ACCOUNTING for Everyone

The Longest Running Online Certified Bookkeeping Course

Happy New Year 2011

We are on the last day of 2010 and for me this year has gone way too fast. I don’t know whether it is simply because I am older – and everyone I know is also a year older! but they all say the same thing. Fast, fast fast!

Luckily in terms of bookkeeping, nothing has changed at all, apart from the fact that ‘modern’ double-entry bookkeeping is now one year older of course. But looked at in the perspective of around 600 years, that is very little indeed.

The recession continues, and pretty much everywhere in the world we are all in the so called ‘austerity’ era! For the poor, it has never gone away. For the rich, it means one less mince pie. For the rest of us, if we have a job, there is not much change really. So my advice for all those weary of the 9-5 working lifestyle… change it starting in 2011.

Start your own business. You will be working much longer hours, but the big difference is that you will be doing it because you want to do it. Once you start you will find it difficult to stop. Be warned about that. As soon as you taste the freedom of running your own business, it becomes an obsession. And that is a good thing.

One vitally important thing you must do is to ensure you surround yourself with enthusiastic and optimistic people. As Tim Smit, the founder of the Eden project in the UK says, get rid of anyone who tells you what you are doing is a waste of time (actually he encourages you to do something much worse with them!). What you are doing is you are doing something for yourself. It is by far the best way to do things. If you get it right, others will follow you. You wont be able to stop them. But you must stay focused. And you must take action.

I have read a number of great books this year. The two I absolutely recommend to anyone are:

1. Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People. If everyone followed his advice, we would all be so much happier with our lives.

2. Drew Whitman: Ca$hvertising. As Lord Sugar said once on The Apprentice: “I have written many books on advertising – most of them cheque books.”. This book explodes the myth of advertising. If you ever need the answer to whether advertising is any good, read this book. Did you know that the only place worth paying a premium for in print advertising is the inside front cover? Forget right hand facing, near content, inside back cover, back cover, they are all pretty much of a muchness. The front inside cover however shows an average 30% increase in response rates. And even that is not great when you think about how much extra you have to pay. As the book says, if what you are selling is not of interest to the audience, you are wasting your money.

So, Market, Media, Message. That is all you need to know. Of all the multiple letter abbreviations (the 7 p’s, the 3 R’s the 101 Z’s etc), this is the only one that really matters.

And finally, for the message itself. Read my book on copywriting: COPY by Quentin Pain.

Good luck and Happy New Year.


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