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Hi everyone. I recently finished The Millionaire Fastlane and it's been something of a revelation for me. I feel I'm at a crossroads in my life and could use some alternate perspectives from those who have been here before. It might get a little lengthy...
I'm 33 and live in the UK. My working life up until now has consisted of doing things that I thought were fun, and I've honestly had a great time, but now I want to make some money. I studied Japanese at university because I thought it would be a laugh and ended up living there for two and a half years, one year of that working for the government. It was a job I was really proud of but I felt stifled by Japanese society, and since then came back to the UK where I began working on my passion: music and being in a band.
Over eight years my band progressed from one that nobody knew about to touring the UK, Europe and Japan and making many releases. It's been great and very fulfilling, but my income has always been secondary to the band. The band is basically a hobby and because of the genre we play would never make any real money. I have had jobs working mainly in marketing/social media/e-commerce (specifically in the hydroponics/cannabis industry) to support my music dream. My most recent job became absolutely soul-crushing towards the end and I've now come to see how I was just a cog in the machine, making profit for my bosses along the way, but not me, so I quit. I see people a lot less intelligent than myself making very decent money and I'm quite sure I'm done with working for other people. Right now I have two options in front of me and I'm not sure which way to go.
One is a business I've been planning with a friend over the last few weeks since quitting my job. It began as a conversation and has quickly morphed into something tangible. It's a gourmet mushroom growing business, potentially with microgreens. My friend has been growing mushrooms at home and wants to work as a partnership to grow, market and deliver mushrooms to local restaurants, shops and end consumers. We've actually already been offered shipping containers basically for free by a local social enterprise/urban farm place. If I went down this path I would also like to create a YouTube channel around the business and the whole farm - I think this would be interesting for a lot of YT viewers. I have a background in video editing and I'm pretty good at it, and it's something I miss doing. Analysing it using MJ's CENTS approach:
I would have control
It's not something that anyone is doing in my city
I feel gourmet mushrooms are about to become popular as a food source and there would be a lot of interest, especially being part of the urban farm
My main concerns are it will be quite time and labour-intensive
Also serving only my city really limits its scale
My second opportunity is with a different friend selling cannabis seeds via an online store. This is a business I already ran for somebody else once, and it was probably my first lightbulb moment in terms of wanting to start my own thing - I once showed the boss exactly how much value I was bringing to the business and asked if I could ever expect any ownership, but was flatly refused. I know this industry very well and my friend has a lot of clout on social media, plus he has connections to source niche strains from boutique breeders. Again, with the CENTS approach:
I would have control
The market is becoming a little saturated but I believe we can stand out with superior branding and more niche breeders
There is a big need for it right now which is only going to increase as the cannabis industry grows in general
It wouldn't be quite as time-intensive as the mushrooms and would be easier to automate
As an internet business it has great reach
Brexit is making things a little difficult when it comes to posting seeds abroad (in fact, pretty much posting anything haha), and as a high risk industry payment processing and banking can be tricky. However, I do see potential to make this into a great brand, branching out into clothing, other smoking accessories, CBD etc. Don't know if anyone is familiar with brands from the US such as Cookies, but they've done incredibly well in this regard.
Any feedback / advice would be greatly appreciated as I'm not sure which idea to go with for now. I know that this is only the start of my self-employed journey but I want to create something big that will make me a very decent living for years to come. I know partnerships are perhaps not the first choice for an entrepreneur but in this case my partners do bring a lot of knowledge and connections to the table. Thanks for reading.
I'm 33 and live in the UK. My working life up until now has consisted of doing things that I thought were fun, and I've honestly had a great time, but now I want to make some money. I studied Japanese at university because I thought it would be a laugh and ended up living there for two and a half years, one year of that working for the government. It was a job I was really proud of but I felt stifled by Japanese society, and since then came back to the UK where I began working on my passion: music and being in a band.
Over eight years my band progressed from one that nobody knew about to touring the UK, Europe and Japan and making many releases. It's been great and very fulfilling, but my income has always been secondary to the band. The band is basically a hobby and because of the genre we play would never make any real money. I have had jobs working mainly in marketing/social media/e-commerce (specifically in the hydroponics/cannabis industry) to support my music dream. My most recent job became absolutely soul-crushing towards the end and I've now come to see how I was just a cog in the machine, making profit for my bosses along the way, but not me, so I quit. I see people a lot less intelligent than myself making very decent money and I'm quite sure I'm done with working for other people. Right now I have two options in front of me and I'm not sure which way to go.
One is a business I've been planning with a friend over the last few weeks since quitting my job. It began as a conversation and has quickly morphed into something tangible. It's a gourmet mushroom growing business, potentially with microgreens. My friend has been growing mushrooms at home and wants to work as a partnership to grow, market and deliver mushrooms to local restaurants, shops and end consumers. We've actually already been offered shipping containers basically for free by a local social enterprise/urban farm place. If I went down this path I would also like to create a YouTube channel around the business and the whole farm - I think this would be interesting for a lot of YT viewers. I have a background in video editing and I'm pretty good at it, and it's something I miss doing. Analysing it using MJ's CENTS approach:
I would have control
It's not something that anyone is doing in my city
I feel gourmet mushrooms are about to become popular as a food source and there would be a lot of interest, especially being part of the urban farm
My main concerns are it will be quite time and labour-intensive
Also serving only my city really limits its scale
My second opportunity is with a different friend selling cannabis seeds via an online store. This is a business I already ran for somebody else once, and it was probably my first lightbulb moment in terms of wanting to start my own thing - I once showed the boss exactly how much value I was bringing to the business and asked if I could ever expect any ownership, but was flatly refused. I know this industry very well and my friend has a lot of clout on social media, plus he has connections to source niche strains from boutique breeders. Again, with the CENTS approach:
I would have control
The market is becoming a little saturated but I believe we can stand out with superior branding and more niche breeders
There is a big need for it right now which is only going to increase as the cannabis industry grows in general
It wouldn't be quite as time-intensive as the mushrooms and would be easier to automate
As an internet business it has great reach
Brexit is making things a little difficult when it comes to posting seeds abroad (in fact, pretty much posting anything haha), and as a high risk industry payment processing and banking can be tricky. However, I do see potential to make this into a great brand, branching out into clothing, other smoking accessories, CBD etc. Don't know if anyone is familiar with brands from the US such as Cookies, but they've done incredibly well in this regard.
Any feedback / advice would be greatly appreciated as I'm not sure which idea to go with for now. I know that this is only the start of my self-employed journey but I want to create something big that will make me a very decent living for years to come. I know partnerships are perhaps not the first choice for an entrepreneur but in this case my partners do bring a lot of knowledge and connections to the table. Thanks for reading.
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