This page sets out the terms for using optionalowner.com, how I handle what you share with me here, and the limits of what anything on the site can promise. I’ve kept it as plain as I can. If this introduction and the sections below ever seem to disagree, the sections below apply.
Terms of use · Privacy policy · Disclaimers
optionalowner.com (“the site”) is the home of Notes from an Optional Owner, the free letter I write, and of the Optional Owner cohort. I’m Christopher Schwab, and the site is operated by Schwab Consulting Japan, a kabushiki kaisha (KK) based in Japan. If you have a question about these terms, email legal@christopherschwab.co.uk. By using the site, you accept these terms.
The site describes the letter and the cohort, and it lets you subscribe to one and enquire about the other. Everything on it is educational and informational. None of it is financial, legal, tax or investment advice, and reading it, subscribing or sending an enquiry doesn’t create an advisory or client relationship between us.
The letter is free. When you subscribe, you’re asking me to email it to you, and I send one most weeks. Now and then a letter mentions the cohort or my other work, but there are no sponsors. Every letter has a one-click unsubscribe link, so you can leave whenever you like.
The cohort is a paid programme for a small group of owners, and you can’t buy a place on this site. Sending an enquiry doesn’t commit you to anything, and it doesn’t guarantee you a place. If it looks like a fit, I’ll send you the price, the dates and the full terms in writing before you pay anything, including the refund terms and who you’re contracting with. Those written terms will govern the cohort.
You’re welcome to quote the site and the letter, as long as you credit me and link back. Please don’t republish whole letters or pages, or present the work as your own. All content is © Christopher Schwab unless it’s credited to someone else.
The site links to platforms I don’t control, such as LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook. Their own terms and privacy policies apply when you’re there.
The site is provided “as is”. To the fullest extent the law allows, I’m not liable for losses arising from your use of the site or your reliance on anything in it. Nothing in these terms limits any liability that can’t lawfully be limited.
I may update these terms, and I’ll date any material change at the top of this page. They’re governed by the laws of Japan, where the operating company is based, and any disputes will be handled by the courts there. If you’re a consumer in the UK or the EU, you also keep any protections that the law where you live won’t let a contract take away.
Schwab Consulting Japan KK is responsible for the personal information collected on this site. In UK and EU terms, it’s the controller. For anything to do with your information, email legal@christopherschwab.co.uk.
In UK and EU terms, I rely on your consent for the letter, on the steps you’ve asked me to take for an enquiry, and on my legitimate interest in running a secure and useful site for the rest.
Three US-based services handle your information on my behalf: beehiiv (the letter), Resend (enquiry emails) and Vercel (hosting). Enquiries then sit in my email inbox, with my email provider. So your information may be processed in the United States, and in Japan, where I’m based. Each of these services has its own privacy terms.
I don’t sell or rent your information, and I never pass it to anyone for their own marketing. There are no analytics, ad pixels or advertising cookies on this site. Apart from its host, it loads nothing from anyone else’s servers, because the fonts and images come from the site itself. If I ever add a tool that measures visits or ads, I’ll update this policy before I do, and I’ll ask for your consent where the law requires it.
The site doesn’t set cookies. The only thing it stores is your display setting, light or dark, which it keeps in your browser’s local storage so the site remembers your choice. It never leaves your device, and you can clear it in your browser at any time.
You can ask to see the personal information I hold about you, and to correct it, delete it or stop me using it. You can also withdraw your consent at any time, and unsubscribing from the letter takes one click. For anything else, one email to legal@christopherschwab.co.uk starts it. The site is operated from Japan, and personal information is handled in line with applicable law, including Japan’s Act on the Protection of Personal Information (APPI). If you’re in the UK or the EU, you also have rights under the UK GDPR or the EU GDPR, and you can complain to your local data protection authority, which in the UK is the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Your subscription details are kept while you’re subscribed. If you unsubscribe, beehiiv keeps a record that you did, so you aren’t emailed again, and I’ll delete that too if you ask. Enquiries are kept for as long as they’re useful to our conversation, or for as long as the law requires if you join the cohort, and I’ll delete them on request wherever the law allows.
The letter and the cohort are meant for adults. If you’re under 18, please don’t subscribe or send an enquiry.
I’ll date any change at the top of this page. If a change affects how I use information you’ve already given me, I’ll tell you before it takes effect.
Where I share results, such as the businesses I’ve built and sold, the numbers behind them, or what clients and students have gone on to do, they’re real, and they come from specific people, businesses and moments. They aren’t typical, and they aren’t a promise of what you’ll achieve. Building a business that runs without you takes time, work and a fair amount of luck. Your results will depend on your effort, your market and your circumstances, and they may be nothing at all. Nothing on this site is a promise of income.
The quotes on this site come from Inova Local clients and Local Business MBA students over the years, before the cohort existed. They’re quoted as they were written, with light edits for length at most, and they describe those people’s own experiences.
Everything here is general education, drawn from my own experience. None of it is financial, legal, tax or investment advice, so for decisions about your own business, please speak to a qualified professional who knows your situation.
Names such as TIME and The Penny Hoarder show where my work or my story has appeared. They don’t mean that any of those publications endorse the letter or the cohort.
This site isn’t part of the Facebook or Instagram websites, or of Meta Platforms, Inc., and it isn’t endorsed by Facebook, Instagram or Meta in any way. Facebook and Instagram are trademarks of Meta Platforms, Inc.