Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or e-mail on juswant.rai@gmail.com
Be part of that rare 5% who take action now!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Who?
Stayed with Mr Critchley last night. Who do you know who does another network. Open it with I know your a networker! Ask them 3 questions. Are you happy with your company? Are you happy with your upline support? Are you happy with your income. Avon. Virgin Vie. Kleenezee. These are luxury products most people can't afford and the distributors have to resell every month. We have the No 1 money making machine in the Uk and the next 5 years will be the best ever. Do not listen to , IBE's Instant Bleeding Experts. Or GUPTR's Generally Unsuccessful People Talking Rubbish.
When people say ' your not the best , your not the cheapest' Just look at the lifestyle they have got, it's decisions they have made over the years got them there. Were they good decisions?
Focus on you and follow your heart. Do what successful people do and say.
Have a Supersonic Sunday. Regards Jimmy Chapman.
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
The business is growing at a fantastic rate for some of you so well done. Some of you and your team appear to be like rabbits in headlights. This business works if you speak to people. So many ideas have been passed to you all but in the end its the belief in yourself and your attitude that decides exactly how big you build this life changing business. 1. Gather customers. 2. Gather execs. 3. Attend and promote events. If you can't do them 3 and be consistent your in the wrong business. Another thing that can get in the way are your long list of excuses. Seriously I know we all have stuff going on just keep the activity going and one day the lottery ticket you have will be ready to cash in. The company has announced fantastic results and believe me its going to get better and better for those of you are active. You have one chance every day all 86400 seconds of them to be the best you can be! I may come across a bit strong at times but have a serious look at what you are part of. Recession proof , unique business opportunity that can and will pay you a six figure income over 5 years, if you are serious. Be serious and do what you can every day. And when you are awesome show your team members how to be better than awesome.
Don't ever quit.
We are going to have a great future. Regards Jimmy Chapman.
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
The business is growing at a fantastic rate for some of you so well done. Some of you and your team appear to be like rabbits in headlights. This business works if you speak to people. So many ideas have been passed to you all but in the end its the belief in yourself and your attitude that decides exactly how big you build this life changing business. 1. Gather customers. 2. Gather execs. 3. Attend and promote events. If you can't do them 3 and be consistent your in the wrong business. Another thing that can get in the way are your long list of excuses. Seriously I know we all have stuff going on just keep the activity going and one day the lottery ticket you have will be ready to cash in. The company has announced fantastic results and believe me its going to get better and better for those of you are active. You have one chance every day all 86400 seconds of them to be the best you can be! I may come across a bit strong at times but have a serious look at what you are part of. Recession proof , unique business opportunity that can and will pay you a six figure income over 5 years, if you are serious. Be serious and do what you can every day. And when you are awesome show your team members how to be better than awesome.
Don't ever quit.
We are going to have a great future. Regards Jimmy Chapman.
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
Both these sources represent a fantastic source of below market value property deals at the moment. Go visit some local estate agents if you haven't already and ask them how things are going.
The expression on their faces will tell you everything you need to know.
The worst thing for an estate agent is a flat market. You'd think a falling market would be bad but actually it's not if there is activity since estate agents make money from people trading. So as long as people are buying in a falling market then estate agents will be fine.
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
Well, the things that worked four years ago in a booming property market will not work now. That doesn't mean the business doesn't work. It just means certain strategies do not work any more.
For instance, lease options work a treat in this market. Indeed a lot of investors are starting to use them to get ABOVE market rents for their properties and create very secure long term tenancies.
Lease options are regular tenancy's with something very special attached to them - an option agreement. This option agreement gives your tenant the 'option' of purchasing the property from you in the future at a price that is agreed today.
For this 'option' or right you can charge an above market rent.
Since many people want to buy properties at the moment but cannot due to lack of financing or deposit, then the lease option becomes an ideal solution.
If the tenant buys the property from you, you walk away with a good profit and if she does not then you can continue to collect above market rent. Most importantly you will have tenants in your properties who genuinely care about the property and paying your rent (late rent payments will null and void the option).
This is just one simple strategy that investors could be using at the moment to make money in property. I know of many others. On our discussion forum I have seen many other strategies discussed between the professional investors there.
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
It's interesting to see how quickly things change over just a few months. The media are pointing out all the negative aspects of investing in this market (I'll explain in a second why that's actually a GOOD thing), repossessions are on the rise and the finance situation has shifted dramatically - you'll be glad to hear little and no money down deals are still VERY do-able (keep reading and I'll show you how the professionals are doing it).
For the last six years or so I've been teaching fellow property investor's one thing and one thing only - buy well below market value from distressed sellers and make sure you have a positive cashflow from your overall portfolio. If you can do that on a consistent basis you'll be fine over the medium to long term in this business.
The people that I see falling over are those that think they purchased below market value but really didn't (i.e. over inflated new build apartments built in city centres) and those who fail to manage their portfolio properly.
An example of the latter is where people have purchased properties well undervalue to pull out a cash back. Often the rental barely covers the mortgage payments. The investor justifies this by explaining the cash back will be used to cover the shortfall - using one loan to prop up the repayments on another.
But The Cashback Is Often Simply Spent On A Car Or Lavish Holiday And Not Reinvested!
Then the vicious cycle begins... More cashback deals are required to keep up the mortgage repayments and fund the investors lifestyle. This goes on until the accumulated debt eats the investor alive and he goes under. This has happened to several quite well known people recently.
Considering the fact that sensible property investment is one of the safest long term investments you can make and repossessions are going through the roof then...
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
Thank you. I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.
Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife, except that when I popped out, they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking, "We've got an unexpected baby boy. Do you want him?" They said, "Of course." My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.
This was the start in my life. And seventeen years later, I did go to college, but I naïvely chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and no idea of how college was going to help me figure it out, and here I was, spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out, I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example.
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.
If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personals computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.
Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever--because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.
My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was twenty. We worked hard and in ten years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We'd just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I'd just turned thirty, and then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him, and so at thirty, I was out, and very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I'd been rejected but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer-animated feature film, "Toy Story," and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.
In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.
My third story is about death. When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctors' code for "prepare to die." It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them, in just a few months. It means to make sure that everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope, the doctor started crying, because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and, thankfully, I am fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die, even people who want to go to Heaven don't want to die to get there, and yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stuart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late Sixties, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. it was sort of like Google in paperback form thirty-five years before Google came along. I was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stuart and his team put out several issues of the The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-Seventies and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath were the words, "Stay hungry, stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." And I have always wished that for myself, and now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay hungry, stay foolish.
Thank you all, very much.
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
Watching self interestedly the residential property market over the last 5 years I have been reminded of a children’s party. Lots of balloons floating about and the odd whoopee cushion to boot. With all that uncoordinated energy you are constantly expecting a loud bang as an over unenthusiastic child or more likely adult’ probably playing musical chairs accidentally plonks their substantial bulk on an unsuspecting balloon in their haste to secure a seat. Bang! You are left with a room full of stunned & embarrassed adults with jelly on their faces.
A more preferable and less jarring expulsion of superfluous air would be achieved by the same posterior landing on a misplaced whoopee cushion. As some one who doesn’t like shocks or loud bangs I always pray for the latter – not least for the comic value. As someone bought up on the subtleties of the carry on films and the Two Ronnies ‘phantom raspberry blower’ a well formed raspberry still raises a titter!
I bring this up because the housing market over the last few years has been finely balanced between blowing out with an almighty bang or slowly deflating with a gentle hiss and some mildly embarrassing toilet noises. The omens a few years ago weren’t good. If we delve into the history books the UK housing market has been characterised by a series of rapid booms followed by equally rapid busts.
There have been 3 major booms in the last 35 years. The first in the early 1970’s, then the ‘Lawson Boom’ at the end of the 1980’s which was partly fired by the scrapping of joint tax relief. The most recent is the one we have just experienced. Beginning in London in the mid 1990’s until well into 2005 in some of the far flung parts of the UK. In fact you may not have been aware that Cupar in Scotland was the best performing town in the UK over the last year with a staggering 36% increase. The top 4 performing towns according to the Halifax House Price Index were all in Scotland.
In previous times – the 1970’s and 1980’s the ‘boom’ was followed by bust as real prices fell. However, this falls were prompted in part by a weakening of the wider economy. This time things appear to be different. Employment levels are high, the economy appears relatively stable and growing so it appears that a raspberry is in order to all those doomsayers who were predicting 10 or 20% falls. However, the pessimists would point to other factors such as affordability, high levels of personal debt as reasons why prices still could fall. Both these factors have done much to undermine the activities of the first time buyer. These have traditionally been the buyers of the 1st rung in the property ladder and therefore the engine of the rest of the market. Therefore, whilst things appear to have slowed in an orderly fashion there are those that are still convinced that there is a nasty ‘bang’ waiting in the ‘wings’!
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
New buyers told to weather the negative equity storm
First-time buyers have been advised not to panic if they find themselves in negative equity. New buyers should remain calm and try to weather the storm. It comes as house prices across the UK fall and people who bought their houses within the last two years face the prospect of owning a property which is no longer worth what they bought it for.
If it is your home, it is an individual purchase, it is about you and the decisions you make. Do you stay living in your house because it has lost £20,000 in value? Of course you do because it is your home and you know eventually you will pay that mortgage off. Perhaps a £20,000 dip in year three and four of your mortgage is more than outweighed by the fact that in year ten to fifteen of your mortgage you will be in positive territory and you can see a finishing line for paying off your original debt.
If you find yourself in a bit of negative equity, weather the storm if you can.
Halifax reported that house prices fell by 1.3 per cent in April.
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
Npower slumps to bottom of customer service league!
New figures from energywatch reveal Npower is now Britain's worst energy provider when it comes to customer service.
Contacts to energywatch about Npower have increased by 21% since the same period last year. This rise is in stark contrast to the 49% reduction in contacts from British Gas customers.
According to customers contacting energywatch, Npower is:
WORST for billing
WORST for direct selling
WORST for transfers
WORST gas supplier
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
energywatch statement on threat of more price hikes!
Allan Asher, energywatch Chief Executive, said: "There is no shortage of gas, yet consumers are being bombarded with dire predictions of huge price rises.
"There is a simple choice for Government and regulators. Meekly accept that ever-increasing gas prices are inevitable or challenge the market to provide information on every aspect from production levels to actual commodity trades to retail prices and profits.
“If it’s not about supply and demand, it's something else and we need to know what that something else is.
"Next week MPs from the BERR Select Committee will hear evidence of what's wrong in the energy market.
"energywatch will say that the structure of the GB markets does not promote effective competition, that there are too many no-go areas when it comes to information disclosure and that the exposure to the European energy markets punishes GB consumers with high prices.
"Ofgem, the FSA, the European Commission and others all have jurisdiction over different aspects of these markets. There is an urgent need to set out and co-ordinate the approach and priorities for enquiry. It may well be that the most effective vehicle will be through the Competition Commission.
"Higher energy prices will be catastrophic for the 4.5million fuel poor and those households on the brink of fuel poverty. At the same time that we examine the market, we must be raising the level of support available to the most affected households.”
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
Billionaire investor George Soros has given his gloomiest assessment of the state of the US and world economies.
He told BBC business editor Robert Peston that the "acute phase" of the credit crunch may be over but effects on the real economy are yet to be felt.
He warned the "financial bubble" of the last 25 years could be drawing to an end and the post World War II "super-boom" era could also be over.
He predicted a "more severe and longer" US slowdown than most people expect.
And he said that the UK was worse-placed than America to weather to coming economic storm, because it had such a large financial sector and has had the biggest increase in house prices.
Gloomy bankers
Mr Soros said that the current mandate of most of the world's leading central banks - where their main focus was fighting inflation - meant there was limited scope for cutting interest rates to help economies recover.
As for the Bank of the England, he said, "it was like a Greek tragedy", because they "couldn't do a U-turn" until there was a full-blown recession, which would finally take away the price pressures.
The Bank of England is warning of higher inflation and slower growth
It was "inevitable" that they would keep rates too high for the good of the economy, he added.
In part, Mr Soros is echoing the gloomy forecast of the world's central bankers in recent weeks.
The head of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, recently told the BBC that the "market correction was still on-going".
Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, warned in the Bank's inflation report that UK inflation would rise above its target while the economy would slow sharply.
Moral hazard
Mr Soros believes that central bankers are partly to blame for the credit crunch because of their past behaviour in bailing out the financial sector whenever it got into trouble for over-lending, the so-called moral hazard problem.
In the US Bear Stearns has had to be rescued
He said that the central banks should explicitly target asset bubbles such as housing booms and try to stop them getting out of control, which is something they have resisted doing so far.
And he said that tougher but smarter regulation would be needed in the future in order to reduce the excess supply of credit in the economy.
These could include measures to force banks to put aside more reserves in good times to help cushion them in bad times.
Misguided markets
Mr Soros believes that oil and other commodities are over-priced, but he sees little chance of the price of oil coming down until there is a big slowdown in the richer economies.
Oil prices have risen relentlessly this year
He sees the price of oil as being driven by higher demand in developing countries such as China, where subsidised energy costs mean there is less price-sensitivity.
He also said that stock markets are still underestimating the severity and length of the economic downturn, especially in the US, and are now having a "bear market rally".
Profiting from the crisis
Mr Soros has credibility partly because he is prepared to invest his own money to back up his convictions.
The private investment fund he has resumed managing made a return of 34% last year betting that the credit crunch was more severe than many people expected.
Mr Soros was the man reported to have made $1bn in September 1992, betting correctly that the British currency would have to be devalued and leave the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.
Mr Soros has devoted much of time since then to philanthropy, especially in Eastern Europe.
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
Morning, Off to Exeter with Gary Whittaker this morning and as always every one of you will have finished yesterday , reflected and admitted to yourself ' I am proud of what I achieved today I couldn't have done anymore!!!!! Tuesday the 20th of May and the group has reached 18029. Wow fantastic and after just 6 years and 10 months its now really starting to motor. Compare that to sixteen years in the Police and going nowhere fast. It's your business guys. I am not unique. I believe in every single one of you and your team members. What do I believe ? What excites me. I believe ALL of you joined a business that if you work hard, smart and never moan , whinge or doubt yourself ! You can all give yourselves and your families a massive residual IMPACT on many lives. Let's really get this monster motoring . Have a terrific Tuesday and make the effort to get at least one guest to a Cop Tonight. Regards Jimmy Chapman.
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
House sales set to plummet by 'up to 40 per cent', warn experts
Sales of houses could collapse by 40 per cent this year, according to a study published today by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Such a fall would threaten a wider recession as furniture and carpet stores and firms selling fridges, washing machines and other household products all suffer the knock-on effects.
Others to feel the pain would include estate agents, where thousands are already being made redundant, and solicitors specialising in conveyancing.
RICS warned that the number of home sales could plunge by around 400,000 to approximately 600,000 and said the second half of the year would be a "difficult period for the housing market".
The fall-out from the credit crunch means banks have withdrawn thousands of mortgage deals, tightened lending rules and pushed up interest rates, creating a home loan drought.
Analysis by Mortgage Monitor has found that the number of mortgage deals available has fallen by 56 per cent over the last six months to just 16,000.
Housing minister Caroline Flint last week unwittingly revealed that house prices this year are expected to fall by 5 to 10 per cent "at best".
Some analysts have warned of falls of 20 per cent.
But first time buyers, who might see that as good news, will struggle to find a loan.
RICS chief economist Simon Rubinsohn said: "Money looks set to remain tight and many will continue to find that access to the market is restricted by cautious lenders."
He added: "It is very worrying that property transactions could fall by as much as 40 per cent this year.
"This could have important ramifications for the wider economy."
More than 1.4million home buyers coming off cheap, fixed rate or tracker mortgages this year face a "payment shock" or moving to much more expensive loans.
RICS believes thousands will be unable to cope and home repossessions will hit 43,000 this year, up from 27,000 in 2007.
Despite the turmoil, the RICS predicts house prices will fall by an average of 5 per cent across the country this year.
But property website Rightmove today reports average asking prices rising in the past month, apparently because sellers refuse to accept the market is falling.
It found asking prices at an all-time high of £242,500 in May, up 1.2 per cent in a month. Rightmove's Miles Shipside, said: "New sellers can see the storm clouds overhead but seem to believe it is only raining on other people."
He warned: "Sellers who are hanging on to achieve last year's prices need to accept that the market has fallen and they will end up being punished by a lower price in the long run."
It is believed the figures were skewed by a flood of expensive properties in the South of England on to the market.
Asking prices were down in many other areas. The North-West saw the largest annual decrease of 2.5 per cent, while Yorkshire and Humberside, the North, Wales, the East Midlands and East Anglia suffered smaller falls.
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
Now desperate middle class families face huge debt crisis as more and more professionals plunge into the red
Middle Britain has been hit by a devastating debt crisis, experts said yesterday.
Even apparently well-off people with good jobs have plunged into the red.
Debt advice centres in middle-class areas have seen increases of up to 500 per cent in the numbers of people pleading for help.
There are even fears of suicides prompted by despair and shame.
Financial advisers gave examples of how deeply the crisis is biting.
They included:
• A TV producer on £70,000 a year, with £26,500 credit card and other debts and £25,500 in loans secured against property;
• An IT consultant on £28,500 who has £28,500 debt and a county court judgment against him;
• A retired bank manager with an income of £40,000 and £110,000 of debt from 20 credit cards and loans.
Many household budgets have been pushed to breaking point and beyond by the disappearance of cheap mortgage deals, due to the global credit crunch, coupled with higher bills for food, utilities, petrol and other essentials.
Those tempted by bank offers of cheap credit over the last decade now find they cannot meet the repayments on their debts.
The epidemic is spreading so fast that some debt advice centres are reported to be turning people away because there are simply too few experts to help them. Centres in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, and Congleton, Cheshire – an area dubbed Footballers' Wives territory – have seen increases of 500 per cent in the inquiries they are receiving.
The Congleton centre has 135 clients who share a staggering £5.1million in debt.
The figures on those seeking help come from Transact, which co-ordinates the activities of some 1,200 debt advice centres across the country.
Spokesman James Elliott said they were seeing a new type of client.
"In the past it was almost uniquely people on benefits, people in social housing, who went to debt advice agencies," he said.
"Since the credit crunch started they are seeing a big increase in professional people and homeowners – people who have been pushed over the edge and now can't cope with their outgoings.
Scroll down for more...
Breaking point: Debt advice centres in middle-class areas have seen increases of up to 500 per cent in the numbers of people pleading for help. (Posed by models)
"These services are being overwhelmed by a whole new breed of debtor – middle-class people. But it means there is now much less debt advice to go round."
At one time, people who ran up massive credit card bills and overdrafts looked to clear the slate by borrowing more against their homes through remortgaging.
But the banks have shut off that escape route with tough new rules on lending to those already carrying big debts.
Community Money Advice, a charity which helps to establish and support money-advice services, reports an 85 per cent increase nationwide in the number of people seeking financial help in the 12 months to December.
There was an increase of 234 per cent in demand for its services on Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and rises of 55 per cent in Cambridge and 48 per cent in Horsham, West Sussex.
Chief executive Heather Keates said: "We are seeing a new type of client.
"Teachers, police and banking and service sector workers, many of them homeowners, are struggling with mortgages, secured loans and credit card debts.
"They were already financially stretched but they have now been pushed over the edge by dearer credit and the big increases in food and utility costs."
Miss Keates added: "Some of the figures are staggering. We have one or two clients with debts of millions of pounds".
Such large debts usually arise from property and stock market investments that have gone wrong, however, rather than domestic problems.
The charity has also seen an alarming increase in the number of people whose homes are being repossessed.
Emma Russell, senior adviser at the Mid-Sussex Debt Advice Centre, said the average debt of their clients – not counting their mortgages – was now running at around £20,000.
"We've seen probably almost a 100per cent increase in clients. This time last year we were really quite quiet," she told the BBC.
"I've had at least two clients sit in front of me and tell me they would have killed themselves if they hadn't found out we were here."
Advisers say a large part of the blame for the crisis must be taken by people who have lived the high life with new homes, cars, designer clothes and holidays – all bought on credit.
But experts insist that banks and other financial institutions must take some responsibility for encouraging people to go into debt by handing out credit cards without proper financial checks.
They also believe the government should do more to educate people about personal finance, so they can avoid the problems now hitting so many families.
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
How To Quit Your Job And Go Full-Time In Your Business...
Thanks for the question Kevin. I'm glad to see that you're in a position to even consider this topic... Congrats!
Here's the quick rule-of-thumb answer...
Never quit your JOB and go full time into your home business until you've exceeded your JOB income for at least three consecutive months.
That's the quick answer.
As we get into a deeper answer to your question, let's assume that you follow that rule. Your next concern is the amount of free time you have available to dedicate to your business.
Well in reality, time is RARELY an issue. It's simply a matter of working smarter and more efficiently, instead of longer.
The first thing we need to do is prioritize our activities so that we're only spending time on those which directly effect bottom line production.
And there are a lot of activities that go into building a network marketing business!
* Writing ads
* Placing ads
* Creating capture pages
* Calling leads
* Interviewing leads
* Contact management
* Scheduling follow ups
* 3-way calls with downline
* Mailing information
* Making follow up calls
* Processing new orders and applications
* New distributor training and orientation
Now here's where I want to flip the switch upstairs for you today...
Look through all of the activities above and ask yourself the following question:
"What makes me money?"
The answer?
In the end, it's only one thing:
Processing completed customer orders and distributor applications.
That's the only activity that makes you money, so it's the one activity that should dominate your business building time.
If you only had two hours per day to build a business, how much money would you be making if you spent all two hours processing new applications and taking orders?
Probably enough to go full time right!?
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
What kills off more people in Network Marketing than any other reason?
Is it a lack of motivation or commitment? Is it their negative friends and family? Is it just plain stupidity?
The reason is that they do not have enough Confidence in being able to succeed. It is estimated that 80% of all people who join Network Marketing have unacceptable levels of confidence when they join.
The lack of confidence means they are not motivated enough. The lack of confidence means they will not commit to enough learning or action to ever be able to succeed. The lack of confidence is seen in their eyes when they talk to people about the business and so guarantees poor results. The lack of confidence means they give up at the smallest hurdles.
All of the motivational messages, simple systems and inspiring pep-talks are a waste of time on a person without confidence.
The challenge is that do not 'believe' that they can succeed so have low confidence. The do not believe because they do not understand [or conceive] how they will be successful. As Napoleon Hill says 'what man can conceive and believe they can achieve'.
Every person who join this industry must go through a programme that provides some basic knowledge on how a network is built. Then they must learn and practice how to approach their warm market and what to coach someone after they join. It is theory and practice. If you do this, they will believe that they have a 100% chance of success. They will have to confidence to take action.
There is only one workshop in the world specially designed to provide the theory and practice to beat the Network Enemy Number One, its called 100% Success Workshop.
Ed Ludbrook's 100% Success Ezine
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
By Harry Wallop Consumer Affairs Correspondent ----------------
THE rising cost of living has left the average family with less than £50 to spend each week on anything other than essential household bills.
The average household with a home and car has £2,427 a year to spend on child care, clothes, holidays, household repairs, credit card interest, telephone calls, medicines, alcohol and eating out.
This equates to £46.67 a week after bills, taxes and the mortgage have been paid. Statistics show that costs have soared over the past year at a far faster rate than wages, leaving most families unable to afford many key items.
The Daily Telegraph has analysed household costs, including food, utilities and insurance bills, for a family with two children, a £150,000 mortgage and a car. Costs for this typical family total £24,665 a year as a result of significant increases in gas and electricity bills, record petrol prices and rising food prices. This compares with an official estimate of the net average household income, which totals £27,092, after benefits have been received and taxes paid.
This is taken from the Office for National Statistics’ family spending survey 2007, published last month. It includes sources of income from all members of a household, including wages, investments, benefits and tax credits, minus taxes and nation
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
Over 4,000 estate agents are fearing closure this year and 45,000 people are expected to get repossessed (twice as many as last year) according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now in taking control of your future....
As many as 3,000 post office branches - on top of the 2,500 already being culled in the current round of controversial closures - could be lost with the axeing of the Post Office card account in 2010, the National Federation of SubPostmasters claims.
The cuts already under way will bring the network down from 14,300 to fewer than 12,000. A further 3,000 would reduce that number to less than 9,000 - half the size of the network when Labour came to power.
The Federation's general secretary, George Thomson, is to highlight these fears tomorrow in his key speech at the start of the trade union's three-day annual conference in Torquay, Devon.
We stopped the closure
Customers of the Lambeth Walk post office in south-east London celebrated last week as their branch was just one of seven in the capital to be spared out of 168 earmarked for closure.
Financial Mail featured the branch in February at the start of sustained campaigning by postmaster Oladapo Habeeb and Vauxhall MP Kate Hoey.
The Lambeth Walk branch was listed for closure despite the fact that it serves six nearby homes for the elderly or disabled and plays a crucial part in neighbourhood regeneration.
The branch is a short distance from the House of Commons on the other side of the Thames, but the world of Lambeth Walk is one of low incomes and high unemployment and crime.
Shirley Wilson, head of the local primary school, says that when it comes to rebuilding a neighbourhood such as this, everything is interlinked.
'If the post office goes, the shops go, the street changes and the whole community is threatened,' she says. The branch is profitable with 1,500 weekly users. Oladapo says: 'I am delighted. I never believed this would happen.
'Future problems, such as the end of the Post Office card account worry me, but we'll develop new services, and we'll find ways to survive.'
The grim prediction follows the Government's decision to ditch the Post Office card account in 2010. Its replacement, to be announced this summer, could be run by private firms outside the post office network.
As much as 12% of branch revenue comes from the card account and its loss could force the most vulnerable outlets out of business, the Federation reckons. Thomson says: 'It could be a catastrophic blow. This current wave of closures was only acceptable if it meant the network would survive in better health - now it seems that this promise could be broken.'
The card account is used by 4.3m people a year for collecting benefits, such as the State pension. The replacement scheme may also include basic banking facilities that will allow users to deposit and withdraw cash.
The Department for Work and Pensions, which has been handling the tendering process, is tight-lipped on details of the bidders, but it is believed to include not only the Post Office, but private bill payments organisation Pay-Point, which recently won the right to sell TV licences.
Following a year of behind-the-scenes haggling, the competition for offering a Post Office card account replacement was closed in March and the winner is to be announced this summer.
Emma Hayes, a spokeswoman for charity Age Concern, says: 'It will be a disaster for many communities if the Post Office loses the right to offer the card to its customers.
'Isolated rural areas and deprived urban districts where pensioners in particular rely on the post office for their needs will particularly suffer.
'Post offices are the outlet of choice for collecting benefits. If they lose the card account deal, many branches will be forced out of business.'
The Government axed benefits books five years ago and encouraged benefit recipients to have payments made direct into bank accounts or to open a card account. Then, in 2006, it announced that the POCA, which cost £1bn to set up, was also being dropped. But it was forced into offering an alternative after more than threem signatures were collected by the NFSP demanding a U-turn. A spokeswoman for the Department for Work and Pensions says: 'The tendering process for the replacement to the card account is under way. It would be inappropriate to comment further.'
Closures ready to resume Jeff Prestridge, Mail on Sunday
The culling of post office branches is set to continue after being put on hold in the run-up to this month's local elections.
On Tuesday, the Post Office will identify the branches it intends to axe in West Yorkshire, one of 15 of the 50 areas where it has yet to announce its closure plans. A week later, the hit list for Devon, the North East, Tayside and Fife will be revealed.
Next month, it will announce closures in four more areas, including Birmingham, Greater Manchester and the Peak District, Derbyshire. The final post offices facing the axe will be revealed in late August. The Post Office will give the public the chance to challenge closure plans. Occasionally, as with the Lambeth Walk branch in south-east London (above), it listens and overturns closure decisions. To see whether your local post office is at risk of closure,
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now....
British Gas will tomorrow warn householders that their annual gas bills may jump by as much as 30% next winter.
The huge rise, the result of soaring wholesale gas prices, would push the average household energy bill to more than £1,200 a year.
The company, which provides gas to nearly half the nation's homes, said it was being forced to put up prices because its retail gas business would otherwise plunge into the red.
Forecast wholesale prices for next winter put gas at 85p a therm compared with 47p last winter.
The coded warning of more increases in gas prices will come in a trading statement tomorrow, just five months after parent company Centrica reported annual profits of £1.9bn.
It will come as yet more unwelcome economic news for the Government, which is battling to fight inflation in the face of soaring domestic energy bills and petrol at £5 gallon.
The wholesale price of gas is rising because Britain is forced to import more rather than relying on North Sea supplies.
Last year the UK imported 27% of its gas needs, but this figure is expected to hit about 40% in 2008.
Centrica is considering buying a third share of a giant £2.5bn wind farm in the Thames Estuary.
Shell is selling its stake in the London Array project seven miles off the north Kent coast, which when completed will be the biggest wind farm in the world, with 300 turbines.
Sarwjit Sambhi, Centrica's director of power generation and renewables, said: 'We would certainly be interested in acquiring this stake.'
£10bn nuclear bidding battle
Spanish energy giant Iberdrola, owner of ScottishPower, and Suez of France will this week launch rival £10bn-plus bids for British Energy that are expected to top Friday's all-cash offer from EDF.
No details have been given of EDF's proposal for Britain's only nuclear power operator, but it is understood to be less than the 701p-a-share at which BE was trading at the end of the week.
Centrica, parent company of British Gas, had been attempting to muscle in on the EDF deal, but has been left out in the cold.
British Energy is refusing to comment on the EDF proposal and is likely to keep quiet until it has received detailed offers from other energy companies. A final decision is not expected until June.
Save upto £500 per annum on your combined bills and have one bill:
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now....
Household gas bills could rise by more than £400 this year, as British Gas today signalled another price increase of 20 per cent.
The rise - likely within a matter of weeks - will take average domestic gas and electricity bills above £1,200 after a 15 per cent price rise in January.
Consumer group uSwitch believes households may need to prepare for price rises of as much as 46 per cent for the year as a whole.
"Including the 15 per cent rise in January, the worst case suggests bills could rise by as much as £415 in one year," said uSwitch director Tim Wolfenden.
"We believe there could be a bunch of rises by the end of the year. We foresee increases in August and September, but then a real killer additional rise at the end of the year."
British Gas's parent company Centrica left customers and shareholders at its annual meeting in London today in little doubt they should be braced for far larger bills.
The company said the global oil price, which has soared to $125 a barrel, has also seen the price of gas rocket. British Gas says the amount it has to pay for gas to supply UK households means it can no longer make the profit its City shareholders demand.
"We will take necessary action to deliver reasonable margins in the retail business," Centrica chairman Roger Carr was due to tell the meeting.
The wholesale price of gas has been rising throughout the spring, and the outlook is not getting better.
Forward prices are nearly double what they were last year, with suppliers having to pay up to 85p a therm next winter compared with 48p in the winter just gone.
Asked when a price rise might come, a British Gas spokesman said: "That depends on what happens to the oil price, which has been highly volatile." The spokesman refused to be drawn on how much British prices might have to go up.
However, Mark Todd, director at price comparison website energyhelpline.com, said: "With this announcement, the UK's biggest energy supplier is telling consumers very clearly that massive price rises are coming their way."
Jenny Saunders, chief executive of fuel poverty charity National Energy Action, said a 30 per cent price increase could force 1.2 million UK households into fuel poverty and "completely reverse progress made in this area over the past 10 years".
She added: "Low-income families with children, the elderly and vulnerable households will be hit hardest, but a growing amount of households will be feeling the pinch."
British Gas, which has some 17million domestic customers, effectively sets the benchmark on prices for the entire UK industry.
The Daily Mail Cost of Living Index has reported at 19.1 per cent increase in the price of a shopping basket of food and drink essentials.
Government estimates indicate that for every one per cent increase in fuel bills, another 40,000 households is plunged into fuel poverty - spending more than 10 per cent of disposable income on heat and light.
A 46 per cent increase in a year would suggest an extra 1.84million homes would be classed as fuel poor. This group face a nightmare choice between heating and eating.
North Sea gas supplies are declining rapidly and the Britain is becoming more reliant on expensive imports from the Continent via pipeline.
Gas prices in Europe are - for historic reasons - tied to changes in the price of crude oil, which has soared above 126 dollars a barrel in recent days.
There are concerns that prices are also being forced up because European power giants are actively rationing or blocking supplies to the UK.
Centrica said that, on average, month-ahead prices for gas and power were up 92 per cent and 100 per cent respectively from the same period last year.
Shares in Centrica, which have underperformed the FTSE 100 index by almost 22 percent in the past 12 months, were down 1.6 percent at 283 pence in early trading.
Save upto £500 per annum on your combined bills and have one bill:
Call Juswant on 07917 105134 or email on juswant.rai@gmail.com if you are interested right now....
Morning, Another sunny day ahead and so many people in work wishing they weren't!!! One of the reasons I am sitting in the garden in my new house is because I got really good at goal setting. I then used this business to get the goals. How much time do you spend goal setting? How often do review your goals?More importantly do you believe in yourself enough to make the goal a reality.
You hear me say this business can change your life but some of you and your team probably scratch your head sometimes and wonder why and when it is really going to kick in big time. Well for the first few years it will be down to you being the best you can be every second of every day. Then you naturally show your leadership team how to duplicate you. Spend time today writing out what makes a successful person in this business! What do they do , how do they act and be that person. Every day that passes is either a day closer to your dream life or another day wasted. In the end its your choice but do not be sitting in the sunshine in 2/3 or even 5 years time wishing you were or doing something else.
Go speak to as many people as you can everyday with a big smile and time will win out.
Be the success make it happen don't hope it happens.
Have a tremendous Thursday. Regards Jimmy Chapman.
Call Juswant Rai on 07917 105134 NOW for more information!
Great News for Letting Agents - Save Time, Save Money for Tenants & Make Money
Sorting out utility bills can cause havoc. What if there were a Quality Solution that benefitted your Letting Agency, your Landlords, and your Tenants?
Does your time get wasted in non -productive activities when sorting out the utility bills and energy suppliers for each tenancy?
Is it frustrating contacting energy suppliers, being put on hold for extended periods of time and bills still not getting sorted out?
Recognise this?
Dealing with up to 15 different energy suppliers, some with poor administration and accountability?
Confusion caused with losing track of current suppliers during changes in tenancies?
Would it help you if:
You could work from one Itemised Bill for all utilities (gas, electricity, phone and internet?)
You only had to phone just one Utility Company with one phone call to complete a tenancy change-over?
Your calls were answered rapidly, by a UK-based company, within a UK-based call centre that answers over 95% of customer calls within 15 seconds?
Welcome to The Utility Warehouse solution that puts the Smile back on your face!
Letting Agents Benefits
Significant Administration Improvements,
Unique billing system that provides customers with a single, fully-itemised bill covering all their services,
One, UK-based call centre to contact,
Over 95% of customer calls answered within 15 seconds,
Free help line to The Utility Warehouse Energy and Telephony Teams,
Same UK Company for cheaper phone installations,
Up-front revenue stream for each property transferred to Utility Warehouse,
Additional residual income on every tenants’ direct debit paid,
Simple Home Movers’ Pack,
Continuous revenue for that property on switch-over to new tenants,
On-going revenue from old tenants moved into their new property.
Tenants Benefits
High quality service for the supply of all their utilities,
No minimum contract period,
Guaranteed Savings on gas, electricity, phones, mobile phones and Internet/Broadband,
Guaranteed savings always against British Gas for gas, and regional supplier for electricity,
The “Complete Peace Of Mind Guarantee”: The Utility Warehouse will always remain competitive compared with the cheapest standard tariffs available from the "Big 6" suppliers. (The Utility Warehouse has consistently supplied its customers with the cheapest domestic energy for almost 5 years in the UK.)
Landlords Benefits
One Best-Value Supplier for all their properties’ utilities,
The Utility Warehouse will chase bad debts,
Key Meters can be taken over.
Call Juswant Rai on 07917 105134 NOW for more information!
Career Opportunity Presentations & COE Training Sessions
London COP returns
We are pleased to announce that the London COP returns with a great new venue. Starting on Thursday 22nd May (with a special guest host to be announced) at the Crowne Plaza London St James, SW1.
Inverness COP returns
We are attempting to relaunch training and COPs at Inverness following local demand. There will be a special COP on Tuesday 6th May with a special guest host, and Commercial Director Andrew Lindsay will also be there. The COP will start at 8pm so start inviting your guests. We will also be running a pre-COP training between 6.30 and 7.30pm covering all the latest recruiting tips and news from around the UK. While you do not need formally to book for this, we would be grateful if you could ‘register’ yourself and any planned guests if you wish to attend, by calling Executive Services. This is important as we need to ensure we have the correct amount of venue space.
New Grimsby COE and COP
The Trainer Council are pleased to announce a new COE and COP venue, on a trial basis. Grimsby kicks off with a COE and a COP on Tuesday 6th May. To book for the COE, please call Executive Services now.
New Runcorn COE and COP
The Trainer Council are pleased to announce a new COE and COP venue, on a trial basis. Check the Extranet for dates.
Pre-COPs at Surrey and Bristol
Susan Mackenzie, one of our top MD's, will show you how to use effectively the Martini Presentation & text messaging to help boost your business. These are not-to-be missed events!
Silvermere Gold Club Surrey: 13 May
Bristol Golf & Country Club: 19 May
No booking required, check the Extranet for full details
Career Opportunity Presentations & COE Training Sessions
There are a total of seven COPs within the next seven days:
QUALIFIED EXECUTIVE Dermot O’Connor Scott Clark Windsor Taylor Manjeet Mehangra Ian Perret Guy Martinson Christopher Hardcastle & Laura Dee-Frazer Steve Humphrey Christopher & Susan Jervis Richard Carn & Sarah-Leigh Thurston Dean Coleman FA Thompson Appliance Engineers Ltd Peter & Louiza Swales PP Derby Ltd Joe Shelton Robert & Justine Back Neil Schofield Sally Arnold Jo & Shaun Davey Janet Risbridger Astrid Philips Philip Harrison Darren Hunt Judith & Heath Hansell Tracy Rissik Michael & Jack Fordyce Steve Angel & Tina Mason Alex Melliar Debbie Stevens Miloud Lamrani Elaine Parkinson Charles Gibson Alison Carrington Colin Walker Andrew English & Michelle Testagrossa David Achilles 3D Wealth Management Phil Maughan Jennifer & Ann Lomas Steve & Kay Wright Nicholas Evans Jones Ray Halfpenny Christine Kerrigan Alan Jones Lesley Pascall Elaine & David Carpenter Caroline Judd Geoff Dunker Go Dent Nakeeb Hussain
FLYING CLUB John Wood Peter & Valerie Ralph Ranvier Kaur Servjit Uppal Paul Vickers Lifestyle Kate Marshall Peter Marshall & Josie Sharpe David Woods Ian Jones & Lisa Mcknickle Mandy Haskey Carl Schofield Maurice & Nicola Campbell The Grovewood Consultancy Ltd Noel Austin Ltd Edgar Williams John James Turner Dorothy Fogg Peter Lawless Melanie Sammut Jane Harwood Newbegin Ltd Richard & Dawn Jones Louise Griffiths Ian Jackson Sharon Clark
50 PLUS CLUB Colin Wilson
100 PLUS CLUB Eddy Holland
SENIOR EXECUTIVE
LIFESTYLE SE GOLD Graham & Vanessa Dobson Clive Fowler Dr Graham Carlin & Lyn Kirbyshire Juswant & Sylvia Rai Dale & Jackie Hurrel John Parkinson Jean Norton David Harwood Lorraine Webster Chris Booth Louise Griffiths Graham & Alison Skeats Anthony Holland Dawn Weston
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
BOB & MARGARET EASTWICK CHRIS GRIFFITHS ALLISON & STEPHEN CROSS STEPHEN ROSHER
GROUP DIRECTOR
MALCOLM & DOREEN TURNER BROWN
MARKETING DIRETOR
Tony & Christine Griffiths
SENIOR MARKETING DIRECTOR
Jimmy & Nicola Chapman
This has been an amazing month and May has already got off to a flyer. It is so important that you share your business idea with people. Millions are struggling financially with the crippling, rising cost of living, both residentially and in business. How many people can you smile at and tell about this business this month? Activity generates results which will generate MASSIVE REWARDS for you all. Believe and you will achieve.
Please pass on my congratulations to all your teams!
I will be at Grimsby Coe and Cop on Tuesday 6th, see you there.
Have a fantastic weekend with your families and friends
Since Express Day last year, the Telecom plus Mini fleet has grown enormously, with the 100th of these fabulously eye-catching cars being presented to Pat Dean at MAD last weekend.
To coincide with all of this increased excitement and activity we've asked these proud new Mini owners to share with us some of the 'secrets of their success' which we'll be sharing with you in the coming weeks and months.
To kick-off, we hear from Executive Directors Bill & Sonja Sparrow. Bill & Sonja epitomise everything that our business offers. Because they lead busy lives they have chosen to work their business part-time, but have still achieved spectacular results including a place on the luxury 6-star cruise last year.
Q) Can you provide a brief overview of your background, where you worked (or still work) how you became a Distributor and what your original motivation was when signing-up?
We have been self-employed, working mainly from home, for several years - Bill as a software developer and I'm a word processor operator. I was given a slip of paper which said, “Would you like to earn an extra £500 per month?” Out of curiosity, and with nothing to lose, I phoned the 0800 number to find out what it was all about and ended up making an appointment for someone to come round and explain. I thought it was “not for me”, put off by the thought of the technical information about the business and services we would have to master. Bill, with his technical background, jumped at the opportunity for the exact opposite reasons! We signed up as Distributors, with the plan that Bill would sign people up and I would provide “admin” support.
As we now admit, little did we know, at that stage, that mastering the technical information was not what the business was all about. Some time later the reality slowly dawned and we now both work the business and leave out the technical detail wherever possible!
Our motivation for joining was just to make a bit more money every month so we could go on more overseas holidays to places where the sun shines.
Q) What methods of customer and Distributor gathering have proven particularly successful for you?
To gain customers we started with our immediate family. Bill's Dad was one of our first customers. We sent out Pig Cards to all the people in our address book to break the ice and spoke to family, friends, neighbours etc.
In the early days we gathered Distributors by inviting satisfied customers to business meetings in our home and showing them how they could make money with the business.
As we learnt more we have come to realise the need to turn this on its head. The aim now is first to see if people want to earn some money, and if the business is not for them, see if they would like to be a customer.
Our best results are from Win A Mini events - some success with doing them at car boot sales, but find that events like the local Donkey Derby work better. Maybe it is because these are family events and having both partners there avoids the “my husband/wife deals with the bills” problem. Our latest success was having a Win A Mini stand in the local Makro trade store.
Q) What advice would you give somebody who’s building their Telecom plus business and wants to qualify for their own Mini?
Firstly, and without a doubt, go to the training. Go back as many times as it takes for things to sink in. Go back for a refresher from time to time. Other than that, just talk to people. There is no other way.
Study the compensation plan and see what it takes both to qualify for the Mini and to achieve promotion. You would find it difficult or impossible to achieve targets based only on your own efforts, so building a team is essential.
Use incentives. Have home meetings where ideas are bandied about. This certainly keeps us motivated.
Do not sit on your laurels and think this business is going to come to you.
Q) What mistakes have you made building your business that you’d like to prevent others making themselves?
Not taking the business seriously meant we did not do much for a year or so for various reasons. We now regret this and wish we had been more active from the start. We would have been able to have retired by now!
Things we have tried: Mailings - been disappointed with the results. Paid for advertising - we have had zero response. Door knocking - not very successfully, would only use as a last resort!
We have been inconsistent - operating in fits and starts. One minute we have so many leads that we can’t find the time to follow them up, and the next minute it has all gone quiet.
Q) Since becoming a Distributor, how has your life changed and how can you see it improving over the coming years?
Enjoyed extra holidays each year - at least four.
Gained a place on the Silver Whisper cruise ship in May 2007.
On the 18th March 2008, we obtained our own 2008 "Mellow Yellow" BMW Mini (the icing on the cake).
My aim is to earn enough to pay our monthly bills and have some money to spare.
Bill’s aim is to retire early from his computer business and have the Telecom plus business provide a bigger income than his computer business ever did.
Joint aims: to hire a small “mobile home” vehicle and take a leisurely tour of the UK. Spend three to four months a year abroad where the sun shines. Re-visit Thailand, and in particular our favourite island Phi-Phi.
It's the only company we know of that you get paid for doing nothing once you have built up the business. We still got paid last year for taking six months off!
What a FANTASTIC event! Everyone left the event buzzing with inspiration, new ideas and tips to improve their businesses.
A great day on the stage with every speaker actively and successfully building their businesses at the moment. People walking the walk as well as talking the talk. The mix of new speakers along with some old favourites was a breath of fresh air. There were 39, yes THIRTY NINE, people who spoke on stage (either as a main speaker or a testimonial) who had never been seen before on the major stage (either Express Day or MAD). The event was an emotional rollercoaster, with some stories and achievements that had many people in tears.
For example, who’d have believed that Jimmy Chapman would have choked-up while on stage with his wife and children, receiving their well deserved recognition for getting to Senior Marketing Director? Moving testimonials from people such as Liz Marsh and Rod Bowden among others; inspiring advice from Richard Oakley, Sharon Hutchinson, Sheila Winter and Nigel Reilly-Cooper with his merry band of SE Golds. It was also great to hear from Lil McLoughlin – the company’s first ever solo female Marketing Director (she worked the business on her own, not as part of a couple!) who, after some time out and about and abroad, is back in the fold. And those who heard from Shaun Hamblett on how he got to 50 Plus and SE, and rose to recognise the achievement of Kerry Painter getting to SE, will probably think twice before moaning about how they find the business difficult!!
From our main speakers, Mark Adams proved why he’s one of the leading Marketing Directors in the business with his advice on letting agents; Shannon Griffin’s insight into working with a team and being a good upline was a lesson to us all; Neil Blythe’s dry reverse psychology was brilliantly delivered and hit the spot, though he’s the first man to be booed off stage at a Telecom plus event (much to the relief of some others who could have been!!!); Steph Longworth, as always, wowed us all in a way that only he can; Chris Williams delivered an excellent and thought-provoking slot about time-keeping; while Steve Critchley – the company’s top Distributor – retained his status as a ‘man of the people’ with his down-to-earth but nevertheless motivational approach; and our very own Dame Rob Barras again showed us why Win A Mini is such a great concept, and Keith Bassi was later given a special recognition award for being the first person to think that driving around in a bright yellow Mini with piggy stickers on it was sensible!
Wes and Robin hosted the day as only they can, though their identity was called into question with a quite hilarious and impromptu game of audience participation (also known as heckling!) where, to be fair, the audience’s responses were better than anything that could have been scripted!
Company Directors were in abundance – we heard briefly from new Directors Simon Thompson and Steve Veal; Wayne Coupland again showed his obvious enthusiasm for the job he does so well; Humphrey Couchman eloquently shared with us the strides that the Marketing and Communications Departments are making; Andrew Lindsay had us all on the edge of our seats with a truly inspirational and wonderfully delivered talk on his experiences of what it takes to win an Olympic Gold Medal, and how we can use that same motivation in our own lives and businesses.
Tears, laughter, inspiration, information and motivation – it was a truly excellent day. Thank you to all those involved including all of those we haven’t mentioned!
Here are just a few of your comments regarding the day:
“I have to congratulate you both on what was such a fantastic day. I have had such good feedback from those that were there, all really positive. So many moving moments, stories, ideas. Best day so far, better than any of the other seminars.” Mark Paveley
“I’ve had fantastic feedback from my team about MAD and for the first time in any “corporate” event I’ve been to, there were no weak presenters. Not one.
Moreover, the testimonials were relevant, added a huge amount of value and were extremely well managed by both of you, rather then people droning on as is sometimes the case!
The message rang home loud and clear that based on some of the Distributors we saw being recognised for great achievements, who can do every bit as well as any other (and in many cases, better!), with huge enthusiasm and not a word of complaint, then we have no reason to have our own pity parties. I’ve had so many people tell me how humble they felt listening to so many of the stories. Moreover, if Andrew Lindsay can work for ten years for a goal which is fleetingly won or lost, then how challenging can a few extra hours a week be for most Distributors to change their lives?” Shannon Griffin
“Thank you for the best MAD yet. It was truly inspiring. Along with the excellent education tips from Distributors and Directors of the company, we saw some of the most inspirational testimonials and recognition I have ever seen in all my years with Telecom plus. A truly great day, and one I will never forget.” Rhod Grubb
“There’s only one thing to say – TOP DRAWER!” Stephan Longworth
“Just wanted to say that yesterday’s MAD was fantastic, a big thank you to everyone. I was prepared for the straight-talking and the laughs but was not prepared for so much emotion, my tissues were sodden by the end of the day!!“ Louise Carter
