About Adam Beckett – and why you should read this blog.

I live on a sunny avenue in a small market town called Oswestry in Britain, with my Wife Jen and our dog Suzie.

Life is good. I only work around 4 hours per week to maintain most of my income.

Why Bootstrap Cafe?

Bootstrap : to build a business from virtually nothing in order to retain full control of your brand and future. I did this.

Cafe : I’m not stupid. Coffee is the most traded commodity in the World: people like coffee and they like the community to be found in coffee shops. That’s what Bootstrap Cafe is, a virtual Cafe where Entrepreneurs share ideas and support each other.

More about me

I work in commercial energy ( although I could Market anything ) because it provides a passive income which allows us time out with each other and time to stay healthy. I definitely work to live, although we enjoy developing new businesses for fun : here’s our latest

Life wasn’t always this good.

It took using my head, learning by many mistakes, guts, drive, determination and fifteen years to get this far, even though we’re not Millionaires.

If you’re looking to put your health and happiness first, whilst finding new ways to enjoy your work – and work as much or as little as you choose, this blog is for you.

I can’t promise you the Earth, I’m no Guru and don’t care to be a Thought Leader, even if that’s what people say I am.

I don’t want to rip anyone off or tell lies. Really I’m an average guy with a true story to tell, some real value to give and a real interest in helping as many people as possible to live Life on their terms. One person is fine – millions would be great.

If you’re prepared to do some hard work, to think smart and learn to embrace innovation, you’re in for one Hell of a ride. Let’s go.

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On Marriage

On May 11th 2013 I’m going to have the best day of my Life when I marry Jen.

If you asked me five years ago about marriage, I would have dismissed it as irrelevant. If two people love each other, that’s enough, right?

So why get married?

Well, why not?

For me it’s not about social pressure or expectation, we’re not using Marriage as a construct for implied security, due to peer pressure or tradition.

Security is a by product of real love, not a Marriage certificate.

We’ve already made our promises to each other.

Making them in front of other people at a ceremony won’t make them any stronger.

Marriage doesn’t make any sense and it doesn’t need to. It just feels great.

And Life is there to be great, to be enjoyed, so why not?

Join me.

For a while I threw my public blogging here aside in favour of Email only blogs, since I was tied up in building three brands at the time.

If you are subscribed to my blog via Googles’ Feedburner, which is due to be closed down imminently, what I need you to do (right now) is subscribe using the form that will appear below – this is my premium content (free) Email feed – when I publish you’ll be the first to see my new output.

Thank you for your support.

Update April 2013 : this post was published when I threw my blogging teddy out of the cot, as it were. This proved to be a hiatus. Read on if you’re thinking of ending your blog.

>>>

This is the last post at Bootstrap Cafe.

In a moment I’ll explain why and how my previously thought out decision was influenced by a short lived Blog by 92 Year Old George White.

Today is New Years Eve 2012. This morning I picked up a link from Twitter from Pat Flynn to a blog by George, telling of his new adventures, the latest from the top of a snowbound mountain. » More »

Scorch Racing S15 Breaks Time Attack Record : proof that Bootstrapping is the way to go.

If you want to win, innovate.

Yokohama Tyres // 52 : The chase for a record… from Maiham-Media.com on Vimeo.

I’ve driven that message home time and time again and I’ll leave you to ponder this 5 minute record – breaking video as a case in point.

Forget million dollar budgets, they don’t force innovation. Restricted budgets force innovation. That is how you win.

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Money isn’t the point. Pursuit of Happiness is.

If you’ve seen the film The Pursuit Of Happiness, you’ll appreciate it takes hard work to get to a happy place. Actually I’m a Will Smith fan. He’s a Family Man, Athlete and all round good guy in my opinion. (Seven Pounds was another great film).

Hard work. That was the reality for me. But now I have a low stress Lifestyle. Here’s one of my best days.

Morning. No alarm clock, wake up refreshed. Breakfast in bed. A few minutes ‘work’. Note that we’ve also got a few offline businesses that we enjoy running too, about fifteen hours per week. I like to keep free time aside for new opportunities and .. to live).

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How to Save your World, for the average guy or girl.

This week is an interlude; I think it’s time for a new way forward.

Every immediate problem needs to be solved. Everyone needs instant gratification.

We’re struggling financially , ‘austerity’ measures are in place in the UK until at least 2018, people are competing for jobs like never before.

If you’ve been careful with your money like I have, sadly we’ve suffered from the economic downtown created by greedy Mortgage Salespeople and it has to be said, deluded consumer overspending on a ridiculous scale, especially in Britain.

Face it, the way many people were spending was totally unsustainable. Many were obsessed with owning our own houses, buying at the peak of the property boom.

We were wasting money like there was no tomorrow. I borrowed myself, except it was all to build a business which is working out quite well.

So due to a combination of greed feeding unrealistic demand , we’re in a mess.

Is this all down to Human nature? Why are so many burying their heads in the sand when it comes to the most massive and immediate problem facing our Civilization today: Climate Change .

The problem is most people are to busy running around trying to keep their jobs to even consider this huge threat.

 Now try this as a way forward.

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(Thanks to Neil at 366shirts for the inspiration).

A history of passive income : my true story.

I thought I’d save you years of grief, scratching around, trying to build an independent income.

Don’t scratch around, dig deeper.

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Mentioned in this post : Pat at SPI , Chris Ducker, Fiverr, Bob

My Energy Marketing Niche Site Launch

Last week we went through the initial stages of a new niche business site launch. I’ve revealed my new project which should in theory appeal to high paying clients in the commercial energy sector.Having a niche site or blog is important, since it’s the central ‘Hub’ of your online activity.

By the way, if you’ve got any feedback on EclecticEnergy.net I’d love to hear it in the comments section.

But. Let’s skip forward, far forward into what’s about to take off in a big way in my opinion.

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My niche business revealed.

Since getting to the top of Google etc. has been done to death I wanted to skip right past all that SEO stuff and show you my straight – forward business launch as a Live Business Blog Case Study.

This is actually in progress now. It’s part of my Battle for Passive Income experiment , where I’ll be comparing several approaches to get profitable traffic to your business.

My chosen niche for this particular experiment

I deliberated about going off in a different direction altogether with my work in general, but in the end came back to what I already know in business (I supply commercial energy contracts as an Energy Broker Consultant) combined with a passion I have (Marketing and Eco friendly business) .

Now there is a decent amount of money to be made in gas and electricity supply contracts for medium to large business. A good Energy Consultant working with a broker will bring in around £110,000 each year.

Let me state for the record that I’m not interested in £110,000 per year working forty hours per week. I’m interested in leveraging my time by getting other people to market my services as referrers or ‘Affiliates’.

Leverage is the only way to create time and money.

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