Howdy!

It's been over 2 weeks since I turned 29. I was supposed to send out a newsletter about all the things I'm doing wrong in my life (basically a manifesto of where I'm at so that I can set a baseline control as I make improvements).

So I still owe you that.

I've been thinking a lot about purpose and what I want to spend my time on. I reflect on over-optimization below.

But I've also been in motion. Here are some updates:

🏠 Townhouse Selling

If you follow @learn.through.action on Instagram, you might've seen my story where I walked through the budget and renovations we're doing to my parents' townhouse.

The past two weeks have been heavy on contacting contractors, getting quotes, signing deals, and managing renovations.

Plus there's been a lot of research on what renovations will make us most competitive to get to the ideal sales price.

We're trying to sell this townhouse in order to do a 1031 Exchange for a Single Family Home. The townhouse is in a neighborhood with more low-income families so it doesn't appreciate too much and I don't think it's worth making it look like a luxury townhome.

That being said, we've replaced the countertops, painted the house, updated appliances and plumbing fixtures, are installing drywall in the basement (instead of wood paneling), and reglazing the tub and counters.

Here's the current budget. I'll keep you updated with the next steps as we finish the renovations and start moving towards listing.

💍 Wedding Planning

I'll be posting more in-depth updates on this on our Live Wedding Planning Newsletter, but we've basically contacted and been in final talks with our DJ, Decorator, and Photo/Video vendors. Plus we're reaching out to wedding coordinators.

Subscribe to the newsletter above if you'd like to read the update we're publishing next week!

🛑 Over-Optimization

At my day job, we're currently transitioning to a new sales CRM called Pipedrive. It has a ton of automation features and the temptation is to set up automation for every little activity.

But we're still figuring out what our process is. We haven't executed things manually enough to figure out best practices.

It made me think about my business ideas and how I'm trying to create a membership or subscription-type model business, but I'm neglecting service-type businesses first.

My interest in Malayalee Christian Wedding Planning came from coordinating the weddings of a few friends. I was pursuing becoming a planner but I realized there were already so many people doing that, and planning/coordination is a time-for-money game. (Plus it takes up your weekends.)

So I decided to leverage my skills in content creation and marketing to try to address this industry in general, eventually settling on a niche wedding marketplace.

Well, that hasn't really taken off yet.

I think trying to address the market as a whole is still a good idea. We're slowly growing the audience on our @manthrakodi_ page and getting good engagement.

But I'm realizing that my quickest path to a real business is going to require getting in the weeds. By running a coordination business or a website-design business for vendors, I'll be closer to the action and find out where people have pain points.

Then as I solve these pain points, I can start to automate and make the solutions more do-it-yourself or done-with-you, instead of done-for-you.

Long story short, I'm going to look more seriously at starting service-based businesses.

Appreciate you reading!

Cheers,

Aswin