I’ve decided to start writing things down.
Property, business, bad ideas and whatever else happens along the way.
I’ve never really been very good at sitting still.
If there’s an empty building, I start wondering what it could become.
If there’s a bit of land doing nothing, I start thinking about what we could grow on it.
If someone tells me something can’t be done, my first thought is usually:
“I wonder if they’re actually right.”
And if I’ve got a perfectly sensible business idea in front of me, there’s a reasonable chance I’ll ignore it and start looking at something completely different.
Which brings me to this.
I’m starting a newsletter.
I’ve been reading a few newsletters over the years, I’ve realised something.
The ones I actually enjoy aren’t the ones where someone is desperately trying to convince me they’re a genius. They’re the ones where someone says…
“This is what happened. This is what I did. This went wrong. This worked. And this is what I learnt.”
That’s what I want to do here in a similar and unpolished format.
Because over the last few years I’ve ended up doing a fairly ridiculous mixture of things.
I’ve worked with property.
I’ve run Airbnb/ short stay businesses.
I’ve managed commercial buildings.
I’ve refurbished old buildings.
I’ve got involved with coworking.
I’ve bought bits of property that probably looked like terrible ideas to everyone else.
I’m working on The Eden-field Project.
There’s The Village Larder.
There are buildings that need finishing.
Land that needs doing something with.
And approximately 47 ideas sitting in my head waiting for their turn.
Some will work. Some definitely won’t.
And I’m increasingly convinced that the interesting bit is finding out which is which.
One thing I’ve learnt
I used to think that successful businesses were built by having a really good idea.
I’m not sure I believe that anymore.
I think they’re often built by seeing something everyone else has stopped noticing.
An empty building. A bit of unused land. A problem nobody wants to deal with or can’t deal with. A customer nobody is serving properly. A business that’s being run in a way that could be improved. Or sometimes just a slightly different way of doing something ordinary.
Take The Village Larder.
It’s basically an old public toilet building in the middle of a village. Not exactly the sort of thing you’d normally put on a business plan and present to lenders.
But I look at it and see a tiny addition to the local community.
A place selling local produce, which we already produce
A little bit of character.
Something useful.
Something that could become part of the village.
Maybe it’ll work. Maybe it’ll be a complete disaster.
But I think it’s worth finding out.
And that’s probably the philosophy behind most of the things I’m doing at the moment.
Try small things.
Keep the downside manageable.
See what people actually want.
Then make more of the things that work.
There’s another reason I’m writing this.
I think it’s very easy to look at somebody else’s business from the outside and assume they’ve got everything figured out.
They haven’t.
I certainly haven’t.
You see the finished Airbnb stays.
You don’t see the leak.
You see the refurbished building.
You don’t see the six months it sat half finished.
You see the business.
You don’t see the arguments, the bad decisions, the cash-flow problems or the things that looked like a brilliant idea on Tuesday and an absolute disaster by Friday.
So I’m going to write about those bits too.
The good stuff.
The bad stuff.
The numbers where I’m comfortable sharing them.
The experiments.
The mistakes.
And hopefully some useful things I’ve learnt along the way.
I also suspect that writing it down will force me to think a bit more clearly.
There’s something quite useful about having to explain why you’ve done something rather than just wandering around doing it.
Although I’m sure I’ll still do plenty of wandering around.
So that’s the plan.
Once a week, I’ll send you a letter.
Nothing complicated.
No motivational speeches.
No pretending I’ve discovered the secret to business.
Just what’s been happening, what I’ve been thinking about and what I’m trying next.
Sometimes it’ll be about property.
Sometimes it’ll be about business.
Sometimes it’ll be about The Eden-field Project.
Sometimes it’ll probably be about something completely ridiculous.
And hopefully, occasionally, it’ll make you think:
“That’s actually quite interesting.”
That’s enough for me.
Because I’ve got a feeling the next few years are going to be interesting.
There are a few things I’m trying to build.
A few things I’m trying to fix.
And quite a few things I’m trying to figure out.
So you might as well come along for the ride.
Anyway, that’s enough for the first one.
Next week I’ll tell you about one of the biggest problems I’m currently trying to solve. Turns out, it’s rather more complicated than first thought.
See you next Sunday.
Matthew
P.S. If you’re reading this because you know me personally, thank you for signing up. If you don’t know me, welcome. I’ve no idea quite where this is going yet, but I think it’ll be interesting.
To get next Sunday’s letter in your inbox, you can add it right here: Slight Odd Business Letter