Father Sez

I have acknowledged that 2007 was a year of a paradigm shift for me. 

With this has come the drive to be a lot more frugal, a lot more organized in managing our finances, and a stronger drive to earn more money. 

Two plans have been set in motion in 2008. 

Launch our goat farm 

My wife and I have long wanted to start this. Procrastination came naturally as we consoled each other that we had not found the “right piece of land”. In late 2007 all the pieces fell in place. 

A piece of land owned by relatives of my wife came available. This was the only “asset” the family had, so we did not make any attempts to offer to buy. Rather we proposed a joint venture and it was accepted. 

My wife and I provide the capital to start up and operate the farm. Zai, my wife’s cousin brother, (who had been planting mangoes on the land before this), will be handling the work on the ground and manage the farm when completed. 

The farm is taking shape now. The land has been cleared, fenced, access roads improved and the goat sheds are now in progress.  

We have targeted 1^st April 08 as the completion date and have marked 5^th April 08 as a date where we’ll have a small “kenduri or thanksgiving prayers” to launch the farm. 

A little on Zai and his family.  

His family consists of his grandma, his mother, his 3 sisters (one elder and 2 younger), his nephew and his children(two boys and a girl). His family has always been very close to us. His grandmother stayed with us and helped nurse our son and the little girls when they were born, whilst his mother is one of my wife’s closest confidants. (They have kindly agreed that the farm be named after my mother). 

My wife and I both know that Zai will do his best to make the farm a success. On our part, we have to make sure that there is adequate funding for the farm, and assist in marketing etc. 

Once a week, I drop by (about an hour drive from our home) to see the progress. So far it is looking good. 

The company in which I was literally gifted a 25% stake, has secured a  project in Indonesia. (I am writing this post from Jakarta).

This project is for the building and leasing of common telecommunication towers for the telecommunication operators in Indonesia.  

There are still a number of issues to be resolved, and the prospects look great. God Willing, we should be starting work around the same time as the farm is launched, i.e. beginning April 08.  

We have done our business plans for both these projects and there are some spin offs that can be created once these two take off. There is a lot to be done and 2008 looks like it is going to be a busy one. And also looks good for the wallet.  

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Overcoming the fears that hold us back. 

Earlier we have put forth our arguments on why every person with one source of income (employment income) should start a side business, whilst early in their financially growing years.  

What are the fears that hold most of us back from starting a side business? Fears that actually freeze us, till we do not even try to search for solutions.  

I believe that these fears should be listed and torn to shreds. Then the potential of so many wage earners to start and to excel in their side businesses can be “defrosted and unleashed”. 

Coming back to these fears.  The main culprits (I really think that it would be more of a combination), would be: 

a)  No idea what side business to do

This should rank up there as one of the principal fears, or maybe mental block to our starting. Many of us simply cannot formulate an idea of what we should do as a side business. This is indeed surprising, given the tremendous number of resources, (many of them free), giving ideas on what we can do to create another source of income. Websites such as ,

Startupnation.com, Entrepreneur.com’s low cost business ideas,

and blogs such as

Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities WebLog,  Yaro Starak’s Entrepreneur’s Journey,  Brian Armstrong’s blog on how to get out of the 9 – 5 grind,  Dmitry Davydov’s Uncommon Business Ideas that Work are,

but the tip of an iceberg of highly relevant and most useful resources when it comes to getting advise on what businesses we can do.  

In fact, when we read some of the success stories, very often, a spark will go off in our head, saying, “hey, I could have done that!” 

Well, the difference is we did not.   

b)   Lack of Capital 

This is another biggie. Thinking of a business, side or otherwise, often conjures pictures of the boss needing oodles of money to set up and run the business.  Since we are just starting off in our financial lives, and not having oodles of money, the wish or desire to start the side business just dies off.  

c)   How do I survive without my regular salary

It is immediately assumed that we have to leave our present jobs and work full time. Without the safety net of the employment salary to pay our daily and monthly bills, we just tune out. 

We end up saying to ourselves, “once I have $XXXXXX, I’ll start this business of XXXXXX.” And never ever start.

How do we overcome these fears? 

Just face them and eliminate them! 

All we have to do is to find a side business that :- 

i)                  Is based on a doable idea that we think up or even copy from someone else who has done it successfully, (I am certainly not talking about copyright violations here). Examples of these would be a successful side business done by someone else in another neighbourhood, State or Country, which we can emulate. 

ii)                Is based on skills (whether through our hobbies or formal training) that we already have. 

iii)             Has a demand in the area where we are. 

iv)              Can be done in the evenings or weekends when we are free, hence not affecting our day jobs. 

v)                Needs little capital. 

 Harrison in his Journey to Financial Freedom asks us bluntly if we have what it takes to start a side business. Whilst he acknowledges that external factors like capital etc., may be issues, the key requirements are all internal. He lists these as energy, desire, willingness to learn and take action, self discipline, a business plan, and family support. 

The history of personal financial management is filled with success stories of people who started off as gardeners, newspaper boys, drivers, tuition teachers, baby sitters, dog walkers, cooks, handymen, electronics equipment repairers, etc. All of which can be side businesses that fit the requirements listed above.  

Can’t we set up a side business along these lines, and make it our first step to diversifying our employment income? 

And to close off this post, please read this inspiring story about “How to build a four million dollar business with a hundred bucks”.

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We must diversify our investments and income streams – I am sure no one will have any issue with this statement.  In case you have any doubts, you can read almost any book on investing or perhaps just this article, to refresh your memory.  

And it is not by idle chance that the wise people of olden times, have come up with the often quoted “we should not put all our eggs in one basket.” This sums up the concept of diversification perfectly. 

Surprisingly, while almost any discussion on investing will include at least some references to diversifying, people do not have the same stand on jobs. 

Almost all of us plan our financial future along these lines: 

a)    Work and earn money, 

b)    Spend less than we earn, 

c)     Invest the savings and make it grow.  

d)    Repeat till we feel we don’t need to anymore, or don’t want to anymore. 

Hence at the earlier stages of executing this plan, we only have our “work income.” This work income is the very foundation of our entire scheme for financial independence. (You can see why, FMF keeps reminding us that our career is our most important asset). 

This begs the question. Should we then not immediately work towards diversifying this “work income”, and hence reduce risk? 

This risk can come suddenly and in so many ways. Just ask any of the people who have lost their jobs in this sub prime mess, or read this story of an unfortunate, gutsy lady of ex-Taco Bell.

To be sure, we are diversifying this work income by investing and creating investment income. But this income stream comes only in trickles in the beginning.  

Lazy Man and Money has an interesting and very motivating post on side businesses. (Though he calls it alternative income). He likens ideas for alternative income to a virus that spawns itself and multiplies. One idea soon becomes two and this becomes four and so on. Thus setting  us on the way to financial abundance. 

The Lazy Man further reminds us not to sneer at ideas that result in what may seem to be small amounts, like $10 a month. This idea could be the bedrock for the next biggie. 

Brad Isaac’s blog, Achieve-IT, presents this same view with an interesting twist. He starts off by asking us “How to add some fun and excitement to our evenings and weekends and make some decent money too?” This is a powerful way of getting anyone to sit up and listen.

What can we do to diversify our work income at the early stages of our financial lives? 

Why, one good way is to start a side business of course.  A side business that meets most or all of the requirements for a business, except for those things that we, most probably, will not have at this stage in our financial lives………..example, ample resources.  

What, then are the fears that hold us back? We shall explore this in our next post.

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