Quite a few years ago I went thru a rough patch of trying to understand an ex-partner and her drinking and narcotics use. To me, I did not let it rule my life and tried as I could to show another way. In the end, we parted, however, I still carried feelings of resentment and fear. I did not want to turn to anger and the situation annoyed me. I sought help and joined a group of like-minded individuals and rather than bitched and moaned we made our way thru a program that we mutually supported each other. One of the affirmations that were used was let go and let god. God could be interchanged with whatever your higher power was. I loved that saying, however, I never really fully realized that God is love and love is the god. So nowadays Love is the key to me. It is the all-encompassing feeling of warmth the dwells up thru the body from the gut and envelopes that warm perfect feeling. You know the thing, there are many examples. I am mature enough to know this does not come from someone else it has to begin with me. That peace does begin with me! I started to use love to experience it and it opened up serenity like a butterfly opening its wings!
What it boils down to is mastering the mindset and becoming more mindful of the present.
We are all on a journey. The secret of life is a gratitude attitude where the warmth of feelings induces joy and happiness. Generosity, compassion, and kindness firstly to yourself and then others is the forefront of our life’s quest! To uplift rather than tear down, to build rather than demolish, to inspire rather than demotivate, are all desires, desires that are our life’s mission. We will have dark periods however we must nurture the light periods with the chapters as our lives unfold. We collaborate with people to make our journey better than we could on our own. Our mindset is positive, the attitude we have to it is how can we do this, the enquiring mind of we can do this! Smile and the whole world smiles with you! Life’s journey is so much better with love radiating from us for all to see! All of us can make that instant switch as its all a matter of perspective it’s not a matter of what you have, but your attitude that prevails! Be at peace with where you are. You are here now in the present. What has happened in the past is the past. What will happen in the future will be determined by you here now, living life to the fullest from a position of love!
In the end, there is only one season. The season you make! The season that has love at its foundation!
I am in business, I race myself with my mind, working, dreaming and scheming to get my next dollar. Reflection in my daily life needs a point consolidation. My daily routine allows time for firstly being in gratitude for what I have, thankfulness to the support and compassion for the things around me. When it boils down to it these are all qualities of love. That self-love. That Emotion. That feeling that has to be cultivated on the journey to bring it alive. It, not just passion that carries you thru but that encompassing feeling that I am in touch with that love. I use meditative techniques with breathing to get to that point. Other techniques work such as contemplation of the beauty of nature by walking. Whatever technique you use getting back in touch with your love is important to reinforce your higher power on the journey.
I have noticed my productivity has gone up by incorporation of those activities into my life as a result of that sense of wellbeing being created! We cover other parts of the daily routine on our blogs, You can follow all our blogs here.
Quality Assurance is defined as the maintenance of a desired level of quality in a service or product, especially by means of attention to every stage of the process of delivery or production.
The Japanese have a term “Kaizen”, also known as continuous improvement, is a long-term approach to work that systematically seeks to achieve small, incremental changes in processes in order to improve efficiency and quality.
In my own business, I review my work and say to myself how can I make an improvement. I strive to look at the way it is done and the output to the client. I ask for feedback and incorporate it into the service.
I carry this over to my own life. I try and improve what I am doing.
While the changes I make might not seem like much, incrementally the add up to large changes. Here is an example! I plan, then do, check what I have done and then act to make the change. This is continuous! When I check I look at the problems, display where it is happening, be clear about what the problem is and acknowledge the problem.
An element of humility is required to not state I am wrong but to acknowledge that I need to make the change!
I came across two interesting businesses that are new for the 21st century
The personal concierge
A personal concierge service runs on the most basic of premises. People want things done but don’t have the time to do them. This works extremely well with tourism. Picture yourself in a strange town knowing no one and this service is on offer! Concierges are finding their services are needed more than ever. People are more and more comfortable with the concept of passing along their errands to personal concierges.
Services to Offer
With the industry growing and developing the way it is, it’s impossible to give a complete list of services personal concierges provide. Who knows what new service might be offered next week? But this list of some of the services personal concierges can offer might help you come up with a few ideas for services you can provide to your clients:
Pet-sitting
Light housekeeping
Car repairs, oil change, car wash
Event planning
Gift-buying
Plant care
Running miscellaneous errands
Relocation services
Making travel arrangements
Meal pickup; some chef services
Dinner reservations
Interior decorating
Landscaping
Maid service
Carpet cleaning
Concert/movie reservations, etc.
Grocery shopping
Locating hard-to-find items and collectibles
Personal Walker
These people charge by the kilometer and walk with the client giving them information about the walk, listening and chatting. There are many reasons why someone would want this service as we all know that walking alone is ok sometimes but generally works better with someone. This also leans its self towards tourism as well.
So it is interesting what the 21st century has to offer! One clear fact remains, in order to do this business communication and business skills are required! We could help!
The eprofessional is someone who telecommutes using information and communication technologies. It is also known as a telecommuter! Collaboration with the small business owners is normal. The flexibility to outsource problems and in turn accept work within their practice allows the person maximize their output.In order to work there needs to be inherent flexibility and a willingness to be cooperative.
The tools of collaboration are:
Video conferencing such as zoom
Application sharing such as office 365 suite
Document management and storage such as Dropbox and Adobe services
Blogging and social media pages which ideas can be exchanged
The Eprofessional
Inherent skills used by the business are mandatory when it comes to the above. The communicative skills required allow the sharing of information.
In my own main business, I have a backbone cloud shared accounting with MYOB essentials. This allows me to share reports and data with the client in real time. I am more a collaborator in their business now more than ever. It seems also that cloud-based message systems are being used more and more by clients as real-time is where the clients want results. Being familiar with the systems allows me to operate with ease!
How long will it be before your business will require these skills! Click to start learning!
The internet is full of video of content where people are freely giving you ideas to assist you in your business. Some of the ideas are good, some not so good! In my search for collaborative partners, I looked far and wide! If I was going to take my business to the next level and effectively transport myself into the cyber array, I clearly needed help! I wanted information that was here and now, not something handed down three years ago by some academic when they were learning about business. I had to collaborate with people who were actually doing! I studied not only how they were doing it but also their motivation! The reason for this is that to achieve what I had to do I had to put in some hard work that was going to create some serious stress! I also had to maintain work-life balance! So I started my collaborative journey here! The more I collaborated the more I saw my life needs to change. I started to look at mind body and soul balance and let the stress melt away with meditation and yoga. I started to understand what I was doing and that in itself brought a smile to my face!
You whether have that X-factor or you need to develop it.
I watched a person with that x-factor today and I felt warm inside, the hairs grabbed the back of the net and a smile was brought to my face! What was that x-factor that I saw? As a word picture, I saw love and experienced it. How did this person do it? I think I know their secret! Want to know it? They are in perfect balance of mind body and soul. I would hasten to think that if I studied their aura it would be pure white! They emanate from perfection! They ensure that they have the right mix and are in touch with themselves! The person is always working on their mind body and soul! This was not always the case. They got there by hard work and self-sacrifice and are still doing this. They give themselves to there practice and forgo a lot to give back! These are important lessons in life!
The key to there sense of presence was the knowledge that there totally coherent with what they were talking about! They had researched there topic and knew what they were talking about. Given there a sense of being they came across as friendly and forthcoming acknowledging all those present while staying on track with the message.
So, in summary, the key was knowing the subject knowledge and belief/faith in what they were talking about!
The US-led war on terror is now in the next stage of impacting on my business!!! First, it was FACTA. The next sledgehammer to crack a walnut. Reporting suspicious transactions to the NZ Police.
In the ordinary course of affairs, I frequently commence companies for clients to trade their business.
I do not have a trust account so that at least makes my compliance better. I understand I will be the compliance officer and responsible for compliance as well as my systems being subject to audit.
I firstly need to be CDD and EDD aware! Customer Due Diligence and Enhanced customer due diligence
Who is targeted by EDD?
• A trust or another vehicle for holding personal assets
• A non-resident customer from a country that has insufficient AML/CFT systems or measures in place
• A company with nominee shareholders or shares in bearer form,
• A politically exposed person (PEP)
• Customers seeking to conduct a complex, unusually large transaction or unusual pattern of transactions that have no apparent or visible economic or lawful purpose
• Any other customer that you assess (based on your risk assessment and standard CDD) to be of high ML/TF risk,
• Customers seeking to use new and developing technologies or products that might favor anonymity
I am lucky as I do not start trusts and am not a trustee, however as with the past, I need to be acutely aware of the source of funds (as in the past) and customer identity!
I need a list of shady countries as things may not be as they seem.
I always have real shareholders so that’s not too bad.
I will avoid all politicians like the plaque! Anyway who trusts politicians!
I will avoid anyone who is being complexed… been there done that, got rid of 4 clients like that!
Anyone who wants to be anonymous will have to have a bloody good reason! In addition, if I notice things suddenly change in vanilla clients I must be EDD at all time!
I have to do a manual too… hopefully, my peer group will develop one! In addition, I will need an auditor of the manual and me! I guess the costs of starting a new company will have to bear that cost! Pity the next person who wants to own a dairy who would benefit from being a company, instead of $345.00 to start the company being charged $3450.00 to cover the cost of the audit!
What it boils down to is knowing my customers. I don’t think that the authorities are trying to impede business!
So when I on board a client I will need: You may have to provide documents confirming your name, birthdate and address:
• passport; or
• drivers’ license and bank card;
and
• bank statement or power bill
If you represent a company or trust, you may have to provide extra information like:
• evidence of who you’re acting for (that is, the beneficial owners who effectively control or benefit from the trust or company).
Simple as?
I am in business. There are highs and lows, things I can control and things you can’t, as well as lots of what if moments! Planning my daily routine helps, however, there are still those moments when my confidence fails, and self-doubt arises. I consider myself to be brave being in business, I am the architect of your own destiny, and of course, I benefit immensely from the decisions I make. My secret to that courage is to let go to my higher power, my soul, my self-confidence and those feelings deep inside. Some may describe this as letting go to love, not the physical act, but that persona that dwells in us all the time that is waiting to be acknowledged. Confidence building means leaving myself open to success and opening myself up by taking a chance, a calculated chance, however, there are still elements of risk.
Letting go in an immersion of love generates those feelings of passion for the task at hand.
Trusting in your abilities combined with collaboration with mentors and learning the elements of what makes a success is all part of the process. The biggest part is still that leap of faith and ensuring feelings of joy and happiness are the mainstay of the journey.
I did not get to this point in my life without the acknowledgment of soul. I did this through meditation, the power of balancing mind body and soul and getting in touch with that balance of the divine feminine and the wise masculine. It takes ongoing real work on my part as well as guidance and faith. I have found this to be my motivator in the darkest hours.
My journey was always missing something. While the tinker, tailor, soldier, and spy in me was satisfied, I felt that something else was needed inside. I examined what made me up and found in eastern terms I was satisfying my yang and I need yin to balance it! Don’t get me wrong I have a partner and am a father and grandfather. I began to understand that I would be a lazy so and so if I relied on my partner to provide that yin! I needed to do that job myself! One of the first activities I set my myself was to look at my energy, the spontaneity and the essence of me and see what I could do about it! I saw myself becoming an angry old man, devoid of charisma, that essence of attraction! It was worse than I thought, to change, I needed to learn. I sort help and was referred to an energy worker, clearances followed of my energy centres and found that I was lacking in many minerals. My taste, smell, feelings slowly started to have awareness. I took up meditation and added yoga asanas for emotional relief. I added more walking and vinyasa asanas. My energy that I was emitting improved, the anger subsided and was replaced the feelings of that love that I was nurturing inside. I studied and adopted Buddhist practice to ensure that I concentrated on the things that mattered as well as developing the asanas that I was undertaking. I started opening my horizons more and found I was able to see who really mattered as gurus, and those whom I should just acknowledge their presence and be grateful for all the diversity in the world. All these things led to a different horizon in my search for balance. I feel that I have improved my life with more acceptance, patience, thankfulness and gratitude. I understand that state of grace that I live with has to be nurtured and maintained. The next part of my journey will have joy and happiness at its core, the main qualities of love.
So off to mow the lawns and do the yard chores grounding myself in the garden, followed by Yoga and then after lunch a political meeting…. Yup Yin and Yang both have to be maintained!
Today I completed a survey basically it was asking about business confidence and needs.
It was a bit like doing the recent census it was all about my needs. Now don’t get me wrong I like assistance. However, the objectives of the survey don’t generate the macro drivers in a local economy such as tourist numbers, value-added dairy produce, mining, fishing, and forestry. It does not help me develop servicing internal demand for my services.
The Minister in Charge of the West Coast Eugenie Sage prefers the company of other than human beings so as a result of that is adverse to Mining and sustainable native forestry. As mining applications grind to a halt and those existing are enveloped in red tape the Coast needs to develop other strategies.
Our local milk company is expanding but alas it is processing off the coast more and more and while that increase the payout for farmers, does like for additional jobs.
While the accommodation sector talks of new hotels it has no new projects currently, being undertaken. While Greymouth will have a new Hospital, there is little other major construction.
The star in the crown as far as Tourism is the Trans Alpine a rail service that delivers 300 tourists a day.
Another gem is the tour buses that stop in Greymouth each night, as well as the brief stop by Stray and Kiwi experience. Those buses number up to 15 buses a day averaging another 300 tourists. Self-driving campervans and rental cars make an overwhelming majority of visitors with 400 to 500 movements thru Greymouth a day.
I asked a Contiki driver one day why they did not stop in Greymouth. He replied if you had something for the tourists to do they would come. Currently we have Shantytown and this is on the stopping point for some of the buses, however, the attractions do not appeal to the 18-35-year-old market.
Some would say Greymouth has plenty of cafes and restaurants, perhaps so, however they need to be within a short walking distance of railway station or easy parking.
In addition, Air links are woefully inadequate on the West Coast, you cannot go to Auckland and back in a day for meetings unless you are prepared to drive 6 hours in total before and after the trip! Tourists are not currently being supported by air travel.
So what do you do, to drive more money from Tourism? You give them an experience that they will take home, you make that human connection, you give them something to spend there time here!
A start with that would be to focus on service to Tourists that stands out, i.e. going that extra mile. Accommodation cafes restaurants service stations supermarkets need to be fully on board with going that extra mile. Only then we will increase the numbers spending more time here in Greymouth. Then attractions, new capital investment in accommodation and more cafes and restaurants will become more viable.
We all have abilities that we nurture over the years.
Mine is taxation!
Hey, I know that it appears boring to a lot of people, however, it has held my interest since 1980! After being with Inland Revenue (read IRS/ATO) I branched out my own in 1997 and joined a group of peers for support. As with any organization you participate and as such, I served on its controlling body for six years as well as being a member active in supporting it! So my peers recognized that by making me a fellow of my peer group! I was quite pleased! I am also pleased that it recognizes my ethics!
Andrew Elphick receiving recognition for ethical abilities
My success in this field all goes down to being a member who is part of a community. Now Anywhere Business Network is also part of a community! The digital marketing part of our company is an active member of the digital expert’s academy and as such has access to what happened last week in digital marketing! This differs from traditional learning in that the members are all actively marketing their business online and the mentors within the community have incredible ability. You too can experience the power of digital learning and currently, there is a 30-day free trial! Worth a look!
