Business for Bohemians summary

Once upon a time, there was a scrappy little startup that began in someone’s garage. It grew bigger and bigger, until one day, it became a mega-corporation that gobbled up an entire sector of the economy. 

For many businesspeople, this is an inspiring success story. But if you’re a bohemian, it probably seems more like a cautionary tale. You want to escape the tyranny of the world’s corporate giants – not become one yourself! Fortunately, there are many other ways of going into business. 

Until a few years ago, the Idler Academy of Philosophy, Husbandry and Merriment wasn’t just an online digital learning platform. It was an actual, physical place you could visit. Launched in 2011, it was originally a coffeehouse, bookstore, events venue, and adult education center, all rolled into one cozy space located in Notting Hill – a quiet neighborhood on the west side of London.

There, the author, his partner, and a small, ragtag team of employees served coffee, sold books, hosted lectures, and held workshops. If that sounds like a dream, well, you’re right. Often, it was like a dream – of the nightmare kind. 

If something as seemingly simple as serving coffee can prove to be such a pain in the neck, what about all of the other tasks involved in running a business? Well, there’s no denying it: they add up to a lot of work, especially if you don’t follow some traditional business practices. 

“What?” you might ask. “Me? Follow traditional business practices? No way, man! I’m a bohemian. I do things my way. And hey, wasn’t freedom the whole point of going into business in the first place?” 

Feeling on board with using traditional business practices? Great! Now let’s now talk about business plans and accounting systems. No, wait – don’t leave! These things aren’t as bad as they sound, and they’re going to help you out in the journey ahead. 

The key message here is: Business plans and accounting systems provide you with clarity about your business. 

Hopefully, you’ve been won over to the idea of accounting. You’ve got a spreadsheet fired up, and you’re ready to go! Or at least you hired an accountant. Now you just need some actual numbers to crunch. That brings us to our next topic: money. 

Like it or not, this is the lifeblood of any business. No matter how great or noble your idea is, you’ve got to make a profit – or at least break even – to continue pursuing it. 

Setting the right prices for your products is crucial to your business’s survival, but it presupposes one pesky little detail: having actual products to sell. And that usually presupposes another thing: having enough money to produce the products in the first place. 

As the old saying goes, it takes money to make money. Unless you’re going into consulting or some other field with little or no overhead expenses, you’ll need some capital to get your business started or to grow it to the next level. 

Whether you decide to stay small or go big, the path ahead isn’t going to be easy. Running a sustainable business is hard work, and you’re bound to encounter numerous challenges and setbacks along the way. Products will flop. Customers will complain. Employees will steal your wine and smoke pot in your business’s basement. 

Well, maybe that last thing is just the author’s experience – but you get the point. Now, if you’ve ever read a self-help book, you might expect the final message here to be something like, “Don’t give up. Keep going, no matter what.” But that’s not quite the right advice.