All posts by Streetwise

Ask Sunday

Personal assistants used to work only for the rich and famous. Not anymore. Sign up for a subscription at AskSunday.com and you can have the site’s virtual secretaries do tasks for you, like schedule appointments, set up dinner reservations or give you a wake-up call even if you are on a trip around the world.

In fact pretty much any secretarial, administrative or organisational task can be arranged through the site. Time can be booked in just five minute increments.

I mention it for two reasons: 

1.  You might be a one man/woman band or run a very ‘tight ship’ and have use for such a  service on an occasional basis.

2.  There could be a business idea for you there.

Is there a service you could provide over the internet in short time slots, which would help entrepreneurs to run their businesses more effectively?

Motivational Quote Of The Day

sai
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Alternative Quote Of The Day

“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.”
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Jack Handey

Information Publishing

Information publishing is one of the most heavily promoted ways to make some extra money, and yet many people aren’t really clear on what it is.

Put simply, an information product is any piece of knowledge that has been recorded in some way – whether that be in a printed format, an audio format, or a video format-so that it can now be passed on to others.

There are dozens of ways to package and sell information. Some of the most common products are, printed books and e-books, booklets and special reports, manuals and workbooks, CDs, downloadable audio files, DVDs, newsletters, subscription-based web sites, workshops and seminars. 

All of us have information or knowledge that would be useful to others, and packaging and marketing it in the right way can be highly lucrative. If you have an idea for an idea for information product, and want a second opinion on it, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Today’s National Day  

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NATIONAL TOSS AWAY THE “COULD HAVES” AND “SHOULD HAVES” DAY!

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 sig.png

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.”

Decisions…Decisions…

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 

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John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

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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 sig.png

John Harrison

Follow The Pumpkin Plan

When Mike Michalowicz was trying to grow his first company he got locked in a cycle of make-sell-make-sell. Although he was making steady money, there was never much left over. His company was alive, but hardly a fortune maker.

That’s when he discovered an unlikely source of inspiration-pumpkin farmers! He tested this Pumpkin Plan on his own company and transformed it into a remarkable, multimillion-dollar industry leader. He’s now written a book about it. Here’s the gist of the plan…

1.  Plant the right seeds; Don’t waste time doing lots of different things just to please your customers. Instead, identify the thing you do better than anyone else and focus all of your attention, money, and time on figuring out how to grow your company doing it. 

2.  Weed out the losers: In a pumpkin patch small, rotten pumpkins stunt the growth of the robust, healthy ones. The same is true of customers. Figure out which customers add the most value and provide the best opportunities for sustained growth. Then ditch the worst of the worst.

3.  Nurture the winners: Once you figure out who your best customers are, look after them. Discover their unfulfilled needs, innovate to make their wishes come true, and over-deliver on every single promise.

Motivational Quote Of The Day

“It’s not the load that breaks you down; it’s the way you carry it.”
 
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Lena Horne

Alternative Quote Of The Day

“Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?”
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George Carlin

The Bicycle Library

Imagine you want to buy a new bicycle. There are hundreds of models to choose from, each with very different characteristics. Choose the wrong one and you can end up making an expensive mistake. That’s the scenario behind the launch of the London Bicycle Library. 

The library is based on a double decker bus. The bus contains information and resource materials where visitors can research their choice, and also a wide selection of bicycles which they can try out, and even take home for a few days. If it’s a marriage made in heaven, they can the order their own bike, direct from the manufacturers via the library. 

One of the greatest fears – and one of the greatest barriers to making a sale – in any market, is the fear of making a mistake. Anything which allows the customers to try-before-they-buy will ultimately be rewarded with increased sales.

So is there some way you could adapt or apply this concept to your business?

Today’s National Day  

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NATIONAL DIFFERENT COLOURED EYES DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

secret cft10.png

   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 sig.png

John Harrison 

Paying To Look

A speciality food store in Brisbane Australia, recently made the headlines by announcing that they were charging $5 for customers to come into their store and browse.

I’m not sure whether it was it was a publicity stunt, or a genuine protest against the number of people who were coming into the shop to check out products before ordering from someone else online, but it raises an interesting question – could you charge customers in a different way? 

With more purchases being made online, is it impossible that ‘shops’ become showrooms that you pay to enter in the future? And that’s just one alternative source of revenue for retail businesses aside from product sales.

For example, we recently featured a coffee shop where the coffee was free, but you paid for the time you spent in there – perhaps a reaction to the number of people taking an hour over a filter coffee while taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi. Given the number of people ‘browsing’ magazines in places like WH Smiths, how long before they provide seating and become a paid-for library? 

If you can come up with an innovative way to charge for what you do, it could separate your business from the crowd and generate valuable free publicity. Something to think about.

Motivational Quote Of The Day

“Your life is a book; make it a bestseller.”
 
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Shanon Grey

Alternative Quote Of The Day

“I love being married. It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.”
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RIta Rudner

Brown Toilet Paper 

I’m not sure whether it’s a colour issue, or the fact that people are sensitive about what they apply to their more delicate areas, but recycled toilet paper isn’t as popular as you might expect.

Cascades Tissue Group in the US hope to change that with a toilet paper called Moka that is made from recycled cardboard boxes. People are accustomed to brown napkins and paper towels, but how receptive they’ll be to brown toilet paper is unclear. Without going into detail, there may be issues.

This is further proof though, that thinking outside of what is traditionally accepted is worth a try. Is your product always a certain size, shape or colour and are there good reasons for that?

A little critical thinking might lead you to the conclusion that there is no logical reason why you can’t do something very different, and doing that will help you stand out from the crowd.

Today’s National Day  

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NATIONAL GET OUT OF THE DOG HOUSE DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

secret cft10.png

   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 sig.png

John Harrison 

The $15 Car Repair Business

Do you think you could start a car repair business for $15. Sahid Khan did, and the way he did it could provide a template for creating a business in many fields. 

SK Motor Syndicate is a one stop shop providing vehicle inspections, servicing, body repairs, interior fabrication, exterior add-ons and everything else the motorists might need. It does none of the work itself, but claims to be a value-adding intermediary between the customer and about 18 authorised service-providers in different parts of Karachi.

Why would a customer involve an intermediary and not deal with the companies themselves?

According to Khan, the company provide a pick-and-drop service along with a seven-day workmanship warranty. They charge customers strictly the going market rates, absorb all risks and get the repair work done from a select group of service-providers at discount rates.

So there you have it, they market the service, pick up the cars and get someone else to do the work – taking a percentage for their trouble. Could you copy something like this in your area? Or how about taking the model and applying it to another market? As a middleman, you can let someone else worry about start-up costs.

Motivational Quote Of The Day

“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.”
 
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Kurt Cobain

Alternative Quote Of The Day

“Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.”
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Warren Buffett

Local Video Reviews 

Here’s an idea which combines two trends…people love to access reviews and they love to watch videos on You tube. It seems like these are perfect conditions for online video reviews becoming a viable business opportunity. But what do you review? 

It could be anything, but my thought here is that a You tube channel featuring reviews of businesses in a specific locality could build up a regular audience, while being something that a lone entrepreneur could run.

Your channel could be called something really imaginative like ‘Rotherham Reviews’ and feature video reviews of restaurants, cafe’s, pub take-away’s, shop and service providers. Revenue would eventually come from advertisements on the channel. 

Whilst I wouldn’t expect one local review site to make a fortune, it could be great fun, combining business with pleasure. And there’s excellent expansion potential. If you can make the ‘Rotherham Reviews’ channel work, why not extend the idea out to ‘Sheffield Reviews and so on.

Today’s National Day  

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NATIONAL COFFEE CAKE  DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

secret cft10.png

   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 sig.png

John Harrison 

Don’t Make Out This Is Hard

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 sig.png

John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

secret cft10.png

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 sig.png

John Harrison

Love In A Box

Perhaps you thought that your relationship with your partner was something that would just grow, develop and evolve naturally. Well that’s not going to work in today’s busy and high pressured dual-career world according to the people at www.unboxlove.com

The company sells a monthly subscription to couples. It’s a box designed to give them the inspiration and tools to create an evening of unorthodox activities. They say that the ideas will “allow couples to learn about each other, experience something new together, and make memories that will last”.

Couples can open the box together on the night of the date in order to create some excitement and surprise about what they will be doing. Each box costs $50.

The service is only available in the US at the moment, so it could be one to keep tabs on with a view to copying if it becomes successful. As an additional thought, if this ‘relationship-help’ market sector continues to grow, it could be worth thinking about what other services you could provide to enhance personal relationship.

Motivational Quote Of The Day

“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”
 
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Ayn Rand

Alternative Quote Of The Day

“I haven’t spoken to my wife in years. I didn’t want to interrupt her.”
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Rodney Dangerfield

An Unexpected Use For A Sweaty Sock 

I’m not sure what I expect you to do with this information I’m about to impart, but I found it fascinating. What would you use if you wanted to trap or kill mosquito’s? Well you could use an expensive device or preparation off the shelf… or you could use a sweaty sock! 

It turns out that mosquito’s are attracted to the smell of sweaty socks. Once African inventor Fredos Okumo discovered this, he set about developing a synthetic chemical which mimics human foot odour and incorporated it in a commercially available trap.

Once lured inside, the insects are poisoned by a powerful insecticide. Before manufacturing his synthetic compound, Okumo baited his prototype traps with dirty socks collected from locals in Isakara, Tanzania. That can’t have been a pleasant job.

Today’s National Day  

simplicity day.jpg

NATIONAL SIMPLICITY DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

secret cft10.png

   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 sig.png

John Harrison 

Whinging Poms

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.”
  1. “Hmm…there are things about this job that they kept from me.”  
  1. “My work colleagues and/or boss are unreasonable and unpleasant.”
  1. “They’re taking advantage of me and exploiting me. I’m not being paid what I’m worth.” 
  1. “I need to look for a new job.”
  1. 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 

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John Harrison  

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

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  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 sig.png

John Harrison

Savings Without The Hassle

There’s no doubt that there are big savings to be made by shopping at warehouse style outlets like Costco, but it’s not for everyone. A lot of people live too far away to make travelling viable, and the shopping experience can leave a lot to be desired. It’s this juxtaposition that formed the basis of Monstersaving.com, a New York based business recently set up by Michael Eberstadt. 

The company promise is simple; order from the website by 10.00am and they will pick up your order from Costco and deliver it the same day. No travelling, no mixing with the great unwashed, no worrying about your car in the car park, no contending with the grumpy checkout assistant.

Of course, for all this convenience, there’s a penalty. Eberstadt works out what a customer would typically pay for, say a bumper pack of toilet roll in Manhattan, looks at the Costco price, and splits the saving. But for people who can’t go to somewhere like Costco, or don’t want to, it’s a very valuable service. 

Could you do something like this in your area? With people being increasingly both time stressed and cost sensitive, I can see a need for this sort of service in many areas of the UK

Motivational Quote Of The Day

“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becomimg incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”
 
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Mahatma Ghandi

Alternative Quote Of The Day

“My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She’s ninety-seven now, and we don’t know where the hell she is.”
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Ellen DeGeneres

No Blood No Dress 

You often hear people say they’d give their right arm for this that or the other. They don’t mean it of course – it’s just a figure of speech. But if you want to get hold of one of the limited editions created by Dutch fashion label, The Red Rail, you’ll need to give blood! 

The company will only sell their creations if you become a registered blood donor. The programme was created to draw attention to the shortage of young blood donors in the Netherlands, but it seems to have a wider commercial application.

Is there some way you could link your product or service to a worthy cause, and perhaps restrict sales to people who display a sympathy for that cause? If there is you’ll not only help the cause in question, but also attract a whole new group of buyers who want to be associated with the initiative.

Today’s National Day  

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NATIONAL GET TO KNOW YOURSELF DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

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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 sig.png

John Harrison 

Journalism For Brands

Before the internet came along, opportunities to work in journalism were limited. The only way to find an audience for your words was via mainstream media. The online arena has opened up a whole new world for would-be journalists with myriad opportunities.

One such opportunity is being exploited by Tennessee-based Thomas Scott, whose company Brand Journalists provides online blogs and content for local companies.

Brand Journalists offers blog and web content, ghostwriting services and reporting on the human stories that make companies interesting to their customers. For example, for an insurance broker, Scott’s team blogs about issues related to city life, such as what to do if the bath in the apartment upstairs overflows through your ceiling.

“If you try to sell renter’s insurance as an agent, people tune out,” he says. “But when you talk about the coffee they drink and neighbourhoods they like, and how important it is to have renter’s insurance as part of that story, it connects with people.”

Every company, these days, has a website; many have blogs and social media interaction with their customers. The majority are boring.

Is this an area you could specialise in – providing interesting content for companies in your area, who have neither the time nor inclination to do it themselves?

Motivational Quote Of The Day

“He who has health, has hope; and he who has hope, has everything.”
 
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Thomas Carlyle

Alternative Quote Of The Day

“Older people shouldn’t eat health food, they need all the preservatives they can get.”
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Robert Orben

Buff Mom’s 

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how lucrative the weight loss market has become. If you’re in the “all you need to do is eat less and move more” camp, you’re probably at a loss to understand why people spend so much money on it. But they do. So how do you cash in? 

Well you need an angle. One business we came across recently is targeting the ‘new mothers’ market. It makes sense when you think about it. By definition, every woman gets out of shape in pregnancy.

Most want to get their figure back. Go to www.buffmom.com and they’ll help you do it. It’s a clearly defined market niche and a catchy name, so I can see it doing well.

So is there a market you could create a programme for? Companies like Weightwatchers are all encompassing. It seems to me there have to be opportunities for niche businesses targeting particular groups-perhaps based on age, (The 40+ programme) lifestyle, (The couch potato programme) occupation, (The Office Worker Programme) or reason for being overweight (The Beer Gut Programme).

I’m not suggesting these are ready to go concepts, but hopefully you get the idea. By narrowing your focus, the target market will feel your programme is exactly right for them.

Today’s National Day  

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NATIONAL CHEER UP THE LONELY DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

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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 sig.png

John Harrison