hotel. No, it means nothing.

When we started our own business, we did what so many location independent entrepreneurs did: we flew to Thailand for a few months to keep costs low and live an incredible lifestyle full of mangoes and massages. We’re from a country where a supermarket sandwich costs £4, so it was a bit of a hand-clappy moment when we realised that the digital nomad blogs weren’t lying: our money really could go on for miles. And we knew that even if we didn’t pick up a single client or sell one…

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10 things I now know about The Hamptons

A driveway in the Hamptons

Full disclosure: We were only there for a day, and we spent most of that day in the villages of Southampton or East Hampton – or travelling between the two. Boring-but-useful info: lots of little villages make up The Hamptons, and these villages form part of either Southampton Town or East Hampton Town. The confusing thing is that there are also two villages called Southampton (part of Southampton Town) and East Hampton (part of East Hampton Town). Other well-known villages include Bridgehampton, Water Mill and Sagaponack (Southampton Town), and Wainscott,…

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Neglecting income in favour of curiosity

Yeesh

As you may know, we’re both huge fans of heuristics. And boy have we come up with a blinder for you this week: “If you’ve used up all the standard colours on your Google Calendar, it’s time to take a proper look at what’s taking up your time.” Yes people, we’re now onto “Custom” calendar colours – and have discovered some delightful new turquoise, mustard and purpley hues as a result. We’ve explained before about the method behind our maddening range of side projects – projects we work on in addition to our…

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Worried someone’s going to steal your idea? Here are 4 things you should worry about instead

Oh shut up.

“If you’ll just sign this NDA, and then we can get the project started…” “Before I tell you my business idea, please do keep it to yourself…” “Before I ask for your help with my business idea, please promise me you won’t try to steal it or anything…” Wow… are we notorious for being the kleptomaniacs of the business world or something? Or are people generally really secretive when they have a business idea? What many fail to appreciate is that a business idea – the vast majority of the time –…

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