Comment on Can Local Businesses Compete? by Dividendsdownunder.
Of all the bricks and mortar, your parents were unlucky to choose one that became so affected. Local business can definitely compete, it just requires local people to buy their services. It doesn’t matter if it’s the year 2100, if people buy the services then the business will survive.
I think you’re totally right on the service/differentiator either product has to be unique (such as antiques) or the service has to be worth paying for. Business owners have the most to gain from treating customers well, plus have a lifetime of knowledge of their products.
It’s a shame it didn’t work out for your parents, but I’d hope they would have stopped working at some point anyway. I feel a little sad when I’m traveling down the road, pass an old bookstore, and see a 70+ person in there. It just makes me think “Are their sales even covering the rent? Are they just working in there for free?” 🙁
I hope they can fully enjoy their retirement now.
Tristan
Recent Comments by Dividendsdownunder
Labor Day Activities that Don’t Cost Much
Sounds like a very nice and relaxing time FS. I didn’t really know much about Labor day until your description, so thank you for that. You’re right, the way to fix things in this current social environment is not to blame or point fingers – that usually just heightens the disconnect. I have no idea how to fix things, but what’s being done at the moment isn’t the way to go.
Tristan
The Best Retirement Plans Include Flexibility
FS, good on your for having so many different income sources that you can take a huge setback like that in your stride. It sounds like you know what you’re going to do, so you can get right ahead and do it without hesitation.
We are still at the start of our FIRE journey, so there’s a long way to go. Our biggest setback so far is that we’ll have to do IVF to have children. This is a huge set back for our investing plans and how we can get our money compounding for us (it’s not doing much sitting in our bank account). But luckily, we have it, and we’ve started investing early so it should be okay in the end.
Tristan
David Eagleman – Simplifying the Complex
Hey FS, David sounds like a cool guy. There’s an Australian called Scott Pape at the Barefoot investor who is great at simplifying things for Aussies. It’s good to have a few people you can rely on telling you how it is.
Tristan
5 Quick Ways to Improve Productivity
These are all really important, it is extremely easy to be distracted when we have so many entertaining distractions at our finger tips. I make sure my phone is on silent at work so it can’t taunt me as a distraction.
It’s quite sad when we go out to dinner and we see a couple just looking at their phones – maybe a bad first date?
I completely agree with you about being deliberate. It’s extremely easy to just let the time go by, looking through news websites, or finance websites, or Reddit, or YouTube etc. etc. Unless I actively do what I want to do, it’s easy for the time to fly by.
I find listening music helps me concentrate on what I’m doing, ever since I was learning at school.
Tristan
Rio Olympics Opening Ceremony
We recorded the opening ceremony and watched it today – we quite enjoyed it, was interesting to hear about their views on climate change and had some very moving elements to it (loved the Olympic rings as trees)
What did you think of the opening ceremony?
I’m really not sure if we’ll be watching many events, the timezones will probably make it pretty difficult.
Jasmin
