Some thoughts before the end of the year

Here's a question that you should clip out and tape to your bathroom mirror. It might save you some angst 15 years from now.

The question is, What did you do back when interest rates were at their lowest in 50 years, crime was close to zero, great employees were looking for good jobs, computers made product development and marketing easier than ever, and there was almost no competition for good news about great ideas?

Many people will have to answer that question by saying, "I spent my time waiting, whining, worrying, and wishing." Because that's what seems to be going around these days. Fortunately, though, not everyone will have to confess to having made such a bad choice.

While your company has been waiting for the economy to rebound, Reebok has launched Travel Trainers, a very cool-looking lightweight trainer for travelers. They are selling out in Japan -- from vending machines in airports!

While Detroit's car companies have been whining about gas prices and bad publicity for SUVs (SUVs are among their most profitable products), Honda has been busy building cars that look like SUVs but get twice the gas mileage. The Honda Pilot was so popular, it had a waiting list.
While Africa's economic plight gets a fair amount of worry, a little startup called Kickstart is actually doing something about it. The new income that its products generate accounts for 0.5% of the entire GDP of Kenya. How? It manufactures a $75 device that looks a lot like a StairMaster. But it's not for exercise. Instead, Kickstart sells the machine to subsistence farmers, who use its stair-stepping feature to irrigate their land. People who buy it can move from subsistence farming to selling the additional produce that their land yields -- and triple their annual income in the first year of using the product.

While you've been wishing for the inspiration to start something great, thousands of entrepreneurs have used the prevailing sense of uncertainty to start truly remarkable companies. Lucrative Web businesses, successful tool catalogues, fast-growing PR firms -- all have started on a shoestring, and all have been profitable ahead of schedule.

The Web is dead, right? Well, try telling that to Meetup.com, a new Web site that helps organize meetings anywhere and on any topic. It has 200,000 registered users -- and counting.

Maybe you already have a clipping on your mirror that asks you what you did during the 1990s. What's your biggest regret about that decade? Do you wish that you had started, joined, invested in, or built something? Are you left wishing that you'd at least had the courage to try? In hindsight, the 1990s were the good old days. Yet so many people missed out. Why? Because it's always possible to find a reason to stay put, to skip an opportunity, or to decline an offer. And yet, in retrospect, it's hard to remember why we said no and easy to wish that we had said yes.

The thing is, we still live in a world that's filled with opportunity. In fact, we have more than an opportunity -- we have an obligation. An obligation to spend our time doing great things. To find ideas that matter and to share them. To push ourselves and the people around us to demonstrate gratitude, insight, and inspiration. To take risks and to make the world better by being amazing.

Are these crazy times? You bet they are. But so were the days when we were doing duck-and-cover air-raid drills in school, or going through the scares of Three Mile Island and Love Canal.

There will always be crazy times.

So stop thinking about how crazy the times are, and start thinking about what the crazy times demand. There has never been a worse time for business as usual. Business as usual is sure to fail, sure to disappoint, sure to numb our dreams. That's why there has never been a better time for the new. Your competitors are too afraid to spend money on new productivity tools. Your bankers have no idea where they can safely invest. Your potential employees are desperately looking for something exciting, something they feel passionate about, something they can genuinely engage in and engage with.

You get to make a choice. You can remake that choice every day, in fact. It's never too late to choose optimism, to choose action, to choose excellence. The best thing is that it only takes a moment -- just one second -- to decide.

Before you finish this paragraph, you have the power to change everything that's to come. And you can do that by asking yourself (and your colleagues) the one question that every organisation and every individual needs to ask today: Why not be great?

courtesy of Seth Godin http://www.sethgodin.com/

What the year ahead holds

I think 2008 will be an interesting year for business as a whole. Businesses that differentiate themselves from the masses (read "The Purple Cow" by Seth Godin), sell the benefits to customers, and run a tight ship will have no problem, those that don't will suffer.

My advice to new and old businesses is the following:

1. Understand your pricing policies and review your prices. If inflation is rising isn't it time to change your prices?

2. Understand your costs better, know what is costing you money whilst what is making you money. For every £1 spent by you is it contributing more than £1 to the value of your business?

3. Take time out to spend on growing your business - during these tougher economic times this will be essential to navigate your business during leaner times.

4. Build an internal and external team of friends and advisors to support you with your plans. Teamwork is essential in achieving your aspirations.

5. Fortune favours the brave. You are more likely to succeed by taking calculated risks, developing your skills proactively and taking action rather than waiting to see what happens!

I hate it when my clients pay................. TOO MUCH TAX

Last week I took on a client who had been using the services of a major accountancy practice in Reading for a number of years. The firm in question are a very good practice with one problem - they don't seem to look after their "smaller" clients very well. I can understand how this happens becasue I have worked in larger firms in the past and have seen this myself.

I checked over the latest accounts figures and was horrified at what I saw!

The accountancy fee for one was huge! But the biggest problem for me was the claim for using the home as an office.

Now this particular business is operated exclusively from home and uses two of the rooms in the house. So there is a potential to make a substantial claim in the accounts as there is legislation which allows this. I had one client where we claimed over £6,000 each year for this.

And how much had the "other" accountant claimed? A measly £240! Yes thats right - £240 for a years use of the home as an office.

I made some quick calculations and worked out the claim could be as much as £4,000 each year. Now that equates to around £1,600 in tax for a 40% taxpayer plus national insurance. repeat this every year and it turns into many thousands of pounds of tax paid which isn't necessary!

My point is that it actually feels like I am paying the tax when my clients hand over their hard earned cash to the tax man! You work hard for it - my job is to help you keep hold of it!

A bientot!

Doesn't time fly?

Well here we are again and 18 days have passed since I last posted here. What a sin!
I do have some resonable excuses and I will reel them off.......................

Work - I spent a week in the UK working - always a distraction!

Snow - when I got home we had a great fall of snow so it was time to head into the forest, cut down a christmas tree and drag it home. To go with this we needed copious amounts of vin chaud to help us get in the festive spirit:)

And to top it all how could I leave that lovely snow alone with out having a play? So I have spent two days out on the snowboard and plan another day this week.

So there you are - a list of resonable excuses for not blogging. I think a new years resolution is due.

Anyway - I hope any readers have a great christmas and a happy new year. See you in 2008!