Thank you to everyone who attended our Summer Drinks on Wednesday and made the evening so special. Please see below some photos of the evening.
We are delighted to say we raised £485 for Exeter Cathedral's 3rd Millennium Campaign.
The lucky winners of our prize draw are:
Andy Robins, Snibor - Combe House
Guy Curry, Stephens Scown - Nobody Inn
James Keliher, Stephens Scown - Jack in the Green
David and Bunty Stoneman - Decks
Ian and Heather Hobday - Rendezvous
Many thanks to all of our favourite restaurants who kindly donated the gifts.
Posted by Mark on Fri, 2 Jul 2010
For those of you who still find it hard to believe that a 53 year old bloke could run the London Marathon, here are the photos to prove it.
We are nearly half way to the £10,000 target, in marathon terms, at about mile 12 and still feeling confident that we will make it.
If you were meaning to make a donation but just haven’t got around to it yet, here is the opportunity you have been waiting for!
Read the full article as well as all the marathon photos.
Posted by Administrator on Tue, 18 May 2010
On Sunday the 25th of April, as you are enjoying a leisurely breakfast, I shall be lining up to run the London Marathon. If you have never run a marathon before, then join the club, because this will be the first time in my life that I have ever run 26.2 miles!
Why am I doing it? Partly I guess it is a bit of a mid life crisis, at 53 if I don't do it now, I never will. More significantly I am running because Children's Hospice South West gave me the opportunity, with one of their Gold Bond entry tickets.
Those of you who know me well, will know that I lost Dee, my first wife to cancer in 1998 and our three children Ben, Jack and Izzy lost their mum. What has made an impact on me recently is the realisation that Dee's parents also lost their daughter, and all of the hopes and dreams they had for her.
Children’s Hospice South West cares for children who have illnesses which mean they will die before reaching adulthood, and achieving their hopes and dreams for the future and the hopes and dreams of their parents.
If all I do is go through a small amount of pain and discomfort on a Sunday morning to help, then it doesn't seem much to do, although by the time I get to the end I may feel differently!
I have already run over 500 miles in training and lost over two stone on the way. My three children will be in London with me to support me on the day, but you could support me now by making a donation to help Children's Hospice South West make the most of small and precious lives.
Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity. All you need to do is click on the JustGiving icon below.
If you would prefer to make a donation by cheque, please make your cheque payable to Children's Hospice South West, we will pass it on and complete the Gift Aid documentation on your behalf.
So please dig deep and donate now and enjoy your breakfast on the 25th.
Many thanks for your help, I will of course let you know how it goes!
Posted by Administrator on Tue, 20 Apr 2010
Isaac Newton’s law of gravity tells us why an apple falls down from the sky. This and other laws govern the world we live in and allow us to understand how and why things happen.
Applying different laws can achieve significantly different results, for example, just changing the rule from a ‘+’ to a ‘x’ makes a 500% difference when applied to 10 + 10 or 10 x 10. What difference could you achieve in your life by applying a different set of rules?
Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher widely considered to be the father of modern economics. In his book The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, he stated his law on the Division of Labour, which briefly put states that;
‘’all increase in wealth comes from the division of labour, organising work so that those who are best at a particular task can focus on just that’’.
The Wealth of Nations was written at the start of The Industrial Revolution. During this time Great Britain experienced a transition from a previously manual labour and draft animal based economy towards machine based manufacturing. This 'multiplier' created a huge increase in productivity, but his Law raises questions that could help today.
Take a few moments to answer the following questions and if possible, write down your answers. The process of writing allows your subconscious mind to start working on this right away.
Question 1:
What is the most important thing that you are doing now that someone else can do better?
Question 2:
What is the single most important thing that you do at work or at home that nobody else can do?
Do let us know if either question has helped you make a change for good.
The article is based on The Multiplier Mindset™ and is a concept from The Strategic Coach® Program.
Click here to read the full article
Posted by Administrator on Sat, 20 Mar 2010
Thoughts from a year on...
A year ago I was in Atlanta and the news was full of prophesies that the world was in financial meltdown. A year later and I have just returned from Chicago. The prophesied financial meltdown didn’t happen but America has seen major changes, including the election of Barack Obama.
Mr Obama was elected because he had a clear vision of the future that voters wanted to believe in, but last week I saw signs of disenchantment. America is an entrepreneurial nation, a survey earlier this year found that 76% of Americans believe the country’s strength is ‘’mostly based on the success of American business’’, yet Mr Obama is seen as using the financial collapse as an opportunity to increase the role of government. The vision that people voted for is not reflected in the reality that followed.
What does this mean to us? We all have concerns about our futures, to feel confident, we must have a vision that we want and a strategy to achieve that vision, ours not someone else’s. American voters got somebody else’s vision and strategy and are now disenchanted.
What is your vision and your strategy to achieve it? If you don’t know, ask yourself this;
If we were to meet in three years from today, and you were looking back over those three years, what has to have happened in your life for you to feel happy with your progress?
Specifically, what dangers do you have now that need to be eliminated, what opportunities need to be captured, and what strengths need to be maximised?*
Try it for yourself, the results are powerful.
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A Royal Visit
Mo and I were delighted to be invited to Exeter Cathedral to celebrate the achievement of reaching £4.25 million towards the Third Millennium Campaign.
We were especially delighted to be presented to His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales. When asked what we did, Simon was proud to be able to reply, with the words that have taken us a year to find, that we ‘’help people eliminate the confusion, concerns and negative emotions they feel about money, bringing clarity, confidence and care, so that they may look forward to their futures feeling positive and empowered’’.
Sadly his Royal Highness did not ask for a business card, but we live in hope!
Raising our Profile
Like most businesses we are faced with the conundrum, do we stay as we are or do we grow, to allow us to improve the level of client service and create bigger opportunities for our team. We have taken the decision that we need to grow, to double our size over the next three years. To do that we need to increase our profile and the number of clients we work with.
To raise our profile we have created a series of adverts that will be appearing in local publications. Click here to view. We would welcome your feedback.
We are also running a series of seminars to get our message to prospective clients, click here for more details. Please forward this to anyone you know who may be interested.
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Mathematical Wizards
You may have wondered how the investment bankers in the city banks justify their huge bonuses. We have been granted access to the mathematical wizards in one of those banks and can share with how they make their calculations. Click here to view.
Investment Update
We have had several requests from clients for more detailed information on our PortfolioLogic investment service. We hold monthly Investment Committee meetings where we review PorfolioLogic past performance and future strategy. If you would like to receive copies of the minutes of those meetings, please let us know.
Finally clients who formerly subscribed to PortfolioLogic with UBS as custodian have been telling us that they appreciate the reduction in paperwork from the new custodian Pershing, we are now very close to being able to ‘’go live’’ with internet access to improve that service.
*Courtesy of The Strategic Coach®
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Posted by Mark on Tue, 6 Oct 2009
