Man, it’s been about 2.5 months since I’ve last updated my blog. It hasn’t been because I haven’t wanted to but rather I’ve been so busy and tired this past couple of months that it hit the back burner. The days have been going by so quickly because there is so much going on. Things I wouldn’t have expected ever since I left CSS. I wasn’t sure what my next steps were but things just happened to work out.
When I last blogged, the last thing I talked about was working on selling my mom’s nail salon and water store. It was a crazy process but we ended up getting the nail salon sold but the water store didn’t sell but it was for the best. The landlord was giving my mom a hard time about selling it and in all honesty, my mom can be a nightmare of a tenant so the process ending up being so long that the buyers backed out. They ended up buying just the nail salon.
Unexpected Turn of Events
I ended up getting stuck taking care of the water store because my mom’s plan was to work part-time at the nail salon and it wouldn’t make sense for her to stay at the water store because it didn’t generate that much money. Also, I wanted her to reduce her working days so she could relax more.
The water store wasn’t worth much and the landlord was making my mom install a water meter that she said would cost $7,000 if we wanted to sell the store. If we did that, the profits were basically nonexistent. I went back and forth with selling the store but the longer I was there the more I saw potential in it to generate decent cash flow while being low maintenance enough that I could still work on my primary business, Unwage.
I decided to keep the place and run it myself. My mom just handed the business over to me because it wasn’t really worth anything to her. I’ve been working on figuring out ways to generate more cashflow without it taking up too much of my time. The way I figured was that I work out of Starbucks anyways and instead of getting a coworking space, I’ll just make this place my office. I wanted to products and services that would require very little work but decent returns.
I ended up doing some simple remodeling myself and sprucing it up. I’m adding modern car keys to the product offering and I’m adding smartphone screen repair. These are relatively easy tasks that I can do while sitting inside the store. My goal is to generate enough cash flow that I can funnel into Unwage. I figure instead of me creating all the content, I’d be able to hire freelancers to offload some of the work.
Right now, getting the store up to spec and taken time away from Unwage but once the business is running smoothly I’ll be able to use the cash flow to speed up the build time on Unwage. I’m almost done getting the store together. I just need to learn how to make modern car keys with the new machine we bought and then learn how to repair smartphone screens. I don’t think the cognitive load will be too much and the learning curve shouldn’t be too steep. Once I learn how to do it, I’ll hire ideally two repair techs for cell phones and two people to manage key duplication. Once the store is busy enough, I’ll most likely make the water self serve so it reduces the labor cost.
I’ve also sourced new suppliers for water bottles, keys, and cell phones. Before, my parents were driving out to different areas to pick up inventory. Now I simply place my orders online and it gets shipped to me. It reduces more time dedicated to the store and more time I’ll be able to work on Unwage.
That’s where I’m at with the store. I’ll give more updates once the store is further towards completion. I’m hoping in another month or so I’ll be able to get the cell phone repairs up and running.
Bitcoin
The other significant thing I’m spending my time on is Bitcoin. When I’m not building out the store and working on Unwage, I’m watching what’s happening with Bitcoin. I convinced my mom that it would be a wise investment. She’s made a sizable investment into it and I’m currently managing her money and my sisters. They’ve already seen some ridiculous returns.
We’ve seen bitcoin bottom out and now it’s on the rise. From the low of 3k+, Bitcoin is now hit 9k+. That’s a 300% return so far if you invested at the bottom. I was fortunate enough to start studying cryptocurrencies in September 2017. I got involved in the later portion of the market boom and I was lucky enough to survive the crypto bust. Having been through it, I feel much more prepared now to take advantage of the coming growth. I think Bitcoin has some incredible potential and I think it’s the best investment someone can make right now. (If you want to learn about Bitcoin you can access resources I’ve posted here)
Know Thy Self
Most of my focus and mental capacity is focused on the store, Unwage, and Bitcoin. I’m thankful that things have been oddly working out ever since I left City Storage Systems. It’s been a weird turn of events but oddly it’s been awesome. I have a business that I essentially use as my office. I get cash flow coming in and customers I get to talk to break up the monotony of my day rather than sitting at a coffee shop all the time.
These past few months have been relatively pleasant even though it doesn’t seem great from someone on the outside looking in. Leaving a prestigious startup that was paying well with equity possibility to work at a humbling water store would seem ludicrous. However, when you know your ultimate game plan, the process can seem stupid to outsiders, but it doesn’t matter. The critics and outsiders don’t matter.
I would normally be distraught and embarrassed by this situation but I feel I’ve matured and I’ve embraced it. When you pursue what matters to you, the process can be humbling and you’ll be easily misunderstood. But being misunderstood is part of the sacrifice. But the ones that are willing to be misunderstood get to live their most authentic self. I’ll take that any day.
Trust me, I’ve taken the road that seems prestigious. It gives you the immediate ego boost with friends and family but if you’re being honest with yourself, if you aren’t doing what you feel you were called to do, it’ll eat away at you from the inside.
Fin
That’s the update for now. It’s almost 2 am. Updates will start coming more frequently now that the bulk of the work is done with the store. I’m looking forward to writing more and getting back to reading. Until next time.