What if your business
could run without you?

A calmer way to build a local service business, grounded in a decade of real operation and a practice of letting go.

One considered letter about ownership, useful work, and the life a business is meant to support.

You’re in. Welcome.

Most owners build a job
that owns them back.

It happens by degrees. Customers learn to ask for you. Your team waits for your approval. The useful knowledge stays in your head, because writing it down never feels as urgent as the next small fire. Revenue may rise while your life gets narrower. I know the pattern because I have spent more than a decade designing against it: a good business should become more capable as its owner becomes less necessary.

Read the full story →
A decade of operating. A lifetime of practice.

I build businesses
that don’t need me.

I built Think Maids into a national cleaning company run entirely remotely, then created the model, the staffing agency, and the school that helped thousands of others do the same. I teach the Local Business MBA, write Business as Practice, and practise Zen. I built, bought, and exited four U.S. service businesses without visiting them. That’s the point.

FounderThink Maids · Inova Local
TeacherThe Local Business MBA
WriterBusiness as Practice
Zen practitionerStillness as strategy
How does a business run without its owner?

Lessons from a decade of
running companies from afar

The talk I give on industry stages: how the remote local business model works, why it spread to thousands of operators, and what it asks of the person who builds it.

Featured talkGoing remote: running a local business from anywhere

Work with me
The proof

The remote local model is now run by
thousands of operators worldwide.

10+ years
operating remotely
1,500+
newsletter subscribers
Four
completed exits
Inc. 5000
companies staffed
As featured in
TIME Side Hustle School Side Hustle Nation The Penny Hoarder 100 Side Hustles The ZenMaid Maid Summit + Business outlets across the world
The programme

What if school left you with an income-earning business, not with debt?

The Local Business MBA is a decade of real-world operation distilled into a clear path. You graduate with a profitable local business that can run without you. Not a credential, not $200,000 of debt.

Explore the programme Find your fit
iLaunchfirst customer, first dollar
iiScalea team, a schedule, a name
iiiAutomatesystems that don’t sleep
ivDelegatea manager, not a bottleneck
vGo remotethe business, without you
“I mention your story all the time.”
Chris Guillebeau · NYT-bestselling author, The $100 Startup & 100 Side Hustles
The question behind the work
How do we build useful businesses that create independence, serve others well, preserve balance and equanimity, and leave room for a meaningful life?
Read the principles →
Where are you in the work?

Four doors.
Take the one that fits.

Start The Local Business MBA You want to build your first local business, or give a young one a stronger foundation. Scale Advisory You already have customers and a team, but the company still leans too heavily on you. Read Business as Practice You want to think before you act. Begin with a useful letter, not a sales call. Watch Mini Hustles You are exploring what to build. Watch small bets tested with real limits and public numbers.

Completely new here? The short route: the story (10 min) → the principles (1 min) → the letter.

Try the practice, right here:
one word, held for a year.

Every year I choose a single word as an intention and let it sort my decisions. This year’s:

Simplify.

Fewer tasks, fewer goals, fewer possessions. Most weeks have three things in them that don’t need to be there. Find yours:

Insights

Work & stillness

Video · Keynote

The business that runs itself: the remote local model, explained

The industry keynote: how absence became an operating system.
“
Essay · Business as Practice

The owner is a bottleneck, not a hero

Why the work only you can do is usually the work you haven’t documented.
Audio · Interview

From one cleaning company to a model used worldwide

The Think Maids story, the staffing agency, and what came after.
View all press & writing →

Written from the other side of the world · Yokohama, Japan