I'm doing a sky dive!

Hi….

This isn’t property related (there’s a bit about how my campaign’s going at the end) but just wanted to tell you about my upcoming Tandem Skydive.

My hubby Mike bought it for me as a birthday present (hmmm, there are many more things I’d have preferred lol) so instead of asking him to get a refund and giving me the money so I could go out and buy a new outfit I decided to do it…. and make some money for a good cause at the same time.

Some of you probably know that I lost my dear Mum to a chronic lung disease 3 years ago (COPD and emphysema) so I thought it would be a great idea to raise some money for the British Lung foundation who do a fantastic job, not only helping people with this infliction but also raising a lot of finance for medical research into cures and respite.

If anyone wants to come along and support me, or see me shivering with fear (I’m not a fan of heights) then please do on Tuesday May 1st (exact time time to be advised & weather permitting) in Nottingham here: http://www.bpslangar.co.uk/default.aspx?id=ee14ed46-5d8c-49aa-9d92-ecbedfdc85d6

If you’d like to sponsor me and a help a very good cause then please do so at my ‘Just Giving’ page here: https://www.justgiving.com/account/your-pages/Suzanne-Bates

Back to property….my campaign is going Ok so far, still a bit slower than I’d liked. I’ve currently had 11 calls, among them were 2 unmotivated sellers who I’ve passed to my Estate Agent colleague who is putting the properties on the market and paying me a commission on completion of the sales. There’s 2 possible Lease Options, one of whom I have a an appointment with this afternoon, another on Saturday this week, so I’ll talk more about them on my next post in more detail soon.

Have a great week, and if any of you are running your own property marketing campaigns at present I’d love to hear about your strategies and how’s it’s going

Bye for now

The three methods are:

• Distributing 10,000 A5 Leaflets in my local area
• 30 A6 Postcards in shop windows
• An advert in the local newspaper, 6 nights per week for 1 month

So far this week (since Monday 2^nd April) I’ve had 5000 leaflets go out, the rest will be delivered early next week. I’ve used 7 distributors overall and although it’s more reliable to do it that way (the less leaflets they have to deliver, the less likely they are to get fed up and ‘dump them’) it’s harder work on our part as we’ve had to deliver the flyers to their home addresses, which are quite spaced out, go back and collect the ‘log sheets’ when they’ve completed the deliveries, knock a few doors to check they’ve delivered them correctly then go back and pay them. This is obviously time consuming.

I’ve also got an advert running for one month in the local paper and have put 15 post cards in shop windows (15 more still to do next week) – I’ve tended to do this whilst I’m delivering leaflets to distributors as it saves a bit of time.

I knew it would be a low response rate and up to now I’ve only had 3 calls. Two responding to the leaflet drop, one to a shop window ad:

• One person had their property on the market and needed to sell for full price due to a lot of debt and not interested in anything other than a straight forward sale
• One looking to BUY a house in his area, I said I’d call him if anything suitable came up and we could do a deal
• One call re a shop window ad – Lady wanting to put house on the market, not interested in or needing a quick sale. I took her details and passed them on to a local Estate Agent I’m friendly with who said he’ll take referrals and pay me a commission on completion of the sale.

I’m just one week into my ‘experiment’ and intending to take stock at the end of the month around 30^th April.

I’m also thinking about trying an Adwords campaign on my website www.sellhousequick.net as it’s something I’ve not tried before. I do understand how Organic SEO and PPC (Pay Per Click) works and could set up my own campaign but it’s very time consuming and I’d much rather leave it to the experts.

I’ve previously spoken to an SEO expert regarding this and was informed that it wasn’t possible to target a specific local area in this way without the cost being extremely high due to it being a very competitive niche, with expensive keywords. Therefore a campaign would focus on the UK in general (if anyone has advice to the contrary then please contact me!)

I’d much prefer organic SEO ratings as it’s ‘free’ but after showing an expert my site recently he said that although the content is good it’s mainly built in ‘frames’ which ‘Google’ and the other search engines don’t like, so it needs re-building with another programme and I’ve been quoted around £1,200 which I can’t afford right now.

Anyway, enough of this boring stuff,  I’ll post again in a couple of weeks to say how the campaign is going, so ‘Bye For Now and..

Happy Easter To You All!

I have also hand written 30 A5 bright coloured cards to put into shop windows. After enquiring in a couple of shops today I found that the cost works out to about £2.00 per month per card. Most shops will let you use post cards and some A5 / A4, therefore I’ve made an assortment of sizes.

My advert aimed at motivated sellers will be published in the local paper this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I’ve noticed there are 4 other property investors who seem to advertise regularly, all saying more or less the same thing, so I’m trying a slightly different approach…..we’ll see how it goes!  

The fact that the same investors seem to advertise regularly in the local paper must mean that it’s worth their while? It’s certainly less hassle than organising the leaflet distribution, but is it more cost effective in the long run? Well that’s what I’m trying to find out.

I’m intending to give it at least a month to see how each strategy fares then compare cost per lead and cost per conversion (well I’m hoping there’ll be conversions!). As I’ve previously distributed flyers I’m expecting around one call per thousand, but again that depends on a lot of factors, primarily the leaflet design.

Negotiating with vendors is something I enjoy, so I’m not worried about that side of it, which is fortunate as converting the leads is the hard part of course! It’s important to build rapport and trust if you’re going to be competing with god knows how many other companies, and people are more likely to trust someone they actually ‘like’, so spending some time getting to know them and finding out about their situation is more important than banging on about the market value and size of their property etc.

If people like you, they remember you, and a couple of times I’ve been called back several months after the first meeting with a vendor simply because I’d taken the time to listen to what they needed, offered more than one solution to their problems (people like to have more than one option if possible, it gives them some ‘control’ back) and if they decided they couldn’t accept my offer at the time I simply wished them well and said they could call me back any time and I’d be happy to give them advice.

I actually received a call on Sunday from a lady I’ll call ‘Mary’ who I’d spoken to last September (6 months ago) who had inherited her Fathers house along with 3 of her siblings in Loughborough (not far from where I live) At the time I went over to meet her and look at the property which was a 3 bed terrace, in need of some refurbishment, her Father had lived there all his life and wasn;t much into DIY. It had been on the market for around 3 months but hadn’t had much interest – probably because it was priced too high. I spent a good hour there, chatting to her about all sorts and practically knew her life story by the time I left!

Without going into all the details, I made her an offer on an option intending to find a first time buyer to purchase the property which she was quite keen on doing, but after speaking with her siblings she decided she was going to leave it on the market and ‘see how it went’.

Mary called me on Sunday saying the house had still not sold and she’d taken it off the market as she hadn’t had any viewings for weeks, even though she’d reduced the price a couple of times (bloody useless Estate Agents lol) and ‘was I still interested in buying it?’ She said she’d called me – even though she’d had a couple of other investors contact her after me – because she felt I’d treated her fairly and I ‘seemed like a nice person’ and ‘could I help her?’

Without going into all the details, I’ve spoken with her a couple of times and given her a couple of options that may be suitable to her, including an option to purchase the property quickly, no survey and all solicitor fees paid (with the help of an investor friend of mine) I think if it was just down to her then she would accept, however, she has to consult with her siblings, so I’ve left it with her for now and asked her to call me back when she’s made a decision. I’ll let you know if I get a call back but if people really aren’t willing (or can’t) accept your offer then you have to respect this and move on.

Anyway, I’m going to sit down with a glass of wine now and ‘chill out’ for an hour before bedtime…so ‘bye for now and speak soon, when hopefully I’ll be able to tell you how my campaign is going

If you don't plan where you're going then how're you going to get there?

Right then, here it is, my ‘Plan of Action’. It’s nothing special or clever but it’s a plan which I intend to follow and hopefully reap rewards from. Remember you’ve got to have a plan and act on it if you want to get anywhere, procrastination is the opposite of decision and is the ‘killer of all dreams’ (which I have to admit I’m guilty of at times)

As I’m not currently in a position to buy property I’m looking to trade instead, ie; get an option agreement on a property, use finance from a JV partner to fund the deal and take a finders fee, or an assisted sale- I’ve completed on an assisted sale previously – read about it here:  http://singlemumtopropertyinvestor.com/2010/09/19/how-i-made-more-than-12k-in-7-weeks-using-none-of-my-own-money/

I have a couple of investor friends who’ve agreed to JV with me this way. Or, if an opportunity arises to do a Lease Option that cash flows well then I’ll do this as well.

I’ve spent a lot of money in the past on leafleting, PPC, newspaper and online ads but never measured the results or compared the different strategies to calculate the cost of each lead I obtain or, more importantly the cost of conversion per lead. ie: I may get 16 leads from a distribution of 10,000 leaflets but if only one of those converts to a deal then the cost of that deal is going to be considerably higher. It all boils down to what you want to be paying per deal and is it worth your time, money and effort?   It can be ‘swings and roundabouts’ and its difficult to measure it exactly as there are lots of other factors to consider like:

• The time of year (Christmas and summer holidays are not good times to advertise)
• Your availability. Will you be available to answer telephone calls or will you use a call centre? If you don’t answer the caller will immediately call one of your competitors!
• People skills. Are you comfortable talking with people and making them feel at ease?
• Negotiation skills. The longer you’ve been doing it the better you will get
• Marketing material – What your leaflet or advert says is vital. Is it going to make people want to call you? There’s a lot of competition out there!
• Your distribution method. Are your leaflets being delivered correctly by your team? (or being dumped?)
• Your ‘Team of professionals’ ; The people you choose to work with to complete the deals, brokers, solicitors etc, if they’re not doing their job efficiently you can easily lose the deal

I’m intending to use three forms of advertising and compare costs and leads obtained/converted for each method to see which performs best. The three I’m using are:

• 10,000 Leaflets
• 30 Postcards (in shop windows)
• 4 Local Newspaper Ads

I’ve already designed and ordered my flyers, the cost so far for that is £112.00 (for 10,000, they should be with me around 21stMarch.  I put an advert on my local ‘Gumtree’ site yesterday (15/03/12) saying:

‘Owner Drivers Wanted For Leaflet Distribution For Local Property Company. £30.00 per 1000 paid plus bonus of £200.00 (paid on completion) if a lead turns into a deal’

So far I’ve had 19 applicants, well it was 20 but one of them lived inRomania, so I’m not counting him – he sent me his CV, gotta give him credit for trying though lol. I’ve replied to them all saying I’ll be in touch when the flyers are ready for delivery.

In my experience it’s much better to have lots of distributors delivering small amounts (ie; 1000 each) rather than a couple delivering thousands. Why? Because they might be keen to do a few but get bored after a while (it is a tedious job) and therefore be more inclined to dump them!  I don’t use the mail companies, they’re expensive and tend to deliver your leaflet with 10 others! (which subsequently get dumped in the bin)   Also, make sure the distributors all live near to the areas you want covered as you’ll have to drive out to pay them for their work (after checking to make sure they’ve delivered correctly) and you don’t want to be driving for miles (time is money!)

I’m currently writing the Post Cards and will be taking them out to local shops in the area, there are not many places that let you advertise nowadays but I’ll just have to drive around and find them. The cards will say something similar to my flyers…’Houses Wanted, Guaranteed Quick Sale’ etc

The Newspaper Ads will say something similar, but these ads will be a bit shorter as they’re expensive – around £120.00 for 3 insertions for a 5cm ad – and will be shown for two weeks on three consecutive days each week, ie; Thurs, Fri, Sat.

I’ve designed a Vendor Contact Form which I’ll refer to when dealing with enquiries which also has a field asking where the vendor saw my advert so that I can log which method they are responding to and therefore see which advert has been most cost effective overall.   As I want to start each strategy around the same time I’m currently looking at starting around Thursday 29^th March (which incidentally is my birthday!) as by then I will have my flyers back and have all the necessary paperwork etc in place.

I think I’ll give the campaign about a month to 6 weeks then draw up a graph to show comparables for cost/conversion for each strategy etc, as that will be interesting, although I’m rubbish at maths!

Well that’s it for now, I’ll post more as I start the campaigns and keep you up to date. Feel free to ask any questions – or make suggestions!  Wish me luck  :)    

PS, if anyone is interested in Joint Ventures (if you can fund them) or purchasing leads in the Leicester area then please message me at suzannejanebates@hotmail.com or you can go to the investors page on my website and fill in the form at: www.sellhousequick.net (investors link is ‘hidden’ at the bottom of the home page)

Myself and friend Betty Masters at the LICN meeting in Leicester February 2012

So, why did I stop posting? Lots of reasons, but I suppose if I’m honest I kind of ‘lost faith’ due to having to go back to work after posting ‘I’ve sacked my job!’ in April last year.  To re-cap, I’d been intending to go full time as a property investor after handing in my notice in at the  NHS.

So, what went wrong? With hindsight I was a tad impulsive…but then i usually am…steam in full speed ahead, then think afterwards, this doesn’t always work for me but I don’t get put off lol! I’m a positive person and not afraid to take risks, however I realise the type of risks I SHOULD be taking should at least be calculated in some way and not ‘pot luck’ lol.

It’s been said many times before but ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’ . I think that sums it up very well. It’s good to be positive and motivated but YOU HAVE GOT TO HAVE A PLAN. PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH SUZANNE!

I looked back at all the leads I’d sourced from my leafletting campaigns, there were lots of them, some of them uncontacted because I didn’t have time with working as well. Trying to do everything yourself is NOT a good idea,  I built the website, I designed the flyers, ordered them, advertised for distributors, delivered flyers to distributors, did the spot checks, answered the ‘Batphone’ when it rang, chatted and negotiated with vendors, visited them at home if need be, researched and typed up the comparables and sent out offers, called Estate agents, viewed properties, dealt with mortgage brokers and solicitors, attended property network meetings etc etc…as well as working 4 days a week and running a home!

Obviously this was all costing money and there wasn’t enough coming  in, our properties were cash flowing well but it wasn;t enough,  we had a home to run, bills to pay which were totting up, I got stressed and was forced to look for another job. I was offered a full time post as a Virtual Office Assistant in Market Harborough which I started in June 2011…..I hated it, I was cooped up in a small dark office for 9 hours a day, not moving off my chair with no lunch break, with the travelling it turned into an 11 hour day! I was rarely at home, my house needed a good clean,.

I felt stressed and I was designing more websites for SEO, Website Building, Leaflet Printing, and even one for marketing Gold iPhones (another idea of mine – which I roped my poor colleague into!) www.iphoneingold.com – anyone want one? See me at the end for a discount haha!

So what was going wrong? I was very busy doing ‘a bit of this’ and ‘a bit of that’ but I had no FOCUS.  I spent too much time half-heartedly trying to make money with lots of bright ideas instead of just sticking to what I know and am passionate about – PROPERTY! So that’s what I’m going to do from now on.

I’m surprised at how many views I’ve gotten on my blog over the past year considering I haven’t been posting and I also get a lot of new property investors contacting me asking questions (which I’ve been happy to answer) so this has given me a proverbial kick up the butt I need to carry on!  Plus, I’ve done all those property courses too, what a waste if I don’t use my knowledge, so, I’ve started regularly attending property network meetings, mainly the Leicester meets - East Midlands Property Meeting with Parmdeep Vadesha and the Leicester Investors Curry Night (LICN) with Rajesh Gohil. They are all great guys and very helpful, I’ve  realised how vital these meetings are to keep me motivated and on track, so thanks guys

I now have a ‘Plan’ in place and have started implementing it this week.  I’m going to do an EXPERIMENT and hope to get a couple of good leads as a result. I’m just off to my ‘Zumba’ class now so I’ll tell you all about my plans next time. Watch this space

I know it’s been some time since I last posted, Ok, almost a year, but I’ve just come back from the East Midlands Property Meeting with Parmdeep Vadesha, Richard Shepherd and Shimon Rudich and made an impulsive decision to start posting again – I’m sure there’s no one more impulsive than I am and there’s no time like the present!

Network meetings are essential for success in any field – for inspiration, meeting new friends, contacts and JV partners, sharing knowledge and ideas, gaining confidence in your abilities, learning from people who actually ‘Walk the Walk, adding new strategies to your list of ways to make money with property, and, most importantly for me, keeping up your level of motivation and determination, because without it you’ll come to a standstill…..like I did.

Before I explain why it’s been so long since my last post I’d just like to say that I hope you’ve all had a good start to 2012 and all your plans, hopes and dreams come to fruition. Are you busy sticking to all the goals you made at the beginning of the year? Well I hope so, unlike myself, but I do intend to start working on this, as from now.

I met some interesting and helpful people tonight as well as picking up more great tips from Shimon and Richard but I also realised from talking to new investors that I actually know a lot more about property investment than I give myself credit for, and I get a great sense of satisfaction from explaining investment strategies and helping these new people to understand how they work. So, I’m thinking to myself, ‘Why aren’t I practising what I preach’? ‘Why has almost a year passed by without me doing all this stuff I’ve spent time, money and energy learning?’ ‘What’s gone wrong?’

Well it’s late now so I’m going to sleep on it, analyse it a bit and continue this tomorrow….Goodnight for now

You have to be able to SELL

I’ve recently spent some time learning to ‘sell’ with the Wealth Dragons which took me right out of my comfort zone, but taught me how to cold call,  and, as I learnt so much from it I thought I’d share my experience with you.

Most people don’t like Salesmen and hate the thought of having to sell themselves or a product. Why is this?

The reason is that most of us are convinced that we can’t do it, or we don’t want to do it because we think that selling is inherently dishonest and salesmen are seen to be ‘conmen’ selling things to people that they don’t really want or need.

Do YOU like being sold to? If not, think about why you don’t like it. Do you worry you’re going to feel under pressure or end up buying something you don’t want, or are you afraid you’re going to hurt someone’s feeling by saying ‘No’?

The chances are that if you feel this way about salesmen and don’t like being ‘sold’ to then you won’t be very good at selling yourself.

I didn’t like the idea of selling one bit! I cringed at the thought and thought about all the times I’d answered the phone to ‘cold callers’ and been annoyed with them.

I didn’t want to bother people, selling felt like begging and I was worried people would be nasty to me or put the ‘phone down if I tried to sell them something.

It was pointed out to me that most people feel this way because of their mindset, we’ve been conditioned to think this way because of enduring years of ‘being sold to’ by the media, it’s made us highly suspicious of anyone that’s selling something.

The point is, that if you’re going to run a business, no matter how small, then you’re going to have to sell something at some point, or how are you ever going to make any money? So you need to change your mindset, and the way you think about sales.

Sales is a people business, you’re much more likely to buy from someone you like and trust, so if you’re selling to someone it’s important to build rapport as early as possible, find a ‘common ground’ and make them feel at ease with you. Don’t go straight into ‘hard sell’ mode, because that’s a sure fire way to lose the sale.

It’s also important you believe in your product with a passion, because if you don’t believe in it then how are you ever going to convince someone else to believe in it and buy it?

Not all salesmen are conmen, ok the bad ones might make a few bucks by being dishonest for a while, but word soon gets around then they lose their credibility fast. So if you want to build a brand name and a good customer base you have to be ethical with your deals and give people value for money.

Instead of thinking that you’re ‘bothering’ someone try considering instead how you may be helping that prospect improve his skills or business by giving him a fantastic opportunity, people always want to know ‘what’s in it for me?’ So tell them!

Knowing how to handle objections is crucial in sales. You wouldn’t believe just how many objections people can come up with!  Here’s just a few I was faced with (these are real!)

• I’m riding a push bike and the police are following me
• This is not my phone and it isn’t me
• My wallet has just been stolen so I have no credit cards to pay with
• My dog needs to go to the toilet
• I can’t talk right now, I’m in a field being chased by a cow

Third Party Authority is a big one: ‘I have to discuss it with my wife/husband/partner before I make a decision’

Time is a common one: ‘I don’t have the time, I can’t make that day’

Price is another: ‘I can’t afford it right now’

There are probably hundreds of objections you can come up against and you have to be ready to answer them…or you lose the sale.

When I first started selling I found it very daunting, I was way out of my comfort zone, but I forced myself to do it because it was another learning curve and I don’t like to give up easily. I’ve had the phone slammed down and people swear at me, but eventually I became ‘immune’ to it all, took it in my stride and laughed it off, they didn’t know me,couldn’t see me and I didn’t know them, so I just went onto the next one.

The very first day I started ‘cold calling’ I made 5 sales! (and got to keep the money I made) I was amazed because I didn’t think I could ever do something like that, I was obviously very proud of myself, and the exercise reinforced my belief that you can do anything you put your mind to if you want to do it and try hard enough. You just have to be willing to make a start.

There was a hell of a lot more to it than this of course, I also learnt

• Hooks
• Open & closed questions
• Negotiation techniques
• Extensive objection handling
• Seeding
• Voice control
• NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming)
• Subjective language
• Using scarcity
• Test closing
• Closing deals
• Upselling

Learning all these techniques and understanding the psychology of how people think about sales has definitely helped me to have the confidence to make calls, sales and money! Another bonus is that these techniques can also be applied to other situations and used to my advantage whenever or wherever influence is required!

I’d like to thank Vincent Wong & John Lee, also Andy Brice (Sales Manager) and Laura Clapham (Admin) for all your expert tuition and help and the opportunities you’ve given me Thanks a lot guys!

So, to all you people who think you don’t have the ability to sell anything, or don’t believe in yourselves, think again, and remember..

 ‘Where you begin doesn’t matter. Your willingness to start is what counts’

(Rhonda Britten)

No Worries!

Sorry I haven’t posted for a while, I’ve been sooo busy, but I have some great news!!!

Today I sacked my job! I handed in my notice to my boss at the UHL (University Hospitals of Leicester) as I want to devote more time to concentrate on building our property / marketing business.

I really don’t like to do things by halves, if it’s worth doing it’s worth doing well and I want to be able to put in 100%.

This is a BIG step for me, I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time but have been waiting for the ‘right moment’. Well I’ve realised that the ‘right moment’ will never come, there will always be some excuse as to why I can’t. It was one of my goals at the beginning of this year, so now I’ve done it and there’ll be no looking back

I’d like to say it was all off my own back but I have to give some credit to all the people I’ve been working and training with who’ve inspired me and given me confidence to believ in myself and do this.

I’ve done a lot of courses but the one’s that’ve really helped and given me the knowledge and courage to move on are Parmdeep Vadesha’s ‘Tycoons Mastermind Alliance’ (TMA) and  John Lee and Vincent Wongs Wealth Dragons. I’ve been doing a lot of training recently with the  Wealth Dragons and am feeling extremely motivated and raring to go, it made me realise I needed to take action to move forward towards my goal of being financially free.

I did things on the course that took me totally out of my comfort zone and despite feeling very uneasy at times I knew it was somehing I had to do to improve my confidence…..so I went for it!

I learnt a lot, came away feeling extremely focused and decided it was now or never, so bye bye job & hello to a more fullfilling future

Some people may think this is naiive of me and of course they’re entitled to their opinion (but they can ke ep it to themselves!) and I do have another source of income which I’ve lined up to replace my ‘wage’ so that’s not an issue.

It’s not about how much money you have to start up in this business (or in any business) it’s about your mindset, if you truly believe you can do something then you will do it, no matter what obstacles stand in your way. The main thing is to go out there and DO IT, stop putting it off and making excuses, because that’s all they are excuses. Take control of your life , becasue it’s now or never.

I’ve  been fortunate to have the opportunity to become business partners with a fellow friend and colleague, Vince Audritt who has excellent connections in the Online Marketing field, and we are currently working together to perfect our services and get our new site up and running.

Internet Marketing will be another ‘tool’ in my box which will enable me to build capital to buy more properties and the more tools you have in your box the more things you can ‘fix’. Each ‘tool’ is a different strategy, you just have to apply the relevant strategy each time an opportunity comes along

I’m a great fan of inspirational quotes and this one, I feel, sums up my post very well;

You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
Christopher Columbus

 At the time, I was selling his house through an Estate Agent because the guy was on the brink of having his home repossessed for non payment of his mortgage and owing around 5k in arrears , this was due to an accumulation of circumstances.

 The guy (we’ll call him John) was estranged from his wife, lived by himself and had lost his driving job as a plumber due to a drink/drive offence (drowning his sorrows)

 From then on he ‘buried his head in the sand’ stopped making his mortgage payments and let himself (and the house) go until he couldn’t ignore the letters he was getting from the bank any more because they were threatening to take him to court to recover the debt.

 That’s when he called me, after receiving one of my leaflets through his door which basically said ‘Do you need to sell your house fast?’

 If you missed my previous post about the Assisted Sale you can read it here:http://suziebates88.wordpress.com/2010/09/19/how-i-made-more-than-12k-in-7-weeks-using-none-of-my-own-money/

 What I didn’t say in my previous post is how depressed John was at the time. I’ll be completely honest about why I didn’t elaborate on it…. I felt guilty because although I was helping him to sell the house I felt I could’ve offered him a greater share of the profit.

The Download Music Festival

 I spent a lot of time chatting with him because he seemed lonely, he told me about his teenage son and his love of  rock music and  the ‘Download’ festival, which he’d attend every year with his son (it’s a heavy rock festival which goes on for days and everyone camps out in tents) There were photos everywhere!  

Apparently this was the first year he’d missed because of his financial difficulties, so his son had gone without him.

 He also talked about his Dad, who he missed and hadn’t seen for years due to an argument they’d had years ago. I had to ‘push’ him a lot to get paperwork signed and sort things out in the house, I felt like I was always ‘nagging’ at him to get things done!

 At the time we agreed that I would…

• Pay off his arrears
• Pay the mortgage until the house sold
• Speak to the bank about giving us some time to sell the house
• Put the house on sale with an Estate Agent and conduct the viewings
• Pay all his Estate Agent  & solicitors fees

 Then he would get £1000 (which he owed his ex wife and wanted to pay back) and 15%  from the profit of the sale, and he was happy with that.  I know I could’ve offered a bit more and  didn’t want to advantage of his situation,  so on completion of the sale I gave him a cheque for an extra £500 on top of what we’d agreed as with hindsight I felt a bit ‘greedy’.

 As part of our ‘agreement’ I also said I would pay for his ticket to the ‘Download festival’ the following year which he was really pleased about.

 When the day came for him to move out (he was moving in with a friend) his ex wife called me saying he’d been taken to hospital because he’d attempted suicide, I had no idea he was feeling that low and I was beside myself with worry for him.

 I went straight to the hospital to see him, he did look a sorry sight and I felt so guilty at selling his home, but the alternative was losing it anyway and being left with a massive debt which he couldn’t pay. It’s a terrible, hopeless situation for anyone to be in and it made me think about others in the same situation who HAD been taken advantage of by unscrupulous companies.

Rather him than me!

 I spent ages talking to him about his life and how being more ‘positive’ would make a difference to him.

 I gave him a copy of ‘Rich Dad, poor Dad to read! and suggested he contact his Dad, which he did, and to cut a long story short he went to live with him in Wales for a ‘new start’.

 Anyway, last week I bought him his festival ticket, plus camping for 5 days and a return bus ticket from Swansea so he could get there and back. I sent it to his Dad’s address in Wales.

 Yesterday John sent me a text, here’s what he said:

 “Sue thanks so much for sending the ticket and for all your help. I’m more than happy here, getting on great with my Dad, I have a job, a new girlfriend and now my Download ticket, life doesn’t get much better than this. Thanks again for sorting me out, John x”

 I can’t tell you how much that meant to me, knowing that he was happy and settled, a far cry from the sad, sorry soul I’d first met.

Although I made a good profit on the sale of his house,  knowing that I have actually changed his life for the better has given me the most amazing sense of satisfaction that money could never buy, and that’s what makes it all worthwhile

 How often have you said ‘I wish I could do that’ or ‘I’m just not lucky enough’ or ‘he’s just lucky, that’s why he’s made it’?

 I’m sure we’ve all said this at some point, but do you ever stop and think why you don’t achieve more in your life?

 How many excuses have you made to others (and yourself) about why you can’t do something?

 I tell my daughter Summer that she’s not allowed to use the word ‘can’t’. Instead she has to say ‘I’ll try’. Yes, she moans whenever I say it, but she will always remember it, and it will stand her in good stead for the future

 Have you heard the saying ‘We are what we think’? Often, the way we think determines whether or not we will be successful in what we set out to achieve.

 So if you start off thinking you’re not capable of doing something, then guess what? You’ll probably never do it. You may as well not even try because you’ve lost the battle already!

 Many of the millionaire gurus practice NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) which basically means that if think about something you want and really believe you will get it then your thoughts will manifest themselves into reality.

 The secret to their success is an ‘I can’ attitude. They don’t say ‘I can’t do it’. They say ‘HOW can I do it?’

 Now I’m not saying this is all you need, but it’s a great start! A positive attitude will go a long way and is what separates the successful people from the unsuccessful.

 It’s ok to try and fail. So you tried, and it didn’t work, but you don’t give up. You try another way, and then another until you make it work. There are many great people who tried, lost everything, then succeeded in getting it all back.

Thomas Edison’s teachers said he was “too stupid to learn anything.” He was fired from his first two jobs for being “non-productive.”

When a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

 Negative Thoughts Produce Negative Actions

 Do you know someone who always seems to have ‘bad luck’ and whatever they do always seems to go wrong? This is not a coincidence at all, it’s down to mindset.

 They constantly tell themselves they’re unlucky and things will always go wrong….so guess what….that’s what happens!

 Positive thoughts produce positive actions. Give all your thoughts to what you want to achieve, see what you want in your mind, feel it, focus on it constantly as if you already have it.

 See yourself actually achieving your goal and you will be nearer to getting it.

 Did you know that 1% of the population own 96% of the worlds’ wealth?

 This is no accident, it’s not down to luck. These few people focused on what they desired, they believed in themselves and set out to get what they wanted. They are where they are today because of what they thought. There are other contributing factors but mindset is the most important.

 You can focus on the past and your previous disappointments, or, you can focus on your future and what you want to happen. So what’s it going to be?

 Because your biggest challenge is YOURSELF.