Start here

Four situations.
One of them is probably yours.

My work spans a few areas. This page is the short route to the right one, and nothing on it needs buying first.

Already own a business? Make it less dependent on you. The knowledge, the decisions and the work can all move; the question is the order. The Optional Owner is the cohort for exactly that. The Optional Owner → Want to build one? Build something designed for independence from the beginning: a local service business, taught at the school, or a virtual assistant agency, taught in a small cohort. The school, or the VA cohort → Want to think first? Take the letter. One useful idea per issue about ownership, delegation and what the business is for. Free, and it needs no application. The letter → Just exploring? Start with the ideas. Read an essay, look at a framework, or read the story of how a cleaning company became a philosophy. Nothing here needs buying first. Read the ideas →
Ways to work together

Three doors.
Take the one that fits.

Cohort · for owners with a foundation

The Optional Owner

A small-group programme for owners who have built something that works and want it to work without them: the day to day handed over, the business run remotely if you like. The capstone.

How it works →
Cohort · from the ground up

Start a VA Agency

For people building a remotely operated service business from nothing: the agency model I built, ran for eight years and sold, taught as a path. Small group, defined start and finish.

What you build →
The school · from the ground up

The Local Business MBA

Start a local service business the way I did, in the right order: five stages from first customer to a company that runs without you. Self-paced, bought directly, running since 2018.

Start at localbusinessmba.com →

Private one-to-one work is closed for now. The letter is free and needs no application.

The Optional Owner · the letter

Notes from an Optional Owner

One useful idea per letter about business, ownership, and building a life around the things that matter. Written from Yokohama, usually after a run. Free, easy to leave, and it does not sell you anything most weeks.

You’re in. Welcome.