Monday, August 31, 2009

There is NO ROOM for Women In the Painting Business:

Today's blog is a response to an email we received last week. Here's what it said:

Dear Andy,
I am a female in the painting business and I would really like some inside trade secrets. I have a lot of men give me a hard time because they say a woman belongs at home. This is such old school.
I'm in a position to take on a lot of work as I have now found a great crew but don't really know how to bring that work to me. I have always done interiors and am certified in plaster finishes. I went to school for the plaster finishes.
I would love nothing more than to keep this crew busy and get myself off the ladders and just supervise.
What advice can you give me?
Thanks, Moon

Before I get to the tips, I just want to say that there is room for EVERYONE in our profession! There always has been and will always be more jobs to paint than there are painters to paint them.

One of the primary reasons women get a bad wrap in our profession, is that the guys are intimidated by them because homeowners have a tendency to trust women more, which gives them a significant selling advantage.

The guys who actually believe "there is no room for women in the painting business" are just afraid that they will be out shined by a female...

There is more than enough work to go around so get out there and start your business!

Here are a few insights to help women in our profession get and keep their painting businesses moving in the right direction.

  1. Put the guys on ignore and go do business - The great thing about the painting business is that it doesn't discriminate... it's a business and a trade open to nearly everyone regardless of - gender, skin color, political affiliation, age, social economic standing, etc.

  2. Create a better marketing and sales process - Use the fact that you are a woman in a male dominated industry as an advantage... Let homeowners know that you have had to work twice as hard to gain the respect of your peers and that work ethic translates into a better customer experience.

  3. Educate yourself and develop a strong work ethic - Stay up to date on the industry trends as well as marketing, sales and customer service... Always keep working to improve your brand and image within your community.
In the end business is done between people and once you learn how to DO the "Painting Business" it matters very little if you are a man or woman... what color your skin is or who you vote for.

Honestly it comes down to three things:
  1. Delivering a quality paint job the first time every single time...
  2. Affordable prices backed by superior value... and
  3. Being someone the homeowner trusts (Building long term relationships)
Ladies keep in mind, you are not doing business with other painters, you are doing business with homeowners. Let the "old school" talkers talk, they are only hurting themselves by having a bad attitude.

Go about your business, learn to market effectively, bid profitably and focus on delivering a value based customer experience... AND FOLLOW UP!

That is what will help you achieve your dreams in this male dominated profession. Keep the wise words of Charles Swindoll in mind:

ATTITUDE:

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failure, than success, than what other people think or say or do.

It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.

We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the only string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes."


...and just for the record, one of the best bosses I have ever worked for was a woman (Michelle) and her knowledge and work ethic rivaled most of the men I've seen. Michelle set the pace and didn't give a second thought to what other painters had to say... and that's why she is still so successful today!

As for the advice I can offer to Moon about how to find and land painting jobs to keep her crew busy, that's easy... invest in a copy of 'Painting for Profits'. The step-by-step tips, marketing techniques and business growth strategies work just as well for women and they do for the guys!

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Saturday, August 29, 2009

Big Brother BBC



Public service broadcasting

It's well worth reading the full text of James Murdoch's Edinburgh speech attacking our Big Brother tax-funded BBC. Because his message - self-serving though it may be - goes far beyond the BBC and our state media commissars. It is a powerful attack on the very foundations of big government:

"The consensus appears to be that creationism - the belief in a managed process with an omniscient authority - is the only way to achieve successful outcomes. There is general agreement that the natural operation of the market is inadequate, and that a better outcome can be achieved through the wisdom and activity of governments and regulators.

This creationist approach is similar to the industrial planning which went out of fashion in other sectors in the 1970s. It failed then. It’s failing now.

...while creationism may provide a comfortable illusion of certainty in the short-term, its harmful effects are real and they are significant...

... The greatest divergence between the rest of the media and broadcasting is the unspoken approach to the customer.

In the regulated world of Public Service Broadcasting the customer does not exist: he or she is a passive creature - a viewer - in need of protection. In other parts of the media world - including pay television and newspapers - the customer is just that: someone whose very freedom to choose makes them important.

And because they have power they are treated with great seriousness and respect, as people who are perfectly capable of making informed judgements about what to buy, read, and go and see."

Murdoch is talking about broadcasting, but he might equally well have been discussing healthcare, education, or many other "public services".

We're right back to the core issue here: whereas most of us think our own interests are best served if we make our own decisions, and many of us understand that approach also leads to the best outcomes overall, Big Government types maintain the commissars always know best.

Consider how the BBC Trust responded to the speech:

"Our starting point is what is in the interests of the public and the BBC agrees with James Murdoch's analysis that we need to trust them. And the public tell us that they, in turn, trust the BBC and valuethe wide range of services we provide...

The BBC's public purposes stress the importance of the well-tested principles of educating and informing, and an impartial contribution to debate in the UK."


Self-serving complacency doesn't really capture it. HTF they equate "education and informing" with dumbed-down commercial tosh like The Tudors is beyond us. And as for "impartial contribution to debate", all we can say is hah!

The whole point about the BBC is that they don't trust the public. The commissars believe that a tax-funded unaccountable BBC is all that stands between civilisation and... well... American barbarism. If, God forbid, the BBC had to compete for subscriptions and ad revenue, the unwashed masses might choose a 24/7 diet of Strictly come Dancing, Jonathan Ross, and... er... the Tudors.

As we've said many times, the telly tax should be abolished and the BBC should be privatised soonest.

Proper competition would deliver what we the punters actually want, not what the commissars say we should have. And if we loosened the rules on "impartiality" at the same time, we could get some proper diversity onto the airwaves. Why, we might even end up with a UK version of the Fox.

PS The death of local newspapers? All the more scope for local blogs. Here's a good one we came across in connection with Tyler Jnr's housemove.

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Friday, August 28, 2009

Education Education Education


Fool's gold

Every year we blog the latest downward lurch in exam standards (eg see here and here), and every year we listen to the same tired old debates on Newsnight and the Today programme.

Are exams getting easier?

The left, government ministers, and the teaching unions say no. The facts say yes.

The best independent survey - the one conducted by Durham University’s curriculum, evaluation and management centre (see here) - says A Levels are two whole grades easier than 20 years ago. Here's their killer chart:


Have the qualifications been devalued?

The left, government ministers, and the teaching unions say no. The facts say yes.

The top unis increasingly need to find other ways of selecting among "A grade" students, and the top independent schools are abandoning the government's dumbed down GCSEs altogether (in favour of the independently set IGCSE - now used by 700 schools).

Frankly we can't be bothered to trawl though this year's statistical entrails - we've done it too often before. Let's just concentrate on what's to be done.

The single most important reform is to take our politicos out of education. Schools minister Vernon Coaker may once have been a deputy headmaster, but honestly, does this sound like a guy you'd want in charge of your child's education? Right now, state school parents have no choice.




Comrades! Excellent news! Tractor production has reached another record high!


Politicos always interfere in state education factories - they can't help themselves. They tell the teachers what to teach and how to teach it. They set exam grade production targets and demand their fulfilment - on pain of execution. They force customers to accept shoddy goods, and blight whole generations with forced collectivisations.

As we've blogged many times, it is absolutely essential that Gove delivers on his school voucher scheme. State funded pupils must be given the same freedom to choose as private pupils have always enjoyed. Schools must be free to run themselves, just like independent schools already are. Exams must be set independently, and schools must be free to offer the exams they choose (it is outrageous that state schools have been denied permission to offer the IGCSE).

Our politicos have had their chance with our £83bn pa state education sector, and have delivered a dumbed down quagmire. It is time to trust the customers and the producers to sort things out directly, between themselves.

PS As I've mentioned before, I have an unhealthy addiction to BBC R5 phone-ins. Yesterday, callers were naturally exercised about the dumbing down of GCSEs, and recounted no end of outrageous tales: one guy reckoned his niece had walked out of her English Language exam without finishing the paper, yet still ended up with an A grade. Yesterday's other hot topic of course, was the latest population stats. I intend to blog them once I've had a chance to sift through the ONS numbers for myself.

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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Painting Business Success Happens Much Faster When You Have A Coach/Advisor Helping You

So many painting business owners struggle (unnecessarily) because they try to grow their business by themselves through trial and error...

Those who become very successful rather then moderately successful or fail all together are those who (9 times out of 10) have someone coaching and advising them.

I just came across a great article (by Ray Dunaway) that illustrates this point...

A primary key to success in a start-up business is finding the right management coach/advisor.

As I struggled through my first business I began observing other businesses, generally small businesses or start up businesses, and I began to look for what makes one very successful, another moderately successful and another a failure.

I started noticing that in the most very successful businesses there was always a person in the background, usually an older person who had been in the same business or a very similar business.

These people kept a very low profile and very seldom said much in front of other people. I often wondered who these people were and when I asked they were introduced as a friend.

Then one day I was waiting to speak to a shirttail cousin who had built one of the top five painting companies in the United States in just a very few years, and I overheard his coach talking to him like a Dutch uncle. This person was my cousin's coach and mentor, and kept him on the right track for a long time.

I have had other opportunities to see the impact of a good coach/advisor through the time-sharing service bureau that was part of my first business. Since this was the first step in automation for many of our customers I had the opportunity to study a number of businesses firsthand while determining how they should reorganize to use computers.

I had ample opportunity to observe the correlation between listening to a coach or advisor and having a successful start up business. It soon became clear that those businesses that had a coach or an advisory board generally tended to be the most successful startup businesses.

Many of these businesses were started by people like my shirttail cousin, who had little or no formal education beyond high school, no special talents, and in fact were not the brightest bulbs on the block.

But they were smart enough to listen and take advice from people who have been down they road were traveling that they did not make many of the mistakes that were made by businesses who were only partially successful or failed.

Ray Dunaway

####

Here is a link to the original article...
click here

This article also validates the reason why we are creating our NEW 'Subscribers Only' membership web site.

Be sure to follow this blog to stay up to date on the launch... We will be doing something VERY special for our charter members.

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Cutting The Line.


Three lessons from my post office.

1) Don't put a sign announcing changes at the entrance.

It seems logical to put it there, but people have been visiting the post office since they were young and they are not there to browse. They have a purpose and will purposefully walk straight past your sign because they know what they want to do and will not be seeking guidance. If you want to change their behaviour, a sign won't cut it. You have to understand their existing behaviour and adapt to it.

2) Don't dislocate human contact with your customer.

Yes, the queues/lines are a source of dissatisfaction. The solution is to reduce the waiting time not to displace it by getting people to sit down and wait for a number to be called. Moreover, a queue does give the customer some sense of connectedness with their goal where waiting for a number to be called with no indication of "time till service" is alienating.

(Side note - if you do have an indicator of "time till service", make sure it's accurate and make sure it counts down - unlike that in my revamped council office that identified me as the only person waiting for attention from a particular department and proclaimed my waiting time as 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 15 as the attention failed to materialise. Seeing your waiting time reduce is encouraging, seeing your waiting time being relayed to you is beyond annoying).

3) Don't berate customers for not understanding your new system.

Were a customer to stride past your sign on the way to buying some stamps and then stop bemusedly when assailed with an interior that looked like a doctor's waiting room with faux-leather banquettes scattered around, don't ask him if he's got a ticket. Ask him how you can help. And if he were hypothetically to ask what sort of stupid system this was, don't answer one in which queue jumpers are frowned upon. He might take offence at the implication, he might never darken your doors again and he might write to the chief executive about it. Hypothetically, of course.

The queue is never the real problem, the wait is.

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Socially Useless


According to FSA head Lord Turner, much of the activities of the City of London are "socially useless".

Er... how does he reckon that?

Unless Tyler has got this wrong, the City has long been Britain's big success story. It has generated a large chunk of our national income, paid humongous taxes, and provided hundreds of thousands of highly paid jobs. It's also paid for all those cheap clothes and tellies we now import from China:

Doesn't sound useless. In fact Tyler reckons it sounds jolly useful indeed.

What's that?

The cost of the bank bail-outs has negated all the apparent benefits?

Well, yes, you certainly have point there. The IMF reckons the bailouts will eventually cost UK taxpayers $200bn, which we could certainly live without.

But even if you accept - as we do - that we need radical new safeguards against a recurrence (eg see this blog), taking a long view, net net we're still well in profit on the City.

Long-term, we'd be much worse off without it. We never earned much of a living from turning out Austin Allegros, even though back in the 60s and 70s the commissars virtually to a man considered manufacturing to be far more socially useful than mere "paper shuffling" in the City (who can forget the damage inflicted by Wislon's notorious Selective Employment Tax directed against our useless service industries?).

So the head of our financial regulator should not be shooting his mouth off about swathes of the City being "socially useless". Especially since - as we noted earlier in the week - at this very moment many of the City's movers and shakers are actively considering moving and shaking themselves out of Britain altogether. Which they could easily do.

Turner is in the unfortunate and frustrating position of presiding over an organisation that has bogged up bigtime (eg see here for its appalling lapses over the Crock disaster), has zero credibility, and which will soon be abolished. Presumably organisational morale is rock bottom.

But that is no reason for him to tour leftwing political salons talking the City down. There are plenty of others around to do that - most of whom, like the BBC, have seized on his Lordship's remarks with glee.

Someone needs to tape his gob shut soonest.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Wrong Man


Very confusing - these rich boys all look the same

No time for a proper blog today on account of helping one of the Junior Tylers make his new home approximately habitable. But as we lifted unsavoury carpets and shuttled rubbish to the dump, we listened to the BBC's adulatory obits for Ted Kennedy. And I suddenly realised I've lived most of my life under a terrible delusion.

You see, I'd always believed Ted Kennedy was that womanising drunk who killed a young female assistant in an obscene crash-and-run accident back in the 70s. The populist chancer who supported the IRA against us, and who shafted his own party's incumbent President in the 1980 election. The guy who shamelessly traded on his family name and connections but who would never have been elected President in a million years.

But it seems I must have had the wrong man.

According to the BBC, Ted Kennedy was one of America's foremost leaders of the last century, whose death is an incalculable loss to western civilisation. A man who virtually single-handedly gave us peace in Ireland. A colossus who would have made a President equally as good as... well, St Obama.

I'm deeply ashamed I could ever have thought otherwise.

PS For an unglossed account of the real Ted Kennedy see Andrew Roberts here.

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Painting Business Success: What Does It Take To Succeed LONG-TERM

Over the last three and a half years I have been privileged enough to have spoken to hundreds of painting contractors all over the world.

...and the one consistent thing I hear from the really successful (Financially) ones who have used the techniques and strategies laid out in our programs is this:

"If there is one new nugget of information... one new marketing idea that I haven't thought of... one simple spark of inspiration to keep me going (growing) then it is worth the investment."

I have come to realize that those who succeed long-term are those who continue to gain knowledge. They are always learning and more importantly they take consistent action and apply what they have learned.

We have been talking to a lot of painters lately who have said they are frustrated because they cant find a public forum where they can ask questions and get good feedback or suggestions...

...and if you have spent any time on the public painting forums, then you know exactly what they're talking about.

It's a shame that so many people on these public forums feel that it's OK to reticule, put down and more times then not be just plain mean to people that post thoughtful questions.

Personally I don't waste my time on public forums any more.

Right now we are in the process of putting together a privet, subscription membership web site where professional painting contractors and those who wish to become such can share thoughts, ideas and ask for feedback without fear.

A place where we can all learn from one another and encourage each other to better our best. We will keep it ultra affordable and jam packed with so much value that it will be worth 10 x the cost of admission.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in knowing more about please leave a comment and we will keep you in the loop.

I'll post more about what the content will cover in up-coming posts

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Part Time Painting Business = Full Time Income

Today I'm responding to some feedback we received from the latest edition of the "Painting Contractors Perspective" Newsletter...

Steve Writes:

Hello Andy,

I am just doing my research now about starting a painting business. My hope is to do it part time, no more than 2-3 days a week. Could you devote an issue to the part time business start up and the best ways to ease into the trade with little prior experience?

Looking forward to your reply, thanks Steve Johnson

Thank you for your question Steve!


The first thing I will say is that starting a part time painting business is a GREAT way to earn extra income and realize some fantastic tax benefits...

In fact, it is entirely possible to earn a full time income painting 2-3 days a week, however in order to do that you must focus on a few key things:

Here are three of them:

1. Specialize & Target "specific" kinds of jobs - for example you will want to focus on small one day (two day's max) jobs like bathrooms, kitchens, and bedroom repaints...

Keep your marketing message and promotions focused on "one room at a time" offers.

For example: You could run an "Exterior Door & Trim" promotion where all you would do is repaint the front door, shutters or the accent trim around the house rather than the entire exterior.

This type of job is more cost effective for the home owner and offers an outstanding improvement on curb appeal and can be done in just a day or two. (not to mention these jobs can pay really well)

2. Network with larger painting contractors to paint the jobs that are to small for them to take on...

Large painting contractors typically like large paint jobs and will not even consider doing small one or two day jobs. A lot of times they will sub out work to a small or part time painter.

3. Advertise "No Job Too Small" or "We Specialize In Small Jobs" -

This is a simple way to market your part time business and set your self apart from the crowd... Write up a benefit rich direct response flier and canvas a neighborhood... Create a short newsletter about the benefit of updating one room at a time, or painting "Walls Only"

With the shift in the marketplace and homeowners buying habits the trend has been toward small updates more often rather than having the entire interior or exterior painted all at once.

The market is perfect for the good "Part Time" painters to gain market share and create a very nice income for themselves.

Whether it's part time or full time... Do the painting yourself or hire a crew to paint for you... the process of finding and landing jobs is the same. The only difference is the message.

I'll give more tips to help the part time painter in future posts, however if you are just getting started you will benefit greatly from the proven step-by-step information laid out in Painting for Profits.

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500 Days Of Summer.


Some blogs recently suggested that fiction titles were better sources of business advice than the traditional non-fiction tomes.

Accordingly I was going to recommend the new movie 500 Days of Summer as a guide to the futility of trying to match your product/service with people who are just not interested. But that's not why you go to movies, so I leave what you take from it up to you.

I'll simply recommend it highly and, in line with the impact of previous recommendations here, I expect its success further to confirm my influencer status.

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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Politics Of Envy (cont)


We already have big redistribution


Pol was back on an old favourite this morning:


"A high pay commission would change the climate of what is socially acceptable by challenging the self-serving myths of mega-earners... With powers to investigate, it would make transparent who is earning what and why, ending secrecy: information has transformative power. I would go further and make all income tax returns public documents. The initial shock would be salutary, as it threw daylight on earnings and wealth. When so few people know where they stand or what others earn, how can voters judge questions of fair distribution?

...No one suggests some national pay scale of merit from street cleaner to superstar, but it's time politicians stopped being bamboozled by bog-standard bankers blagging their way into billions "because I'm worth it". Call their bluff, before the bubble blows up all over again."

To the left, the bursting of our financial bubble is a lifeline. It surely shows once and for all that bankers are not worth their exhorbitant pay, and that they only get it by exposing the rest of us to hideous risk as guarantors.

Well, actually we agree with the bit about bankers exploiting our willingness to stand as ultimate guarantor - which is why we would change the rules of the game by splitting high street banking from the casino, and restricting our guarantee to high street bank deposits (see this blog).

But beyond that, pay can only be sensibly determined by the marketplace. End of.

These days you may have thought that principle was pretty well accepted by all want to live in a modern prosperous society. But not by the left it isn't.

When it comes to incomes, the left have never given up on the Marxist idea that the cake somehow arrives already baked from the bakery, and all "society" has to do is distribute it in equitable slices.

Their latest idea is to harness the politics of envy even more directly than they have in the past. According to some recent focus group research published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, most people have no idea what top earners get, and have "a strong tendency to overestimate the number of people who earn higher levels of income". For example, whereas only 10% of us actually get a paid above £42,900 pa, most people apparently think it's much more. Focus group members are shocked when they discover the truth:

"I don’t believe that, I just don’t believe that. I don’t think that £42,000 is in the top. I would obviously have thought there is more than 25 per cent of the country earn more than that."


Hence the left's calls for a High Pay Commission: if only The Facts could be got out there, then people would see just how unusual - and therefore outrageous - all those City fat cat packages truly are, and would demand action. They might even demand maximum wage legislation (39% of JRF focus group members already pronounced themselves in favour).

Ah, if only that cake really did arrive fully baked - life would be so much easier.

But in the real world, someone has to get up at 4am to mix the ingredients and pop it in the oven. And he's not very keen on having his cake sliced away at the whim of the commissars.

Which is why the hedge fund managers are already heading for the exit. According to today's Wall Street Journal (HTP JW):

"A stream of hedge-fund managers and other financial-services professionals are quitting the U.K., following plans to raise top personal tax rates to 51%. Lawyers estimate hedge funds managing close to $15 billion have moved to Switzerland in the past year, with more possibly to come.

Richard Jordan, a partner at law firm Thomas Eggar, said: "I would say that 40% of my work involves advising people on ways to leave the country. We have reached a tipping point, in terms of hostility to the U.K. tax system."

One of his clients has just received a dividend of £2.5 million from his business. "He said to me, I'm going to be start being charged £1.3 million on a payment like that. It's time I thought about leaving," Mr. Jordan said.

Recent research by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers suggested that married bankers earning £250,000 a year in the U.K. would retain less of their income after 51% tax than their counterparts in Paris, Frankfurt, Singapore and Dubai."


Sounds like divvying up the cake is going to be the least of our problems.

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Monday, August 24, 2009

Nice Work If You Can Get It


The wages of unemployment

Given that romantic strolls along sunset beach were out (on account of there being a howling gale and no sunset), one staycation evening Mrs T and I found ourselves watching a new C4 reality TV show.

It's about a woman who lives in a huge eff off mansion (Thornbridge Hall above), having made an even huger pile of cash.

She seemed jolly pleased with herself, as well she might. As the number one player in a growth industry, her business is booming. Even better, her biz is devoted to helping those far less fortunate than herself, so she and her staff get to feel real good about themselves.

But what really got our attention was that all her cash comes not from those she's helping, but from us - the battered and bemused British taxpayer. Our Simple Shopper Alarm began screaming.

The show is called Benefit Busters, and the lady in the mansion is one Emma Harrison, founder and chairman of a company called A4e (Action 4 employment).

A4e is a job broking company who describe their principal mission as being "moving people into jobs and promoting sustainable employment". Which right now is a very saleable proposition - especially to politicos who need something to clutch at as the economy sinks into the jobless joyless abyss. And Emma's trading results show just how saleable she's made it:

Now don't get me wrong - Emma is clearly a star, and a glance at her upbeat website (including her own personal lower case blog) shows just how well she's packaged and marketed her services. She makes tackling long-term unemployment sound like a branch of the entertainment industry rather than a canker that destroys lives. No wonder our clueless politicos and commissars have been such ready customers (Bonkers Blunkers is a £30k pa consultant).

So good luck to her for spotting and exploiting a great business opportunity (and here's her entry in the Sunday Times Rich List).

But as always, the big question is whether we taxpayers get value for money?

On last week's show, ten unemployed single mums living on benefits were put through one of A4e's six week re-employment programmes. They were under the wing of Hayley, a brassy Northern lady straight out of Corrie, who tutored and bullied them through the course. Mrs T and I rather took to her, although Vicki Woods was less impressed:

"A similar-sized woman to Jade Goody, but with Sharon Osbourne’s hair and make-up, Hayley... was comedically forthright. She told the women they were “dreary” and badly dressed, explained that work was a blessing, made them cry, kissed them better and eventually got five of them a job at Poundland. The viewer (me) was left loathing the loudmouth Hayley, empathising like mad with the poor dreary women."

(In case you missed it, you can taste Hayley here).

As Woods explains, only four of the ten women actually ended up with a job. And that was no more than a two week try-out at Poundland.

A4e's overall success rate?

According to Jim Knight, DWP minister of state for employment and welfare reform:

“The Department currently has 47 contracts with A4e for the delivery of a range of welfare to work provision. On those contracts where we count job outcomes, during the period 2008-09, 20 per cent of people starting provision delivered by A4e have started work. Some customers, however, will still be on provision.”

20% - hardly the greatest record.

Especially when you consider that some of those jobs will be displacing others who might have got them anyway (Poundland would have had to employ somebody). And especially when you consider the ever present risk of cream-skimming - ie only taking onto the programme the easiest to place candidates. And especially when you consider that some of the "successful" candidates will drop out again after a relatively short time.

We've blogged the pitfalls of job brokers before. They are everyone's Great Idea for tackling long-term unemployment. Yet there is virtually no evidence that they work in the aggregate. When the Public Accounts Committee looked at DWP's use of private job brokers under the New Deal for Disable People, they found:

"There are more than 500 providers contracting with Jobcentre Plus to deliver one or more of the disability programmes. The quality and value for money of provision varies widely and acceptable standards are not always achieved. Between 2002 and 2005, for example, over 50% of the learning offered in Workstep provider placements was judged unsatisfactory by the Adult Learning Inspectorate.

...Providers of the New Deal for Disabled People may be deliberately picking people who are easier to help, at the expense of the more difficult to help. The contract for New Deal for Disabled People specifies that providers must accept all self-referred people who are eligible. However, such a stipulation does not preclude subtle encouragement to the easiest to place and discouragement of those who would require more effort."

So good luck to Emma, and we hope she enjoys her mansion.

But don't expect us to believe she's giving us value for money.

The wholesale use of job brokers is turning into yet another triumph of the Simple Shopper's art. Dave and George will need to grip it soonest.

PS A4e has attracted a rapidly growing army of critics. In June it was revealed that it was being probed by the DWP for possible fraud: "The DWP started its investigation into A4e's Hull office in May 2008, after discrepancies emerged in "confirmation of employment" forms submitted by the company. Two recruiters filled in forms meant for employers who agreed to take on workers. In some cases, employers' signatures were falsified. One of the recruiters had also entered into a fraudulent deal with a local temp agency." And here's a dedicated blog on the New Deal Scandal, including many posts on A4e.

PPS During the TV prog, one of the unemployed women on the A4e course put her finger on the real reason we have so many long-term unemployed. It turned out her benefit level was substantially higher than what she could earn at Poundland. She was getting £460 per week on benefits, which was £40 higher than she could earn, even with the government's employment subsidy. So quite sensibly she jacked in the job and reverted to benefits. Now, I wonder if anyone can see the lesson for George...

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Marketing Encore.


One of the oddest aspects of live performance is the end of a comedian's set. The end of a theatrical or a musical performance is usually very obvious. Climactic even. The audience shows its appreciation and there may well be an encore or a curtain call.

In comedy, the performer tells a final joke and that's it. You don't really know it's the last joke until they say "thank you and good night". And is there anything more incongruous than a comedy encore? The performers who've thought this through are few and far between, they stand out a mile and they tend to be the best performers anyway.

The way you take your leave of your audience is much under-rated. First impressions are important, but so are last ones. Is your audience's last impression one of resisting unwanted up selling offers, one of indifference as you look for the next prospect or one of unsatisfied needs that leave them in the same position they were when you strove to make that first impression?

Or is it something that cleanly ends the encounter in a way that leaves them eager for an encore?

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Sunday, August 23, 2009

Same Old Same Old


The roller-coaster of government debt - here we go again

Time to catch up after our staycation in the grey sunless Westcountry (hope Mr Dale has better luck this week). Except there's nothing much to catch up on: it's just more of the same old grey sunless same:

1. NHS sick leave

As we've blogged many times (eg here), sick leave in the NHS is higher than in any other organisation known to man. Updated stats were released last week:

"The average NHS worker takes 10.7 days off sick a year, compared with 9.7 days for the public sector as a whole and 6.4 days in the private sector. The service loses 10.3 million working days annually... costing £1.7 billion per year."

Why are they so sick?


"The first national audit of staff habits has found high rates of obesity, smoking, absenteeism and poor mental health."

This will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever dined in an NHS hospital canteen, as we did here. Amidst the vast steaming piles of chips and Ginsters, you're hard pressed to find anything even vaguely healthy on the menu. And by far the fattest diners are members of staff.

Worse, it now transpires that NHS staff can continue to claim overtime and anti-social hours allowances while they are actually off work.

Now what kind of dope would negotiate a pay deal like that?

Apart from our swaggering clothead rulers, that is.

The simple fact is that the monstrously obese NHS is unmanageable. Nobody - not Sir Terry, not Sir Stuart, and certainly not Shaky - has a prayer of mastering it. It needs to be broken up into much smaller and competing social insurance providers.

2. MoD incompetence

The latest cover-up over MoD procurement incompetence is still making headlines:


"The British military operation in Afghanistan is being compromised by an “incompetent” Ministry of Defence equipment programme that is £35 billion over budget and five years behind schedule, a leaked confidential report has revealed.
The highly critical internal MoD report, written by a former defence special adviser, says that the department is running a “substantially overheated equipment programme, with too many types of equipment being ordered for too large a range of tasks at too high a specification”.

We already blogged this leaked report here. But equally astonishing is last week's news that MoD underestimated the likely cost of the Iraq War by factor of three:


"British officials failed to predict both the length of the UK engagement in Iraq and the financial drain. Treasury documents from September 2002 show it greatly underestimated the costs, believing British troops would need to remain “fully engaged” in Iraq for just six months.

In a document drawn up for Ed Balls, special adviser to Gordon Brown, the then chancellor, officials said the “central estimate” for the cost of “preparation, deployment and return” of UK troops from Iraq was £2.5bn."

The latest cost estimate is £8.4bn - itself almost certainly too low.

As we've said before, you wouldn't trust the MoD to buy your weekly shopping, let alone put them in charge of our £48bn pa defence budget.

But we can't privatise defence. Which is a real problem.

(While in the Westcountry, Tyler met a man in a pub. This particular man's firm supplies the MoD with top-secret "if I told you I really would have to kill you" IT kit. He reckons they've now supplied three generations of said kit, but as far as he knows, none of it has ever been used. Insurmountable "source code" conflicts with other kit MoD has bought separately from the US means that the vital components can't talk to each other. So it's all "lying in a cupboard somewhere". Not that he's complaining - the exercise has earned him a rather nice second home.)

3. Deeper in Debt

The monthly public sector borrowing figures were the usual horrorshow. Borrowing in July was £13bn higher than last year, and net debt has already reached £800bn. At this rate we will rack up the trillion sometime next summer.

As it happens, Tyler spent last week poolside huddled over a radiator, reading The Cash Nexus by Niall Ferguson, a lengthy examination of the historic relationship between money, power, and politics. And government debt is a large part of the story.

To be honest, Tyler was a little disappointed. While the book is stuffed full of government financial fiascos, bungling politicos, and greedy bankers, somehow it never quite takes flight: it's less than the sum of the parts.

Still, Ferguson does remind us just how often heavily indebted governments inflate their way back to solvency. The Nineteeth Century British example of a government actually redeeming its huge debts (see Ferguson's handy chart above) is very much the exception. Throughout history, most governments have simply defaulted via inflation.

It is a salutary warning to all savers, especially pensioners. It says that in terms of the political calculus, they don't count. They are outvoted by debtors, and those who can more easily protect themselves against rising inflation, including of course, bolshie unionised labour (as happened in Weimar Germany).

Which naturally brings us to...

4. Inflation

Last month's inflation numbers underlined the stark reality that the deflation scare is a con: it simply ain't gonna happen.

The CPI came in at 1.8% (year-on-year), unchanged from last month. And that despite the fact that most mainstream forecasters had told us there'd be a dip.

All the more reason then, to worry about the Bank of England's roaring printing presses (eg see this post).

And even more reason to wonder WTF the Bank Governor actually wanted to crank them up even further. Has he lost the plot? Or is this by some chance the very same Mervyn King who signed that notorious 364 economists letter opposing fiscal discipline in 1981?

He's going to have to steady himself: with Bernanke calling the end of the US recession, those presses will need shutting down any time now.

Can't say we're optimistic. Maybe we need a holiday.

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Saturday, August 22, 2009

Three Fast - Easy Ways To Sharpen Up Your Painting Business Brand & Image

No matter the size of your painting business, having a nice sharp image and uniform brand goes a long way in gaining the trust and respect of prospective customers...

Here are a few fast, easy and affordable tips to tighten up your brand and image:

  1. Keep the same look and feel on all of your marketing pieces, correspondence letters, web site, uniforms and signage.

    If you have a logo or tag line (slogan) be sure to include it on everything the public and your clients will see. This synergistic look and feel will help you attract a higher caliber of clientele and make your company look professional.

  2. Work with your employees and educate them on "what to say and how to say it" when speaking to customers when you are not around.

    Homeowners see your employees everyday and many times will strike up conversations with them just to be polite, so make sure they know how to properly respond to common questions. Doing so will give you peace of mind and put a nice polish on your image.

  3. Be Polite - Have Manners... saying please and thank you goes a long way.

    It's no secret that most homeowners have a very negative image of what a house painter is... Most if not all homeowners have had or knows someone who has had a bad experience with a painter.

    So being polite and saying please and thank you... cleaning up after yourself... asking if you should take your shoes off at the door... etc. goes a long way in overcoming that negative stereotype.
These tips may seem simple and like common sense but very few painting contractors actually practice them on a daily basis.

The residential house painting market has changed and so have homeowners buying habits... the days of "anyone with a brush and roller" finding work are gone, and those who take the time to freshen up and tighten up their brand and image will be the ones keeping their schedules full and making the most money.

SIDE NOTE:

We have just created a really great Joint Venture with a local screen printer/sign shop and will be putting together "Branding - image" t-shirt and sign packages very soon.

The printed marketing and promotional items we will be offering are:

  1. T-shirts, sweat shirts, hats, owners polo's

  2. magnetic vehicle signs

  3. corrugated yard signs, intersection signs, pole/association signs

  4. custom cut to fit vinyl vehicle graphics

  5. banners, etc

The great news is that we am able to get these things at wholesale cost so the packages we are going to put together will be WAY more affordable then any retail shop can offer...

I'll post more about this as things begin to develop.

If this is something you would be interested in or have a question about how to better 'brand' your business, post a comment and we will do our best to help.

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Friday, August 21, 2009

Painting Business Web Sites: Update & Progress

Thank's to everyone who gave feedback regarding our upcoming web site development service...

Not only were the responses helpful but also quite enjoyable to read. We had a great meeting with Bill (our programming partner) yesterday. We worked through the planning part of the project and nailed down some important details.

I will post updates to this blog as we continue to move forward. Keep in mind we are developing this web site service "specifically for painting contractors"... This will not be some low end cookie cutter program, but rather an affordable custom concept that will include the necessary components to make your painting business web site a very powerful marketing and branding tool that home owners in your local area will easily find.

Our intent is to do ALL of the heavy lifting for you. NO guesswork on your part. You will have access to everything you need to make your web site a customer converting tool that positions your painting business in a professional manner. A sharp, clean easy to navigate web site that generates calls.

If you would like to be notified as soon as we are ready to go, leave a comment on this post as we will be sure to put you on the early notification list.

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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Social Media Guidelines

I've posted a couple of blogs recently about the rise of the social media function and how BtoB companies can best leverage social media. A common theme has been the need for marketing to provide guidance, guidelines and infrastructure without stifling the power of this new channel to reach customers, prospects and influencers. To help with your journey, I've included below a list of social media guidelines that several companies have published:

Have any others to share?. . . Please comment below.

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Exercise Your Marketing Muscles

I can hardly type today because I'm SO sore... You see, for the last three years or so I have been running my painting business and consulting full time rather than swinging a brush.

...And I have put on A LOT of weight!

So last week I decided to hire a personal trainer to whip me back into shape and today was my fitness evaluation... OUCH!

In fact, worse than ouch... I puked! and as I type this blog post my arms are still trembling.

Over the years as I saw myself getting fatter, I would go on a diet and exercise for a week or two which always helped me lose a few pounds and make my clothes fit better but then I would stop.

back and forth - back and forth until here I sit 45 pounds heaver.

As I was sweating and swearing my ass off I said out loud... "How did I get here?"

...And Jason instantly replied, "laziness and lack of consistency."

Wow, that answer hit me like a ton of bricks!

Here I have been teaching painting business owners that the number one most important secret to growing a profitable business is marketing with consistency.

So many times business owners will market for a few days, drum up a little business and stop marketing until business slows down and then start up again.

This kind of IN-consistency creates the same kind of yo-yo effect with business and profits as it did with the fat on my a$$, except instead of your bank account growing it's your frustration and stress level...

...it is impossible to create momentum being inconsistent!

It's not about how much you do it's about how often you do it. If you make a commitment to yourself, your family and your business that you will pass out 10 business cards per day, in 100 days you will have passed out 1000 cards.

If you get a 10% response you will have gained 100 new clients. Concentrate on doing the simple little things 'consistently' and they will pay big rewards.

Looking back over the last three years, I realize that it is my fault that I got so out of shape.

I guess the only thing I was consistent at was eating poorly and being inconsistent with my exercise program.

Take an honest look at your business right now... is it where you want it to be? If not, lack of consistency could be the reason.

Now get out there and start exercising your marketing muscle on a daily basis.

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Monday, August 17, 2009

Residentail Re-Paint Quality: How Good Is Good Enough?

These tips will help new painting business owners gain confidence going into their first contract paint jobs...

I remember the very first residential repaint job I ever landed on my own...

I had painted in the field as an employee for over a decade before I started my own business and when the day came that I was to start my very first "Solo" paint job, all of a sudden I had a panic feeling as I was about to start cutting in.

I wondered:

What kind of quality is this customer expecting?

How good is good enough?

So I picked up the cell phone and called Paul (my mentor) who I had just completed a three year apprenticeship with and asked him those questions.

Here is what he said...

When painting a residential repaint the MINIMUM quality that is acceptable should be based on the quality of the paint job already on the surface.

...BUT he said, if the paint job that you are painting over was done by the homeowner or DIYer and doesn't look good (uneven cut, holidays, etc.) then it's your responsibility to make it look a lot more professional.

...If the paint job being painted over already looks good (sharp cut lines, good coverage, etc) then you should use that as your minimum quality guideline.

Your goal as painting business owner, whether you do the painting yourself or hire others to do the work, is to provide a quality finished paint j0b that the customer is happy with.

One way to ensure you always meet the customers expectations is to do a final walk through with them.

The final walk through gives you time to take after photos, talk to the homeowner about your referral program and ask them for a testimonial and/or letter of recommendation.

If you are new to owning your own painting business and have any questions, please leave a comment on this post and we'll try to answer them for you.

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Customer Service By The Book.

I walked into the sneaker store. Within seconds, an assistant asked if he could help me. My response was to point out that I had just arrived and might need his assiatnce shortly.

The timing of when you address your customers is arguably even more important than what you say. Good customer service takes that into account. Regimented customer service manuals do not.

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Friday, August 14, 2009

Outstanding Painting Business Press Release Example

I'm re-posting this outstanding press release below as an example of what to do and how to do it!

Press releases are an awesome way to keep your painting business on the mind of homeowners within your community and position yourself as THE expert.

If you aren't using press releases to get publicity, use this one as a template and start now! To see the original click here

Success Story: A Positive Approach Keeps Phones Ringing
Company Focuses On Customer Service, Quality

Staying the course has helped Northern Contracting maintain solid footing as the economy and some competitors have faltered.

Multifaceted services for both the commercial and residential markets and focusing on quality and customer service have been the company's approach since its founding in 2003, say its owners. Those factors and positive word of mouth have kept Northern's phones ringing as the recession deepened, they added.

The company's services include remodeling, additions, new construction, interior and exterior painting, interior build-outs, pressure cleaning, paver sealing and surface refinishing, said Jeffrey Freitas of south Fort Myers, who co-owns Northern with fellow south Fort Myers resident Mario Moguel.

"When you hit a downturn like this, all those residential guys that weren't doing remodeling and things like that were dying until they started doing them," Freitas said. However, Northern already had an established base of remodeling customers who turned to the company for new remodeling projects and also recommended the business to other people, he added.

Freitas said painting jobs generate about half Northern's revenue and the company benefits from having its own painting crews because it eliminates the possibility of having to wait for a subcontractor to complete that portion of a project.

Lee and Collier counties are the company's primary service areas, but it's also handled projects as far away as Tampa, Fort Lauderdale and Coral Gables.

The economy may have been slowing dramatically, but 2007 was still a good year for Northern, said Freitas, who is 38. The company had gross revenues of roughly $1.97 million that year.

But 2008 saw gross revenues tumble to about $1.35 million. However, the downward trend has reversed course this year with gross revenues, through June 30, of roughly $1.31 million.

Management duties are clearly delineated, with Freitas overseeing the construction matters, while Moguel heads up painting and other services, such as pressure cleaning and stucco work.

Northern has handled multiple projects for him over the past two years, said Brian Owens, co-owner of the Microtel Inn & Suites in Lehigh Acres and its restaurant, Haney's Cafe and Pub. In fact, Freitas was Owens' liaison to the general contractor on the hotel project and served as the general contractor for the restaurant.

"Jeff really pays attention to the details," Owens said. "He's also an electrician as well. He just understands every facet of the contracting experience and that's extremely helpful. I've seen him actually throw the tool belt on and crawl up there to work. Jeff is very hands-on."

Both Freitas and Moguel pointed to having a skilled, dedicated staff and a cohesive partnership as other key contributors to their success. But both also stressed the importance of treating customers like gold.

"Customer service has always been the No. 1 thing," said Moguel, 38. "Our jobs are managed very well, from the time we present the proposal to the customer to the time we finish and get paid. We always do what we say we're going to do and we go the extra mile."

Northern performed extensive renovations over nine months in 2007 at Dr. Kurt Markgraf's circa 1924 home in Fort Myers' Seminole Park neighborhood. The work included new plumbing and electrical systems, replacing the windows with hurricane-resistant duplicates and bringing the house up to current building codes.

"They did an excellent job," Markgraf said. "I have full trust in them. They went out of their way. If they can find a way to save money for the client, they'll do it and they gain nothing, except appreciation."

That appreciation extends to recognizing their good fortune in difficult times.

"I feel very fortunate, very blessed, because of the fact so many guys are struggling out there and losing their jobs," Freitas said. "Something could happen. Things could dry up. But you just keep going, trying to establish new relationships and keep going at it strong."

BY DON MANLEY
dmanley@news-press.com

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Why Do You Want To Own Your Own Painting Business?

I'll be perfectly honest with you, painting for a boss eight hours a day is a lot easier than owning your own business. Of course it is also extremely limiting in many ways...

For example as an employee you are limited to:

  • The amount of hours you can work
  • The amount of money you can make
  • The amount of vacation time
  • The amount of sick days
  • The lifestyle you can gain
  • The amount of freedom you can achieve
  • And much more
However, being an employee requires very little thinking... You get to start at a certain time and once the day ends you are free until the next workday.

Granted not everyone is cut out for painting business ownership. It takes work and consistent action to build a profitable business, but... The REWARDS are worth the effort!

So many painters jump into their own business because they 'know how to paint' but end up struggling because they don't understand much else.

If you are considering going into business for yourself, or have already made the transition and looking for a surefire way to be sure that your business will last 'long term' here is what we recommend.

Step 1. Sit down for a while and write down EVERYTHING that you want your business to be known for... create your own 'highest standards' list that you will work every day to live up to.

There you go, that's it, one step!

Basic, YES!

...but sometimes we need to be reminded to do the basics. In fact less than 90% of new painting business owners take the time to do this most important step.

You see, when YOU define and set your own highest standards and work every day to live up to them, it ensures that everyone you deal with will be satisfied with your effort.

When no one else can hold you to a higher standard than you set for yourself, you will ALWAYS have satisfied customers.

Here is a short list of things to consider when making your list and setting your standards:

  1. I will focus on customer service first and foremost (building long term relationships and life long customers)
  2. I will keep my word and show up on time... Every time
  3. I will always go the extra mile to help
  4. I will hire employees who not only have good skills but also good attitudes
  5. I will treat my employees fair and develop leaders
  6. I will sharpen my image and build my brand through low cost creative marketing
  7. I will give back to my community whenever possible
  8. I will create strong lasting relationships with other professional business owner in my area
  9. I will educate myself on new products and services that will enhance the customer experience
  10. I will read books on business growth and leadership in order to be prepaired to lead my growing organization
  11. I will take action every day to meet new people
  12. etc.
The idea here is to brainstorm the end result and begin living that way right now... See your business 3 years... 5 years... 10 years down the road.

See what you want your business to look like and begin acting 'As If' it were already who you are. Doing this will allow you to reach your goals much faster and with a lot less stress and worry. It's much easier to get somewhere when you know where you're going.

Leave a comment and let us know what you are doing on a daily basis to live up to your own highest standards. If you haven't taken the time to create your own list, DO IT NOW!

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Staycation


Doing their bit

Mr and Mrs T are heading West for a week's staycation. According to the Met Office five day forecast, they'll be enjoying "sunny intervals" - which is why they're packing their bicycle capes and waders.

Times are tough out West: as the Western Morning News says:
"RAIN-LASHED holidaymakers are considering shunning the Westcountry after the Met Office's U-turn on a "barbecue summer" forecast.

Travel firm Lastminute.com said interest in "staycation" holidays in Britain had peaked in June, when searches on its website for UK destinations surpassed those for Spain. Since July's constant rain, Spain has become the most searched holiday spot, with the UK slipping from fourth to fifth place behind Turkey, Greece and Italy."

But the Westcountry's tourism industry is reportedly worth around £5bn pa and is a vital source of local employment. In these straightened times, Mr and Mrs T are proud to be doing their bit.

So here's a suggestion - the next time Lord Rothschild invites you to holiday at his villa on Corfu, just say no. You'll enjoy yourself just as much in a caravan on Dawlish Warren Holiday Park (pic above), and you'll be able to walk tall.

Unlike all those ministers selfishly worshipping a foreign sun.

PS The broadband status of our holiday destination is unknown - posts may be sporadic to non-existent over the next week.

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Thursday, August 13, 2009

Gee Thanks Guys



Tyler is a big fan of the US. We owe them bigtime. Not just for all those bailouts over the years, but also for inventing the future. It's difficult to imagine how much poorer we'd be - in all senses - without the free market dynamism and risk-taking capacity of our American cousins.

Yet for all that, they are sometimes a little... well, what should one say... a little brash. And their current beating up on the NHS is an excellent case in point.

Most of what's being said is spot on. The NHS does ration healthcare. In many ways it is Orwellian (not least for the poor schmucks who work in it). And it certainly fails to deliver the standard of healthcare most Americans take for granted.

A notorious example of this last point is cancer survival rates. According to a recent major study:
  • British women have a 53% chance of living at least five years after a cancer diagnosis, compared to 63% for women in the US

  • British men have a 45% chance compared to 66% in the US - a massive difference

Shocking. And if I were an American, I most certainly would not be opting for an NHS.

But the thing is, I'm a Brit. I may be dissatisfied with the NHS; I may want to dump it for social insurance; but at the end of the day, it's our NHS. And when the lovely Sarah P starts accusing our NHS of employing Death Panels to decide who lives and who dies, even I start to bristle.

Which is a real problem.

Because not only does bristling keep me awake at night, it also means my fellow British citizens are even less receptive to the idea of ditching the sacred NHS.

As the Major says, how dare the Yanks criticise our institutions - nay, our very way of life! Overpaid, oversexed, and they even tried to buy the golf club!

From R5 Live, to Twitter, to the Major's club, the wagons are being circled. This very evening Dave has felt compelled to write to all Conservative Party members reassuring us that the NHS is safe in his hands - "how proud we in Britain are of the NHS".

So guys, please... please just lay off the NHS.

Couldn't you find some other bogeyman to wheel out at your Town Hall meetings?

What about the Iranian Health Service?

PS Yes, I know - we can hardly expect our NHS to perform as well as the US healthcare system given the disparity in resources. That's what you get when they spend 15.3% of GDP on health, and we only spend 8.4% (2006). Except that our cancer survival rates are also well below the European averages, and there the disparity in resources has more or less been eliminated. Also we should all remember this rather unsettling fact - among developed economies, there is no meaningful correlation between health spending and life expectancy (see this blog). I suggest you eat more raw fish.

PPS For future reference, here's Dan the Man administering his Michael Moore antidote:


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A New Twist On An Old Saying About House Painters

If you have been in the house painting trade for any length of time I'm sure you're familiar with the old saying:

"Painters Are A Dime A Dozen
But A Good One Is Hard To Find"

For the most part from my perspective, that saying rings true. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of really good painters/painting businesses working in the field but very few of them know how to "Get Found".

To me this saying has more to do with "Marketing Skills" than it does with "Painting Skills".

I like to say:

"Painters ARE A Dime A Dozen
But Good One's Make Themselves EASY To Find"


Listen, if you have honed your painting skills to the point where you are considering going into business for yourself, then the two most important thing to focus on are marketing your painting services and bidding paint jobs (making sales) because without these two things there is simply no painting to be done.

...In the end, if you don't know how to get the phone ringing or profitably bid paint jobs it 'don't' rally matter much how good your painting skills are.

Very few house painters who make the leap into their own business take the time to bone up on "the business side of the painting business". Those that do have a much, MUCH higher success rate.

One thing I always suggest to new painting business owners is to "become a student of business" and even more important than that... become a student of "Marketing Your Painting Services."

Don't just test the waters, hoping you will succeed through trial and error... Go in with the mindset that you will DOMINATE your market right out of the gate! (and then begin to gain the knowledge you need to make it happen.)

So many painting business owners settle for competing on price simply because of lack of knowledge.

Obviously you are different because you are on this "Painting Blog" and are actually taking the time to research and educate yourself. I celebrate your ambition and entrepreneurial spirit!

The successful painting business owners who thrive (regardless of the economy) are those who have taken the time to learn how to market and bid paint jobs. They research the local competition and have figured out ways to give themselves a unique advantage.

Success isn't guaranteed just because you go into business for yourself... or because you have outstanding painting skills... however it can be a whole lot more predictable and possible when you gain the knowledge and follow the same systems that other successful painting business owners have.

  • Our programs have shown thousands of folks just like you how to start and grow profitable painting businesses and we would like the chance to answer your most burning question about growing a successful painting business.

Please leave a comment or question on this post and I'll do my best to thoughtfully answer it.

If you haven't already - be sure to sign up (at the top of this blog) for our free special report "Cracking The Painting Business Success Code" and weekly newsletter.

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Owning a Successful Painting Business Offers Priceless Freedoms

Lifestyle is one of the main reasons I started my own painting business, and it became very clear to me yesterday how blessed we have been.

When I say lifestyle I'm not talking about owning the biggest house on the block or driving the fanciest car, but rather the ability to own your own time... call your own shots... be there for the important things!

Yesterday was my daughter Myla's first birthday and we spent the entire day with friends and family, and I didn't have to call anyone to ask for the day off... It was FANTASTIC!

It was the first day I took off in a LONG time because we have been so busy digging in and developing new systems and programs (which I'll tell you more about very soon) to help people grow their painting business.

I always get jazzed up when someone sends me a testimonial or story about how our programs and information helped them reach their goals and make more money but yesterday it became crystal clear exactly what we are doing for people and why we are working so hard right now to make a great thing even better.

I feel lucky and blessed to play be a part of helping people gain the freedom, income and time to enjoy the best things in life.

There is unprecedented opportunity to position your painting business in this recovering market... If you are reading this blog or considering investing in one of our products or home study courses, just know that YOUR success is our top priority and we are here to help.

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Pumped-Up On Experimental Drugs



At least he tested it on himself

As regular readers will know, we are very concerned that the Bank of England is overdosing us with monetary stimulants. We're especially concerned at the Quantitative Easing (QE) programme - or printing money as we old-timers still call it.

Last week, against all expectations, the Bank announced a further dose of QE, taking the total from £125bn to £175bn. Which has worried us even more. Because as others have said, QE is an untested drug, and we've already swallowed a very large dose. Common sense surely tells us it might be best to wait a while before taking yet more.

Yesterday the Bank of England tried to explain their thinking. They said that without the additional dose of QE, CPI inflation would remain well below their mandated target of 2% for the next two years and beyond. Here's their fan chart showing just that:

As we can see, with QE (aka asset purchases) limited to £125bn, inflation is expected to fall well below 2% - although not, please note, into deflation territory. And two years out (the vertical dotted line) it's still expected to be below 2%. Or rather, there is only around a c 20% chance it will be at 2% or above (the bands on the fan chart are supposed to denote probabilities).

So to address this, the Bank is deliberately stoking up inflation by pumping in a further £50bn of QE. Here's what that does to their outlook:

As we can see, the extra dose does the trick and inflation over the next two years is lifted much closer to the 2% pa target.

Job done.

Er, yeeesssss... except...

For one thing, there are increasing signs that world growth is already through the worst, and turning up. Chinese growth is moving forward again (currently 8% pa), the US is widely expected to bounce back to 2% next year, and just this morning we've had news that GDP grew in both France and Germany during Q2. The massive reflation medication worldwide is feeding through.

Which means that world inflation is no longer out for the count. Commodity prices, including oil, are now well off the bottom - over the last month alone, the Economist Commodity Index (in dollars) is up 10%.

Given Britain's chronic long-term problems with inflation, and the potential for weak sterling to import a lot of inflation very quickly, this is not a world in which we should be taking risks. This is a world in which we need to be very careful indeed.

And as for the Bank's highly impressive fan charts, we just need to remember one simple fact: no matter how glossy the presentation may be, the underlying forecasts are no better than the flip of a coin. Nobody has the faintest idea whether inflation in two years time will turn out to be 1%, 2%, or 5%.

Because that's just the way economic forecasts work. You can employ the best brains, and construct the most sophisticated and detailed models available to humanity. But all those known unknowns and unknown unknowns make it impossible to have much confidence in your projections.

The Bank certainly can't claim any particular record of forecasting success. Here's their inflation fan from last August - just 12 months ago:

Pretty different, huh?

And in fairness to the Bank, they admit their record is not that brilliant. They say (page 48 here)that over the last decade their one-year forecasts of inflation have turned out within their 50% probability range (the dark red bit of the fan) only four times out of ten (ie a supposed 50% probability range has turned out to be closer to 40%). Moreover, their past forecasts have been biased down (ie inflation has turned out higher than forecast two to three times more often than turning out lower).

So we can't have a lot of confidence in the doctor's judgement here. In the past, he has not been particularly accurate in his diagnosis, and has tended to underplay the risk of inflationary fever.

And now he's administering huge doses of untested drugs.

Hmm.

Feel lucky?

PS Of course, as we've blogged before, inflation won't be bad for everyone. Debtors - including the government - will benefit as the real value of their debt gets eroded away. But savers, widows and orphans will be punished most savagely. Just like they were back in the 70s and the Weimar Republic. Meanwhile, the banks are coining it in, as the Bank of England shovels in cheap cash for them, while home owners and small business get racked by higher borrowing rates. Ah, it's a cruel cruel world.

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