Jim Tuffin - Comments on Life and Business

Online Business Networks - Do they work for you?

2011-07-11T11:27:00.009Z

Over the last few years we have seen a number of online business networks appear. These include new concepts associated with FaceBook, Twitter and other social media websites. As well as these we have sites such as Xing, LinkedIn, Ecademy, Fast Pitch, A Busy World, Group Site, Plaxo, Ryze and Viadeo. We can also add the dozens of different sites that support offline networking such as 4Networking, Ambassadors, Business Scene, NRG, Peer Group Learning and Business Link. I’m sure you can think of many others as well.

These all play an important part in our business lives otherwise we would not become members and participate in their activities would we? After all, some people spend hours each day online using one or more of these websites to promote their business products and services. That time must be financially justified!

Well actually how true is that - and how effective are these types of online activities?

I know that there are some who swear by these networking sites and claim that they bring loads of work to them. I’m sure that in some cases this is very true, but I also know in many cases it is just not so. I know lots of people who no longer participate having realized that they are both time consuming and produce little or no results.

Personally I believe that being a member of these types of sites can benefit you if you actively participate in the site, blogging, messaging, creating contents etc. Your reputation can grow, or even shrink as some have found out.

My question is simply this.

Do these sites provide real value to you and in an ideal world what would you like to see happen that would improve their value even more?

As you use these sites, do you wish that you could do something that you believe would benefit you, and if so what would they be. My experience show me that many of these sites having little or nothing to offer that is of real value to me.

If you believe that they have been very beneficial to you then please comment below so that others can benefit from your experience.

Regards
Jim Tuffin

Facebook – An incredible traffic generating tool!

2011-02-17T12:22:00.000Z

It’s amazing that Facebook in just seven years has gone from a handful of members to over 550 million worldwide. And there are those who predict that they will hit the one billion members in 2012. Whether that is possible is a matter of speculation but evidence indicates they are on target to achieve that number.

What is really interesting is what it means to the marketing world. Most of us see Facebook as a place to connect with our friends and to send quirky messages to each other. The truth is that those social marketers in the know see the huge potential of Facebook as a marketing tool. In fact it has been said that it is the latest marketing phenomenon and all the biggest companies across the world see Facebook as a major part of their future marketing campaigns.

How does that affect the smaller business?

Well the experts who have been using Facebook as a marketing tool to create traffic to their business websites are reporting that they are stunned by the amount of targeted traffic they are receiving. That traffic turns into paying customers, and in turn those paying customers talk to their friends (on Facebook) and those friends also join that targeted traffic.

No one is saying this is easy to achieve because the process used is relatively new but once you understand what is needed then it falls into place quickly. I’ve been trying to get my head around the whole thing for quite a while now and am still struggling.

Fortunately I discovered an expert on Facebook who is able to help.

Known to many as the Facebook Queen, Jo Barnes is a Brit from Australia who dropped everything she was doing to focus on trying to understand exactly how Facebook could be used as a traffic generating tool. For months she spent all her time learning, trying and testing until she became the expert in this area. Her knowledge is second to none and just a few hours of her time will get you on the right path.

Fortunately for us here in the UK, Jo has agreed to come to London in March (12th/13th) to do a two day event called ‘The Greatest Facebook Show on Earth’ which will teach us all about this process. What is even better is that Jo has said there will be NO SELLING - just good old fashion learning and achieving.

To make the event even more valuable the fabulous Chris Farrell (another Brit) is flying in from Hollywood to join Jo Barnes in making this an extraordinary event which will be packed with information and advice that cannot be missed. When Chris told me of the event I expected it to have one of those very high price tags … but he said that their objective was to keep the price low and not have any up selling as they wanted to build a real relationship with everyone that attends.

I know that the amount of space is limited, but they tell me that it is hoped to stage this event in other major cities around the world depending upon demand. I guess they are looking to become the recognised experts on Facebook marketing and get a large following of supporters.

I’m already there and not only attending the event but working with Jo and Chris as part of their team to ensure that everyone gets the best results that they can here in the UK.

Places are limited but they are still available. If you would like to attend then please click the following link which will take you to a page which tells you all about the event.

The Greatest Facebook Show on Earth

I would like to encourage you to attend as I believe that the benefits are really important. I am not an affiliate and do not receive any payment as a result of anyone signing up. If you have any friends who might benefit from this event please feel free to tell them about it. If you (or your friends) sign up then please email me at jim.tuffin@jtuffin.com afterwards and I will ask Jo to send you her Facebook Video set called ‘2000 Fans in 27 Days’ for free.

Look forward to meeting you in March,

Best wishes

Jim Tuffin

Is Lady Luck Your Mentor for 2011?

2011-01-04T14:12:00.000Z

Well at last 2011 has arrived and for many people this is ‘The Year’ that they will be hoping that they will - ‘make it good’. This is the year when all those wonderful dreams and desires will become true. It is the year in which all those new resolutions will be achieved 100%. This is the year that was supposed to happen last year - but didn’t quite!

To most people these words will have a ring of truth, they know that the year will probably be no better or worse than last year, but they are ever optimistic that things will get much better and that their ‘luck’ will be forthcoming with some wonderful events or happenings that will change their lives for ever.

But sadly the truth is that 2011 will be much the same as 2010 unless they actually do something to make it change. Luck is a myth! It is the word we use when something happens that we cannot explain. Maybe it is good luck, which caused us to win the lottery. Perhaps it is bad luck that gave us some serious illness!

The fact is … we have no control over Lady Luck.

If you depend upon ‘luck’ you will be waiting a long time. So the solution is simply this … if you want to change something then you have to do the changing yourself!

I know most people will say that it is all very well talking about changing their lives but most of their waking hours are already taken up just providing for those essentials that they need. They work long hours to pay all the bills and feed their families, ensuring each day is acceptable to them and their children. They climb into bed each night exhausted, just to get enough sleep to get up the following day to repeat the exercise once again.

As they get older they look forward to retiring when they won’t have to go to work any longer. Sadly when they get there, they find that their pensions give them less money that they are used to, and now they have many more hours each day to fill. Not to worry, if lady luck looks in favour at then, something will happen that will make it all better.

Well the truth is … if you want change, you need to change it yourself.

"But how?" you might ask

This is the question I hear all the time and when I redirect the question back to them they respond with answers like … “perhaps I’ll win the lottery” … or “my parents will leave me everything when they die” … or “I hopefully will get promoted soon” … or “I plan to start a business one day” … or even “I really do not have a clue!”

Well they probably won’t win the lottery, there parents will die leaving everything to the local cats and dogs home, promotion is thwarted when they get made redundant, they have been planning to start their own business for the last 25 years … and honestly, they probably do not have a clue!

The fact is simply this … if you want to change your life, then you have to do the changing!

"Got the message?"

So pray tell me, why do the majority of people just ignore the solution and blunder on through life, never to achieve their dreams and goals?

Well I think the answer is that most people do have amazing dreams but just do not have any idea as to how they can achieve them. Their lives are so busy that they don’t really have the time to take the idea they have and do something about it. At the end of a long day it is easy to collapse in that arm chair in front of the TV and be absorbed by the latest soap.

Personally I have experienced just these problems. I have started four of my own business, twice very successfully … once so so and once a complete disaster. I have dozens of great ideas just based around the internet alone. Some are not financially practical for me. Others are not quite at the right time at the moment. One idea is a concept under development which will help others develop themselves a Niche Membership Site. A simple way to create an excellent income stream that will help them achieve some of their goals by actually doing something themselves and not leaving it to lady luck.

Finally, I have learnt a huge lesson. I thought I knew, how to do, what I do! How wrong could I be? I have now learnt the power of having others help me. The Power of Mentorship has enabled me to take a simple idea, and push it through to a working project. I’m being mentored and I am helping other by mentoring them so that we can all drive our ideas forward.

No longer do we wallow in the quicksand of inaction - instead we are driving each other to achieve our individual goals and objectives. Lady Luck is now homeless! We are going to make 2011 a different year, a better one, one that our goals are achieved.

So if you want to change then you know the answer is simply … take action now!

Good Luck to you!

Jim Tuffin is a mentor for a number of people and receives mentoring from others. He is a certified member of The Six Figure Mentors program and would like to encourage anyone who has a desire to create their own internet based business to join the program by way of receiving the Free Seven Day Boot Camp videos.

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Reflecting on Life and 2010

2010-12-30T10:40:00.000Z

Over the last few days I have noticed a number of blogs and postings in various places about 2010 and the experiences of the writer's of those comments.

When I look back, as I'm sure we all do at this time of year, I tend to reflect on what has happened during the year, what effect the year has had on me and on those members of my family and my friends.

It occurred to me that rather than the lessons learnt; perhaps we should try and compare ourselves today against ourselves one year ago.

• Has anything happened that has fundamentally changed the way we think or act?
• Has our character been modified by any of the events of the closing year?
• Do other people we know see us in a different light perhaps?
• Have people around us had to change to manage our changes (if any)?

My wife Clare, a friend of ours and myself talked about this very subject last night. Clare made a remark about how different I was to the man she married twenty two years ago. We reflected on what I was like and how I had changed. After that period of time it is much easier to see the changes that we go through.

• Then (apparently) I tended to be irrational!
• Then (apparently) I was much grumpier than I am now.
• Then (apparently) I was much more demanding than I am now!
• Then (apparently) I was much (much) more unreasonable than I am now!

Of course, I am only joking (apparently), but later, privately reflecting on the conversation, I guess I have changed a great deal. Those changes are as a result of the process we call maturing. Our sharp edges are worn down by the continual bombardment of life. Our brain slows down and we react less quickly, if indeed at all. We become less grumpy (as there seems little point as no one is listening anymore to our humps and grumps!)

Applying this process over a shorter period such as a year is much more difficult. This is partly because it is so new and that admitting any fault is like admitting that you still have that fault.

However, some years hold events that do make a huge difference. Those events can be nothing to one person yet change the life of another. My experience of a suspected heart attack then being diagnosed with bowel cancer, surviving major surgery, and suffering the horrible side affects of chemotherapy has had an effect on my life this year, leaving a huge scar. A death of a family member recently added to the pain and the complications of a troubled childbirth by one of my daughters just piled it on even more.

But what is more important is the way that my six children, my ten grandchildren, brother, sister, mother, wife, in-laws (some anyway) and friends have supported me (and each other) not just while I was ill, and during this period of recovery, but by the way our attitude as a family unit has changed. It has brought us much closer together; it has made other things seem less important, whilst unimportant things of the past are now more important.

If one year can change us so much, maybe reflecting on each month, week or even day is a worthwhile thing to do.

• Have we upset someone today?
• Did we act in a proper and respectful manner?
• Could we have done something better?
• Did we listen and did we hear?

All these reflections and many others can only result in small lessons being learnt that can be applied each and every day in the future. Maturity is not just about getting older and wiser; it is also about using that knowledge we have gained to better our lives and lives of others.

Whilst 2010 might not have been a great year for me or indeed for you or anyone else, let us at least learn what we can and apply it in 2011 and I trust that this new year will bring many more blessing and even further maturity.

Happy New Year!

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Niche Online Membership Sites … Are They Your Future?

2010-12-07T14:28:00.000Z

My background in the deep and distance past was in Continuity Marketing. That is where perceived expensive products are sold on a monthly basis. You order the product, say a set of encyclopaedias, and each month you are sent the next volume until eventually you have a complete collection.
I started late in February 1981 when Prince Charles announced his marriage to Lady Diana. What we had was simply this … postage stamps from all around the world that would celebrate this Royal wedding. I worked for a company that produced stamps on behalf of many smaller countries and the chairman of the company saw the huge opportunity that had presented itself. Without hesitation a deal was done with Stanley Gibbons International for a new company to promote Royal Wedding stamps to the world.

Now I don’t remember all the figures but over just a few months we recruited over 60,000 people to join the programme and what’s more everything was sold pro-forma. Yes, paid for in advance!!

If my memory serves we right about 32,000 people took up the programme and continued spending somewhere between £25 and £30 each month for many years until they had a complete collection. I think the basic collection had over 40 units in it.

Remember back in 1981 these were substantial sums of money. Thousands of members also took up other collections of First Day Covers, Stamp Pairs, Non Commonwealth collections etc.

I left the programme after a couple of years and repeated the concept with other thematic postage stamps, collectable toys, books, cd’s and many other products. Businesses like Book Club Associates were big business back in the 80’s and 90’s although they changed their way of operating later as it became more difficult to get customers to commit to buying complete sets of books. I was very privileged to be mentored by the founder of Book Club Associates.

What is powerful about the concept is this. Imagine - 32,000 people are invoiced for £29, a total of around £928,000 each month. We knew that 95% plus would take up the offer and at the time of invoice we had not even purchased the product. The money would flow in and be banked. The product would be ordered and delivered and paid for after 30 or 60 days. This made large additional revenues from simple over night investments of bank funds.
The success of the project was mainly down to the celebrities involved. The future King of England is perceived as a worthwhile investment. Lady Diana even more so! Now we have another Royal wedding, also a future King of England, but this time the interest will be different. The market has changed, people view it differently and although a market does exist, it will be much smaller this time.

But why this story?

Well this programme and all the others I was involved with are nothing more than simple membership type programmes. You effectively take out a membership, pay each month and in return for your payment receive a product or service. Most of these types of continuity programs are based around physical products such as stamps, toys, collectables, books, records etc, but that has now started to change. Information has become a major collectable product. By information, I mean organised and correctly presented information that is valued and can add value to the person who owns it.

A couple of years ago I worked with Rob Winnett (another BlackStar) in developing the concept of a Continuity Marketing Centre. This was a complete service which would enable people to sell their information products via books, CD, DVD and video on an ongoing cyclic basis. It had the hallmarks of success but faced major development costs to launch especially as the downturn had started. As a result the idea was shelved and that turned out to be a good thing as time has marched on and now we have much better ways of delivering content in the form of online membership sites.

I rekindled my interest in this area late last year and started to look at the potential considering the availability of facilities such as YouTube (for video), iTunes (music and podcast downloads), blogging software and the ever increasing number of social networking sites providing a quality route to market. Software for membership sites now exist and some of it is top quality and can be leased at reasonable cost.

So what can be achieved today?

Well let’s say that we could find a profitable niche that would benefit from a quality membership site. Let’s say that we want to keep it very special so we set a monthly membership fee of £49.95. We would like to recruit a maximum of just 500 members and will run the site using a product such as MemberGate which provides all the main facilities we need. Members will be encouraged to recruit other members and will receive a monthly affiliate payment for each person recruited equivalent to 50% of the monthly fee.

Once the membership level is achieved any further applications will be put on the waiting list. Members not paying will be replaced by waiting members. Experience has shown that a site of this type and size would probably need one or possible two full time customer service people to manage the day to day working.

With 500 quality members participating in the site, creating content and helping each other, we would be providing real value to those members. Once the membership is fully recruited this site would generate around £8,000 per month (£96,000 pa) after all costs. The owner would use some of that income to add further value to the site, arrange events, promote other products and services etc. The potential is huge. Once you know how to do it with one site, why not have two or ten or even twenty?
The secret of course is simply this:-

You must provide real value! Just another networking site won’t work anymore. You have to ensure that the members are using the site and receiving real benefit. Chris Farrell on his membership site offers free hosting to each of his members for as many sites as they wish. This is real value and encourages them to stay as members.

I know a gentleman who runs a private member club offline which has over 22,000 member’s world wide, each who pay him $120 per year (plus postage) to receive his TEN newsletters that he sends out. They contain real value in the content which is only available to those members. Now I accept that he is rather unique but it shows that if you provide real value then there is always a real market.

A close friend of my family has a private online club which has a tiny membership of just 200 people, the maximum he will permit. Each member pays a simple monthly fee of £49 to be a unique member of that site. If they fail to pay, they leave and the next waiting person gets the membership. My friend makes over £4,500 per month after all costs, doing something that he loves. He told me that there are over 500 people on the waiting list.

Finally it is worth saying that you could plan to have a membership club with 20,000 members each paying £10 per month. The issue here is that the more people you have, the more difficult it is to provide real value and justify a high monthly fee. It would be better to have ten clubs of 1,000 members and charge £20 each or even have 25 clubs and charge £49, £77 or even more each month. Never judge the market!

Over the next few months I will be developing this whole area of Online Membership Clubs and will be blogging about the idea again. In the meanwhile you can have a look at a great example of the idea at the website of my friend Chris Farrell. He provides a host of free stuff and interacts with members via video as often as possible. His objective is to get people to join his site as a paid member (which costs just $49 per month), not by keep blasting them with messages but by building a real trusting relationship first. He provides real value and knows that if he fails to do so, then he will lose members and his reputation would be tarnished. His super hook is the free hosting, that encourages members to remain as a paid member. This works really well because the membership effectively become free after you are hosting a handful of websites, and the contribution of the membership is of real value to you.

You can visit the site through this link:-

Chris Farrell Membership Site

If I can assist you in anyway in relationship to Online Membership Clubs then please let me know. Please look out for future blogs on the subject. I will be creating a newsletter list shortly and will invite you to join so that you are kept right up to date.

Regards

Jim

Would a Scrap with Death Make You Think?

2010-12-07T09:53:00.002Z

As most of you already know I was diagnosed with bowel cancer earlier this year. What is interesting is that my condition and the resulting operation left me with six months of chemotherapy and also a pain condition that is most telling.

Reflecting back on the last few months made me realise that I had been seriously ill and although I never considered it life threatening at the time, it was. I could have died during the operation, from the subsequent treatment or from the chemotherapy. Indeed the ongoing pain issue was so horrible that perhaps I might have considered other ways to die!

But on reflection I never considered any of the events as a possible threat to my existence. It never occurred to me that I might die on the operating table, likewise that the chemo could also bring my life to an abrupt end.

Why not?

Well I believe that we are so wrapped up in our own person that we do not allow those negativities to enter the picture. We inherently believe that we are, as a person, indestructible. We know that things happen to others, but never consider that they might happen to us. We take risks in our everyday lives that if we reflect back on, perhaps should question as to if they were a sensible course to take. How we see ourselves when subjected to such a catastrophic issue as death is wildly different from what we would perhaps have expected prior to such an event.

Does it change how I feel?

Most definitely it does. I suddenly realised that my six children and their partners, the ten grandchildren, the parents, siblings and of course the thousands of friends that I have, all mean something different than before I became a human liability.

How do I progress from here?

Should I take them all under my wing and make good the lack of attention I have failed to give them in the past?

What do I need to do now?

(1 hour later)

Well I have considered the situation and reflected back on all the events of the past few months, and as a result have decided the following two things:-

I really appreciate every one of my family and friends and all the concern they have shown, and time they have put in the make me feel better … THANK YOU I shall never forget it!
I always was a GOM (Grumpy Old Man) and that is, I reckon, why they like me … so why change now!

Finally, back on a serious note … I mean it!

Finding Information via a Search Engine is EASY?

2010-11-05T15:21:00.001Z

I don’t know about you but I get more and more frustrated each time I use Google or one of the other search engines to search for information on a specific subject. I type in a specific keyword and a large number of pages are returned that are totally irrelevant or only slightly relevant to what I want.

The search engine providers spend a huge amount of time and resources to try and ensure that pages returned are relevant to the keywords used. This process has improved a great deal over the last few years but still it is far from perfect.

The problem that search engine providers face would simply disappear if the keywords on every page correctly and accurately reflected the content! Of course that is almost impossible to achieve unless each page is physically checked against the keywords by someone who understands the content.

Two years ago I decided to start out on a new mission to see if it was possible to resolve this problem in some way. After six months of research I suddenly had one of those ‘light bulb’ moments when I realised that I was approaching the problem from the wrong angle.

I was assuming that the existing concepts of search engines - that a user enters a search term and the engine uses that search term to return appropriate pages would have to remain the central pivot – was the only approach.

I had forgotten the very things I identified earlier – that the problem would go away if the keywords always reflected accurately, the content of the page. In addition keywords that were not relevant would not be allowed.
Of course everyone reading this will probably say “Well that is common sense” and read on without really considering the meaning of the actual statement.

I asked myself:-

What would happen if all the keywords accurately reflected the content of every page being searched?

Would it be possible to achieve such an objective, and if so, could it be done at a cost that was bearable?

After consideration I decided that it would not be possible to achieve that objective with the existing pages as Google alone processing over one trillion pages of information. Of course as time moves forward it will become two, three, five and even ten trillion making the problem even harder to resolve.

It there an alternative answer?

Well I believe there is. We may not be able to resolve the existing problem easily or in the short term (if at all) but we can introduce new technology that almost guarantees that keywords always reflect the content, and quality content at that … and better still we can do that at no or little additional cost.

I have a good plan, but don’t have the money to fund it. I’d be happy to give away the lion’s share of the business opportunity to anyone who sees the potential and can successfully develop the software needed to achieve the results or to any individual or business that would like to fund it.

Call Me …. but only if you are interested!

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Affiliate Marketing Comes of Age!

2010-08-27T15:26:00.000Z

Over the last ten years or so we have seen more and more online businesses that recommend products to people in exchange for a fee, called an affiliate payment. This was a great idea as it enabled vendors to get new customers and only have to pay when that customer purchased a product. Today many websites are signing up affiliates to help them sell more of their products or services online.

Like most things, after a while we became used to the idea that people will recommend others people’s products to us. This affiliate marketing strategy has worked for many people, but as an audience we are starting to get wise to these recommendations. How often do we buy something online and when we get it we are not very happy with the result, or worse still feel that we have been 'conned'? I, for one, have purchased many information products, joined membership sites etc, only to be disappointed in what I received and as a result have become quite a sceptic.

So I decided to spend some time and look at what was being offered and what products or services were worthwhile and to try and get an idea of how this 'affiliate marketing' concept worked. Well, I signed up for a number of products and services and privately reviewed them to identify if they were of real value or not. Unfortunately I was not disappointed as my previous findings seemed to hold out in many cases.

I’ve tried affiliate marketing myself and initially found it hard to make any money at all. Indeed I did not even get back what I had invested. Sure, I have loads of ‘free bonuses’, most of them totally worthless and an insult to anyone with even a minimum understanding of the internet.

I did some further research to see if I could identify which people or companies were offering good quality products and services which were worth there cost. What I discovered was that almost all of these people DID NOT try and sell a product or service, rather they offered lots of free information for the potential purchaser to try out first of all. Some even scrapped the traditional ‘long sales page’ and left it to the visitor to sign up to a newsletter or similar, leaving those people to search for how they could buy the products or services available. These people try and make a great impression and build a relationship with the potential buyer, resulting in a level of confidence and trust … and eventually one or more sales.

What was interesting was that the best affiliate marketers rely totally on the quality of their websites, products and services as the main lever to getting more sales. As I investigated further I suddenly started to realise that there was a lot, lot more to affiliate marketing than just recommending a product and sending people to some landing or squeeze page somewhere. I discovered that there is a whole stack of potential methods and procedures that can be used which result in more people buying your products or services.

I’m currently starting a six month, high level affiliate marketing course which looks at the newest ways of selling products online and how to attract huge numbers of people to my specialist websites. This course is now oversubscribed but I will let you know how I get on and what the outcome is.

In the meanwhile I also discovered a fantastic membership site that is operated by one of the instructors on my course. This site has a wealth of information, free of charge, but also much, much more for those who seriously want to make money online. One of the best parts of this membership site is that it is full of video instruction covering every aspect of selling online. As a fabulous bonus all members get free hosting of an unlimited number of websites. That in itself more than covers the monthly fee. I joined because I wanted to find out what was actually being offered behind the scenes, and I have to say I am not the least bit disappointed – it is much more than I expected and I now know that my online marketing efforts will start to produce real results. Best of all these are real people who you can talk too, ask questions and resolve problems.

This membership site was recommended to me by my friend Jamie Okrat who lives down-under, so if you are interested in finding out more then why not go to his site and you’ll find a display add on the front page for the membership site. Well worth a look and it will cost you nothing except a bit of your time.

The potential for selling online is increasing every day, with more and more businesses depending upon web sales to grow their businesses. Jamie wrote a one hundred page plus eBook a couple of years ago which he sold on line for just $9 (US) and he had 15,543 people purchased and download it. Jamie told me that he made more from that eBook than if he had published it as a proper book.

Hmmm ...perhaps it is time to start thinking about doing something similar! :)

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Do Small Businesses Require More Help?

2010-08-03T12:01:00.000Z

In this time of economic problems many small businesses appear to be suffering badly and some have as a result failed, leaving the owners financially bankrupt. I experienced this a couple of years ago and it has taken until now for me to recover and to start considering where to go from here.

One of the issues was that I did not have the expertise to identify the problems that I was facing nor have the skills or ability to deal with them. When times are hard, those who are not as business savvy as perhaps they should be, are almost certainly the first to suffer as a consequence.

It is often quite easy when looking back on the events to identify what the reasons were that caused things to go wrong; however at the time they remained hidden. Many small businesses in this situation often find themselves up against a financial wall, where they need cash to resolve their problems but are unable to get it and suffer as a result.

Over the years the government and other bodies have formed local business support groups which are intended to help out those that face difficulties and need the advice that is available. Many of these organisations however, focus on the larger small business, those employing ten people or more and ignore or do not have time to assist the many one man outfits that are normally the first to be hit hardest.

I tried Business Link, the Chamber of Commerce and some other organisations but got little in the way of help without spending cash I did not have. Now over two years later I realise that my problems were caused because I allowed my business to deteriorate slowly in the year or so before the failure occurred. I failed to ensure that my business was strong and robust and could weather bad conditions if and when they occurred.

Today operating a small business is very hard especially when economic pressures are being applied. I identified some years ago a concept called Mentor Power, which called upon groups of local small business people to create formal relationships together to assist each other in strengthening their businesses and enabling them to grow in size, turnover and profit. The obvious advantage was that the knowledge, skills and experiences of say ten business owners working together would provide a much stronger management input for all the businesses involved.

When we consider this, we realise that it is far too easy to remain detached from what others are doing and to isolate ourselves to such an extent that eventually we find that we are facing problems that are almost impossible to resolve or live through.

As a result of my experiences I am now looking at Mentor Power again to see if it is a viable business model and if it will provide the support and encouragement that small business owners need in the current and future economic environment. As part of this process I have been looking at other organisations that provide help to small businesses and although generally disappointed I am encouraged by the appearance of a new organisation called The National Alliance of Business Owners which started earlier this year and has grown substantially since. One of the great things about it is that they provide a monthly printed newsletter called Business Success which is mailed to every member. This magazine is full of great ideas and is extremely well presented and worth reading. In addition every member gets to attend a free seminar called ‘How to explode Your Business Profits’ which is held in various locations around the country.

Perhaps the greatest advantage is that membership is currently free to anyone who wishes to join.

Finally it only remains for me to sum up what I’ve already said in a single sentence:-

“If you are a small business then do whatever it takes to grow it so that in the event of economic downturn you survive!”

Regards

Jim

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Disabled, To Be or Not to Be!

2010-07-05T09:00:00.002Z

A few days ago we had need to go to our local supermarket so that my wife could pick up some essential supplies for our evening meal. It had been a long hot day and I was tired and not really in the mood for fighting my way through the hordes of shoppers so I elected to remain in the car while my wife did the shopping.

By chance I had parked facing the bay full of disabled parking spaces. I would have to wait for about twenty minutes or so for my wife to return. After a minute or so a car pulled into one of the disabled bays and a young woman jumped out and ran into the store. She did not appear to be disabled in anyway but to be fair she did have a disabled sticker in her car window.

This woman started me thinking about the whole issue of disability and the fact that it seems that today, normal white people are probably discriminated against more than any other group. Now I’m not having a go at disabled or coloured people in any way, I know people in both groups and have the greatest respect for them.

After about five minutes the young woman re-appeared, still running, carrying a packet of cigarettes. She jumped into her car, put in reverse and drove away. Not very disabled I thought! Of course it is not my job to judge other is it?

Then to my surprise, another car pulled into the same bay. After a few moments another more elderly woman got out, locked the car and walked briskly into the supermarket. This made me focus more on what was happening in the disabled parking bay.

I got out of my car and walked over to a bench beside the bay where I could watch what was going on more closely. All the vehicles seemed to be displaying disability badges. Within a few minutes a gentleman, about 50’ish, pushed his trolley up to the back of a large BMW 4x4, and proceeded to load his shopping into the back. He left the trolled beside his car, got in and drove away.

“Well” I though, “he could have put the trolley back.” He did not seem to be disabled in any way either!

The time was moving on and I was expecting my wife to reappear. Another woman returned to her car, loaded it and got in and drove away. She did not look disabled either. I could not believe what I was seeing. The only movements in the disabled parking bay appeared to have perfectly healthy drivers.

After nearly thirty minutes had passed a rather old van appeared and drove slowly into one of the empty spaces. It was sporting a disabled badge just like the others. An old man struggled to get out of the driving seat and was having trouble standing up. I could not help myself - I quickly jumped up and walked the few feet to assist him. At last, someone who was genuinely disabled I thought.

He thanked me, but then added that it was not him who was disabled, but his wife in the wheelchair in the back of the van. He would not allow me to help him extract her via a hydraulic lift to the ground saying “When I can’t unload her, I’ll have to stop driving”. He then added “If it was just me I’d have parked in a normal space!” and chuckled.

We all laughed!

My wife then returned and as we drove away I wondered how many non disabled people who had disability badges for other members of their family always parked in a disabled bay when no disabled person was aboard! It is just not right!

“Jim!” my wife said, bringing me back to the moment, “You are naughty … fancy parking in a families only bay, next you’ll be parking in the disabled bay!”

Hmmm … Who am I to talk?

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Should Everyone Be Entitled to Benefits?

2010-07-02T09:00:00.004Z

In the UK we are faced with a huge deficit which mounts to thousands of pounds for every man, woman and child in the country. Irrespective of how we got to this situation and irrespective of who might be to blame, we are all obligated to do our bit to help reduce that sum.

Now some people can afford to contribute more than others, while others really cannot afford to contribute anything. The new government says that we must get rid of waste and cut back on all services which are not essential. Whatever the arguments are and whoever puts them forward, many will not want to contribute and will continue to do the opposite and milk the system.

Why should people who have family income exceeding say £40,000 per annum receive Child Benefit or Family Tax credits, while there are many pensioners who live on less than £150 per week and get nothing!

I don’t wish to go into the rights and wrongs of this but instead I want to pick up on a point that the Chancellor made during his recent emergency budget speech.

He spoke about the issue of Child Benefit and whether it was right that all should receive it irrespective of their financial position. He said that restricting who received child benefit would result in a huge cost to setup and administer and therefore was not viable. Interestingly we still pay the huge operational costs of the administration of over 100 other benefits. Thousands of people get benefits that they are not really entitled to and thousands do not receive benefits they should get.

Is it not about time that we changed all this?

How about this for an idea?

Create a completely new benefit system to replace the existing worn out system. It would be simplified and centralised and would control and distributes all benefits to all people. Each person who wishes to participate would go online (or be assisted by a local benefit office) and complete a detailed benefit registration. Any medical report would be provided by the doctor, again online and a complete record built up of the applicant’s situation. Housing benefit would be paid depending upon how many children you have and where you live and subjected to a maximum amount per week. All other benefits could be taken into consideration.

Once this had been done, the applicant would be informed about the level of benefit they are entitled to, if any. The amount due would credited to their bank account each week or month. More importantly each claimant would receive a plastic card with their photo and basic details on. This card would have a star rating of 1 to 3 stars and depending upon the rating would indicate what additional benefits they could get. For example if they have three stars they get free travel on public transport at any time and they might get prescription charges paid in full. If they have a two star card, then they get these things at 50% discount, or a one star at 25% discount.

The advantage of such a scheme is that there is better control; individuals get what they are entitled to without having to make dozens of different claims and fill out dozens of different forms, many with the same information. Tax and earnings information should be reported weekly or monthly instead of annually and the details kept against the person records.

Yes you might think this is complex, but look at the current DVLC vehicle licensing system, you can do it all online and they already know if you have a valid driving license, motor insurance and MOT certificate if required.

I always thought that the ID card system was a great idea, after all - anyone who does not have anything to hide should have no objection to such a system. We live in a complex world and whether we like it or not there has to be some controls. People who argue that it is not right that our personal details be recorded are actually living in cloud cuckoo land.

Our information is recorded everywhere!

Why not have a system where the information is kept centrally and the relevant information is made available only to those who are licensed to see it. Even things like our fingerprints, DNA and photographs should be recorded for every person in the country. It would help reduce crime dramatically!

Yes I know that people would abuse the system, avoid being on the database and try and forge information, but this already happens in a huge way with all the various database and systems currently being used.

What do you think?

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Should We Freely Pay Benefits?

2010-06-30T09:00:00.002Z

The new coalition government is concerned about all those people who receive benefits of various kinds every week when perhaps they are not really entitled to them.

We all know that sometimes things happen in our lives which results in our needing help to manage financially. Perhaps that is because we have lost our job and can no longer afford to support our family. Perhaps it is because we have become ill and unable to work until we are better. Maybe we are disabled and unable to work at all. There are lots of reasons and most of them are legitimate and the vast majority of claimants satisfy the rules to obtain the help they need.

However, there is apparently a group of people who have not worked for years and do nothing to find employment and as a result are a financial drain on society. I don’t wish to make judgements against anyone but I wonder if it is time that we become a little firmer on those who abuse the system and do not really try to find employment.

We have well over a million people legitimately receiving job seekers allowance. To receive that benefit each one has to be making an effort to find employment, and each fortnight they are required to show some evidence of their efforts if they wish to receive their jobseekers allowance.

I have to stress here that I am well aware of the issues about how difficult it is to get a job at the moment so I am not criticising anyone who is getting benefits.

Is it not about time that everyone who is unemployed, for whatever reason, should be required to contribute back in some small way.

For example, where I live there are miles of back alleys, strewn with rubbish, over grown with brambles and weeds and as a result a hazard to people who use them. Having spoken to the local council about this problem they told me that it was not their responsibility but that of the home owners on the estate. It appears that although these alleys are public rights of way, they are not the responsibility of the council to keep them safe and clear of rubbish.

A further issue is that on many of our estates and residential areas the level of graffiti seems to be on the increase again. This is an eyesore, devaluing the properties in the area, destroying community pride and needs addressing. Again local authorities do their best but because of limited funding there is only so much they can do.

Councils try and keep roads swept and grass areas cut but the quality of the finished work is never very good. My road is swept probably twice a year, I try and pick up litter off of the grassed areas but it soon reappears. The council would need an army of people to maintain these areas properly.

Pot holes are another issue! Condition of pavements yet another, and I could go on and on. There are probably hundreds of other areas and issues which do not get any real attention because funding is not available that could benefit from some help.

The point I am getting too is this.

Why not introduce regulations which requires all people claiming benefit, and who are able, to carry out (say) six hours of voluntary work for the local council on some of the issues described above. I’m sure that those who genuinely are unemployed would welcome the chance to contribute something back to society, to feel part of the community and enjoy the opportunity to work. Doing these tasks would improve our environment as they are not being done at the moment, and without anyone’s job being put at risk.

This may be extended to doing some voluntary work for local charities, play groups, schools or even commercial enterprises - as long as it does not take jobs away from others. A bonus might be that individuals are spotted as being good at what they are doing and might be a useful addition to the permanent workforce.

What do you think?
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The War in Afghanistan – Is it Right?

2010-06-28T09:00:00.001Z

Another four British soldiers have died as a result of our presence in Afghanistan, a total of 18 this month so far making a total since 2001 of 307. Once again this begs the question about the validity of us being involved in this so called terrorist war.

The argument proffered that we need to be there to eradicate the terrorists who are responsible for attacks against our people here in the UK is not as strong as it sounds.

The major reason why these groups of people are a threat to us - is that we are a threat to them!

Do they attack us because we threaten them?

If we pulled out and avoided any further conflict with these people - instead offering to meet and discuss with them what their grievances really are, perhaps the threat to us would be removed and we can help them resolve their issues with the rest of the world and their own people.

I know that everyone says that we cannot be pushed around by these people, we cannot and will not tolerate terrorism but perhaps we need to stop and think and way up the real costs of our actions.

When I was a child, I was always having my school cap taken and spent half my play time chasing after those who had taken it. This went on for months and became quite stressful. Eventually one of my teachers took me aside and said to me ‘Let them have it. Stop chasing them ... they will soon get fed up and go and irritate someone else!’

How true those words were. My cap was duly returned by one of the culprits and they quickly understood that I (and no one else) would pay them any attention to what they were doing. They eventually gave up.

Like all things in life there is a cost. So far there has been a huge financial cost to us being in Afghanistan, the loss of 307 lives, over 3,000 injured plus the huge amount of stress to both our soldiers and their families and friends. What is the maximum price we as a country are prepared to pay!

It would be easy to say that what we do is what we have to do. But there are hundreds of countries across the world that do not get involved and as a result are not really affected by these events. Of course it could be argued that if every country in the world put in say 1,000 troops then the problem could have been resolved years ago and the loss of life would be spread and long past.

But I suppose at the end of the day we are not called Great Britain for nothing! We have to get involved even if it is at a cost which we really cannot afford. I’m not against us trying to resolve the whole issue of terrorism and subjecting our people to threats, I just question the way we are going about it!

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Retiring at 66, 67 or even 70 plus?

2010-06-24T13:08:00.001Z

Over the last few days we have been hearing a lot about the proposed changes to the retirement age. For men that is likely to start going up from 2016 to 66 and then progressively until the age of 70 or even later.

The issue I have is that the idea is fine, as it does save the taxpayer a huge amount of money, but only if there is sufficient jobs available.

Currently the National Office of Statistics reports that 28.86 million people are in work. If we assume that the average person works from the age of 20 to 65, a total of 45 years, then one extra year represents a lengthening of the average working life by 2.22%.

Not much you might say, but that represents over 600,000 extra jobs required each year for each year the pensionable age is increased.

We already have 2.47 million people unemployed with 1.48 million on unemployment benefit looking for work. The number of people unemployed for more than twelve months increased by 85,000 over the last quarter to reach 772,000, the highest figure since the three months to April 1997.

It is reported that during the three months up until May 2010 there was a total of 492,000 vacancies. That is 5.2 unemployed people per vacancy.

If we introduce a further 600,000 jobs required by raising the retirement age, what will that achieve short of increasing the number on unemployment benefit by a huge amount. Of course the current benefit paid to the unemployed (£64.30) is a lot less than that paid as pension (£95.25) ... so the tax payer will save money (£30.95), which is around £1 billion per year.

My other concern is that if people retire at 66, 67 or later then there will be a number of years when very few people will retire and vacate their jobs. These vacated jobs make way for others to be promoted, effectively shuffling everyone one up the employment ladder, perhaps allowing them to earn a little more money, and save a little more for their non state (and state) pension.

This shuffling effect goes right down through the ranks and ages, making space at the bottom for new people. Those new people are our young people finishing school and university.

If this happens the number of unemployed at the younger end of the market will rise dramatically. These are the people who really need to get work and earn themselves a good living, as they have their whole lives ahead of them.

The issue appears to simply be that if we create additional working years (approx 600,000 for each year the pension age is raised) we need to create additional jobs to absorb those years. We are already around 2.5 million jobs short so this is just making the problem worse.

Pumping money into the state system to cover unemployment is short sighted. Surely what we need to do is create more jobs, probably between 3 and 5 million over the next five to ten years.

How?

So much of our manufacturing and services have gone overseas because labour is much cheaper and everyone is interested in reducing costs to a minimum.

Increasing taxes on a sliding scale on the profits of businesses who import goods that we could make ourselves would help.
Introduce import taxes on all imported goods that could be made in the UK. That’s not on materials, services or products that we cannot make, but on those than we can.

Reduce the cost of production in the UK by cutting bureaucracy, cutting manufacturing costs, business rates and encouraging manufacturing all in areas again.

Using some of that money saved to encourage manufacturing in the UK. After all we are a leading nation when it comes to science and technology, once we were the worlds’ leading industrialised nation until we threw it all away in favour of the service industries such as banking! Sorry!
Surely it can’t be that hard to reduce the difference in cost between manufacturing here in the UK and that of some cheaper nation considering transportation and environmental costs, possible tax advantages and incentives to UK manufacturers.

The new government is full of ideas, but is it really looking at the long term affect of what it plans to do.

Based upon material from Office for National Statistics - Published on 16 June 2010 at 9:30 am

No! Not another Twitter, FaceBook or Google!

2010-06-14T10:00:00.000Z

Who could have possible imagined that Twitter or FaceBook would ever end up as huge multi million pound businesses. But they did - along with worlds number one search engine Google.

But what is interesting about Twitter is that most people join it, and use it, but they don’t really understand what the advantages are or how to obtain them.

Do You?

These strange business models are hugely successful - earning massive incomes from advertising and sponsorship. Income level that most companies just dream about and high profit margins to boot!

When I think about Twitter or FaceBook (Yes, I am a member of both), I really don’t understand why so many people think being a member is a good idea. After all who really takes much notice of Tweets, or indeed what is being posted on FaceBook. Of course when you are an active member of either, you may act differently and get lots of value.

If we go back before Twitter and imagine the scene as the founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone sat around their kitchen table discussing what they were planning to do. They planned to allow people to collect connections with other people and then send those people short messages telling them what the sender was doing!

Now - really who is going to be interested in that? Well, over 50 million tweets are sent each day! So someone is interested. It will die out quickly …

Well four years have passed and it is still growing daily.

These sites are launched by their founders to provide a service to its members. But of course the real reason is the financial gain that the business makes as it grows. This is based upon billions of advertising images, each shown and paid for, either when displayed or when clicked upon. Those billions of images all add up and return huge revenues to the business.

Of course advertisers that use these facilities expect them to produce results in the form of sales of their products or services. If this is not forthcoming then they will stop using the service and eventually the platform will lose it profitability and cause a real headache to its owners. Advertisers only want people who are potential customers to see and click on their ads.

What will be next?

Well if we ask the question as to why people click on these ads and follow the links to purchase products we will find that some of it is purely impulsive, but the majority is because the ad relates closely to the content.

Advertising in conventional magazine has always worked really well. But a business that manufactures valves for oil leaks would be foolish to advertise in a teenage magazine! Likewise if you have an interest in diving and read a diving magazine each week, you are likely to find that there are a huge number of advertisements that are about diving!

How long will it be before someone comes up with a new online concept that allows individuals to only see advertisements on subjects or interests that they have elected? No spam! No emails! No wasted time?

Guess what … they have already!
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Are We Killing Our Young Peoples Futures?

2010-06-11T10:00:00.002Z

We have heard so much about the ‘ring-fencing’ of education during the recent election campaign here in the UK that I started to ask myself the question - Why? After all, all our children are getting an education at the moment and by ‘ring-fencing’ education surely all we are doing is allowing any waste to continue.

Questions really do need to be asked about how the education system works and if it could be done in a better way or indeed if it needs to be changed as a matter of urgency.

I’d like to look at a number of areas, but today I want to focus on just one. That is the issue of how many of our young people should go to university.

Before I start, I want to assure you that I have no desire to stop anyone from doing anything they want to do or stand in their way when planning their futures. Indeed freedom of choice is actually one of my arguments.
Our education system is designed to encourage as many young people to go to university as is possible (Government target of 50%). Yet we find graduates working in the local supermarket unable to find work and taking jobs that those who did not go to university should perhaps be filling.
Why can they not get a job doing what they have trained to do? Well perhaps the answer is simply that there are not enough of these specialist jobs, and those who obtain the best results get the best jobs. Those who perhaps should not have gone to university or obtained a degree at a lower level or in a more general subject area are likely to find it harder to find employment.

You may not agree with me, but let us suppose that all young people could go to university and obtain a first class honour degree … after all if we can improve our education system as many say we can, then that might be possible. If everyone has a degree, then what value is having a degree going to be? We could of course simply introduce a ‘super-degree’ so that those with the very best results stand out.

Although this concept is only fictional the truth is it is also impractical and would be fatal for our economy. The dreams that the last government created when they instigated plans for every child to have access to university with 50% achieving that dream seems fine on paper. The real problem is that it has set a precedent for the future. Today’s new parents now expect their children to go to university as a matter of course. Anything else is not acceptable. The focus is on achieving that dream of everyone having a degree, which then might be worthless.
Sadly, young people who do not do well at school often feel that they are second class citizens and that no one really cares about them! This is wrong, everyone is part of our society.

So what is wrong you may ask?

Who is going to build our homes, check our central heating system or repair our cars? These skilled jobs and many others are absolutely vital and need young people to be trained, perhaps using old fashioned apprenticeships, moving to work in these critical areas. Sadly young people see these types of skilled jobs as ‘second-class’ and strive to go to university. It is time to change that image and make apprenticeships as important as university education.

Whether we like it or not, we need highly skilled people, educated to the highest levels. We also need technically skilled people to do all those tasks that individuals cannot do. Finally we also need those semi-skilled and unskilled people who carry out the millions of low paid jobs in our retail, hotel and caring industries.

No! I’m not getting into a discussion about how much these essential workers get paid! Personally I think it is disgusting that carers and checkout operators get paid so badly.

Not everyone is bright enough to be a doctor or engineer – and we don’t need millions. Not everyone is clever enough to be a plumber or a motor mechanic – and we don’t need that many anyway. Not everyone is cut out to be a supermarket checkout operator or a home carer. But all these jobs are essential and important, and every human being should feel worthy of what they do.

I’ve worked as a company director, as a software developer, as a baker and even a fishmonger in a supermarket. I’m sure there are other things that I will do as well. Whatever the job I do – it does not make me a different person. I might earn £100 per hour in one job, and only £5.85 in another … but I am still the same person.

Crucially whatever job we do, someone has to do it, because it is essential. We, as a nation need to take the stigma out of education and recognise that we need people of all skills and abilities.

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Getting Work at 60 Plus – Depressing or What?

2010-06-10T10:00:00.002Z

My current job as a Data Manager (Maternity Cover) at the well known independent King Edward VI School in Southampton finishes at the end of this term in early July. In preparation for that event I have been searching for a new position.

Now I know that times are tough and that jobs are difficult to get whatever your age, but that is not really my concern. I want to work and even the government is trying to encourage people to work past 65 so that the huge cost of providing state pensions is reduced. I for one have no problem with that idea, after all … if I can continue working at something that I enjoy and at the same time continue to bring an income into the home, then why not?

Of course, if I had a nice fat private pension then I could stop working and enjoy myself even more. Sadly that is not so in my case and many others are also discovering that their pensions are not quite as ‘fat’ as they had hoped!

Yes, I will have a small pension plus the state pension at 65, but that amounts to barely enough to exist on. What is worse … I will have much more time on my hands with a lot less money to spend on filling those hours.

Now please do not shout at me, I’m not blaming anyone other than myself. My point is that I really do want to keep on working … but there is just nothing available and where there is, there are plenty of younger and more paper qualified people than me. Many advertised jobs I could do easily - but they demand a degree or some other qualification, a number of years experience, are only part time or pay unfair low wages.

Experience seems not to count for much anymore.
I have a wealth of business experience, business development, IT and people skills. I’ve even run my own businesses, some with a good level of success and others … well not so good perhaps!

Once upon a time I was top of my profession as a software developer. Today that technology has long gone and the new technologies are very complex and almost exclusively done by the younger generation who received quality teaching and guidance in their chosen areas. I learnt my skills by reading the software manufacture’s manuals … there were no training courses as software development was so very new back then.

The point is this - as my life moved forward my work became more generalised. I moved from being a software developer to being a manager, then to being a company director. The roles became much wider and less specialised, the earnings rose exponentially as the responsibilities increased. This is a quite normal pattern of things for people who have been working during the last 30 to 40 years or so.

Of course if you do these things within some large corporate business then you are likely to end up nearer the top with a great income and an amazing pension plan. But, if like so many of us you do this yourself, running a small business, struggling from one month to the next then it is often very different. Yes we have our freedom; we have the right to make our own decisions but often we operate within our own limited knowledge and make the wrong decisions as a result.

Today’s young people are much more likely to be professionally trained and keep working with the skill sets they were trained in and continued to develop over the years. Companies are bigger, structures much stronger and individual careers planned and developed to a much higher degree.
I’m not scared of taking any job that I can do, even if it only pays the minimum wage, but what does that do to my self esteem. What happened to all those dreams of success … those desires that we all secretly have, to own that special car and country home, or having our own business and financial independence.

As we get older we also have the issues of declining health, the added restrictions that age brings, the powerlessness to carry out heavy work, failing eye sight and hearing and the general decline of our bodies.
These frustrations are not made any easier when we are also hounded by the inability to find work that we are able to do; we would enjoy doing and that pays a reasonable wage.

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Cutting that Deficit

2010-06-09T08:56:00.000Z

Yesterday we heard the new coalition government talking about the huge monumental debt problems that the country is experiencing and likely to do so for the next decade or so.

Cut! Cut! Cut!

This seems to be what is being said. For whatever reason, it appears that we have, as a country, overspent and over provided during the last decade to such an extent that we now have to pay the price of that action. A price that is going to hurt!

It reminds me of what so many of us have experienced over the years, that horrible credit card debt that most of us have incurred at some stage. Yes, we can be foolish and go on a shopping spree and load our cards with ever increasing debt attracting huge interest rates each month. But I’m not really talking about those purchases but about those that we have HAD to make because of circumstance beyond our control.

• Losing our job and having a family to feed.
• The washing machine breaks down and those clothes need to be washes.
• A relative dies and a funeral needs to be paid for.
• You, your wife and children really do need that holiday!

Yes we all have relied on our credit card when things have got tough. It is easier to take out the card rather than hand over the cash – and anyway we can pay it off over a period of time, can’t we?

But I wonder how many of us watch that balance getting bigger and bigger. Then we have to pay off the minimum amount each month which is getting bigger as well, leaving us with even less cash to play with. I’m sure most of us understand this cycle.

The problem is that the situation tends to get worse and worse, and we ignore it for as long as we can. Eventually we are faced with the problem of how to resolve the debt crisis and get back to some more normal footing. We set up a plan to pay back a larger amount each month. The interest keeps on getting added! The amount of free cash keeps getting lower!

Whether we like it or not, eventually we have to cut back everywhere until the debt becomes more manageable. No holidays. No new car. No shopping sprees. No night’s out. No expensive Christmas gifts. Everything we spend, even the weekly shopping has to be trimmed and reduced.

Yes it hurts, but once it is done and the debt has gone, we suddenly find that it was all worth it, and that we have much more freedom to do as we please. We are not paying interest anymore so we have more money to spend on ourselves. We have also learnt a big lesson!

The national debt the UK has is exactly the same. We got here by irrational spending for whatever reason. Politicians make promised to get elected then have to keep them if they want to get elected next time. Whatever the reason, it has happened!

The system is such that no one appears to be controlling what is spent. That is a different issue which hopefully will be dealt with by the current government.

So, like the credit card problems we have faced, the country needs to do the same. It is all very well to say that education and the NHS should be ‘ring-fenced’ but why? We have over spent in all these areas as well. Yes I know that education could perhaps do with more money … I could do with a new car! I can’t afford it, nor can the country.

Our national debt of over £800,000,000,000 (800 billion) attracts interest at something over £65,000,000,000 (65 billion) every year and that is going to rise year upon year if we do not do something about it. We can run our education system for that!

No! If we need to cut government spending by 10% (say) to bring the situation under control then every area, irrespective of where, should have its budget cut by 10%. Yes this is going to be hard, and there are probably some valid cases where this cannot be sustained. More people will become unemployed, benefits costs will rise and the current benefits for the unemployed are simply not high enough to live on.

A compromise will be required. Just like our credit card debt, something will have to go and others remain essential. Currently all children of school age have a place and receive a reasonable education … why spend more? We introduced targets and league tables in our schools. What is the matter with them? They cost a fortune in time and money to record and report, when the money should be spent on educating our young people.

Currently the NHS carried out thousands of operations that are not deemed essential … why can’t the patient contribute or better still wait? Again the target driven strategy of today and the paperwork in creates is just beyond belief. We need to cut it out, and focus on providing real health service just as most doctors and nurses want to do!

We live in a society that is ring fenced with things such as ‘Health & Safety’. Now I am not suggesting that we should do away with it, but it has got out of control. We as individuals need to start taking responsibility for what we do. If you think things are bad here … just spend a few days in Mumbai.

Perhaps higher taxes are the answer. I don’t support the argument that anyone who earns less than £10,000 should not pay any tax. We all live here, we should all contribute something, however little we earn. I think it is better to do that so we all understand the needs of the country. If necessary give those lower paid more financial support, but they should all contribute.

I could go on and on but I’m running out of passion and desire to change it!

Let’s get out of this situation, however hard it may be and vow never to go back here again. We are all responsible for our country and we should all take that responsibility seriously.

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Employing 18 to 25 year olds - Is it fair?

2010-06-08T09:06:00.001Z

The previous Government decided that there were to many young people unemployed and as a result they would introduce a scheme to effectively guarantee 18 to 25 year olds who had been out of work for 12 months a job.

The scheme provides upto £6,500 per person given a job. That is equivalent of just over £3 per hour for a full time worker. If you owned a supermarket paying £6 per hour, would you be tempted to take on some of these young people and save £3 per hour in employment cost? With wages being one of the highest costs to a supermarket, will we see profits double for £3 billion to £6 billion? :)

My concern is that if any government scheme or indeed any other initiative that is introduced that subsidises the cost of employing someone (whatever their age) results in employers taking on people from that age group.

Great you might say, that is the objective!

Sadly the fact is simply this … there is a limited amount of work to be done, and therefore a limited number of people are required to carry out that work. If an employer can get someone to meet some of their employment costs they will do so … replacing someone else who they cannot get help with, with someone who they can.

If there is say, 25 million jobs and 30 million people wanting to work, then however you look at it, 5 million won’t be working. What worries me is if 170,000 jobs are going to go to younger people, does that mean that 170,000 older people will lose theirs?

New initiatives should focus on CREATING NEW jobs. Perhaps one approach would be to restrict the amount of goods that are imported, and get back into manufacturing again. Long term being a provider of essentially ’service’ jobs just will not work.

+

Get 3 Free Issues of Mike Filsaime's Newsletter

2010-06-07T10:25:00.000Z

Hey guys,
It's true!
You can get 3 FREE copies of Mike Filsaime's MDC Monthly.
Mike Filsaime's Newsletter Click Here
Mike Filsaime is using a new way to spread the word.
He is not asking for any tell a friend of even an OPT-IN
He is experimenting with a new type of Social Viral Marketing that appears to get him backlinks to his site just for sharing the word.
Mike Filsaime's Newsletter Click Here
This seems to be the truest form of Viral marketing I have seen yet. It uses social media and blogs to get the "news" out about something rather than
Tell-A-Friends etc.
But the main thing I want to share with you is that you can get 3 Kick-Butt copies of his latest newsletter and you don't have to pay $89.00 to get it.
Just click the link below and it is yours Free!
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P.S. - Even if you THINK you are not interested in his newsletters (Which are pretty good from what I see) I suggest you give it a shot for 2 reasons. 1- You may be surprised at the quality. And 2- Wait until you see how he is trying this new viral marketing.

Should we Treat Women as Equals to Men?

2010-05-21T12:45:00.000Z

Over the last few years we are constantly being reminded that men and women should be treated as equals. We are supposed to pay women at the same rate as men, offer the same employment benefits etc.

The retirement age for women in the UK is slowly rising to 65 to match that of men, and then onward and upward until it hits the new ceiling proposed for everyone to retire at.

If not treating women as equal to men is wrong, then not treating men as not equal to women should equally be wrong!

Women, who are 60 this year, retire and get a state pension, but if you’re a man you have to wait another five years!

So much for being equal!

Affiliate Marketing Secrets

2010-05-13T13:28:00.001Z

One of the easiest and fastest way to make money online in through affiliate marketing. This is when you send visitors to someone else's product sales page, they make the sale and deliver the product, and you get a percentage of the sale price as you commission (usually 50% or more for digital products).

The benefits of this are

You can get started almost immediately because you don't have to create a product, write the sales page, design the website, develop marketing materials, or set up the ordering, billing & delivery system.
You have almost no investment of time because you don't have to do the customer support or deal with billing or technical issues.
You have nearly zero risk because you already know the product sells. So if you send visitors you will get paid.

Looking at these benefits, it's clear that affiliate marketing is the way to go!

The downside is...

After all your hard work of generating traffic to the sales page, you will never see any of those visitors again. Most of them will not buy on their first visit, which means you're losing over 90% of the traffic right off the top. And of the 10% or less that do buy, the product owner will be able to sell to them again, but you will not.

What's the solution?

Simply put, you need to capture the name and email of your visitors *before* sending them to the product sales page. This way you can follow up with them and keep sending them back to the sales page to increase your chances of making the sale. And if you're really on top of your game, you'll then send to a pre-sales page in between.
Here's what these affiliate marketing strategies will do for you:

You'll be building your own list of potential customers that you can market to again and again.
You'll be pre-selling them by providing valuable information and then casually linking to the product sales page in the context of this information.

In order to set a system like this up, you will need the following affiliate marketing tools:

A Video Squeeze Page (with video)
One or more content-rich Pre-Selling Pages
At least a 5-Part Email Followup Series

The video squeeze page is where you'll direct your traffic instead of directly to the product sales page. It captures the name and email of your visitors and puts them into your autoresponder, which then begins sending out the 5-part email series. Then it redirects them to your pre-selling pages after they subscribe to your email series.

All of this together increases your chances of making the sale by up to 500% so it's well worth the effort of setting it up. And once it's set up, it runs automatically - you just keep sending visitors to the squeeze page.

If you don't have the time or expertise to set it all up yourself, you can use something like Affiliate Silver Bullet. Services like this design the enter system (the video, the video squeeze page, the email series, the content pages, etc). The benefit is that it's much less expensive then you could do it yourself, and it's instantly set up. The downside is that other people will be using the same affiliate tools as you. But the internet is pretty big, so this isn't much of a concern.

The other route you can take is to hire people on Elance to create and implement the various aspects for you. Either way, it's an important step that you need to take if you're going to be serious about your business.

A Christmas Gift

2009-12-10T12:18:00.001Z

With November well over now and our thoughts are now on Christmas - and the New Year.
I just wanted to recommend the following to you as a sort of Christmas gift. I'm a member and there is so much stuff on this Membership site that I am still ploughing through it and learning lots of new things. If you are interested in making money via the Internet then this is very likely one of the best places to belong to.

So Jeremy Gislason has devised a sizzling, take-it-to-the-bank package, just for you, to make sure 2010 can be your best year yet.
If you're in a hurry, this the fast link to success:

Privileged Memberships

You'll have a ball.

It really is a complete no-brainer, because he's giving you a lifetime's top level access to his top ten, five-start membership sites. What's more...

If you hit this link: Privileged Memberships right away, you'll be able to take a full 30 days to test drive it all. And, here's the advantage it gives you...

Because you're getting a boatload of Master Reseller and other licenses on red hot products, such as books, courses, videos and software (and other items too hot to mention in an open blog), which you can use to pour cash straight into your PayPal account.

That way, when the 30 days trial is up, you'll not only have enough to cover the pitifully tiny payment for all this PLUS enough left over for the best ever New Year's party.

But I must WARN YOU: this is such a lucrative giveaway, he's naturally having to severely limit who gets on board. So, don't waste another minute before you go to:

Privileged Memberships

Regards

Jim

Is It Really Our Right?

2009-12-10T08:24:00.006Z

In light of the issues facing the world with Climate Change and the predicted growth of the world’s population to over 20 billion within 100 years, is it not time to start thinking about some possible solutions.

As a consequence of my previous blog 'Is Climate Control Really the Issue?' I received a number of messages from people who thought that perhaps I was suggesting that there should be some controls on who is allowed to have children and who is not. This idea had not actually crossed my mind but now that it has been presented - perhaps it is one way of solving some of the problems.

We automatically assume that it is our right to have children and no one should be able to take that right away from us even if it means that indirectly it might result in the over population of the earth and perhaps the demise of millions of people.

In the same way we tend to believe that we have the right to speak our mind. In practise we don’t! Well we can - but might have to face the consequences of what we say! 

Is it a correct belief that we should assume that we have the absolute right to have as many children as we wish or the right to say what we want when we want? Has anyone really challenged these unwritten laws?

When I think about it, I’m not sure that any of us have the right to put the world at risk just because we want to have one or more children. Currently the world average population growth rate is 1.12% per year. That means that in 100 years time the population will have grown to 20.8 billion. That’s quite a lot of people!

If we take this into our own hands and decide it is our right to have as many children as we want – let’s say that the annual population increase doubles to just 2.24%. That would see a world population in 2109 of just over 64 billion people, a three fold increase on what is anticipated and ten times more than reside here at the moment.

But here is the real worry. If that increase doubled again to 4.48% annum, we would have a staggering 584 billion people within 100 years, an 87 times increase over the current levels. I won’t go any further but it does show that even small changes can make a huge difference.

If every person restricted the number of children they produce to just one (two per couple) the growth would be much reduced. We have to remember there are millions of younger people who have yet to add to the population statistics over the next 25 to 30 years. Once that has happened the increase rate would be reduced substantially.

It is very easy for people to say that if they want six children they will have six children – it is their right, but is it?

If we take a look at the animal kingdom, Mother Nature seems to have control. If a lioness produces too many young when food is short, they ultimately go hungry and die. If an area of jungle gets over populated, the animals fight each other until the balance is restored.

We human beings will do everything possible to lengthen our lives. We have successful reduced or eradicated many illnesses and diseases that naturally helped reduce the population. We used to fight each other a lot more, thus losing more people.

Medical advances can keep people alive even when they are very elderly and sick. Ultimately can we expect people to live to be 100 or 120 or even longer? This would definitely exasperate the situation even more.

But are there any other options?

If we look forward to the future, to when the population has grown to say 100 or 200 billion, and the sheer number of people is just more than the earth can sustain.

What then?

Do we send the undesirables to the Moon?

Do we allow the rich to go to Mars?

Well these are a few possibilities we can develop if the necessary technology to get to these places, especially in light of the shrinking fuel reserves, are built. Of course only a few will be able to go leaving the vast majority here on earth starving and dying.

Ah!

Perhaps that is the solution … dying!

..

Is Climate Control Really the Issue?

2009-12-07T11:24:00.005Z

Today it is estimated that there will be 6,842,771,203 (6.8 billion) people living on earth by the end of this month, December 2009. This estimate is based upon the latest figures and the lowest suggested growth estimate available - an annual net population increase of just 1.12% across the world year upon year.

If we apply this 1.12% per annum increase to the current population and compound it up, in just 100 years, that is the end of December 2109, the world will be home to 20,841,938,636 (20.8 billion) people, a real increase of just over 211% on today’s estimated figure. That is a massive three times as many people as today, living, breathing, eating and needing to be housed.

If the level of CO2 being produced by the existing 6.8 billion people is already more than the world’s environment can cope with, what real reductions would we have to achieve to ensure that the total emissions in 2109 are less than they are today? Allowing for the tripling of the population, then we will have to reduce our overall production of CO2 gases by over 70% per person. Could you manage using 70% less petrol, or 70% less electricity? That is just the cap of the iceberg!

This is an important question, but perhaps even more important is the question asking just how we will feed and house all these people, let alone doing it and decreasing the total amount of emissions given off as well?

When we consider that the estimated oil and natural gas reserves are likely to have been exhausted well before 2109, and the estimated 150 years supply of coal (at today’s consumption rates) will probably be nearly at its end as demand grows to replace oil and gas, this will make the situation even worse. Even if these figures are wrong, no one is going to deny that this isn’t going to happen at some stage in the future.

Naturally new improved forms of renewable energy, advance nuclear power etc will be discovered and brought into production. A huge proportion of this new power will be in the form of generated electricity and we need to find new ways to use it. We are very reliant on fossil fuels for oil, lubricants, chemicals, medicine, road surfaces and many other items.

There are five main types of renewable energy, namely solar power, wind power, hydropower, biomass energy and geothermal power. All these have their issues and they all result in production of electricity. Biomass involves the burning of bio material to produce heat, steam and electricity and geothermal, the extraction of heat from inner earth.

We also have Bio Fuels, which basically means that oils can be extracted from plants or other organic material such as algae, or fermented to produce alcohol type products. The issue here is that we would need vast tracts of land (or sea) handed over to producing the required crops and with the anticipated huge increase in demand for food production this is likely to result in a massive clash between food and fuel production and demand.

Because of the nature of machinery with its moving parts, there will always be a demand for lubricants to keep them working, and the output of the bio fuel industry is likely to be totally consumed by this market.

As the world population grows, the demands on these declining fuel resources will grow as well, reducing the length of time we can expect to have them available. The use of oil, natural gas and particularly coal contributes in a big way to greenhouse gases and just make the situation even more difficult to control.

The estimated population growth in the UK is around 0.6% per annum, about half of the worldwide average, but this still means that by 2109 the population in the UK will have risen from the current 61,708,895 to 113,590,446 an increase of nearly 85% on today’s figures.

In the UK we already have a problem producing all the food we require, importing large amounts from other countries by sea and air. If we are to reduce pollution then that level of importing will have to be reduced dramatically, and we as a country will have to produce a great deal more.

Allowing that we will always have to import food that can only be grown in other climate areas, perhaps we need to investigate and research ways of producing some these items ourselves. For example, with the increasing temperature over the 100 years, perhaps we could grow our own coffee thus saving the need to import it.

Sadly, our education, political and business environments do not appear to be taking much notice of what is happening and especially what is going to happen over the next 100 years. Are they interested in investing in the production of some of the imported food types, new energy friendly machinery, improved vehicles and generally recognising the need to start taking action now?

And what about us the normal people on the street?

Can you imagine what it would be like if there were twice as many vehicles on the roads. Twice as many trains - requiring more railway lines and stations, stations with car parks twice their current size. What about planes, twice as many planes. More runways, more noise … ah … thankfully no, there will be no fuel for their engines!

Twice as many people in the supermarket on Saturday, twice as many houses, twice as many jobs, twice as many children, twice as many pensioners (perhaps even more as medicine and health levels improve) … the list goes on and on.

Do we as individuals have a responsibly to do something now?

Of course none of us will be around to see the outcome and therefore will not be involved or affected by what is going to happen. Indeed by the time we get to 2109 things might have change dramatically for the better, and the predicted outcome might not be anywhere near as bad … but just maybe it will be even worse – especially as we all love talking about these things and not quite so keen in getting involved and doing something.

Politics : Learn from Mother Nature?

2009-10-13T14:55:00.000Z

Whose fault is it that the UK is in such a terrible financial and economic mess? Is it the bankers, the politicians, businesses, world affairs or some other force we do not understand?

Who should we blame for this mess? After all unless we can blame someone - we won’t feel any better about it! It can’t be our fault, because we have no say and no control over what happens – can it?

Perhaps we should just ignore what is happening and then it will go away! After all we elect politicians to solve all these sorts of problems.

Sadly today, many of these individuals are professional politicians, i.e. they have been educated to work and live inside politics and have never had any real experience at running a successful business. Indeed, it now appears that many of the top people in business (the bankers come to mind) are also experiencing the same sort of problems having being educated to do the jobs they aspire to but not necessarily any good at doing.

But the truth is that times are always changing, things are not the same as they were in the seventies, eighties or nineties! The country’s (and the world’s) problems have changed; things are different now from back then. Is that not true?

The difference between a country (as a business) and a genuine business is that every business has one or more owners who expect the business to perform against a predetermined set of rules. That may be achieving some financial targets, profits, growth or market share etc. All businesses are run by people who are appointed because they are accessed by qualified people who understand what is required of them and what skills are needed to achieve them. These professionals remain in their positions until such a time as they either leave or fail to achieve the agreed targets.

Government is different. We, the people, who do not own the country (business), elect essentially unknown people to run that business. In most cases we do not understand what qualities are required and if the candidates have any of them. We have little or no influence at all on what the government of the day does. Worse still, are system here in the UK encourages us not to vote for a person, but for a political party. As a result, in most cases, we only ever see our MP or their representative, on the doorstep when they are canvassing for the job. Is this not a recipe for disaster – especially as we can’t even sack them for doing a bad job?

These MP’s are essentially directed by the agenda of the party they belong to. If their leaders tell them to vote yes, they vote yes. Of course MP’s often get to vote freely on the less important matters, making it look as if they do have freedom to vote as they feel, or perhaps even in line with the feelings of their constituents (who elected them) – well perhaps not, as no MP has ever asked me for my opinion! What about you?

Of course, running a country, with its infinite areas of operation, and their complexity is not easy. Indeed it is harder than any other job. The variables are numerous, the outcomes are unpredictable, and the affect of any action can cause a huge re-action in many other areas. To make it even worse, we are subjected by the action of other countries - which we have no control over whatsoever.

So how do we run a country under these conditions?

Well perhaps we should take a lesson from nature. It is made up of billions of independent plants, animals, elements, events, conditions - all affected by time, weather and a host of other variables. Yet nature survives and has done for millions of years. Whatever is thrown at it, it appears to deal with. Yes it might lose a few species, flood some deserts or turn a beauty spot into a wasteland or wilderness – but it deals with it! And it does it slowly and automatically without the rest knowing much about it.

It achieves this by allowing every element to look after itself, to manage their own interests, and if any fail, then they fail, but at just that level. It may influence other elements of nature, it may be disastrous for some, but it may help others to thrive. The point is that Mother Nature allows everything to happen at the smallest or lowest level. She did not interfere when the mighty Elm Tree succumbed to Dutch Elm Tree disease, the weak ones just died and the stronger trees survived – a common outcome in nature.

So perhaps the leaders of the UK should take a lesson from Mother Nature and step back and allow the people to resolve the problems that we face, at the lowest level. Decisions about our futures have been taken out of our hands and passed up to some autocratic body who have little or no understanding of the situation - or worse still, no desire to even understand and do what is best to resolve it.

As a result of us relinquishing our responsibilities we no longer are prepared to take responsibility for anything outside of our own lives.

Who cares about water fluoridisation, as long as it not in our area?

Of course we should have wind farms, but according to the nimby’s, not in my back yard! How quickly would we change our attitude and start taking action if our electricity was turned off for good and we had to come up with a plan to generate it locally?

I don’t think this is because people want to be difficult, I believe it is because they have not been allowed to become really involved with what goes on in their lives. We have become conditioned to having everything done for us, and the record of politicians in recent years seems to back this argument up.

We have local councillors, both at village, town, city, district, county and regional levels, all adding to the tiers of bureaucracy. The problem is the higher you go, the more power they have! What good is a local village councillor if he or she has no power to do anything? The time is coming to strip out all this bureaucracy and change the system so that it puts responsibility for change and the necessary action back into the hands of the people which the current system tries to control.

Power to the People!

Sadly, making a large change of this nature has to come from the top as we are powerless down here at the bottom. After all we are just the tiny elements that make up this once great nation.

How much longer will we focus on just ourselves, ignoring the huge issues that the whole country faces, content to just be a member of the largest political party in the UK, the Nimby’s, but having no power and little say!

Are the UK politicians mad or something?

2009-08-22T09:37:00.002Z

I just can't believe that the politicians in the UK can be so stupid in some of the things that they do or say. Without being specific, which would need a huge volume of books, it seems to me that they do and say things without realising that most of us 'ordinary' people can see right through what they are saying. Do they really believe we are so naive about life that we will just accept what they say as being right or even sensible?

Alan Duncan, a senior conservative recently made comments about MP's having to 'live on rations' and being 'treated like shit' whilst being filmed secretly. He later apologies and said he was only joking. I watched the secret film and believe me, he was not joking, whatever he might have said later. OK so he has apologised and we have all moved on, but I'd like to wager that those words he spoke, and actually exactly what he felt and meant! I was horrified when David Cameron rushed to his support.

I was beginning to believe that the conservatives might be about ready to govern this country, but it now appears that they are little better than the current labour party. I for one do not believe anything I hear any more.

What about you?

It is time to be POSITIVE about the future

2008-10-13T10:32:00.001Z

So much has been written and spoken in the press, radio and TV about the current situation with the banks and stock markets. Even the talk in the offices I visit is all about this gloomy subject. I for one am sick and tired of hearing about what is happening to our world and our lives.

Of course all these things do impinge on on us, and no doubt we will be feeling that backlash for weeks, months and years to come. It does seem that the talk just makes the situation worse. It appears that the more the crisis is discussed the more gloom there is … all just making the situation even worse.

Now some of us will predict that this is just a blip and all will be well again soon – after all this sort of thing has happened before (hasn’t it?) and some of us will believe that the situation will get just worse and worse and the world will come tumbling down around our ears, never to be the same again!

The fact is that we can do very little about the situation. It is here, it is happening and it is mostly out of our control. Yes, some people will be poorer for what has happened, some will find that their pensions are dramatically reduced, other that their homes have dropped in value, many are likely to loose their jobs … all these things are unfortunate … but they are beyond our control.

The truth is that the outcome is not really known. Yes, governments have taken action, but is it the right action? We, in our own way have stopped buying shares and property, we have put off getting that new car, we are thinking twice about how much to spend on our next holiday. All this has an ongoing affect on most of us who work in these or similar industries. Sadly thousands of small businesses around the world will disappear as a result.

Perhaps what we need to do is get on with our lives. Have confidence that by doing so, the markets will recover, recession will be pushed back and that we, each and every one of us, can get on with our new lives. There are many lessons to be learned from the events of the past month – let them be learnt but in the meanwhile let us all be positive and upbeat and make the very best of all that we are fortunate to have.

Getting Small Businesses the Help they NEED!

2008-08-19T09:41:00.002Z

In my previous blog I spoke about the need for people who operate one or two man businesses to find the resources they need to develop their businesses without having to incur huge costs that they can ill afford.

Talking about cost, I guess we need to quantify what we mean. Let suppose that you are operating a one man business where YOU do everything, from making the product, to delivering it, invoicing it, collecting the money, buying the stock, advertising, marketing, planning not to mention keeping the accounts or cleaning the loo’s!

It is no wonder that nothing ever gets done very well. It is no wonder that your product is not perhaps quite as good as that of your bigger competition! It is no wonder that you sometimes deliver late, after all you have to have a holiday, or your wife or child is sick, or the car breaks down, or the VAT inspector calls! These are all valid reasons, but what does your customer or clients really think?

If you use a book keeper to do your weekly invoices then you will probably be paying around £10 to £15 per hours for a reasonably competent person. If you are using an accountant for your quarterly accounts (you do produce them don’t you?) then you’re probably talking about £20 to £30 per hour depending upon the quality of service being offered. If you use a marketing consultant, then you’ll be paying many hundreds of pounds each month, and graphic designers don’t come cheap either.

Now it has been said that in the UK if a ‘small’ business is to succeed then it needs to make at least £3,000 per month profit after costs and before the owners take their share. That’s not a lot by any means. But whatever it is you need to ensure you have enough funds to grow and improve your business month on month.

How many people do you know who started out a new business when they left their previous employment and were reasonably successful for the first year or two? Perhaps they picked up their main client from their previous employer? Then things start to get tough and eventually the business falters and may be even fails.

Every business needs to grow. It costs money to grow a business. Many small business owners today rely on networking to achieve that growth. They spend time each week attending local networking events and meeting people, always hopeful that they will find a new customer or client. As many of you know, when that happens that person disappears for weeks or even months as they work with their new client. Eventually they return, looking for work again.

Of course, as most of us know, nearly everyone attending those meetings is looking for work because times are thin for them. They are not out to buy anything, rather they are focussed on finding more business. Sadly the truth is even worse than that. A large number of these people are networking because they believe that is a cheap way to market their services. They have little hope of finding any business but keep kidding themselves they are investing in marketing.

We have all heard about the success of the local golf club. That is where lots of business is conducted. But that is just another networking meeting you might argue.

No it is not!

You see the local golf club is the place that successful business owners go to relax and enjoy themselves with a relaxing game of golf. They can afford to do that because their businesses are not reliant on them and they are making a reasonable profit. Put a couple of dozen successful business owners together and they will enjoy their golf and also do business together. They need outside resources and they can afford them.

For the rest of those small businesses, the owners do not have time for golf and probably could not afford the fees anyway. Sadly that is true of the vast majority of small business owners.

So what could they do to improve their situation? Is there something that they are missing? How can they find the resources they need? How can they fund them? And how can they find new clients and business?

Well there are ways … and there are new ways becoming available soon.

What DO Small Businesses Really Need?

2008-08-13T14:18:00.000Z

There is a good chance that if you are reading this that you own or run a small business employing just yourself, maybe your life partner and perhaps one or two other people. That is a typical profile of the vast majority of businesses in the UK. Even more so in many other countries.

In my experience, as I have networked around hundreds of business meetings and groups over the last five years or so, most small businesses suffer from one major problem. And that is being small! They do not have the resources to maximise what they do.

If we look at a larger business, say one employing 500 members of staff. The business will be run by the CEO, supported by a team of directors and under them a team of managers. They will also spend a proportion of their income in bring in outside resources to provide them with the knowledge and skills that they do not have.

Few companies will have their own lawyer or specialist management consultants. Most will bring in the expertise they require for Health & Safety, Employment Law, Legal activities, IP protection, Insurance requirements etc. If a large company cannot justify employing the expertise it requires it will outsource that requirement. Of course all this has a cost, often quite high but absolutely essential for the business.

At no stage does the CEO know everything! He or she will have a good understanding of most business principles but then rely on a specialist to interpret those principles for the benefit of the business. If that was not so, why ever have a board of directors? Why ever have a management team?

When we look at a small business all the expertise will usually come from the business owner. Because investing in specialist help is so expensive they will probably not venture down that route, perhaps instead taking free advice, reading articles or books on the subject or even worse, pretending they have the answer and blindly going forward.

The logical conclusion is that the smaller the business, the more the owner needs to know or the more they need to spend on getting their answers.

As the majority of ‘small’ businesses only employ one or two people, the cost of bringing in that outside expertise is proportionally very high. Many of these companies barely earn enough to pay the salary bill let alone spend out thousands on specialist help.

Of course the irony of this situation is that those ‘small’ businesses will remain small and have little or no chance of ever growing very much. The large competition is so great today that the proverbial ‘rat race’ ensures that the big boys remain in the lead and the rest follow behind.

Michael E. Gerber in his book “The E-Myth Revisited” tells us that one of the main reasons why small businesses fail is that the owner who is normally an expert in their own field, fails to understand that running a business requires all the other expertises as well. You may be a talented engineer, software developer, graphic artist, chemist or chef but that does not mean that you can ignore finance, marketing, sales, HR, health & safety or indeed ignore such things as business insurance, taxation, accounts or product delivery. Indeed the smaller business carries a higher level of risk. If the owner of a one or two man business is ill, who looks after the shop? Who cooks the pies? Who delivers the goods?

Now over the years, governments have realised these problem and have created many centrally backed organisations such as Business Link and other development agencies who offer help and assistance in these areas. Sadly, in many cases the level of expertise is limited, and the willingness of such organisations to help is restricted because their skills and time are spread across such a large number of businesses.

So the conclusion must be that nearly all small businesses need to find the expertise they require if they are to grow successful into large and more mature companies. The predicament is simply how to find that expertise at a cost that can be afforded.

Well there is an answer … but can it be made to work?

More about Mentor Power (http://www.mentor-power.org) in my next posting!

The Past has Gone - Roll on the FUTURE

2008-08-11T11:33:00.006Z

The last few months have seen me go from being a confident business person, struggling with a new project to a bankrupt - losing everything that I had. Fortunately, that was not a lot more than a huge pile of bank debt! No one can take away my spirit, passion, motivation desire or my experiences.

If I'm honest the only real thing that has gone - is the debt! OK so my credit rating has taken a bashing, but already I have been offered a credit card and a new bank account. Yes the interest rate is a little higher ... who cares ... I'm not in the market for credit or a bank account at this time anyway.

One of the huge benefits is that the stress and worry of having a growing debt around ones neck, suddenly disappears. Yes, I had to go to court, but the judge did not even see me - he just signed the application. Yes, I had to speak with the Official Receiver, but we did that on the phone, and the person I spoke with was most understanding and made me feel as relaxed as he could under the circumstances.

As a result of the bankruptcy I have relinquished all my directorships, closed both of my companies down, had a huge clear out of stuff accumulated over the last twenty years or so, shredded all those bank and credit card statements and now my office at home looks much tidier than before and I feel a lot more content and relaxed. The house is getting decorated. The garden is getting some attention. Even the environment is better off as I am not burning tankfuls of petrol each month!

Of course the important thing is to learn from the whole episode. What did I do wrong? How had I got myself into that mess? What must I do to avoid such a thing again? What shall I do next?

I have pondered over this for the last few months. Well my first problem was how to tell other people that I was a failure! What would they think of me? Would anyone listen to me ever again? Even one of my daughters suggested that I get a job and be thankful for the little house I live in (it has a low rent) and be grateful that I am in good health ... and STOP dreaming about being rich and successful again! Is she right?

Well all these things transverse through my head. I decided to look for a new job and found one quite quickly. More by luck than anything else. But I discovered that my new employer did not have an office for me - I would have to share with him. They had no computer for me to use, or a telephone, mobile or even a decent chair. Then I discovered that they had no money to invest in the project. To top it all, they were not willing to listen to me when I tried to highlight the issues that were standing in our way.

For the first time in my life, I politely (well that's my explanation) told them where they could stick their job ... and went home, never to return. Hey! I'd learnt something from going bankrupt ... how to identify when things are not right!

Since then I sat down and decided (whilst my mind was confused) that I just wanted a really simple job that I could leave behind at 5pm when I went home. Driving a delivery van, stacking shelves, even sweeping roads or cutting grass! That is what I wanted to do! After all, I'm 58 and in just seven years I will retire and someone else can look after me!

Then something happened! I logged onto my computer today to check my emails. I found an invitation to connect on Plaxo to an old friend Reg Athwal (http://www.regathwal.com/) who I had known for a number of years but had not spoken too for some time. I accepted his invitation and as an after though visited his website to see what he was up to these days. I clicked on a couple of links and eventually watched a long video recording of Reg presenting at the India Retail Forum 2007 in Mumbai.

His words immediately touched me. I started to get excited about what he was saying. My mind went back to the past and all the things I had heard, said and believed in! Suddenly I realised that I was not being fair to myself. I had been pushed into a corner and was accepting my lot as if I was a two year old. This was not me. I'm Jim Tuffin, I'm passionate about a whole host of things ... that passion has not gone away however much I'm trying to convince myself it has.

So here I am. Bankrupt! No money! Feeling bad about myself! Getting older by the day! Hopeless! Helpless!

BUT ... I'm alive and I have passions and dreams!

I contacted Reg Athwal to thank him for inspiring me again. He responded and gave me some great advice…

“Keep sharing your dream with people and your dream team will come together, but put the past in the past and let it go now, the present is all that matters!”

Sometimes it has to be spelt out to you. Sometimes you need to be taken and given a good shaking. Sometimes you’ll even get the message.

I’ve got the message Reg! The past is in the past. The lessons have been learnt and recorded. The present is what matters now … and that is what I am focusing on from this moment forward.

If you would like to work with me ... if you want to share your passion with me ... then why not contact me.

Regards

Jim Tuffin

Is networking as we know it really working?

2008-02-06T20:11:00.000Z

We have been led to believe that if we network online we will meet lots of people who we should offer to help in any way we can. In return we will be blessed with lots of great introductions and business.

The truth really is that it does not really matter how much you network online or how much you help other people, the chance of you being rewarded is little better than zilch!

Why do I say that? Well because I asked hundreds of people who have been networking for at least two years! Yes some did get introductions but few admitted it turned into paid work. Of course the real truth is that the majority give up long before then and stop networking.

If you visit the off line clubs and events in your area you find the same people attending them all. They stay for a few months and then disappear because they are not getting any results. Why do they leave? Again I asked dozens of people and got the same answer – it takes too much time and produces no results!

Perhaps they give up to quickly? That may be so, but who is going to help them and guide them. Who is going to tell them how to be successful? The issue is that networking at the local level really does not work very well. Perhaps that explains why getting people to attend a networking event appears to be getting harder!

Well that might be a rather strong message, but if you ask anyone if it really does pay you’ll likely get a negative answer. It does beg the question as to why we still promote networking as the best way of finding business!

But is there a solution?
Is there a better way?
Are we missing something?

I wonder?

Facebook introduces New Technology

2007-07-18T13:14:00.000Z

Facebook introduces New Technology

The social networking site Facebook recently announced that they were providing support for external developers to create and add functionality to the Facebook website.

This appears to be a technological advance, because now Facebook will be able to organically change as new functionality is added, without Facebook really being involved. This sounds like a very interesting advance and something to look forward to. As the demand for certain functionality arises, then developers will see the opportunity and jump in.

However, as usually there might be some real downsides!

During some recent research, we spoke to over 100 people about social and business networking and asked them what they thought of the platforms that they had visited. I have also spoken with a number of people who joined Ecademy, stayed for a week or so then never came back.

One of the main responses I received was that these platforms are not easy to use or understand. Ecademy for example, was said to be confusing and complex! To us, who use Ecademy every day, it is not difficult, but to others who could become potential paid members are they being put off and leaving?

Does the innovations at Facebook, no doubt followed by all the others social networking platforms as well, not lead to more and more complex and ‘geeky’ functionality? Will this not put people off even more?

Of course you cannot always make everything easy for everyone, and perhaps those who can’t be bothered to explore and learn how a site works should leave and not come back! But maybe that is a short sighted answer!

Do you think that in general these platforms are difficult to use?

Which ones are better than others?

What do you think?

Meet Jim on Ecademy (http://www.join-ecademy.com)

Is it right to have someone else network online for you?

2007-07-17T14:25:00.000Z

Recently it has been suggested that is quite acceptable to have someone network online on behalf of another person.

Now whilst I think it is one thing to have someone else make introductions, or even to use a automatic messaging system, to get some initial response I’m not sure about the ethical issue of answering someone in the name of somebody else.

I know that politicians have press officers and private secretaries etc that carry out a similar task, which is one reason why the political system in this country is so bad …. those elected are not in touch with the those who elected them, maybe that is why voter turnout is dropping! ;)

If you visit a members profile and decide to message that person to ask for their advice on something that they are apparently knowledgeable about, how would you feel if your message was being answered by someone completely different!

Perhaps even someone that you did not like! What about the issues of confidentiality between two people? We will need to think twice before saying anything to someone we trust, just in case they have someone acting on their behalf.

OK so politicians do that, but that is what we expect.

Personal online networking is about building a trusted relationship between two people! How can you do that if they are not involved in the process?

If this become an acceptable practise, then online networking will become dead overnight.

I have a friend in Russia who speaks amazing English, I’m sure she would love to earn $8 per hour to answer my messages.

What do you think?

Is ‘Paid for’ Social networking coming?

2007-07-16T15:05:00.000Z

As many of you will already know, advertisers are finding it harder and harder to get sales via internet based social network advertising. This is mainly due to the generality of what is being sold, coupled with the ‘purple cow’ effect. This effect blinds us to advertising, because we see too much of it, and we are not really interested anyway!

For these social networks to survive how are they going to fund themselves? Will they rely on borrowing huge sums of money from investors? Will they borrow knowing hopefully that Google, Yahoo or Murdoch’s News Corporation will come along and put ‘big bucks’ in their pockets?

Well if they believe that then we are on our way to another dot.com bubble! These piranha type organisations only buy for a reason. It may be so they can market to the membership, it may be to boost their share price … or it may be because they …. don’t actually know why yet!

There seems little doubt that social networks is here to stay, at least for a while. If we consider the real reasons why people like to talk online then we can start to see ways to cater for them.

Is it because they believe it is ‘cool’ to be on these sites? Well may be, but what is ‘cool’ about being like everyone else!

Are they searching for something, like a partner for example? Well if my experience is anything to go by, the best thing about these types of sites is that you can pretend to be something that you are not!

Perhaps they are looking for long lost friends? But just how long does that take?

No, I think the real reason that social networks will flourish is simply because they enable people to communicate. If we called them “Interest Networks” instead it starts to make more sense! People communicate with people who share their interests.

Social Networks have to become more ’niche’ or ‘interest’ focused if they are to survive! But that in itself causes a problem. Most small ‘niche’ groups do not have the resources to create social network platforms! Well not until someone comes along and provides them with that resource.

What do you think?

Meet Jim on Ecademy (http://www.join-ecademy.com)

Is Social Networking about to change?

2007-07-16T11:03:00.000Z

Over the last few weeks there have been a number of discussions and reports about the problem advertisers are having in getting a reasonable return from their advertising on the larger social networking platforms.

It appears that these huge sites with their millions of members are perhaps not as they might seem to be. Members are not clicking on the advertisements! Why might this be? Is it perhaps because they are not interested in what they are being offered?But will this affect these sites?

After all they have to earn an income from somewhere if they are to survive. Can they actually capture enough information about each of their members so that they can target advertising? Even then how many members go back to these sites on a regular basis? Some reports suggest that over 97% of people, who sign up, never return!

As a result, will social networking move towards the 'paid for' platforms? Will they become much more 'niche' interest focused? Will this open up opportunities for the smaller niche advertiser?

... but more importantly what is your opinion on this subject?

Is Network Marketing ALL Bad?

2007-03-11T10:26:00.000Z

For some reason many people in the UK believe that being in a network marketing business is a bad thing! I have often wondered why we believe this especially as the whole pyramid selling thing was made illegal in 1973! Yes 34 years ago! Yet the stigma still hangs on.

I guess, that like me, you will have joined or been invited to join one or more network marketing companies over the years.

So how did you do?

Well like me, you probably said no or did not do very well at all. And to be honest with you I understand why. We all love the idea of earning lots of money, but when we are introduced to a network marketing company that little person inside jumps up and screams at us:-

This is pyramid selling!
Earning £5,000 or £10,000 (or more) per month is just not possible!
This is just American hype!
These things don't last!
Everyone is doing this - there no space for you!
You can't speak to your friends about this - they'll never speak to you again!
You don't want to be associated with MLM do you?
You know others who have tried it, and it did not work for them!
You've tried it before and it did not work for you!
To earn an honest living you know you need to do a hard days work!
If it's so great why isn't everyone doing it?
It's too complicated for you to understand!
This is just not you!

These are just a few of the reasons. Our little person was right last time, it just didn't work!

But is it right?

Well, in most cases it is! And the reason it is, is because that is exactly how we feel. Our self talk knows best! Since we were toddlers we have been conditioned to the negative, told not to trust strangers (or speak to them), the only way to be rich is to work hard and nothing in this life is free! Oh how wrong are parents were!

So what happens when you meet someone who is in Network Marketing and who is really successful? How do we feel then? What does that little person whisper in our ear?

Ah, but they got in early, now is too late!
They have hundreds of friends, you've only got two!
You don't have their presentation skills to do that!
You can't speak in public, you're frightened to pick up the phone!
You don't have they money like they have!
You couldn't ring up your friends and tell them about it, they would think you were stupid!
Don't kid yourself, their successful because they are the successful type!
They are ruthless, that's how they got where they have, your just a pussy cat!
They're rich, cus they cheat!

Well once again, that little voice who claims to be our friend, puts the kibosh on an opportunity before you even found out all the facts!

So actually it does seem that it is our interpretation of network marketing that dictates if we should look at it as a real way of earning an income for ourselves.

Perhaps we make judgements without actually looking at the facts and trying to find out about these businesses and if they really work.

As you can guess, I am in network marketing, along with nearly every other business in the world, except they don't choose to let you and me ( the general public) in on a slice of the action like the network marketing companies have. My company is very switched on to the market, its products and most importantly those who represent the company in the market place. I'm one of those lucky people, who's little person has let me down so many times that this time I told him where he could stick his thoughts! Mind you, he nearly won the first time I heard about it!

So what is all this about?

Why network marketing?

How does it differ from normal marketing?

Let's have a look and see if we can answer a few of those questions.

You see in the world we know, we believe that a manufacturer sells his product as follows:-

He sells to a number of large national distributors for a profit.
Those large distributor sell or export to smaller distributors, also for a profit.
Those distributors sell the products to lots of wholesaler also for a profit.
The wholesalers in turn sells it to the many retailers, again for a profit
Finally the retailer sells the product to us the consumer for a price which is many times that which the manufacture originally sold the product.

We understand this structure and we are quite happy with it! Most of us probably work in a business which utilises this system of distribution.

Now some manufacturers recognise that there is a demand for high quality products. The problem they face, is that their products have to compete with the lower quality, low prices products located on the shelves in the retail outlets.

It is sadly a fact that a consumable product that sells for say £10, located next to five other products that sell for £1 will not be that successful.

Why?

Because we as a buying public do not consider the quality of consumable products.

For example - You feel that you need to take extra vitamins! A months supply of vitamins can be purchased in your local supermarket for around £3. If you were faced by six different products, five at £3 and one at £15 would you buy the £15 product?

Probably not!

But in actual fact the £3 product will only contain the very basic vitamin needs (RDA) which when created nearly 70 years ago reflected a level of need much lower than we actually require, indeed the report HERE will enlighten you as to how little value RDA really is.

In truth, you wanted to buy vitamins because you felt you needed them, but you were sucked into buying tablets that are almost ineffective, rather than purchase real products that will do you the good you need, all because they are perceived as expensive!

Choosing the cheaper alternatives actually costs you more, because you are paying for vitamins that do you little good and give you almost no value, so you would be better to save your money and not buy any at all.

So how do these manufacturers market and sell their products against the cheaper look-a-likes?

Well they know that they need to present the products value to the potential customer and once they have done that, the price is no longer so important. They know that their products are much more superior as they have purposely gone out of their way to develop quality products.

The cost of producing them is many times that of the cheap end varieties. Because they know that selling off the shelves is really hard, they take the decision to cut out all the middle men and use the saved money, often around 50% to 60% to market directly using individuals.

This works really well as we have seen with Avon, Kleeneze and Tupperware to name just a few.

This same principle is often used in the franchise world, where quality is very high and buying resistance is felt because of the higher end user price, needed because of higher development and production costs! The strong brands of the franchise overcome the higher prices that need to be charged.

So, when a manufacturer cuts out the distribution costs and develop their own sales team, selling directly to the end user, this is often in the form that we call Direct Selling. The above examples demonstrate this, and to many will be familiar with the person who knocks on our door to sell us something, posts a catalogue to collect a few days later, or calls for a monthly order.

However the manufacturers still face the issue of how they reach their potential audience! The idea of selling directly to the end user is great in itself, but how do you get to them! We all know how popular the door to door sales person was! No doubt you will have also been to a party plan presentation in the home of one of your friends. These methods did work, but as our lifestyles have changed so have our buying habits! This has been increasingly more difficult as our lives appear to be getting ever busier.

Well this is where network marketing really comes into its own.

The manufacturer focuses on developing a superior product, then it identified a number of people who it can promote the product to, and approaches them and tell them that for every tube, tin, packet, box they sell, they will receive a commission. We all understand that and are happy with that concept.

Now it get a bit more difficult!

The manufacturer also asks those people to see if they can find others to do the same and sign them up to sell the product as well!

So what's in it for them if they do that as well?

Hmmm... well what about a little bit of commission on everything they sell as well.

Sounds good to me!

Ah Yes! But you will have to train those people as well so it does involve some work, but you will be rewarded for all your effort.

OK that sounds good, and I like the idea of being paid for my effort very much. But even more for getting paid for the effort of others!

But hang on! If I introduce lots of people for you, won't they be stealing all the sales that I would be making?

That could be true, but they will know people that you don't know! And those people are their friends and trust them!

Hmmmm! O.K. So I help train these people I introduce to do the same as I have been doing?

Correct! Because, growing the number of people who sell the product is very important, the manufacturer also agrees to pay a small percentage of their sales to you as well!.. Can't be bad.

Let me summarize.

A manufacturer produces a quality product for me to sell.
I don't need to handle or deliver the product.
In return for selling it I get paid an ongoing commission.
I also seek out others who would like to do the same.
I help them to do so and in return I get paid some commission on what they sell as well!
As I am effectively building a sales team and motivating and training them I receive a further small commission on the activity of those down-line to me to specified level.

Correct!

This is how network marketing works.

It is word of mouth selling by people to their friends and work mates, in exchange for a commission. They can earn reasonable amounts depending on how much effort they put in. If theyjust want enough to pay for the products they purchase that is fine. If they want to earn a income rather than go to work, even better. If they want to be 'big' in the business and become a 'star' earning amount they would only perhaps dream of, then they can!

The real benefits come when they take it to the next level and start introducing other people so that they earn an income off of what they do as well. This is called leverage. Now, contrary to what many believe, this is quite acceptable.

It is no different from an employer who has people working for him making widgets.

Each employee makes a widget that the employer sells for £5.
The employee gets £1 for making it!
The materials cost £1.
The overheads are £1.
Marketing costs are £1.
The profit to the employer is £1.

This is leverage. The employer employs 5,000 making widgets at the rate of 10 per hour, for 8 hours per day. Each one completed is another £1 in profit. (5,000 x 10 x 8 = £400,000 per day)

How many people would you employ to make widgets if there was the demand?

Today modern network marketing companies have designed quality products that they know will remain in demand irrespective of the price. If the demand dries up, the business would soon be closing its doors.

Then using modern computer systems, these companies have developed payment plans that are so well balanced that they ensure that the members not only sell product but also recruit new members. They do work very well and reward those who work as well.

Indeed recently they have become so sophisticated that members are encouraged to buy the product for themselves and recruit others to do the same. This means that selling the product is no longer the main focus, but recruiting people is. Those who don't want to recruit can of course just purchase the quality products being offered.

The more people in your down-line, means the more you earn.

In a two leg payment system, it is common to recruit and add people to each of your two legs. You are usually paid on the lesser leg, i.e. the one producing the least volume. Technically if you are lucky enough to recruit two people, one in each leg, that grab the opportunity and recruit lots of other people, you will benefit from their activity.

However, in practise that does not normally happen in the early days, and experience has shown that those who do really well in this business and make huge earnings are those who have inherited or developed a recruitment system that ensures an ongoing recruitment effort.

Top performers have for a long time recognised that success is all about duplication. From years of experience they have developed simple to follow processes that are easy to carry out and easy to duplicate. They work, and often the biggest issues is getting people to follow these well tried and tested methods.

I know of individuals who have recruited just a few people and earn a useful monthly income, which is passive in nature, i.e. needs little or none of their time. On the other hand there are those who just love the whole idea, have thrown every moment of their time into getting it going, and love every second of it. They are rewarded with amazing leveraged incomes that have made them totally independent for the rest of their lives.

Most of these people are just ordinary individuals like you and I, who have worked hard all their lives and suddenly saw the opportunity that was in front of them. They grabbed it, put all their time and effort into it, followed the advice they were given by other successful people up-line to them, and within just a few years are earning incomes that only pop stars and footballers seem to get!

Some of those people I have had the privilege of meeting and seeing first ahnd their amazing energy and their ability to enjoy their lives as if each and every day was an exotic holiday!

Would you like to do that?

Well before dismissing what I've just said, simply ask yourself the following question....

"If this is right, how would I feel if I worked for myself, had no boss, and took home twice what I already earn?".

I don't know how much you earn but I do know that most people would be delighted to double their monthly income. Network Marketing with one of the leading companies in this area, can move you up the income scale quicker then any job ever will. I know of lots of people who have doubled their income every three months, year in year out! What does that mean? Look at this:-

At Start Monthly Income £ZERO
After 3 months Income £250
After 6 months Income £500
After 9 months Income £1,000
After 12 months Income £2,000
After 15 months Income £4,000
After 18 months Income £8,000
After 21 months Income £16,000
After 24 months Income £32,000

So is that faster than your income would grow with your job?

OK! I know that many will not do this, but it is NOT because of the network marketing business that they are in, it is because THEY have chosen not to do it!

Being successful in any business is down to what you put into it! Network Marketing is no different. If you work at it, you will be successful, if you don't you won't, simple as that!

Is it a quick way to get rich? Well if you call two or three years quick, then I guess it is!

Good Luck!

Jim Tuffin
jim.tuffin@agel57.co.uk
http://www.agel57.co.uk

Networking, Networking, Networking!

2006-11-08T17:10:00.000Z

"That's what I do .... networking, networking, networking. Each and every day I'm out there looking for new people to talk to, people who I can sell my products to, but it's just hard work and it does not work!", said a friend of mine.

Well that is quite likely and we have all heard a similiar story at some time or another. But why does it work for some people and not for others?

Well there is a secret that those who make networking work know and the rest don't.

I wonder what it is?

Look HERE for networking in the South of England or HERE for online networking

Going on 40 … or 50 …. Or even 60?

2006-06-24T16:03:00.000Z

When I was 49 I suddenly found myself unemployed and broke after a business failure! Once I had sorted out the issues that caused it, I moved from my lovely home in the country to a small end of terrace house, courtesy of a local housing association. It was very compact but my family and I were very grateful to have a roof over our heads.

I then started the task of finding myself a job of work, to enable me to start building what I had just lost. I was an experienced manager and had been a director of a number of companies, some successful and other not quite so.

I had a good knowledge of IT and software development, and real skills in working with people and developing new business concepts. I saw myself as very innovative and bright with a great future ahead.My first task was to create a new CV, one that showed me off in the best light. I had never needed a CV before because I had never needed to apply for a job. Jobs had always come to me! I co-opted the help of a friend who was well experienced in the recruitment industry and with the help of a book all about CV writing, we put together what we thought, was a great CV. We then made a number of versions of it for the various areas that we thought I could gain employment. This was the easy bit!

Next we drafted a letter to be sent to each of the local recruitment agencies that would each have dozens of jobs that might be of interest to me. This was relatively simple and in due course the letters, all fifty four were dispatched along with a photo and a copy of my CV.

This was quite easy as well!

Then I began the task off scanning the local and national newspapers, job and agency websites, looking for potential jobs that I could apply for. This seemed easy enough, and I selected those jobs that I though I could do well and paid enough money. Requests for applications forms were despatched and after a few days the letters came pouring in. That all seemed reasonably easy as well!

Then came the task of reading each of the job and person specifications and completing the application forms. "Minimum five years experience required", "a degree in Bionics", "5 A levels" etc. Now this was starting to get harder. So far I had only found two jobs that I could even apply for. Why didn't they say in the job ad that they needed 5 years experience? It didn't matter that the job was for a trainee? Office Manager? Why do they need a degree in Bionics? I thought it was the office and the people that they needed managing, or did they employ robots?Anyway I persevered and sent off application after application. I kept a copy of every job I applied for and as the answers came back I would file them away.

About 1 in 7 responded in anyway to my application, always saying that they were sorry but there were other candidates more qualified than me, but they would keep my name on file just in case another job became available that I might be more suited to.

Why do they bother, I never heard from a single one of them again. I even had one company who sent me a very rude letter saying that I had applied for a job with them, when their advertisement has clearly stated that previous applicants need not apply. What even for a totally different job? Even when it was 7 months later?

Over the next few months, I continued undeterred, to apply for jobs, complete application forms, talk to recruitment agencies and generally do what had to be done. Even the local job centre was unable to help past making me give up two hours every other week, spend money on petrol to drive the 30 miles round trip to sign on to get my £50, which didn't even cover the expenses I incurred looking for a new job. During all those months they never did anything to increase my chances of getting employment! Typical government agency! Don't get me wrong, the staff were very sympathetic to my plight, but the system was not designed to help us find work, but to make sure that the correct benefit were doled out, and unemployment statistics were massaged correctly!

Sorry if I'm a cynic, but you're starting to understand why!As the time went by I began applying for lesser positions with a lot less money. At least, I reasoned, I would stand a better chance of getting a junior position as I would not have an issue with experience or qualifications! How wrong I was! Now I was being told that I was too experienced in business and would quickly get fed up or bored with the job they were offering!! One company even suggested that I would find working with young female clerks uncomfortable! Yes I might have, but sometimes in life you have to do things out of necessity rather than because you just like doing them.

Anyway, surely they were employing me to do a job, rather than worry about me working with an office full of young people. I'd probably enjoyed it anyway! Then about six months into my search, now 50 years old, I suddenly get invited to an interview at a local warehouse for the position of Office Manager. Hooray!! So when the day arrived, I donned my best suit and brushed my hair (what little I have) and gave myself a good talking too. Off I went to my interview and after being kept waiting for 30 minutes past my time, I was ushered into a very untidy office of the manager.

He was very kind, and told me all about what they did and at the end of his dissertation he asked me if I thought I could do the job. I don't think he asked me one single question other than that. YES! I responded, knowing I could do this standing on my head. My dog could have done the job as well as me! "OK" he said, "you are the best candidate we have had so far, and I can tell you that, you will probably get offered the position, but I do have one more candidate to interview. He is waiting outside at this moment. I'll call you with my decision one way or another tomorrow."

I was dismissed and as I left the office I saw a young spotty, long haired youth sat where I had been sat, in his un-ironed shirt, a black tie (probably his only tie, the one he had for a family funeral) and jeans. "Ah" I thought "this looks very promising!" Indeed it did, here was a job that was literally just 5 minutes walk from my home, a job I could do easily, and although the pay was poor, maybe I would be able to get a substantial increase (as I had often done before) once they saw how effective I was as a manager.

The next day, I waited for his phone call, but as the day neared its end my heart began to drop as I realised that he was not going to call. "Not to worry" I thought, he is probably very busy and just didn't get around to it. The days past and I did not get that call, not even a letter saying sorry.

About three weeks later I was walking my dog past the warehouse when I bumped into the lady who had looked after me when I went for my interview. I asked her who got the job. "You did" she said, "but you never turned up!" she continued. You can image how amazed I was that I had been given a job but no one had thought of telling me. Anyway to cut a long story short, it turned out that the company had decided to close that warehouse down, and therefore did not offer me the job, and as they did not want to tell the staff at that stage, they even lied to them!

On hindsight is was a blessing is disguise.Eventually after I had applied for 743 different jobs I was offered another interview, and again off I went only to be told that I was over qualified for the position. I did however get offered a position as the manager of the person whose job I had applied for, and started there after 17 months of unemployment now aged 51. I stayed there for three years, working my way up until sadly I had to resign because of ill health.

So why have I told you this story?

Well it is to highlight the plight of those of us who are in our fifties or later (or earlier in many cases) who, through little fault of our own were unable to go to University, have few qualifications from school, perhaps worked in vocational jobs until they disappeared, served in the armed forces as I did, or graduated from a menial task into junior management, then progressed onto senior management perhaps with one company for a long period of time. Then later in life, after various politicians had forced in legislation and change to the workplace we become a burden on our employer and got no further. Once we leave, that is about it!

Whether you are 30, 40, 50, 60 or even older you have lots of value to give. Today employers are short sighted, following the crowd, employing graduates because they have a bit of paper, ignoring experienced people who have skills that the young just cannot have until they are 'time served'!So my question is …. At what time in life do we move into that group of older people who have little value in today's modern workplace? In my case it was 49, but could it be 45 or even 40? Has this happened to you?

Sadly, with fewer children being born, in future years there will be a shortage of people to fill the jobs (that is if they still exist, but that's another story completely) and then I suppose someone will suddenly realise that we do have value. I just wish that the politicians and decision makers of today would consider the longer term effects of the decisions that they make, and then perhaps this world would be a better place to live in.

Just because we are getting older, it does not mean that we are not valuable members of society with a wealth of knowledge and experience to give and share. Later this year will see the arrival of The Chronos Club, (www.the-chronos-club.com) a new concept in helping those who are 'neo-retired' get a voice, start contributing again, and allowing them to raise their heads and show the rest of the world, that just because we are getting older, does not mean that we do not have lots to give!I

f you are interested in this subject then please let me know by emailing me at jim@the-chronos-club.com

Jim Tuffin

http://www.businessmatchmakers.co.uk/

Does Politics really have the answer?

2006-04-24T09:12:00.000Z

It occurred to me the other day that the problem with most politicians is that they are actually afraid to do anything very much. Take a normal Member of Parliament in the UK. Does he or she feel absolutely free to make what comments or suggestions they feel are correct? Of course not, they have to tow the party line or take the consequences.

If a political party has a strong leader, that person will not tolerate anyone stepping out of line. Oh they will of course, but they will be penalised when it comes to appointments and positions that are up for grabs! Tow the line, and you will be considered for a position, or at least you will believe that you might have a chance!

What would happen if the 'people' voted individuals into each of the cabinet positions? Would we find suddenly a lot of out spoken people who having said their bit to get elected, now are able to carry through by voicing their opinions in parliament? Or I we going to always have this existing system that is actually not a lot more than a committee with it's hands bound together?

Oh I know that many will say that unless you keep the existing system you will have anarchy, and you can't have people just doing their own thing! Can you?

Jim Tuffin
http://www.businessmatchmakers.co.uk