What do birthdays mean to you?

For many people it means presents, spending quality time with family and friends and having a few of your favourite beverages of choice!

It may also mean that you spend 5 minutes counting how many more grey hairs you have this year!  ( It’s the first time I’ve done it this year, and I’ve got 3…..bit worrying for a man in his early thirties! )

I love all these things about birthdays, but for me ( and especially as I get older ), it’s also about taking some time to understand what I’ve achieved personally and professionally, and more importantly where I want to be in the future.

Charlotte, my 7 year old ( or as she has recently been saying – “No daddy, I’m not 7, I’m nearly 8″ ) doesn’t worry about this when birthday comes around, and neither should she.  I want her to enjoy her childhood, stay young and carefree as long as she can and let Cassie and I worry about her future.

However I not 7 ( or nearly 8 ) any more, I’m now 33.  I’ve got responsibilities as a business owner, a husband and most importantly a Dad!!  Living up to my responsibilities means that, probably not unlike you, I’m always busy.  

I understand this, but let me ask you a question :-

 “When was the last time you took time out of your day to take stock of where you are are both personally, professionally and financially?”

I help both individuals and business plan for their financial futures all the time, and as a great believer in practising what you preach I ensure that financial plans for my family are in place and review these plans on a regular basis….so, let me ask you another question:-

“Do you do the same?“

Some of you may take the time to put in place these plans (I’d imagine some of you do, and some of you don’t).  If you are one of these people who doesn’t plan, do yourself a huge favour…..next time you get a chance, make yourself a cup of tea (or pour yourself a glass of your favourite tipple), sit down, take a deep breath and take stock.

Grab a pen and paper, write down where you feel you are personally, professionally and financially…..and then write down what you a looking to achieve in the next 1, 3 or 5 and even longer.  Once it’s written down, put some definitive plans in place to achieve these goals in your life.

By striving to achieve these goals, your life should be wealthier, happier and healthier…..regardless of whether the grey hairs come or not!!

Chris

I came across this, presented as a “funny”, and I thought that it might be interesting. It’s been around for many years and a lot of you will have come across it before. It made me think and I came across a Royal Mail survey that gives a serious side to it!

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

BUT, there is a serious side.

According to a Royal Mail survey:

75% of customers mistrust businesses using poor spelling and grammar.
30% won’t buy from them.

I’m not the best at proof reading, but I always remind myself of this.

On a similar vein, here’s an example I have used when selling training products for support staff in the legal profession.

There was a lawyer who liked to use latin in his letters. He dictated a letter on his recording device which went to a new secretary. The letter was to a client who was rather overweight.

He used the term ipso facto in one of his sentences. The secretary typed if so fatso. He didn’t proof read properly and the letter went to the overweight client. Guess what.

Cahilre

In this quick video John Jantsch of Duct Tape marketing talks about how to grow your business by referrals

Giving referrals is a powerful way to boost your connections and have people refer back to you. BUT, you can’t refer with the expectation that everyone will refer business back to you. What I mean is you shouldn’t keep a scorecard of who you refer to and whether they refer back. Your network will value you more for sending them to the right people instead of you sending them to someone who will only do a half decent job but sends you leads all the time.

What do you think of John’s video?