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.
+
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Employing 18 to 25 year olds - Is it fair?
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.
+
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.
+
Monday, June 07, 2010
Get 3 Free Issues of Mike Filsaime's Newsletter
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!
Mike Filsaime's Newsletter Click Here
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.
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!
Mike Filsaime's Newsletter Click Here
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.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Should we Treat Women as Equals to Men?
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!
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!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Affiliate Marketing Secrets
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).
Here's what these affiliate marketing strategies will do for you:
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.
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.
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.
- A Video Squeeze Page (with video)
- One or more content-rich Pre-Selling Pages
- At least a 5-Part Email Followup 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.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
A Christmas Gift
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
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?
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!
..
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!
..
Monday, December 07, 2009
Is Climate Control Really the Issue?
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.
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.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Politics : Learn from Mother Nature?
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!
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!
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Are the UK politicians mad or something?
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?
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?
Monday, October 13, 2008
It is time to be POSITIVE about the future
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.
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.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Getting Small Businesses the Help they NEED!
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
What DO Small Businesses Really Need?
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!
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!
Monday, August 11, 2008
The Past has Gone - Roll on the FUTURE
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
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
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Is networking as we know it really working?
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?
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?
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Facebook introduces New Technology
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)
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)
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Is it right to have someone else network online for you?
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?
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?
Monday, July 16, 2007
Is ‘Paid for’ Social networking coming?
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)
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?
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?
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?
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Is Network Marketing ALL Bad?
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:-
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?
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:-
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.
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.
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:-
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
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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