Mastermind.fm is my first foray into podcasting, and it’s been a great ride for a number of years now.

I think podcasting is as popular as blogging now if not more so.

Podcasts have become one of my favorite ways to consume new information and keep updated on my chosen subjects. While I still love reading and will always treasure books, podcasts make it possible for me to make even better use of my time.

Before the advent of podcasts, my time at the gym and walking/traveling around was mostly dead time. Now, I just have to pop in a pair of headphones and continue consuming the best podcasts (and even audiobook versions of my favorite books).

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Remote companies tend to hire people from all over the world. This sounds like a great idea to reduce the costs of having an office, as well as have a more diverse workforce and also reduce labor costs.

How is it done in practice?

There are two ways: Contractor agreement or Employee agreement.

Most companies require that the people they hire set themselves up as self-employed contractors and they then bill the company once a month.

As you might expect, some countries are not very enthusiastic about such a setup, as technically speaking, the company should setup a branch in every country they will be hiring in. This is very cumbersome in practice, and that’s why the self-employed route is the most straightforward way to do it.

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If you operate a software business (such as WordPress plugins) or a SAAS, it is important to benchmark your operating profit with that of other similar businesses.

Before we start, it’s important to clear up some definitions:

Gross Margin – Revenue minus Cost of Goods Sold (or Cost of Sales)
Operating Margin – Gross Margin minus Sales, Marketing, General and Admin expenses
Net Margin – Operating Margin minus Interest & Taxes

I’m looking at operating margin % here.

You can take a look at some open metrics over at Baremetrics for a start.

I also asked several of my friends in business and there isn’t one clear answer. The most common percentage I could identify is around 80%, but it’s not always clear what margin they are referring to.

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I have been using Stripe as of recently as it’s finally available in many European countries. I’m really happy with this payment gateway, it’s much simpler and straightforward to set up than 2Checkout or PayPal, which are the systems I’ve used before the arrival of Stripe.

Now, Stripe also charges some fees for processing transactions, although again they are much more transparent and lower than PayPal’s.

You can also get €20,000 fee-free, which is what I’ve done. There is a little known offer that is available if you sign up for FoundersCard, which I would recommend signing up to anyway even if it’s not for this specific reason.

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