(Article Originally Published 2019).  

I’ve just returned from a totally undeserved week’s holiday. Yes, I did have a nice time – thanks for asking. And that’s despite having to endure the torturous process known as international air travel.

Now I’m no expert, but I believe there are quite stringent regulations in place throughout the EC for the transportation of livestock. The animals have to be treated humanely for example, and there are rules about the amount of space each animal is allocated. I think it would be a nice idea if these rules and regulations were extended to the transportation of human beings…

Because on airline trips to European destinations, there are clearly no such rules.

The journey back was horrible, but far from untypical. If I was being processed for admission to a high security prison, I don’t think the experience could have been any more uncomfortable or depressing. There was a one-hour delay for a start…no reason given, just a delay. And so I stood there, like an idiot, staring at the check-in board, trying to second-guess where the flight might be checking in.

I’m sure you’ve played this game. You’re tired and irritable and you’ve got half a ton of luggage you’re desperate to get rid of. Your check-in desk hasn’t been announced yet, and you REALLY want to know where it’s going to be. Guess right, and you’re in position to get to the front of the queue. Get it wrong, and you’ll be at the back and facing another 45-minute stand, playing kick-the-case.

I didn’t guess right or wrong, because the bastards didn’t announce the bloody thing at all. Instead they allowed a crowd of pensioners on a SAGA holiday (and who very clearly had inside information) to check in first. Now I don’t wish to be unkind, but this sort of thing doesn’t make for swift progress. By the time they did announce the desk, the queue was back out of the doors and there were people in front of me who I swear were still in bed when I arrived at the airport.

One queue followed another…and then another…as I shuffled along as if in a chain gang. I was asked to remove clothing, jewellery, to empty my pockets…even take off my shoes. I half-expected someone to hand me a pick at the end, and order me to start breaking rocks.

But they didn’t…

Instead, they directed me on to a bus (no seats – obviously) where I stood for fifteen minutes until the driver came back from his lunch break, and then drove us the 100 yards to the plane steps. You can’t walk, you see…that might be a welcome break, and their goal is to break your spirit.

Anyway, I was confident of getting a seat at this point, but no such luck. You see, back in the check-in area, I’d noticed a woman (well you couldn’t fail to notice her really) whose arse was clearly too wide to fit in an airline seat. I’d noticed this, and so had my wife and daughter. But nobody from the airline had. I remember we discussed it at the time. Was she travelling in the cargo hold, or had she booked two seats – one for each cheek?

The answer was neither, which is why I found myself stranded half-way up the aircraft steps in a gale, while (and sadly this was out of view, and I only heard about it second-hand) sweating and straining cabin crew battled to shoehorn the woman into her seat. As I passed where she was sitting (or should that be berthed?) I could hear her complaining that people had been rude about her size.

Not as rude as I’d have been if I’d been given a seat next to her, I can tell you!

Why is it that you can get on to a plane carrying 100kgs of excess blubber and it doesn’t cost you anything (other than a little personal dignity) but you get penalised if you take so much as a toothbrush over your baggage limit? It would be much fairer if you had to get weighed with your luggage, wouldn’t it? It doesn’t really matter whether the weight is in your bags or in your beer belly.

When I eventually got to my seat, it didn’t take me long to notice that all was not well. While the cabin crew had done their best to clear it up, it was hard to escape the conclusion that someone had thrown up on the outward journey. As I’m sure you’re aware, it’s an aroma that doesn’t improve with age. I’m not a big fan of aircraft food at the best of times – and this wasn’t the best of times. My tray stayed firmly in the upright position.

I got off at the other end (as I always do at such times) vowing never to travel again. And of course I won’t ~ until the next time.

The purpose of this rant is threefold:

1.  To allow me to vent my spleen.

2.  To allow you to delight in my misfortune. I think the Germans call it Schadenfreude.

3.  To serve as a permanent reminder for me, and an impetus to up my game and make enough money to hire a private jet next time.

And on that last point, any contributions will be gratefully received.

 Kind Regards 

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

Welcome To Your Very Own Money Machine…

For Full Details Click Here

All the best for now

John Goldsmith

I’m sitting here waiting for a woman to turn up from the bank I’ve been using for the last 15 years. She wants me to prove I am who I say I am.

I mean really…if I was going to pretend to be anyone, it wouldn’t be me.

Anyway, she rang yesterday because I want to open a new account for my self-administered pension. Despite the fact that I’ve been doing business with them for years, and they’re currently holding more of my money than it would take to solve the debt of a third world country, they’re still demanding to see my passport and driving licence before opening the new account.

Apparently it’s the law ~ money laundering regulations ~ or so they say. Every time you do anything new, they’re obliged to check you out all over again.

This is becoming something of a regular occurrence.

At the end of last week, I got a call from a solicitor who is handling the purchase of a property I’m partially financing for a third party. Here’s how the conversation went:

Solicitor: Can you tell me where the funds are from?

Me: From my bank account

Solicitor: But what’s the source of the funds?

Me: As I said, it will be coming out of my bank account. Do you want my bank details?

Solicitor: No, I need to determine the original source.

Me: Sorry, I don’t understand what you want.

Solicitor: Well where did the money come from? I need to establish a paper trail.

Me: What?

Solicitor: I need to establish that the funds are legitimate and not the proceeds of crime or drug sales.

Me: No, that’s my other account.

Solicitor: (Silence).

Me: Sigh…Just tell me what you need.

Solicitor: Sorry, it’s money laundering regulations.

And that’s how things are in Britain in 2020. You can’t even move, spend or invest your own money without the government forcing banks and solicitors (under threat of imprisonment) to investigate every last detail about you and the transaction.

If they’re in any doubt at all that you’re not who you say you are, or can’t (or won’t) account for exactly how you came by the money, then they’re legally obliged to shop you to the authorities. If they fail in this role of unpaid state snoop, they face swapping their comfortable office for a jail cell.

But it’s okay, because it’s for our own good ~ to fight crime, terrorism, drug dealing and the like ~ isn’t it?

Let me contrast what I’ve just told you with another ‘transaction’ I regularly make…

Twice a year, I receive a demand from the Inland Revenue for a depressingly large sum of money. I won’t tell you how much because I don’t want you feeling sorry for me, but it’s a lot. Now for some reason, they’ve never felt the need to check that I am who I say I am when I pay that bill. They never feel the need to establish a ‘paper trail’ to find out where the money has come from. They don’t seem to care. All they want is the money. They don’t even send me a receipt or an acknowledgement for goodness sake.

When I’m buying or investing for myself, the fight against crime is paramount. When I’m giving the money to them, they don’t give a stuff. Strange isn’t it? And there’s only one reason I can think of…

It’s because all these unpaid state snoopers aren’t in place to prevent money laundering – they’re there to prevent tax evasion…

And there’s not much danger of you doing that while you’re paying your bill.

 Kind Regards 

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

Dear Streetwise Customer, 

     This is not illegal. Perfectly legitimate. It’s all perfectly above-board. 


                                 Why isn’t everyone doing this? 


   I have no idea. Anyone can. You just need to be bothered. Anyone could, but most people don’t, because they either aren’t motivated, or don’t know how, or are too sceptical by nature to believe it’s possible. 


  If you find yourself having to live and work a little more remotely in the coming weeks and months then now is the time to take a look. 


  Available now for the first time as a fast digital download. 

  For more information on something that’s simple, and easy to use from the comfort of your own home CLICK HERE. 

  Very Best Wishes, 

  John Harrison
  Streetwise Publications 

P.S. This comes with a 100% cast iron money back
guarantee. There is absolutely no risk to you to take a look. 

www.streetwisenews.com/NARDL

There are some very good reasons why I don’t read The Guardian – most of them linked to my blood pressure and stress levels. But recently, I came across an article that originated there, and was reprinted in another journal.

The writer was seriously putting forward the view that the Government should have the courage to increase the taxes on the rich because ~ wait for it ~ the ‘middle classes’ are being made to feel poor and inferior in comparison. That’s right, she wants the government to raise taxes on the rich so her mates won’t feel quite so jealous. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the politics of envy demonstrated so blatantly or clearly.

I really don’t know where to start with this, but I’m going to have to start somewhere, so here goes…

Let’s start with the ‘middle class’.

The writer, Jenni Russell, clearly considers herself to be middle class. How do I know? Because she calls herself Jenni rather than Jenny. That would be far too common. So I think we can assume she has a vested interest in all this.

It may be just me though, but I find the whole notion of describing yourself as ‘middle class’ abhorrent and outdated. To do so carries with it two unacceptable and unpleasant assumptions…

Firstly, that there is another class above you, to whom you are inferior for no other reason than an accident of birth. And secondly, that there is another class below you, to whom you are superior by virtue of the way you each earn your living.

To me, the idea that someone is of a higher or lower class by way of their parentage, schooling or occupation is outmoded and just plain wrong in the 21st century. If you MUST divide people by class in 2020, then do it in a relevant way…

1. The working class 

Anyone who earns their own money, or is part of a family financed by someone earning their own money, is working class. The short-term unemployed would be included here, and people who can’t work through no fault of their own. It doesn’t matter what they do for a job, where they went to school, who their parents are or whether they use the word napkin or serviette, settee or sofa. If you finance your life through employment or a business, you’re part of the working class.

2. The non-working class

These are people who don’t work, but are self-supporting. Retirees would fall into this category ~ along with anyone else, not working, but not living off the state.

3. The Underclass

Scumbags to you and me. People who choose not to work. People who choose to live off the taxes paid by the working class.

Jenni Russell clearly doesn’t agree with me though. She obviously makes a differentiation based on HOW people earn their own money. And she says that the middle class (civil servants, academics and managers according to her) have a legitimate expectation of a comfortable life as a result of their social position. This expectation is being undermined by the fact that the new rich have more money, and make them feel relatively poor. They’re trying to play catch up, she says, and it’s personally damaging.

The solution? Let’s take some money off ‘the rich’ so that the middle classes don’t feel relatively poor.

It’s the same old Marxist garbage that used to be put forward as an argument for making the ‘working class’ less dissatisfied with their lot. But it’s just been upgraded because ~ horror of horrors ~ even Guardian journalists are starting to feel poor.

The truth of course, is that the ‘middle classes’ are no more entitled to expect a comfortable life (and to feel economically superior) than anyone else who works for their money. The needs of society are constantly changing, and those changing needs are reflected in the money paid to, and accumulated by, different occupational groups within that society. Just because what are described as ‘middle class’ jobs guaranteed a comfortable lifestyle in the last century, doesn’t mean they should guarantee the same in this one.

And it definitely doesn’t mean that the old order should be supported and shored up by state-backed confiscation of the money of members of society more valued by the current market – just to redress some old-fashioned baseless balance.

As for me, I consider myself to be completely immune from being pigeonholed into any manufactured social grouping…

People have been telling me I’ve got no class for years.

 Kind Regards 

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

Dear Streetwise Customer, 

     This is not illegal. Perfectly legitimate. It’s all perfectly above-board. 


                                 Why isn’t everyone doing this? 


   I have no idea. Anyone can. You just need to be bothered. Anyone could, but most people don’t, because they either aren’t motivated, or don’t know how, or are too sceptical by nature to believe it’s possible. 


  If you find yourself having to live and work a little more remotely in the coming weeks and months then now is the time to take a look. 


  Available now for the first time as a fast digital download. 

  For more information on something that’s simple, and easy to use from the comfort of your own home CLICK HERE. 

  Very Best Wishes, 

  John Harrison
  Streetwise Publications 

P.S. This comes with a 100% cast iron money back
guarantee. There is absolutely no risk to you to take a look. 

www.streetwisenews.com/NARDL

When I was growing up, there was only one product marketed as a ‘diet food’ as far as I can remember. That was Nimble bread. If you were sitting here with me now, and I was feeling particularly belligerent towards you, I could sing you the TV ad all the way through. Fast-forward about 30 years and there are hundreds (if not thousands) of diet related foods, potions, drinks and tablets on offer.

And guess what?

We’re all fatter than ever!

Just the other night, I watched a programme in which Jamie Oliver got a group of fatties together and…well, told them they were fat and it wasn’t good for them. Now you might think this was a pointless exercise – that he wasn’t telling them what they didn’t already know – but you’d be surprised. Or at least I was.

As the truth was revealed to them…”You’re a bloater and you’ll probably die early,” (they dressed it up a bit, but that was the gist)…you could see the shock on their faces – sometimes followed by tears. Of course, Jamie and his team of experts were on hand to put a reassuring arm around their shoulders and tell them that it wasn’t too late to change. But I suspect their real reaction was more akin to mine as I yelled at the TV set (a sure sign of madness):

“What the…don’t you have any bloody mirrors where you come from? You must have known you were a space hopper smuggler before you came on the programme!”

When I was at school, the fat kids could be counted on the fingers of one hand. They had a torrid time, and I’d imagine have carried the scars of PE lesson humiliation well into later life. At least, these days, the fatties aren’t so isolated ~ because they’ve got plenty of company.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that something doesn’t quite add up here. And a great deal of time money and effort has been spent trying to find out what.

Because nobody is ever to blame for anything any more, a lot has been made of the role of a so-called ‘fat gene’. The fat gene is great news for your average bloater because he can carry on eating, secure in the knowledge that his resemblance to Michelin Man’s portlier brother is beyond his control.

Sadly for Mr Blimp though, this is something of a red herring. If there is such a thing as a fat gene, it existed when Nimble was flavour of the month and we were all relatively slim. That’s the thing about genes…they’re passed from generation to generation. I’m no scientist, but I know that much.

If there’s a fat gene now, there had to be a fat gene then. And we weren’t fat!

The obvious conclusion is that we’re getting fatter because, of something we’re doing, not because of a gene. In other words…steel yourself, you might not be able to comprehend what I’m saying at first…

If there’s a fat gene now, there had to be a fat gene then. And we weren’t fat!

The obvious conclusion is that we’re getting fatter because, of something we’re doing, not because of a gene. In other words…steel yourself, you might not be able to comprehend what I’m saying at first…

We have to take responsibility for our own blubbery bodies.

Well, we do up to a point. You see the combination of confusing (and conflicting) advice from experts, together with the burgeoning output from a multi-billion pound processed food industry has rendered most of us unsure about what we should be eating, and uncertain of the nutritional value of what we’re being sold.

With that in mind, here are three very simple rules I came across this week that I reckon would do an enormous amount to solve the problem if we all lived by them:

1.  Eat food, but stop before you’re full.

2.  Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food.

3.  Avoid products made from ingredients you can’t pronounce.

I can’t resist adding one more piece of advice, from Billy Connolly
of all people…

4. Never eat anything that comes in a bucket!

I reckon if we all made a stab at following those basic rules, the obesity epidemic would be all but over. And the diet gurus would be forced to drag their scrawny asses (as you see I’m completely non-discriminatory in my insults) down to the job centre.

 Kind Regards 

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

Dear streetwise Customer,

  If you were to design a money-making strategy from scratch to take advantage of the circumstances we’re currently experiencing, here is exactly what you’d come up with – a business where…

. You can work exclusively from home and never have to leave the house  

.  As long as you have a computer with internet access, you’re in business  

.  The method behind it doesn’t just cope with turmoil and uncertainty… it positively thrives on it.  

.  You can get started and be making money in days rather than weeks or months.  

.  Start-up costs are virtually zero. 

  How do I know this is perfect for now?

  Because the guy who developed it is something of a recluse. He started ‘self-isolating’ years ago before it became a thing, and has run this business from the top of a French mountain, from a remote Swedish farm and from the wilds of northern Scotland…

  He didn’t have to self-isolate…he just chose to!

  If you find yourself having to live and work a little more remotely in the coming weeks and months…or even if you just like the idea of doing that…then this is perfect for you.  

  Take a look now and respond today. In every crisis, there are opportunities. Even if you’ve looked at doing something like this before and decided against, think again. Now is the time.

Click HERE for more information 

   Kind Regards,

  John Harrison 

P.S  Uncertain and volatile times are precisely when this works best. What other opportunity can you say that about? 

 www.streetwisenews.com/wizard

Whilst reading yesterday’s Sun over lunch (the perfect accompaniment to a salad sandwich) I had to make a mental check that it wasn’t April 1st.

According to a full-page article on page 21, criminals have come up with a new, ingenious way to rob holidaymakers. Ever considered committing a heist on a Wallace Arnold coach? Thought not, but if you did, what you need to do first is recruit an accomplice who’s a dwarf!

I sense some puzzlement. Allow me to explain…

First you book yourself on to a coach trip. Next, you put your dwarf in a suitcase, and get it loaded into the cargo hold of the coach. As you see, the reason for your accomplice’s diminutive stature is becoming all too apparent.

Once the journey is underway, your dwarf unzips himself from the suitcase, rifles through everyone’s luggage, nicks their valuables and gets back into your case before the end of the journey.

At the other end, you pick up your case (kindly unloaded for you by the driver) and make off with the booty and dwarf. Release your dwarf and tip him upside down by his ankles to empty the loot from his pockets.

Simple.

I’m often reluctantly impressed by the enterprise and ingenuity displayed by criminals in their quest to make an ill-gotten gain. But I’m a little depressed by it too – partly because there are always victims to any crime, and partly because the ‘rewards’ are so small compared to the risk. The enterprise and ingenuity are both misdirected and wasted.

There are plenty of perfectly legal and ethical ways to make money that don’t infringe any one else’s rights, and don’t run the risk of a spell of involuntary confinement.

If the criminals who come up with these plans were to direct their undoubted skills along legal lines, I’m convinced they’d make a fortune, and never again wake in a cold sweat over an encounter in the showers with an 18-stone bodybuilder called Clyde. But maybe that’s not the point. Maybe the thrill is the thing, not the reward.

Well I’ll take the reward every time – and get the thrill somewhere else.

Watching the news last night, I see that police raided 17 addresses in Slough yesterday, and found small children as young as two, smuggled in from Eastern Europe to be trained up as criminals. Suddenly it all becomes clear ~ there just aren’t enough dwarves to go around!

 Kind Regards 

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

Dear streetwise Customer,

  If you were to design a money-making strategy from scratch to take advantage of the circumstances we’re currently experiencing, here is exactly what you’d come up with – a business where…

. You can work exclusively from home and never have to leave the house  

.  As long as you have a computer with internet access, you’re in business  

.  The method behind it doesn’t just cope with turmoil and uncertainty… it positively thrives on it.  

.  You can get started and be making money in days rather than weeks or months.  

.  Start-up costs are virtually zero. 

  How do I know this is perfect for now?

  Because the guy who developed it is something of a recluse. He started ‘self-isolating’ years ago before it became a thing, and has run this business from the top of a French mountain, from a remote Swedish farm and from the wilds of northern Scotland…

  He didn’t have to self-isolate…he just chose to!

  If you find yourself having to live and work a little more remotely in the coming weeks and months…or even if you just like the idea of doing that…then this is perfect for you.  

  Take a look now and respond today. In every crisis, there are opportunities. Even if you’ve looked at doing something like this before and decided against, think again. Now is the time.

Click HERE for more information 

   Kind Regards,

  John Harrison 

P.S  Uncertain and volatile times are precisely when this works best. What other opportunity can you say that about? 

 www.streetwisenews.com/wizard

When I was in the Birmingham branch of Selfridges recently, I was amazed to find that they had a tattoo parlour in the store.

Now when I was growing up, nobody ‘respectable’ ever had tattoos. You either had them as a result of teenage rebellion, through being a Hell’s Angel, or because you’d got very drunk one night and woken up the next morning with some girl’s name you’d never heard of emblazoned on your buttocks.

But times have changed. In 2020, people of all ages and backgrounds (and both sexes) have tattoos. It’s become fashionable, and the styles and positions of tattoos are subject to fashion too. Where once you might have had an anchor on your forearm, now you’re more likely to have some obscure oriental symbol across your lower back, or a Maori design across your shoulder.

And I think this trend is stark staring crazy.

Why?

Well let me put it to you this way…

Would you go into a hairdresser’s and choose a hairstyle that you were going to keep for the rest of your life. Imagine if Kevin Keegan had done that in 1978! Doesn’t bear thinking about. Would you go into a clothes shop and pick a pair of trousers you were going to be sewn into and never able to change? Of course you wouldn’t, (I might, but you wouldn’t) because fashions change, and you want to be able to keep up with modern trends.

In 20 or 30 years time, young kids will be laughing at the coloured-in older generation, and will be able to age them ~ not by their wrinkles, but by the design of their tattoos. What seems cool, hip and trendy now will seem tired, dated and old hat by the new generation. And the tattooed masses will be stuck with it ~ locked in an epidermal time warp. Just like their anchor-wearing predecessors.

The truth is that fashion is for the frivolous, disposable and temporary things in life. Tattoos are none of these things…

And neither is property.

Near to where I live, there’s a fantastic looking ultra-modern house for sale. It’s all vast open spaces, flat roofs, white walls and sharp edges. It’s priced at £1.5 million, and it looks great. Would I buy it? Not a chance, because today’s cutting edge and fashionable, is tomorrow’s yesterday’s news. And when you’re making a significant life investment, you don’t toy with the vagaries of fashion.

And it’s the same story with moredown-to-earth property investments…

You don’t have to go too far back in time ~ perhaps 12 years ~ to find yourself in a period where nobody wanted to buy a flat in a provincial city for any amount of money. But that’s before fashions changed, and city living became trendy. Our cities became awash with modern high-rise developments to cater for this new trend.

Well guess what…that’s what it is ~ a trend. And that trend will change again, leaving all but the very best of those inner city developments to fall into decline as they revert to what similar properties were before the trend shift ~ squalid ghettos for the underclass.

Meanwhile bread and butter family housing ~ traditional three bed semis, small detached houses and the like in the suburbs ~ will continue to rise steadily in value. They can’t and won’t fall out of fashion because they were never in fashion.

They provide simple, functional and attractive housing solutions for ordinary families. They may not set the pulse racing, but they do keep the family comfortable, dry, safe and warm. And that’s what everyone needed in the past, what they need now, and what they will continue to need into the future.

There’s an underlying long-term basic need that transcends fashion or trend. When you’re looking at where to invest your money, this is precisely what you should be looking for. Something with longevity and intrinsic underlying value, not something, which has had its value temporarily boosted by riding a trend.

When the property market turns tough, I invest more, not less. But I don’t have any tattoos, and I don’t have any trendy inner city apartments either. I’ve never been convinced that either are a good long-term proposition.

I may be too late on both the tattoos and the property for you. But if not, now could be a good time to give some thought to whether you agree with me.

Postscript

A free tip for a big business opportunity of the future ~ tattoo removal. It’s going to grow and grow.

 Kind Regards 

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

Dear Streetwise Customer,

I’ve already written to you a couple of times about this cash generating system.

This time though, I’m not going to tell you how good this is. I’m going to let our customers do it instead!

Here are just some of the comments we’ve received recently…

(Incidentally, all of these comments are completely unsolicited and the original copies are held on file at our offices and are available for inspection.)

To get the full story take a couple of minutes to read visit the website below and read the message from David Houghton who figured this out. It reveals this extraordinary opportunity in detail. 

Take A Look Now By Visiting:

www.streetwisenews.com/AB

There is absolutely No Risk to you in taking a look at this. The whole
thing comes with a full Cast Iron Money Back Guarantee.  All the best for now

John Harrison
Streetwise Publications

PS. Just for good measure here are Mike Pears comments on the A Minus B System:

“O.k. – here are my updates on the A-B System up to my trading week 51. These are all to level stakes. 

Week 40 – w/c 16/2 – loss of 16 pts
Week 41 – w/c 23/2 – profit of 37 pts
Week 42 – w/c 2/3 – loss of 2 pts
Week 43 – w/c 9/3 – profit of 80 pts
Week 44 – w/c 16/3 – profit of 37 pts
Week 45 – w/c 23/3 – profit of 75 pts
Week 46 – w/c 30/3 – profit of 38 pts
Week 47 – w/c 6/4 – loss of 51 pts
Week 48 – w/c 13/4 – profit of 62 pts
Week 49 – w/c 20/4 – profit of 30 pts
Week 50 – w/c 27/4 – profit of 144 pts
Week 51 – w/c 4/5 – loss of 45 pts

Total Level stakes profit is 1,821 pts which averages 36.42 per week… A £1,000 starting bankusing 0.1% stakes, now stands at £5,569.”

Last year I found myself entering my idea of hell: a PC World store.

Now I’m sure they’re a very good retailer, and that they sell excellent products at competitive prices. But the problem is that they don’t sell a single thing I want to buy, or even look at. The cacophony of noise and myriad of flashing screens makes me just want to run for the exits. And that’s what I would have done if I hadn’t been there to help someone choose a laptop.

And what a job that is!

Row upon row of identical looking boxes – all with a bewildering list of features and prices, which I’m sure make sense if you know what you’re talking about. But I don’t. If it was up to me, I’d have given up and gone home in an instant…

And if a piece of research I just read is anything to go by, I’m far from alone.

Conventional wisdom suggests that the more choice you give people, the better. If they have more to choose from, then they’ll be more likely to buy. PC World certainly seems to subscribe to that view. But conventional wisdom is sometimes wrong, and this is probably one of those times.

In an experiment in California, a team of scientists set up a display of jams in a supermarket. Sometimes there were just six jams and other times there were as many as 24. If a shopper tasted one of the jams, they received a discount voucher to buy any jam in the store. The results were surprising to the researchers. The greater the choice of jams, the less they sold. People became confused when faced with a wider choice, and fell back on their default position of buying no jam at all.

And jam is a non-technical, easy to understand, product. Choice still led to confusion, fear and ultimately, inertia.

This doesn’t surprise me in the least. I know that making a purchase is a stressful activity for many people. They worry about making the right decision, and the more choices there are, the greater the likelihood that the decision they make will be wrong. The safe option is to do nothing.

One of the biggest mistakes I see made in the direct response business is to send out a catalogue to potential customers. The thinking is that the more products you tell people about, the more they’ll collectively buy. But as we’ve seen, it doesn’t always work like that. People simply become confused and fearful, and retreat to the safe harbour position of doing nothing.

Most of us are lazy and risk-averse. By choosing a single product that you think is right for your customer, and then making the strongest possible case for that product, you’ll sell far more than by the scattergun catalogue approach.

But another piece of research I saw recently, suggests there may be an even better way…

A kitchen equipment store started selling a bread-making machine. Sales were poor, until the store added another, more expensive, machine to sit alongside it. Consumers now had something to compare with, and were no longer expected to make a decision in a vacuum. As a result, sales of the original machine improved dramatically.

This may be the best of all worlds ~ just enough choice to give a point of comparison, but not so much that the buyer becomes fearful or confused.

What’s more, it may be that there is an optimal number of items to choose from, before adding another leads to a fall in sales. To suggest that this ‘optimum’ amount of choice holds true for all products ~ that it’s the same for cars as it is for cornflakes ~ would be a little too simplistic. So you may need to do a little experimentation of your own.

But as a broad principle, you’re probably giving your customers too much choice, rather than too little. Do some of the work for them, cut down their options, and they’ll thank you with their hard-earned cash.

 Kind Regards 

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

Dear Streetwise Customer, 

  I hope you’re keeping safe and well. 

This offer is limited, so we are only make it available to our most valued Streetwise customers at the moment. 

  Back in the autumn, we alerted a few of our customers to a course, created by a guy making what seemed at the time to be an outrageous prediction.

  He predicted the world would soon be gripped by a unprecedented crisis which would create a huge financial opportunity. Crazy eh? 

  Anyway the course revolved around a strategy which would enable anyone to make £2,803 a month to ‘tick over’ in normal times, but would then transform into a massive fortune maker once the implications of the predicted crisis hit. 

  Not many people (including me!) believed the prediction, but £2,800 a month is certainly worth having and a number of our customers got on the bandwagon and started doing well with it…and then the crisis came…sooner than anyone thought. 

   The big opportunity he planned for is about to hit, and I want as many of our customers as possible to benefit…but there’s a hitch. 

   For reasons explained when you take a look at the details here, I can only help NINE people at the moment. But those nine people are going to get something nobody else has been able to get up until today…

         The full programme in one package and at a huge discount! 

   For full details take a look here. 

 www.streetwisenews.com/secret

Very Best Wishes, 

John Harrison

Many years ago I saw a poster on one of those noticeboards which all churches seem to have outside. It simply said:  

Jesus Saves!

Underneath, on one of the few occasions I’ve applauded a piece of graffiti, someone had scrawled in black marker pen…

But Moses knocks in the rebound!

I was reminded about that the other day when I passed another church with another of those posters. It said…

God created the world and everything in it.

I’m sure that far more learned people than me could give a perfectly reasoned argument for the truth of that statement, but leaving aside the question of whether God actually exists, taking the credit for creating everything around us seems a bit rich anyway.

The earth is about 4,500 million years old, and I’m pretty sure that until long after the first humans appeared about 3 million years ago, there wasn’t a great deal of what we see today. In fact, there wasn’t a whole lot of anything.

What happened was that as man evolved and became more intelligent, he learned to work with what was in the environment to create everything that we now have: buildings, machines, infrastructure, technology, medicines…just about everything. Without man’s ingenuity, none of this would exist.

I don’t know about you, but I find that awe-inspiring and humbling…

As I drove past that church, and looked around my car, I realised that everything in it existed, not because God created it, but because someone had been smart enough to take some stuff out of the ground, combine it with other stuff out of the ground, and then miraculously transform it by some scientific skulduggery into something useful.

Metals, plastics, ceramics, rubber, glass ~ all created from innocent-looking materials in the environment, and then designed, shaped and fashioned into something that works.

You may have noticed something here. I’m not being specific about the actual processes that have to take place in order to create these things from what appears to be very little. There’s a reason for that. It’s because I haven’t got the first idea. I couldn’t create even the simplest item in my car from scratch, and I suspect, neither could you. But almost everything you see, touch and rely upon to get you through your daily life has been created by human beings from little more than dust, gas, water and rubble.

As I said, awe-inspiring, and a valuable source of perspective too…

You see, when we think about human achievements of this magnitude, doesn’t it make our own work challenges and issues seem pathetically small and insignificant? I know that many readers of this newsletter are in the field of marketing products and services. I also know that many in that field are prone to the odd bout of ‘woe is me’.

Isn’t it almost embarrassing to think in terms of there being significant difficulty in what you’re trying to achieve, when you view it in terms of the challenges people have faced (and continue to face) in creating everything we have around us – from nothing?

As marketers we should be thanking our lucky stars, not bemoaning our bad fortune or the state of the market. All the hard work has already been done for us, by people who created the products we sell from scratch. All we have to do is get them in to the hands of someone who can make use of them, in return for a reasonable amount of money. And for doing that small thing, we’re more than fairly rewarded.

Creating stuff is ridiculously hard. Selling it is child’s play by comparison. Never lose sight of that when you think you’re having a difficult day. 

 Kind Regards 

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

Dear Streetwise Customer, 

  I hope you’re keeping safe and well. 

This offer is limited, so we are only make it available to our most valued Streetwise customers at the moment. 

  Back in the autumn, we alerted a few of our customers to a course, created by a guy making what seemed at the time to be an outrageous prediction.

  He predicted the world would soon be gripped by a unprecedented crisis which would create a huge financial opportunity. Crazy eh? 

  Anyway the course revolved around a strategy which would enable anyone to make £2,803 a month to ‘tick over’ in normal times, but would then transform into a massive fortune maker once the implications of the predicted crisis hit. 

  Not many people (including me!) believed the prediction, but £2,800 a month is certainly worth having and a number of our customers got on the bandwagon and started doing well with it…and then the crisis came…sooner than anyone thought. 

   The big opportunity he planned for is about to hit, and I want as many of our customers as possible to benefit…but there’s a hitch. 

   For reasons explained when you take a look at the details here, I can only help NINE people at the moment. But those nine people are going to get something nobody else has been able to get up until today…

         The full programme in one package and at a huge discount! 

   For full details take a look here. 

 www.streetwisenews.com/secret

Very Best Wishes, 

John Harrison

Have you ever wondered why Australians call us “whinging poms”?

Well to give you a clue, think about the people you know who have upped sticks and moved to Australia… 

Were they happy, successful, and highly ambitious people looking for a new challenge? Or were they underachieving, dissatisfied people looking to escape to something better? 

For reasons I don’t fully understand, it seems like the people who move to the other side of the world are usually those who haven’t really made a go of it here. People move to the United States for positive reasons. They move to Australia for negative ones. 

So what you end up with in Oz, once the novelty has worn off, is a bunch of underachieving, dissatisfied people ~ in shorts!

Or whinging poms, in other words.

The only way the move could have the desired effect for people like that, is if they were able to go without themselves! 

Confused? Let me give you another example of what I’m talking about here… 

Do you know anyone who regularly changes jobs? I know quite a few, and the pattern is always the same:

1. “I just got offered a new job. It’s fantastic…great pay, great people. I love it. So much better than that crappy sweat shop hell-hole I just left.”

2. “Hmm…there are things about this job that they kept from me.”  

3. “My work colleagues and/or boss are unreasonable and unpleasant.”

4. “They’re taking advantage of me and exploiting me. I’m not being paid what I’m worth.” 

5. “I need to look for a new job.”

6. Go back to number one.

And it’s the same with businesses. People start out with great enthusiasm, only to stall when the reality hits home…this isn’t as easy as it looks. And so they start something else, only to find that that business also has difficulties associated with it. And the whole sorry cycle is repeated over and over. 

The point I’m trying to make here, is that if you find yourself to be a serial-switcher of either location, job or business (and it’s not for positive reasons) then the problem is almost certainly not to be found in the locations, jobs or businesses.

And I’d go even further…

If you find yourself constantly ‘switching’ in any aspect of your life, but without any tangible improvement in satisfaction or success, then the problem isn’t an external one.

The common denominator is a little closer
to home, and can be viewed daily in the mirror.

I think most of us spend at least part of our lives seeking out external solutions for internal problems. To recognise and accept that blame and responsibility lies right at our own doorstep is far from easy (self delusion is much more comfortable and a far more natural reaction) but it’s essential if we’re to find a solution that works. 

So by all means embark on your own version of an antipodean adventure, but at least be honest and realistic with yourself before you set off… 

It’s a long way to go to end up exactly where you started, but with slightly browner legs.

 Kind Regards 

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

          
  Dear Streetwise Customer, 

Imagine if your betting profits were a nailed on 100% certainty…that you were guaranteed to never lose a bet…and that there was a totally fool proof system you could deploy that would only ever win or break even at worst. Well thanks to a rule which every bookmaker in the UK is forced to follow, you don’t have to imagine it. 

Because It’s The Loophole To End All Loopholes!

And for reasons I’ll explain fully, it’s a loophole that’s open to anyone and everyone with an internet connection…and it will be open forever. 

Here’s your chance to find out about this secret loophole for yourself, because Nick has come up with a unique offer that will put almost £300 in your pocket…even if you prove him wrong!

For full details Visit:

www.streetwisenews.com/loopholes 

Take a look now. You’re going to love this one!

Very Best Wishes, 

John Harrison

A few months ago at a hotel in the Lake District ~ somewhere I’ve stayed on many occasions before. It’s an excellent hotel, and clearly successful. Part of the success is down to the quality of accommodation and service, but there are plenty of excellent hotels which struggle commercially.

So what’s the difference between success and failure in the hotel business? As with most businesses, marketing has a big part to play.

The hotel owners use a lot of online and offline methods to attract new customers, and to encourage old ones to return. They’re also very hot on matching demand to supply through price flexibility. If they sense a slack period, then they’re very quick to email their client base with an enticing special offer. Like an empty airline seat, an empty room in a hotel for an evening is gone forever. Almost any contribution is better than nothing.

There’s an important lesson there for a lot of businesses, I think. It’s difficult to generalise, but it could be worth considering whether you could be more flexible on price at certain times, and how you might market and manage this flexibility.

One aspect of this price flexibility is particularly interesting, and could have a wider implication or application for your business.

A couple of times when I’ve stayed at this hotel (but not every time, so I know it’s genuine) a letter has been pushed under my door on the evening prior to departure, explaining that the room I’m in hasn’t been booked for the following evening, and that if I’d like to stay for another night, I can do so for half price. This is one of those win-win situations, which a lot of businesses could take advantage of, but very few do.

From the hotel’s point of view, they have an empty room to fill. I’m already in it, so there’s a reduction in preparation costs for them if I stay, as compared with a new guest. There’s a strong inertia element working in their favour. To take up the offer, I need do nothing. From my point of view, I get another night at a vastly reduced price. And the inertia is good for me too. I’m lazy, and don’t really want to pack up and go home, or move to another room.

I think any business that rents or hires out anything, could benefit from using this approach, and it has wider applications too. Is it not worth making a ‘please stay’ offer to any customer who is about to ‘depart’ from your business – whatever field you’re in? Given that the cost of finding and serving a new customer is always far more than the cost of continuing to serve an existing one, I’m certain that it is.

This whole idea needs to be thought out and implemented carefully though, if you’re to avoid damaging your integrity or alienating excluded customers. But just because it isn’t easy, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.

I’ll leave you to consider how you might apply this in your own field.

 Kind Regards 

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

          
  Dear Streetwise Customer, 

Imagine if your betting profits were a nailed on 100% certainty…that you were guaranteed to never lose a bet…and that there was a totally fool proof system you could deploy that would only ever win or break even at worst. Well thanks to a rule which every bookmaker in the UK is forced to follow, you don’t have to imagine it. 

Because It’s The Loophole To End All Loopholes!

And for reasons I’ll explain fully, it’s a loophole that’s open to anyone and everyone with an internet connection…and it will be open forever. 

Here’s your chance to find out about this secret loophole for yourself, because Nick has come up with a unique offer that will put almost £300 in your pocket…even if you prove him wrong!

For full details Visit:

www.streetwisenews.com/loopholes 

Take a look now. You’re going to love this one!

Very Best Wishes, 

John Harrison