Invisible Privacy | Online Privacy

There in only one way to keep your private life private (and stay out of the dreaded New Hires list). You must work for yourself. If you are (or plan to be) a carpenter, a sales person, an artist, an architect, an interior decorator, a hairdresser, or any similar profession where you can work alone, I suggest you do work alone. The same applies to starting your own small business. You may not get rich, but you can certainly shoot for $100,000 a year. That will be sufficient to live a simple, debt-free life.

In fact, the absolute best kinds of home-based businesses are those that can be run alone or just with help from family members. Many a small business, although successful in the beginning, has come to grief when the owner was tempted to expand.

Business writer Michael LeBoeuf, in his book The Perfect Business, lists some of the problems connected with hiring one or more employees:

* Your freedom and flexibility will be forever restricted.

* You must give up privacy when an outsider comes into your home.

* You are now responsible for bringing in more money to cover wages and benefits.

* The government will burden you with odious payments and record-keeping chores.

* If an employee fails to show up for work, the extra work will either have to be done by you, or it won’t get done at all.

* Every time someone quits, you have to start all over.

To the above, I would add one more caveat. Judging by what I read in the papers these days, if you have to fire a woman, she might come back to you with a charge of discrimination or harassment. If you fire a man, he might come back with a gun.

(This information is taken from the e-book SKIP COLLEGE: Go Into Business for Yourself.)

Labels: employees, home-based business, internet privacy, New Hires, personal privacy, self employment, simple life, small business, The Perfect Business

I want to be invisible … I paint my
face and travel at night.
—Ralph Reed

In theory, How to Be Invisible covers all the bases but in practice, sometimes a consultant who specializes in personal privacy is required. Here are the reasons why a retired detective and a wealthy widow recently flew to Las Vegas for private consultations with me. (Names have been changed.)

Jim Williams, 65, a retired Seattle police detective:

Jim was divorced, no children, and had no close relatives. His problem was that he could foresee that a vindictive investor named Max was going to file an unjust—if not frivolous— lawsuit against him. Once filed, Jim could be tied down for months or years and end up with horrendous legal costs. The alternative?

“I’d like to just disappear without a trace,” he said. “I’ve got my eye on an offshore blue-water sailboat and I’d like to cruise up to Alaska in the summer and down to Mexico in the winter. The problem is how to title the boat so my name does not appear, and how to get my monthly pension checks and cash them without leaving a clue as to what port I’m in.”

Helen Holmes, 57, a wealthy widow from Arkansas:

Helen nearly died in a major car accident several years ago. “When I recovered,” she said, “I felt like a different person and I wanted to start life over. I’m going to sell off all my land holdings and just disappear, but I need some help.” She planned to travel for several years and then settle down some place “far, far away from Arkansas.” Her two requirements were (1) where to securely hide a large sum of money when her properties were sold, and (2) how to obtain and use a bank account that could normally not be traced back to her.

Both Jim and Helen left Las Vegas with their problems solved. So who needs a personal privacy consultant? Anyone who wants to make sure that when they disappear, they really disappear!

Labels: anonymous ownership, hidden bank account, how to disappear, internet privacy, personal privacy consultant, privacy consultant, privacy consultation, privacy consulting

In the small village of Sequim, Washington, 237 homes were for sale in the month of August, 1997. And how many sales were made that month? Just one. The real estate agents were no longer looking for listings. The only solution was to sell the home myself.

First, I decided to make the sale of this home my full time job. The locals were not buying so I had to snare someone from out of the area, perhaps even out of the state. The challenge was to pull travelers off Highway 101 (at that time, Sequim’s main street) and bring them six blocks north, one block west, another three blocks north, and then west on Williamson Lane. I stocked up on real estate signs and frames, poster board, arrows, stick-on letters, and bought two dozen helium-filled balloons every day.

We parked our Lexus on 101, facing west, and the Buick on the far side of the main stop light, facing west. Both cards had signs and balloons and messages that were changed daily. One day they would say “Cozy home priced below the market.” Another day “Owner will finance” and the day after that, “Custom Home with Shop!” When the traveler turned north, he could see our Mazda up ahead, with more balloons and a sign that said “Left at the next corner for the biggest little home in Sequim!” More signs, more balloons, more arrows, until the traveler rolled up to the pickup parked out in front.

Twenty-seven days later we sold our home to a couple from Wisconsin who had just been passing through. They had not planned to buy a home in this area until the following year but—mesmerized by the signs and balloons—they followed the arrows. After payment details were discussed, they purchased our home on Williamson Lane for list price.

Labels: advertising, balloons, ghost address, hidden ownership, internet privacy, LLCs, real estate, signs

Labels: avoid phone calls, hide sex, internet business, internet privacy, secret owner