Get off your arse too – Business book review

Hi everyone

If you are redundant and thinking of starting your own business or of trying a new approach to life, this book may be for you.

Voted best business book 2011 by Brad Burton’s wife, Get of your arse too , is a no-holds barred, tell-it-like-it-is, book about taking action to succeed in all aspects of your life. Brad speaks in his plain talking no-nonsense, meeting-a-mate-down-the-pub voice, making it easy to relate to whatever he is talking about.

In this book you will discover:

• Brad’s own story and what propelled him to move his life forward, both personally and professionally.
• How you can make positive changes to make more progress in your life and career.
• That as you are your business, being true to yourself in all aspects of your business, is essential for it to succeed.
• Ruling fear, instead of letting fear rule you, is a basic principal in getting ahead of whatever is holding you back in your life and career.
• The only way to live your life to its full potential, is your own unique way and only you can lead the way to what you want.
• It’s up to you to rely on yourself to make things work.
• Your success and happiness depends on you.
• There are no short cuts, running your own business means work, work, work, not a quick-fix cash machine.
• What results you get depend on what you put into your life and your business.  It’s up to you to work hard, to put the hours in and get off your arse to make things happen.

One of my favourite quotes from the book is on page 5. “There is nothing worse than working for years only to realise that your ladder to success is leaning against the wrong wall.”

In short, Brad continually emphasises throughout the book, that it’s you who must take charge of your own destiny by really thinking about what you want and want really makes you happy. You must then face your fears, learn new stuff, make changes and get of your arse to achieve it.

If you want an unconventional business book to read, or a fresh approach to life and business, then make sure this one is on your list.

Stay positive

Sandra Bellamy

 

When Opportunity Knocks – Don’t Close The Door

Hi everyone

Are you currently unemployed? Do you think you would like to run your own business? Are you asking yourself, have I got what it takes to become a self-employed businessman/business woman?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, there is no better opportunity of finding out if you are suitable to run your own business, than enquiring about the New Enterprise Scheme and attending an Enterprise Club Start-up Training Course. To learn more about what the course has to offer, read my guest blog article “Have you got the guts to run your own business?’ on Sage One uk.sageone.com/2013/08/23/guts-to-run-your-own-business. The course is free and if you don’t want to go on the New Enterprise Allowance after you have completed the course, you don’t have to but you will receive lots of invaluable information that is vital to starting your own business. When opportunity knocks, don’t close the door.

As always, terms and conditions to attend the course and be able to have the New Enterprise Allowance, do apply.

Let me know if the blog article for Sage One is helpful?

Stay positive

Sandra Bellamy

beatredundancyblues.co.uk  beatredundancyblues.com

I Have Been Chosen To Meet Her Majesty The Queen

Hi everyone

I am very happy and excited to have been chosen to meet Her Majesty the Queen, at St James’s Palace, on Monday 15th of July.

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, on Facebook or on my other blog http://www.quirkybooks.wordpress.com, you may already know this and a few of you I have mentioned it to in my comments. For the rest of my lovely blog followers, the last update I gave you, was that I had been invited to St James’s Palace in the presence of HM the Queen. I have since had a letter to say I have been chosen to meet HM the Queen.

I have been sent a map of the inside of the Palace and have been told I am group 10, in the Queen Anne Room, to meet the Queen.

There is a red dotted line to indicate which route HM the Queen will take.

There are instructions of what I should say and do when I meet HM the Queen.

I am going there, to celebrate CSV (Community Service Volunteers) 50th anniversary. I do voluntary work as a Health Buddy for CSV and got nominated by my Manager to go.

If someone had told me a few years ago, that in the future I would be meeting HM the Queen at St James’s Palace, I would have laughed and said they had a vivid imagination, or yes, in my dreams. But I did something very important in my life, I changed my attitude and my belief in myself.

When I was made redundant for the second time in my life, in 2009, this was the starting point of that change. I knew from then on, that I was born 100% to write and to help others who have been made redundant to get back into work. It was the start of my creative journey. However, needing money and taking on a succession of temporary jobs, that I wasn’t happy in, took it’s toll, and although I still had these goals in mind, I didn’t do much about them at that time.

By the end of 2009, I got a job as an Assistant Manager of a shop and a couple of months later I was promoted to Shop Manager. The drawback was, most weeks I would be working 60 hours a week instead of my contracted 40.

In October 2010, I got headhunted to work as a Sales Person for more money doing less hours and so I took it. After almost a year of working there, I decided to take a year out from work, to develop myself, my skills, my knowledge and expertise to grow as a person and to finally fulfil my destiny of writing and helping others to get back into work. During that time, I gained all of those and so much more.

Although I am working again in a retail sales job during the day, I have chosen to be in a job as a Sales Person not as a Manager, so my hours are stable and kept to a minimum. The pay is not great but I can focus on building two businesses around my two goals during the evenings and my time off. I now know what action to take to make progress with those two goals. I still have time to do courses and to develop myself as a person. I am continuing on the path to fulfil my dreams and you can do it too. I am living proof that dreams can come true. Never, ever, give up on your own dreams. Believe they are achievable and that anything is possible.

Be blessed with what you have,
fight for what you want,
believe in yourself,
helps others along the way,
take action,
change when you are able to
and never look back.

Keep looking forward because your future is in your hands.
Treat yourself kindly,
look after those who are important in your life,
allow yourself ups and downs,
you are only human.
Above all, love yourself, live life to the max and do what makes you happy over and over again.

Until next time, keep writing and keep smiling.

Write soon
Sandra

 

Invest In Your Best Asset

Hi Everyone

Whilst redundant, it is great to manage your money wisely. If you want to spend some of your redundancy pay but are unsure what to spend it on, investing in yourself can be the best thing that you can do, as you are your own best asset.

Spending money on:

• Courses
• Seminars
• Workshops
• Training
• Business networking events
• Any type of learning resources

Can be good for you and your future career but before deciding what to spend your money on, first you need to write a list of:

• What you want to achieve in the future
• What you are good at
• What you are not so good at
• What makes you happy

This in turn should help you to target what to spend your money on, as an investment for your future, rather than spend money randomly on something that may not help you.

If you are worried about spending any of your money, it is your choice and one of the things that you can control in your life at the moment, whilst other aspects of your life may seem out of control.

If you are worried about money because you were always taught that “money doesn’t grow on trees” and “money is the root of all evil” then you may want to change your mindset to overcome this obstacle. A great blog article about this can be found at http://inspireyourbusiness.wordpress.com

The post is entitled The Mindful Money Audit.

Although I personally believe in saving money. I also strongly believe that I need to invest in myself and my future. These days I spend more money on my education and learning because I know it will help me to make more money in the future.

If you are thinking of setting up your own business, you may want to attend The Business Show in London: http://www.greatbritishbusinessshow.co.uk/seminars/ on the 6th and 7th of June 2013. I will be attending and even though it is an event that I hadn’t planned for and therefore will be spending money that I hadn’t budgeted for, I think it will be worth the investment. This is because I believe I am worth investing in and so should you believe you are worth investing in too. Believe in yourself and your own self-improvement and then others will believe in you and that includes potential employers or customers.

In the meantime – Stay positive

Sandra

 

Turning Your Hobby Into A Business

Hi Everyone

My apologies for not blogging for a while. I have been very poorly with a chest infection and virus and not had the strength to even write. As a writer, it has been very difficult for me not to be able to practice my craft for a while .

Even though I am still not 100% better, I felt I had to share this inspirational blog post about turning your hobby into a business, courtesy of Carolyn Trafford from reflectionscoachingblog.wordpress.com

Turning Your Hobby Into A Business.

I am turning my writing website quirkybooks.net into an e-Book store later this year. Amongst the books available, will be ones to help you to get back into work. If I can turn my passion into my dream job, then so can you.

Stay positive

Sandra Bellamy