Be Your Own Boss

I always receive questions in e-mail on how to actually raise money to start a business. I don’t believe you actually need money to invest, just to have to keep your bills paid and to keep food on the table. Even that money seems hard to get, but it ties in with one of the my biggest pet peeves since becoming a successful entrepreneur: clutter.

Clutter is everywhere in the homes of most people, even the youth. Clutter could sheets and clothes on the floor, or it could be racks and racks of CDs and books. We really believe we will use the clutter we own, and we hold on to it.

I was a pack rat for most of my life until a mistake forced me to change. I forgot about a storage garage I rented (with probably US$30,000 in clutter in it) and I moved. When I realized I hadn’t been there in a year, I went to the place and found out they hocked my belongings to pay for the rent, and kept the proceeds. Ouch!

Yet after a week of being really mad and even depressed at the things I was missing, I realized that I never used them anyway. Over the next few months I did some tests — I started to put my visible clutter into boxes and sealed them shut. After almost 6 months, the boxes were forgotten (one was used to store more clutter on top of it). I didn’t listen to the CDs, I didn’t read the books again, and I definitely didn’t wear the clothes I figured I would. Even more positive was how my life felt when the clutter was out of the way — no dusting, no sense of disorganization and no frustration with just sitting in the room and being calm. Messes made me frazzled for years, and I never knew it.

The next step was to see how much I could live without clutter, so I put the remainder of almost all my belongings into boxes, but didn’t seal them. This would let me open the boxes easily to get at “stuff” and return it to “use.” Guess how often I did this? Never.

I became a sort of minimalist out of one big mistake and a year of trial and no error. I created an eBay account and started to sell much of that clutter at surprisingly high prices. I guess other people wanted my clutter — one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure?

If you need funding, look around your spare room, your basement, your attic, your trunk or your living room. Look in your drawers, in your cabinets and in your hamper. You might be surprised what you have lying around in disuse. I helped a friend just over a year ago clear out his entire 3 bedroom condo, and he raised almost US$20,000 out of selling off items. Sure, they probably cost him 5 times that amount, but never used them.

I’m not obsessive compulsive or frustrated by messes, but I realized that the organized messes are created a disorganized mess in one’s head. Now I like to look around my rooms in my home and see fewer quality items rather than many low quality items. I took the doors off my kitchen cabinets and downsized the amount of cups, silverware and plates I owned. By downsizing that, I was able to get rid of my dish washer and raise a few pennies from selling it.

Look at the clutter in your home or apartment. Count how many square feet it takes, and then figure out what the clutter is paying in rent or mortgage. You might be surprised to find that 20% of your home is clutter, meaning 1/5th of your monthly payment is making sure your clutter lives nicely.

Clutter is a mess in many ways. Clutter took good money and turned it into disorganization. Clutter holds a nice little fortune that could be used if you honestly don’t have use for the clutter. Clutter takes up valuable space that might actually allow you to downsize your mortgage or rent. Try shoving it all in boxes and seeing if you miss it. If you don’t, get on eBay or go to the local thrift store and get it out of your life in exchange for whatever people are willing to pay. You might be pleasantly surprised at the return.