Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tim Ferris: 3 More Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses

fourhourworkweek.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 65 posts

Re: Tim Ferris: 3 More Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses

#31

Post by dzlobin »

StavrosK wrote: post #23
Construct wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real value in Tim Ferriss' work for me is not usually in the actual content (This blog posts talks about where to register domain names rather than nitty-gritty business details, for example) but rather in observing how well he sells himself and understand what people want. He obviously does a lot of research and testing, and his posts are carefully tailored to sell dreams to large portions of the population. He…

I was just pondering getting his book, but then I read the comments here and reconsidered. Is it worth reading? Obviously you won't get a 4-hour work week, but is there anything of value in it?

Buy it, read with a critical eye. Its not hard to look past the bollocks but there are good/interesting things to pick up

Re: Tim Ferris: 3 More Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses

#32

Post by [deleted] »

pledgingto wrote: post #7

"Make sure that you have your business basics down first. Proper business bank account(s), incorporate earlier, record expenses properly, keep receipts, and get your accounting straight. It’s very hard to switch things over later, so invest some time at the outset and get it right." How hard is it to switch from sole proprietorship to s-corp/llc if you keep your accounting straight and use your personal bank account?

[deleted]

Re: Tim Ferris: 3 More Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses

#33

Post by sedachv »

Construct wrote: post #19
beastman82 wrote: post #2

Does this guy bother anyone else as much as he bothers me?

The real value in Tim Ferriss' work for me is not usually in the actual content (This blog posts talks about where to register domain names rather than nitty-gritty business details, for example) but rather in observing how well he sells himself and understand what people want. He obviously does a lot of research and testing, and his posts are carefully tailored to sell dreams to large portions of the population. He…

I really like your analysis. I just had the realization that Tim Ferris is basically Oprah for men.

Re: Tim Ferris: 3 More Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses

#34

Post by lkrubner »

jayzee wrote: post #29
pledgingto wrote: post #7

"Make sure that you have your business basics down first. Proper business bank account(s), incorporate earlier, record expenses properly, keep receipts, and get your accounting straight. It’s very hard to switch things over later, so invest some time at the outset and get it right." How hard is it to switch from sole proprietorship to s-corp/llc if you keep your accounting straight and use your personal bank account?

Are you actually asking?: "How hard is it to switch from sole proprietorship to s-corp/llc if you keep your accounting straight and use your personal bank account?" Not hard at all. If you are a sole prop, American citizen, paperwork in order then it is very easy and a law firm could do it in a couple of k. Orrick has Start-up docs on their website for free.

However, remember that going from an LLC to anything else is very expensive. This varies state to state, in the USA. We formed an LLC in Virginia. Our lawyer warned us that if we ever wanted to go to Wall Street and become public, then a standard C form corp was far more appropriate. And you can not easily transition from LLC to C form corp. Our lawyer told us that the IRS would treat is as liquidation sale and tax everything we had - in other words, it would never make rational sense to do this. It would be as if our LLC went broke and was liquidated and then was bought by the new C form corp.

When we closed down that LLC, there was intellectual property we had to entangle, so that it could go back to belonging to various individuals, all of whom were continuing with their careers. This was messy. We had a highly customized partnership agreement for our LLC. That is the great thing about LLCs - that they allow such flexibility (this, too, varies state by state in the USA. Virginia allows a great deal of flexibility). My advice is, if you form an LLC with other people, put in a clause about shutting down. Essentially, negotiate a pre-nup. Divorce goes easier when everyone knows ahead of time exactly how it will be conducted.

Re: Tim Ferris: 3 More Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses

#35

Post by codexon »

codexon wrote: post #6
jsackmann wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would seem that there's almost always more to the story, and his overall message ("you, too, can have financial freedom all by yourself...now go have fun") might be stronger if he acknowledged that, yes, it's hard to build a company to that point. What I think is valuable is the constant reminder that the business/income-building is a means to an end, and there's a wide world of choices out there for what the "end…

is the constant reminder that the business/income-building is a means to an end, and there's a wide world of choices out there for what the "end" is I think the lesson of the story is that there are so many people and competitors now that running a business/muse as a means to an end is impossible unless you lower your expectations as to what an end is. You must either lower your expectation by living in 3rd world cou…

I don't understand the down-votes. Am I offending someone's vision of Tim Ferris's 4 hour work week?

Re: Tim Ferris: 3 More Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses

#37

Post by evgeny0 »

StavrosK wrote: post #23
Construct wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real value in Tim Ferriss' work for me is not usually in the actual content (This blog posts talks about where to register domain names rather than nitty-gritty business details, for example) but rather in observing how well he sells himself and understand what people want. He obviously does a lot of research and testing, and his posts are carefully tailored to sell dreams to large portions of the population. He…

I was just pondering getting his book, but then I read the comments here and reconsidered. Is it worth reading? Obviously you won't get a 4-hour work week, but is there anything of value in it?

Yes. I mean, I think the guy is an arrogant, unethical bastard, but IF you can just get past that and keep an open mind I think he does have a few interesting points on productivity, priorities, questioning what you really want, etc. There's actually a lot of stuff in the book that I agree with, but there's a lot that really irks me, too.

Re: Tim Ferris: 3 More Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses

#38

Post by mgrouchy »

away wrote: post #36

The people on HN think that the world revolves around start-ups and Paul Graham's philosophies. It doesn't. There are a lot more ways of making money in this world.

I am actually shocked that people on this site would buy in to Paul Grahams philosophies. I mean why would they? This is a community site about startups(at least originally), that was developed by PG, for a company who funds startups(YC).

How appalling.

Re: Tim Ferris: 3 More Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses

#39

Post by hugh3 »

pier0 wrote: post #21

Tim Ferriss started by selling people the idea that they could be successful too. Except that his entire career and success is based on telling people what they want to hear. First it was "you can be successful and you don't even need to work hard", more recently he's turned his attention to lifestyle advice such as how to lose weight, how to swim faster, how to look better. Why would anyone take advice from him beat…

It's the old trick. You get rich by selling people a book that tells them how to get rich. The book says "You should get rich by selling people a book which tells them how to get rich".

Re: Tim Ferris: 3 More Case Studies of Successful Cash-Flow Businesses

#40

Post by PStamatiou »

pier0 wrote: post #21

Tim Ferriss started by selling people the idea that they could be successful too. Except that his entire career and success is based on telling people what they want to hear. First it was "you can be successful and you don't even need to work hard", more recently he's turned his attention to lifestyle advice such as how to lose weight, how to swim faster, how to look better. Why would anyone take advice from him beat…

I admire Tim as a person. He has done an amazing job making a name for himself. Everything he talks about is ridiculously well-researched. He's not a snakeoil salesman. For example, I have a copy of his book 4 Hour Body.. the thing is 600 pages, mentions no less than 50 doctors with whom he consulted while writing the book and endless citations that support what he says.

He has personally helped with some aspects of my fundraising process, despite having been right in the middle of his book launch, and taken the time to listen to me and help me through some situations - both with my startup and with health/fitness advice.

Post reply on HN