Project Plan 2.0

This lesson was taught to me by my father, he was an antique dealer for many years, the successful ones last, and the others burn out quick. Many people have the idea of retiring and running either a country pub, I advise you don’t as it’s long hours and hard work. Or some would setup an antique shop, the plan they would follow was to go to the salerooms and just outbid the professional dealers. The reasoning behind this was if the pros can make a living buying at this price, I outbid them then put it in my shop. Although I don’t make as much profit buying at the sightly higher price I don’t need to, I’m semi-retired and I’m just playing at being an antique dealer

The problem is that the pros soon learn who is new on the block, they then ‘bid up’ the newcomers so they’re paying a high price at which they’ll never make a profit. A shop that doesn’t make profit, not even a little profit to cover costs doesn’t last long, the newcomers would last a few months, maybe a year and then vanish, their high priced goods then back in the salesroom for all to bid on. So although this may be a harsh lesson, remember these pros are making a living out of it, paying their mortgages, food, shop rent, potentially staff and others may rely on them. They can’t be playing around with part-time amateurs – its costing them their livelihood

So although the internet is a big place and it’s not as personal as the lesson above it’s a very similar principal, don’t mess with the big boys, better to find a niche and make it yours. You’ll feel a lot more comfortable with something familiar and that you have a passion for. Turning your passion, hobby, or general interest into an online or local money making project can have several advantages. You know the game, you know the market, you have a passion for the project so any long hours you put in will be rewarding and less of a chore than doing something you hate

In the US they call it a side-hustle, a little job on the side that’s a passion or sometimes what you actually want to do in life, but work and the need to earn a wage overcome it and you settle into the 9-5. The side-hustle can be just a way to earn extra cash, to make the mortgage/rent payments a little easier, to have a bit of extra for holidays, a rainy day fund in case the car goes bang. Or it can be a way to make your passion. A self funding hobby, say you love photography but as we know good kit is expensive, see la few prints on the side and you can afford that new camera. Or you may grow it into a full time job, many side-hustles have taken off and become the bigger source of income, at that point you need to make a decision. Or you can sell off the project and sail into the sunset. It may be something you can turn into a passive or semi-passive income, something that almost runs itself or once setup you can delegate most of the work to another

Now later on this might change as the project gets bigger, but for now it’s baby steps with the small projects. My aim is to earn some extra money, to increase my ‘disposable income’ to make life more enjoyable and as stated to see if I can start to wind down (maybe work 3/4 days a week) and hopefully have some investments for retirement