Monthly Archives: June 2008

Middle of the night money thoughts

posted on 30 June 2008
posted in Jane's Blog

It’s dark outside and I’m lying in bed, vaguely aware of being sort of awake, and two words keep floating around in my mind: attitude and application. I know deep down that these are the heart of business success, and I feel myself getting excited about these concepts. It’s still hard though to get out of my nice warm bed and into the rest of the dark house.

Then I realise that I’m about to drop off again, and I’ll forget these words, and this thought sees me springing out of bed, and then that’s it, I’m really awake now! It’s 2am and here I am sitting in the spare bedroom, light on, and planning my next series of seminars [read more]

Sucked in to spend

posted on 29 June 2008
posted in Jane's Blog

Crash! Bang! Hoot of horns, squeal of brakes!
Visiting London for the first time in a few months I was in a state of shock. So noisy, so many people, and all rushing!
Last week I flew from Inverness to Luton, then train and tube into London to stay overnight before a day long meeting, returning to Scotland on the overnight train. I wrote this blog longhand in my diary as I was sitting in the lobby of the Park Inn in Russell Square, where it was 9.15 and I’d just discovered the meeting wasn’t starting until 10am. Not a great start!

But I realised the impact of London was bringing some of my values into a head on crash [read more]

Soul of Money

posted on 22 June 2008
posted in Jane's Blog

I’ve just finished reading The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist. Very interesting book, and its given me an answer to something that’s been bugging me for a bit.

When I first started exploring this whole money thing, I found masses of information on how to be a millionaire — but not much on if you wanted to be richer, but not necessarily a millionaire. Try as I might, I couldn’t get turned on by the thought of being a millionaire — and anyway, what was one? OK, I understood I could have a million pounds worth of assets and be considered one,
but that felt a bit unreal to me. Unless I had a huge dream of what I [read more]

The Charles Schwab Prioritisation Process: A True Story

posted on 19 June 2008
posted in Articles, Business Basics

In 1904, man called Charles Schwab was standing in his office late one afternoon staring out of a window pondering over all those things that needed doing before he could go home to entertain his visiting friends. He could not think of a way to get away any time soon. After all, the buck stopped with him because he ran this steel mill.

Bethlehem Steel Company was hardly a name known to any one except its suppliers or a few customers, not that Schwab lacked any ambition. About this time, his secretary informed him of the arrival of Ivy Lee, a management consultant, for a pre-arranged meeting. Mr Lee was visiting to pitch for his company’s services. He ended his [read more]

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Niche marketing and meditation

posted on 19 June 2008
posted in Jane's Blog

4.30am and listening to a CD about niche marketing, while sitting up in bed drinking a cup of hot lemon juice.

I’m so excited about what I’m hearing that it doesn’t matter that it’s still practically the middle of the night, even though it’s daylight outside. (In the north of Scotland at this time of year, it’s only dark from about 11.30pm until 3.30am, it’s heavenly!)

I’m making notes, and eventually at 6am I stop the CD, get up and go off to my early morning meditation session, ten minutes walk through the woods to the sanctuary at Cluny Hill College.

Here’s the rub — I spend the whole hour in meditation thinking about my niche markets! OK, so I [read more]