“What Does The Unreasonable Man Do?”
Know What You did This Summer?

As Mel Gibson once said……..

Many years from now, when You are dying in Your bed. Will You be able to draw Your last breath and say;

“Yes I was there that Summer” , “Yes I played my part” or “Yes My actions helped us turn the corner into prosperity”.

Despite the press, media or political headlines and despite legal or financial jargon,

Will You be found inactive……. or will You be found taking Action?

The fact is, that we know what the current picture is, and it is always good to know the facts.

Knowing the Facts or “Having the Knowledge” is just not enough though.

We have developed a dangerous over-reliance on ‘P olitical R uffians and I nept C losed K ernel S ycophants’ (or PRICKS for short).................

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The Power to Influence

“My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic”. – Spike Milligan

Part 1 of 9 – To Inspire

If you weren’t aware of there being a lot of “nines” around and about us, then you are now. Nine planets in our solar system, more or less. Most cats have nine lives in a manner of speaking and most human pregnancies last about nine months, or so they say.

If you are not aware, that there are primarily nine tactics or ways in which we can influence people, in their responses and behaviours towards ourselves and others, well, you are now.

You may ask; why is this important?

We spend most of our daily lives trying to influence ourselves and others, and have become very successful at it. Although most of the influencing in done quite arbitrarily and in a semi-conscious fashion.

We use different words and themes for influence. Two examples of this would be.........

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How to Get a Head in Advertising

Even YOU Could Sell Snow to The Eskimos! We all know that Eskimos primarily use snow to build houses. How then could you sell them more of something, which is abundant and free? But what if you had a type of snow that did not melt in the summer, yet still had the insulation properties of snow in the winter. Do you think you could sell that to the Eskimos?.............

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Accounting For Yourself
April 6th, 2009

Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man you take it. – Malcolm x.

A friend of mine recently commented ‘This recession is no craic !!’. With job losses, redundancies and pay cuts dominating the news, you would be inclined to agree with him. However, as an accountants we get to see the how many clients react to this turbulent time, with the majority of them are facing up to the tough climate by slashing costs and working harder and smarter, while looking into other potential income streams..............

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We have some Free Copy e-books (pdf format) available.
Check back once in a while for more Free Copy e-books.

Current listing:-

* Think & Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill - c1937
* The Master Key System - Charles Haanel - c1912
* The Science of Getting Rich - Wallace D Wattles – c1930s
* How to Win Friends & Influence People – Dale Carnegie – c1936
Email: Darrell@FinancialCoaching.ie with the title of the book you want, in the subject space.

(One request at a time please).

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The Funny Man of Business
Presentation Skills through Comedy

Aidan Killian – Irelands answer to Ewan McGregor, with funny bits added. Aidan has already travelled the world, and lived with many indigenous peoples and indulged in many tribal and cultural rituals that McGregor would cringe at, and are probably too controversial to air on the telly. Killian says that Irish people are funny by nature. So when you stand up on stage, they expect an Irish comedian to be exceptionally funny. No pressure, when an Irish man says, “I could do that”, “I could stand up on sage and be funny”, the fact is that they can, and would.

Market trading
Killian has a pretty unique background and perspective on life. He is a X market trader, he specialised in derivatives, or something of that nature. He seems to have a very hazy memory about the details of the job he was doing, as he was so immersed in the travel that it involved, and the heady lifestyle that he indulged in at the time.

Make people laugh
Going into or getting into comedy, came about as a corporate move. Although he was regularly requested within his job role to speak in public, he was never very comfortable with it. Eventually his discomfort grew into an overwhelming and potentially career crippling fear. A friend advised him that he should consider doing a comedy workshop. As his friend said, “if you can face a comedy audience and last five minutes, you can handle anything”. His fried whose name was Steve, and still is by all accounts, quips Killian, gave him advise on how to get on in his career, and because of that first comedy workshop, he ended up leaving the world of high finance and merchant banking, in order to “make people laugh”.

Return of the prodigal banker.
Aidan has since returned to Ireland after his personal world travel to exotic places, sky diving adventures, mountain climbing, and comedy festival participation, and we are glad to see him. He has, as any freshly returned traveller, a unique and refreshing take on the world generally and on Ireland specifically. He sees opportunity in everything, especially through the medium and art that is comedy.

Aidan, sorted us with a 20 minute, painfully funny routine last Tuesday, and as a thank you we decided to give his unique comedy workshop a bit of a plug…………

Take it away Aidan………..
1) If you believe in yourself others will too. Overcoming an obstacle or pushing yourself outside your comfort zone, whether it is climbing a hill or joining a dance class, will lead to a feeling of inner satisfaction. When you do something that you once thought you could not do, you break a limiting belief, which then, opens your mind to new possibilities.

2) Confidence is achieved by succeeding to do what you previously perceived as ’impossible.’

3) Stand up comedy is accepted as impossible by most people. My course allows you to gain self confidence by realising your potential to achieve anything, and have fun in doing so.

2wo Evenings – Presentation Skills Through Comedy
Time – 7 to 9pm
Date - Feb 3rd. and 5th.
Venue:- “Training rooms” at 21 Northumberland Road, Dublin 4
Cost:- €100 (inclusive) if you mention the ICES Group.

Contact Aidan to book your place: M:086 077 4119 E:AidanKillian@Hotmail.com

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Business - About Turn
“A perspective on your business”

1. Your business/investment was a good idea at the start – it still should be
· BUT maybe it needs a different approach

2. Businesspeople/investors give up too early
· Just because the bank is not advancing the credit you need should not be a reason to give up. Because it’s so long since the last recession we have forgotten how to fight.
· Challenge your objectors
· Get good help and push hard for a turnaround

3. The banks will listen & the banks will give out money.
· But not as we knew it!!!
· Understand from their perspective. They give out money in expectation of getting it back with a little bit m ore.
· They will be tougher on getting you to justify how you will give it back – wouldn’t you!
· That means, proper business/investment plans, that stand up to a tough challenge

4. You are where you are with your bank – maybe neither of you like it!
· Don’t ignore your position. The world has changed. Revise your plans, be realistic, create a PLAN B
· Meet with your bank and renegotiate. It won’t be easy. You may need assistance. But in the end if they see you are being professional, businesslike and realistic it will stand to you.

5. There are consequences of renegotiating your current banking arrangements. Watch out for :
· Coming off a “tracker loan”
· Margins – they are likely to rise

6. Bank margins will rise.
· The margin you pay reflects the risk you are to the bank. I could see residential mortgage margins rise to 2% - 2.5%, that’s what’s happening in France today where there are quite prudent lending criteria.

7. “Computer generated” assessment of your risk profile may have to change
· It is likely that the level of “defaults” with credit bureaus has risen sharply in recent months and will continue. A lender looking at these statistics in months/ years to come may have to reconsider rejection if they resulted in a “shock to the banking system”.

8. Look at the yield basis of property valuation
· When looking at property investment proposals I always test the yield/investment ratio.
· If you assume a risk free rate of return of say 2% - 3% and then decide on a NET risk premium of say 2% - 3% for a buy to let property you get an expected yield of c.5%. Now do 2 calculations:

a. Take the NET rental figure likely to be achieved and gross up. Example if rent is €10,000pa then value should be €200,000.

b. Take the property value and multiply by the Net yield. Example say €200,000 and multiply by 5% = €10,000 rent.
· You need to also take into account other factors but the above is very grounding in my view.

9. Clichés are usually true
· It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change – Charles Darwin
· If you cant read the scoreboard you don’t know the score, if you don’t know the score you don’t know the winners and the losers – Warren Buffett

10. People (Irish in particular) are good at being innovative when they need to be.
· There is always another way to achieve you business/investment objectives. Stand back, take an optimistic look and prepare a focused plan.
· Remember a pessimist in a room half full of “horse-manure” thinks of the bad smell – the optimist thinks “there must a horse in here somewhere”.

Article by: John Crawley
Tel: + 353 1 2110780
Email: john.crawley@OuiCanDo.com
Web: www.crawleyandporter.com

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