I'm Ivy. I write and edit Fair Ivy, a personal blog about how ordinary businesses make their money, from a Malaysian point of view.
Why this? People pay a dentist or a gym all the time without ever seeing how the place stays open, and I think that's more interesting than it gets credit for. Give me a published fee schedule and a footnote in an annual report and I'm happy.
What you'll find here
Two kinds of post keep coming back. How it makes money takes one kind of business and works out what comes in and what goes out. How I'd choose is what I'd check, what I'd ask and when I'd walk away if I were the one paying.
The Field Guide puts those posts on one table, and the Napkin does one sum on your own numbers: how many customers a day it takes to stay open.
You won't get stories from me. The opinions and rough guesses are mine, the facts come from sources you can open yourself, and I say when something's a guess.
The practical bits
The publisher is Fair Ivy, which is simply the name of this blog. How a post gets made is in the editorial policy. If there's a business you'd like me to look at, that's submissions. To reach me, write to hello@fairivy.com.
