It's Tough. I Get It.

I'm sat here tonight in a hotel room, 127 miles away from home. I had a wasted day on the client's site, as the entire IT team sat in a meeting for the entire afternoon. I wasn't invited.

This client likes meetings. I'd like their meetings more if they had a pre-distributed agenda, and then stuck to it.

I'm here for two weeks. I get to go home at weekends. My partner returns from his overseas contract halfway through my two week stint. The hotel thinks a reasonable price for a burger is £13.50.

My Kleeneze business is on the back burner again. I have to pay for hotel wifi. There's no mobile signal so I can't tether my smartphone. For somebody hooked into a 21st century way of working, that's difficult to deal with.

You know what? It doesn't bother me. Tonight I get to catch up on sleep after getting up at 5am to get to this client 4.5 hours later. I have a decent book with me. I've made my phone calls (58 days to go to build that habit). I avoided the premiuim burger and got sushi and a salad for half the price outside the hotel.

It's all in the perspective. For once, I'm at peace enough to accept that.

Tomorrow is another excellent day.

How to Earn An Extra £50 Per Week

You know me by now - an endless curiosity and desire to learn. That doesn't naturally translate into an easy way to make money from my interests.

Yet the British press is enthusing about making an extra £2400 per year from your hobby, if you're a photography buff, and more than £3700 per year for other craft-based hobbies.

In other words, if you've got the right hobby, the right attitude, the spare time and the spare space in your house, garage or shed, you can earn between £46 and £71 per week extra.

Of course, another way to earn an extra £50 per week is to invest your time and money into improving your work-related skills, building your self confidence and finding a job that pays you another £2000 - 4000 per year.

Then there's the way I and many others in the Direct Selling industry have chosen - to invest a small amount of money - as little as £25 for your first instalment - in a business which can earn you over £50 per week in your first month of trading, with training whilst you're earning.

If you want to know more, get in touch. I'm loving what my business is helping me with - holidays, home improvements, new skills.

How to Retire Before You're 50

The UK press reported today that the UK government would like to increase the retirement age by 6 months per year until the minimum point where you get your state pension is 70.

That must qualify as one of the least surprising press releases for some time.

Coupled with another report that the Bank of England wants to make getting a mortgage even tougher, because it's expecting thousands of families to be unable to pay their existing mortgages once the rates start going back up, and you'd expect hard-working mortgage payers like me to be somewhat upset.

I'm not.

I'm happy to be building a business outside of my full-time job that will ensure me more than the state pension just from my customer base.

Team leaders in Kleeneze can earn my full-time salary after a few years building their business. And I'm just inside the 40% tax bracket.

Looks like a solid opportunity to retire before you're 50. Assuming you start before you're 40, of course. Nothing lasting and worthwhile ever happens overnight.

The Road to What If ...?

It's typical. One minute I'm mapping out the next few weeks' worth of business building, the next minute my boss calls and I'm expected to be at the other end of the country for 2 weeks. In a hotel, Monday - Friday.

The hotel will be the cheapest possible, which means there won't be a gym, and my food allowance probably won't cover the cost of 3 meals a day where there's limited choice of places to eat. I'll be isolated, in an area where there's no supermarkets or local corner shops, where it won't be safe to go for a walk as a substitute for the lack of gym in the cheap hotel.

In one phone call, I could see my health, wealth and family goals disappear over the horizon. I was not happy.

Then I stopped, and thought, "What if ...?"

What if ... I just rearranged my business targets for those two weeks, rather than give up completely?

What if ... I took some basic exercise equipment with me?

What if ... I made arrangements in advance so I could continue to eat healthily?

What if ... I set up a way of keeping in touch with my family, including arranging visits to my mum in her nursing home?

Whereas previously I would have thought, "That's it, I'm obviously not meant to be doing this much", I'm now thinking, "What if ..."

Looks like the personal development habit is kicking in. This is going to be an interesting journey.

What was your "What if ...?" moment?

Out from Under

(c) Microsoft

2013 was the Year of the Snake. For me and mine, it was more the Year of the Emotional Rollercoaster.

I was dragged back into the world of 9 to 5 at the end of 2012, which in my career is more like the world of 7 to midnight. In the first 12 months, I had barely enough time outside work to take care of my mum's trips to hospital and my family.

My mum's health still seesaws between OK and the threat of emergency dialysis - her latest diagnosis is that she has diabetes, to add to the kidney failure, renal cardiovascular disease, etc. We're convinced we could use her as a maraca in a mariachi band. We still soldier on, one day at a time; I'm in awe of her resilience.

The household went from a family unit of 3 to a family unit of 5 adults, which is seriously overcrowded in a small 3 bedroomed semi. Mind you, I was delighted to have both elder lads back, although I'm now looking for an elastic walled house.... or a Tardis....

But the ultimate low was the loss of my partner's beloved daughter; we are still mourning and her father will never be the same again.

It goes without saying that there's been a lack of time and energy to spend on my Kleeneze business.

Until now.

I'm back - we're on track for making the 10% bonus this month, the first month of rebuilding my business.

I promised myself I wouldn't blog until that happened. Next stop, building a team, starting with 10 active distributors.

If anybody fancies an all-expenses paid holiday this autumn, get in touch. I intend to be on it and I want as many of my team to be on it as possible.

Pre-Employment Medical? Forget It!

There are time when you just know you made the right decision.

I got personal validation for one of my decisions today. I'd turned down a permanent job offer due to my discomfort over the partial contract details I'd been sent by email. That and the fact it had taken the company 3 weeks to send me a formal offer after the initial verbal confirmation suggested that there was something I wasn't being told about the job.

I got further confirmation today, when I received the actual hard copy, including the medical questionnaire. Not only did HR want my mother's maiden name (?!), but the medical questionnaire wanted to know whether, in the last 5 years, I'd had one of a number of debilitating conditions, not to mention kidney problems, STIs, cystitis or piles! They wanted full details of any eyesight or mobility issues, plus whether my relatives had diabetes or glaucoma (amongst other, more serious conditions).  And that's before I was expected to tell all about my potential tendency to be a Type A workaholic, my mental health or my possible HIV status.

I'm not kidding, the questionnaire ran to 12 pages.

Now, I've no idea who this company's clients are, but this is the most invasive set of pre-employment checks I've ever been asked to consent to, bar none.

It doesn't bode well for anybody working for the company, if your career with them starts off with the understanding that you've given them permission to perform ongoing checks on your suitability to stay employed by them during your career, of the same depth as the pre-screening checks.

I didn't have to do anything except refuse to accept the job offer. I know I can do better for myself than this. You don't get asked to fill in 12 pages on your medical history by Kleeneze. You get told that your income depends on the effort you put into both your business and your personal development. You get told that you're in control of your own life.

I love this business. Kleeneze works!

Time Management, Kleeneze Lady Style

As anybody involved in the early phases of their network marketing business will tell you, there comes a time when building your business assumes a greater mental priority than working on furthering your 9 to 5 job prospects.

My problem is, I get paid too much in my 9 to 5 job to just quit - I would need to have a turnover of around £10,000 per 4 week period to come close to my current salary. That means I need to build a good team.

However, as I've discovered over the past few months, making the transition from being a disorganised retailer to an organised team builder isn't easy. I've make two serious attempts at building a team after day job hours and all I've achieved so far is missing out on my Volume bonus.

It's time to get serious about working with spare moments within my day job.

I've now blocked out short periods of 15 to 30 minutes during my working day, during which time I will focus on my Kleeneze business activities. These blocks of time could correspond to company lunch breaks, tea breaks, etc. I'll be inputting orders, contacting prospective team members and catching up on paperwork.

The rest of my day will be used to ensure that I am ahead of my workload, which in turn could free up extra short blocks of time in which to contact more people.

I've revised my 90 day plan accordingly. I'll let you know how I get on.