Business

Marketing Success

Posted by Andrew    Posted in Business, Education    Posted in January 22, 2012    |    No Comments

Hello out there.

Simon and AndrewWell it has been an exciting start to the new year, and 2012 is definitely shaping up to a defining year for me, my family and my business. I find myself totally ecstatic about the things that are going on. My children are growing in independence and knowledge, my love for my wife continues to grow daily, and day after day I rediscover the power that lies within me, that lies within us all.

Look what I wanted to mention in this post is a meeting I had with a gentleman by the name of Simon Treselyan, you can read more about him at his website. It is a meeting that will stay with me for a very long time, and that is due to the vision that Simon has, and the content that he intends to deliver at an up coming event called The Summit of Ultimate Marketing Success, this is going to be a 'must see event' and it is initially going to be held on the Gold Coast of Australia. I have been confirmed as one of the keynote speakers at the event and will be talking about Web Marketing strategies for small to medium businesses.

We are still waiting for the final dates of the event, so right now that is about all the information I can give you, I can let you know that I, personally, will be sharing some pretty cool (and easy to implement) ideas on how you can increase your lead generation for your business, and also how you can generate more from your database.

So stay posted, I will be providing updates here on the SUMS and what other speakers you can expect to see and how this event can launch your business powerfully into the stratosphere.

Look forward to seeing you there and share more with you about it.

 

To Your Success

Andrew-HawkesAbout the Author

Andrew Hawkes is an Entrepreneur that has had good times and bad, he draws on all the experiences that he has had, military and in business, to provide solid information that anyone can use and understand to improve the results in thier own life and therefore show others to imrpove thiers. He believes that anyone can make a difference in the world and that ultimately anything is possible.

Big Shoes to Fill…

Posted by Andrew    Posted in Education    Posted in September 7, 2011    |    No Comments

Hello out there in cyber-land, it has been a few weeks since my last confession....

Wait, I am not a catholic... therefore I don't actually do confessions right? Ah well, since my last rambling.

So I have been doing some thinking, about life, about how things are, and about the books that I have read and am reading that ultimately expand my mind. I also had a great thought about a great post to write... but I couldn't remember what it was, so you are getting this one instead.

Now the subject would suggest something about shoes and the filling thereof, now my close friends and family know that my boys are named after famous people that changed the world and it often leads to the discussion as to whether or not we place to much expectation on our children, and whether or not we are setting them up for failure (which of course is part of life and ultimately part of winning), of course that conversation can go one of two ways.

Now it is no secret that I do not put much into the victim mentality that there is about in the society we live in these days, and in fact that we have lived in for thousands of years, I mean really what have we learned in the last 4000 years? The Egyptians were struggling with the same problems that still exist today, so apparently nothing.

My boys will grow up with the freedom to choose what they would like to do with their lives and the choice will be what I tell them.... OK so I am kidding, they will be free do do what they think is right for them, that does not mean to say that I should not provide them with everything they need, and every encouragement, verbal or physical, that is warranted to help them do exactly that.

I am of the opinion that we create our world from what we continually think and speak about the world that we are living in, and I think that was summed up beautifully by Helen Keller when she said got words, she got the world. So by naming my sons in the manner that they are named it actually provides them with a new possibility to live into, and as they become more and more aware of what is being said to them and start to understand contextual concepts then they will know who it is they are named after and what it was those people did to change the world.

So why is it that I am going on about all of this then? Well, I guess it is because that I finally understand the importance of naming my sons they way Sarah and I chose to, I finally understand that the only reality there is, is the one that we speak, we create our reality simply by the thoughts we have and the words we speak. And when you truly get that, then wonderful new possibilities open up that would more than likely have been missed before. It really can be as simple as saying something different.

Well that is about it really... would love to know your thoughts, so please leave them here, if you have any questions ask them and I will be glad to chat with you.

 

NAMASTE

To Your Success

Andrew-HawkesAbout the Author

Andrew Hawkes is an Entrepreneur that has had good times and bad, he draws on all the experiences that he has had, military and in business, to provide solid information that anyone can use and understand to improve the results in thier own life and therefore show others to imrpove thiers. He believes that anyone can make a difference in the world and that ultimately anything is possible.

Personal Acceptance and How it Effects Your Outcome

Posted by Andrew    Posted in BLOG, Business, Featured    Posted in August 16, 2010    |    4 Comments

Hey all Andrew Hawkes here,

trust this will all find you safe and well. I want to share with you my thoughts on acceptance and the effects I believe it has on people.

I was watching an excerpt from a conference where I well known Success Coach was speaking of Happiness, now you might be forgiven for thinking that this well known success coach was tall with big teeth... however this was a different success coach.

He spoke of celebrities that had passed while trying to find that happiness. And how ultimately they died unhappy.

I was thinking about that, and I was thinking about my life... was it where I wanted it to be? Was I truly fulfilling my life's purpose? It caused me to question was I absolutely happy? You know Buddha said; "There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way" So what was it that caused me to look deeper?

I mean I am a happy guy, I have a loving family who want nothing but my success and happiness (what ever success means) I always endeavor to find the good in any situation. I have had many great teachers over the years, and one of the most profound lessons I have had was simply to be able to laugh at myself and not provide a negative emotion when it comes to silly little mistakes I have made. This ONE teaching has saved many great hardships. You see when you add raw emotion to an event you are applying some of the hardest setting concrete in the history of mankind! So if you are beating yourself up... well enough said I think.

What does this have to do with personal acceptance? Well hang in with me and lets see. When you look at society what is it that you see? Given the forum we are in here I will provide a couple of observations (at least this are my observations.)

As a whole people look for acceptance from people; for their achievements, their actions, their results. This is only natural and it ties in with the six basic human needs. And it really could fall into a number of them. What I have found, and again this is purely my observations (and my experience within my own life) is that we tend to look for acceptance from others as it is easier to that than it is to be responsible for ourselves. It stems from a lack of confidence in our own abilities. Now this maybe something inherent that has come from generation to generation, or it maybe due to someone being picked on in schools, or in the work place. The constant taunts about never amounting to anything, that a person is useless good for nothing. Any number of reasons. It may have been totally indirect;

e.g. A child hears their parents arguing, one parent calls the other hopeless, good for nothing, looser (what ever tag you want to put in here). They hear this often, every other week this same argument takes place. One day the child does something wrong while the parent that usually does the name calling is at their wits end, and although the parent does not hurl the same abusive language at the child, they tell the child that they are just like the other parent. (Perhaps you have witnessed or even experienced this yourself?)

What just happened here? After years and years of hearing that one parent is basically a looser, they child is now told that they are just like them... Hmm... Interesting right?

OK so back to acceptance, more importantly personal acceptance. Have you ever noticed that successful people really don't give to much weight to what other people are saying, they are not necessarily swayed by public opinion? There is a reason for this. They accept themselves for who they are. They are not trying to play a part, they are not trying to please everyone. They are who they are and have a great personal acceptance.

From this you could say that all it takes to be a success is to love yourself first. Accept yourself for who you are, don't be so hard on yourself, we are after all our own worst critics. And you know what, you are probably not wrong. I mean that the end of the day, surely if you have a great personal acceptance then you are already a winner right?

I say could say that is all it takes, as if you are striving for more then it is really the first step. However it it THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE, with out getting this step straight you are going to go no where FAST, sure you may make some money... however I can almost guarantee that you lose it all and MORE.

You want success? You want wealth and happiness? Fall in love with the person looking at you in the mirror daily, accept them, and understand that that person that looks at you has all the acceptance needed for your life's journey.

No pictures today.... just good content. Please share with your friends, tweet it, share it on facebook, more importantly though, please leave me your thoughts below.

Namaste

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To Your Success

Andrew-HawkesAbout the Author

Andrew Hawkes is an Entrepreneur that has had good times and bad, he draws on all the experiences that he has had, military and in business, to provide solid information that anyone can use and understand to improve the results in thier own life and therefore show others to imrpove thiers. He believes that anyone can make a difference in the world and that ultimately anything is possible.

I cracked the Homebased Code for Success

Posted by Andrew    Posted in BLOG, Business, Featured, My Rant    Posted in July 30, 2010    |    2 Comments

Homebased success codeHello out there Andrew Hawkes here,

I want to let you in on a secret.... I cracked it,  I cracked the homebased business code for success! And the good thing is anyone can do it. Are you ready? Shh.... come a little closer.... here it is 'consistent action, congruent with your vision or why toward the direction of your goal.' That's it. Simple right?

So then if it is so simple why does 95% of the worlds population live week to week and hand to mouth existences. Well I am pretty sure I have worked that out too. I used to think that it was because people were afraid (to a point I still do, just not like before) however now after the last few days working with the very talented Casey Van Liefde and some of the things she shared with me. It is not about being scared, Casey is a very talented Photographer and she really is an entrepreneur, she is happy to look at something at its merit, make a decision about it and then act in total congruency with that decision. This means that Casey has already succeeded here.

So what I came up with and what made me think that it was more than just fear was this, Casey and I had a conversation, we were talking about an opportunity, a very cool opportunity, one that utilises two fortune 500 companies, so companies with a proven track record. For a ridiculously low investment per month (I mean the cost of a cup of coffee each week) they could create a substantial residual monthly income. The catch is that the people that get involved have to actually do some work. I know crazy. Now I have been involved in homebased business for quite a while now and they biggest issue any body had with the opportunity I represented was the investment price.... So here Casey is talking to me about a stupidly low (seriously it should be more for the value you are getting) investment each month, and people are telling her, or rather implying that it was all a bit like hard work. What?

OK, so from that conversation I came to the realisation that people aren't scared... people are just plain lazy, they would rather sit on the couch, drink beer, eat corn chips and stay living in lack than put a little effort in to make a huge difference in their life.

But I guess it is deeper than that right? Yes people are lazy, however there is more. People would rather sit back give direction and say I told you so than get in amongst it themselves, and it comes down to one thing, and this one thing is condoned and even practiced by society. Lack of responsibility. It is far easier (see LAZY) to blame someone else for their shitty existence. As I said though in my post about What is Wrong with the World when the government set such a low barrier, it really is easy to be average, or even below average.

So here in summary, the homebased business code for success is pretty simple, follow it (with out detouring from the prescribed method) and you will have astounding success and that is with anything, homebased business, real estate trading, investing ANYTHING.

So what are you waiting for, stop BEing lazy, get off your a*se, stop blaming others for your short comings and become part of the solution as opposed to the problem.

You are that Powerful, Ignite your passion!

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To Your Success

Andrew-HawkesAbout the Author

Andrew Hawkes is an Entrepreneur that has had good times and bad, he draws on all the experiences that he has had, military and in business, to provide solid information that anyone can use and understand to improve the results in thier own life and therefore show others to imrpove thiers. He believes that anyone can make a difference in the world and that ultimately anything is possible.

Your Failures are Sometime your Biggest Assets, Andrew Hawkes gets frank pt2

Posted by Andrew    Posted in Andrew Hawkes, BLOG, Business    Posted in July 27, 2010    |    3 Comments

Hey all Andrew Hawkes here again,

seriously though...  who else could it be? lol Sorry just having a little joke with myself.

So my last post was about me and my story... and it kind of left off leaving you hanging a little. So today let me try and fill in some of the gaps that were left.

Right I left off mentioning that I was also involved in a Franchise Hair Salon. I guess I want to start this by saying that you really should investigate and carry out a thorough due diligence on a business before making a solid decision. We made a decision based on  a franchisors word and projections he threw together. If your franchisor or the person you are buying an existing business off cannot provide you with timely accurate figures for the business in question WALK RUN AWAY. Normally I myself would have walked away... however this case was different. My wife had been managing one of his franchises in another part of town in another mall. I had seen what the weekly figures were that these salons were doing, and of course given that my wife was working for the franchisor previously we had every reason to trust him and really none not to. And also at the end of the day we made the decision to move forward and get involved with the salon.

Now I am not sure if you have ever heard the term about how life or rather the universe will tell you when things aren't right, they will give you signs, they are likened to a feather, a brick, and then finally a truck. Meaning of course that the signs get stronger and stronger until you can no longer ignore that there is an issue. Oh, BTW the by the time the truck comes you are pretty much f**ked (excuse my french)

So here is the feather;

Our settlement date for the Salon, i.e. the salon was supposed to be finished so that we could start trading, was the 12 of October. The date we actually settled (as construction took a lot longer than implied) was the 22nd of November. At this stage, we should have, and would have been well within our rights to, cancel the contract on the salon purchase, we would have received our deposit back, and would have forgone the even greater debt we were about to get ourselves in. Given my nature, of always trying to do the right thing by other people... I felt we were obligated to stay in the contract and see it through. This turned out to be a massive mistake.

OK so here now is the Brick;

We were fast approaching settlement (and we still could have canceled) and our finance fell through. New Zealand was going through a major rut of finance companies falling over left right and center and even though under normal circumstances our applications for finance did stack up... we were no longer in normal circumstances. Top this off with the fact that my mother in-law, who lived in a different country, had just been diagnosed with a terminal illness, this really should have been (and was we just didn't want to see it) our second warning and the one in which we walked away. Instead, driven by my needing to do right by everybody else we carried on.

I'll get to the Truck in a minute.

We settled the deal... how? Well our friendly franchisor offered to provide vendor finance so that we were able to make settlement and to be able to trade. He was in as bad a spot as us really. He wanted someone to run the salon and didn't have the time to do it himself. We actually thought this was a good thing. Now as part of the vendor finance deal there were certain caveats as to what we were and what we were not allowed to do within our own business. He was, by rights,  protecting his asset. In the same position I would have done the same... I may have been a little more realistic with my demands, however that is not what this is about.

One of the caveats that was placed upon us was that we were only able to draw a certain amount from the business each week, which was basically less than what Sarah was getting while she was earning wages. Now I was not in a very good frame of mind money wise with the fall out of the cafe and the fact that my property trading had taken a hit due to my investment in the said cafe. All I could think of was keeping a clear credit rating so as to be able to continue in my primary business. So I worked out a way to get around the caveats placed upon us... we were allowed to pay contractors... So I contracted my services to the salon. This is all very legal and totally above board. In hindsight however it was not the best or smartest move I had ever made. I was fighting a losing battle with my credit rating, and I would have been better to take the hit then... again this is another one of those hindsight moments. The fact the I had contracted my services to the salon would come to back to haunt me in the eventual demise and sale (this is in italics as it was not really a sale, just enough for the franchisor to get his money back, and NOTHING else) of our salon.

The way it came back to haunt me was by the franchisors wife informing our staff (who were paid everything accept their holiday pay)  that I had stolen from the business. Which was a blatant lie. Now was I responsible for her saying that... you bet, so I am not sending any negativity her way. I believe in karma...

Right so here is the brick;

What started the eventual lead up to the resale of the business back to the franchisor was really two things. The franchisor took a disliking to our accountant, now at the time we were unaware as to why... and to be fair what I am about to say is a little speculative, however our lawyer agreed, it was due to the fact that our accountant was started to smell a rat, and the rat looked a little like our franchisor. This is something that we ourselves should have and would have seen if we had looked through business eyes instead of emotional ones.

Once this dislike was totally apparent, things really started to change (now of course this may just be my perception). Our franchisor had always maintained that he had a great relationship with all of our suppliers, and he did, they did exactly what he told or asked them to do. It was not long before we were put on stop credit with little to no chance to prove that we would be able to trade our way out the situation that we, and only we, had gotten ourselves into.

So what did all this mean? Well it meant that we were neck deep in the kaka. All thanks to decisions we had made. I had let my property business lapse, we had 3 mortgages to pay, solicitors fees, accountants fees, and top all of this off with creditors from not one, but two business I no longer had. And now, there was no income coming in. What happened next was entirely of our own doing... no one ever forced us to make any decisions, no one ever put guns to our heads. And all of the bother we were in came down to the choices we made. rightly or wrongly we made them...

And once again, I am looking at the length of this and realise that I have written enough for one day...  so I will complete this picture tomorrow.

Once again this is Andrew Hawkes signing off, and until next time,

Ignite Your Passion

To Your Success

Andrew-HawkesAbout the Author

Andrew Hawkes is an Entrepreneur that has had good times and bad, he draws on all the experiences that he has had, military and in business, to provide solid information that anyone can use and understand to improve the results in thier own life and therefore show others to imrpove thiers. He believes that anyone can make a difference in the world and that ultimately anything is possible.

All I can do is Just be Me… Andrew Hawkes gets frank about his life pt1

Posted by Andrew    Posted in Andrew Hawkes, BLOG, Business    Posted in July 26, 2010    |    5 Comments

Hey there Andrew Hawkes here once again,

I want to change things up a little today... I am going to be pretty frank... some of the things I say may come as a shock... others maybe no surprise at all.

You know the world is changing, and it is changing at a rapid pace... in fact sometimes I think that we maybe evolving to fast, at the same time there is a stirring of excitement inside of me of the abundance of opportunity that will be, and is being created because of it.

We all have things that we have done or not done in our life that we would rather forget. It is all part of life's journey and it makes us into the people we are. We do what we can with the tools we're provided and we pick up and learn new techniques and strategies along the way.

Some things that we must keep in mind is that it takes years to build a reputation and only minutes to destroy it, and there are, unfortunately, people out there that would try and slander your name or your reputation for their own personal gain. The internet has been a little like the wild west, it has been a free for all for people to say what they like about anyone, regardless of whether it is true or not, I mention that briefly in this post, and basically people have this belief that what ever they do on the internet is totally anonymous, like there is no way to track them, and while there are some very techie people out there that could make this so... for most internet users everything they do has a digital signature or trace as to where they have come from... so people really should be careful what they say... if there is no truth to it or they misconstrue or misrepresent what actually happened they could find themselves in hot water. Now this is not what this post is about, I just find it very amusing that there are people out there that are really that naive.

So who is Andrew Hawkes and where did he come from, what has he done?

Well I am just like the majority of people (and you won't hear me say that very often), you see I believe that people are inherently good, I believe that people generally try to do the right thing by people. That is most certainly how I have lived my life. If you have read my bio you will know that I spent the better part of 11 years in the RNZAF, I did my trade as suggested by my father and found myself still searching and yearning for something else. And also like the majority I am always looking for ways in which to improve my life. However unlike the majority I am prepared to do something about it... perhaps this is what makes people targets... I am not sure. Anyway I digress, you will also have read that I had some failed business's and this is where I want to start.

Talk to anyone is business and they will tell you that if you have not failed at something then you have not been trying hard enough. Building a business is not easy and of course there are many factors that come into play. I learned some of the best lessons from those failed business, so therefore in my eyes I actually won. When you are master of your own destiny (and really everybody is) you allow yourself to look at things from a different angle or in a different light.

The first business is probably the key to my failure in the subsequent business. I went into business with a friend, now people will tell you that is a bad idea, I think that if you are both professional and treat the business in a professional manner, you document everything and you are on the same page as to the direction of the business there should be no problems. That being said, it is a lesson I learned after the fact, so it did in fact cause issues. In fact regardless of the fact that I am married to his sister he still, to this day, does not talk to me. Despite the fact he never invested any money in the business (v's my 30k) I apparently ruined his, and his wife's life. And you know what... for him that is obviously true, that is his truth. I have no control over how he chooses to look at something... all I can do is to try to do the right thing, which I did.

Now one of the biggest lessons I got from that is that you can't please everybody all of the time. We were all in debt from the business, which was a cafe, and given my main business was trading property I needed to have a clean credit rating. (this was a belief that I held). I resigned from the Cafe as I thought it was the right thing to do by my business partners, and yes it was a bit of self preservation also, I could see where the cafe was heading and being that I was unable (or more likely unwilling) to put my foot down, it was not a good direction. I had invested an unmatched amount of money and was not willing to invest any more until it was matched (I didn't think it was that unreasonable, you decide).  The lesson here is to trust your gut, and if something is not going the way you had envisaged then say something!

This failure had a follow on effect. I was also a partner in a Hair Salon franchise (my wife is a hair dresser).

I am looking at how long this is already... so I am going to leave you hanging.. I will be back in another post to finish this, or at least follow on

So this is Andrew Hawkes saying I will see you next time.

To Your Success

Andrew-HawkesAbout the Author

Andrew Hawkes is an Entrepreneur that has had good times and bad, he draws on all the experiences that he has had, military and in business, to provide solid information that anyone can use and understand to improve the results in thier own life and therefore show others to imrpove thiers. He believes that anyone can make a difference in the world and that ultimately anything is possible.

Where do you find the strength to carry on?

Posted by Andrew    Posted in BLOG, Business, General    Posted in July 20, 2010    |    3 Comments

Ladder of <a href=Success" width="257" height="300" />Hello out there, I trust this will find you all safe and well... and if it doesn't... ask yourself a question, 'How did I (meaning yourself) create this?' Because when you can answer that honestly and without aggravation towards me for suggesting that you some how created what ever situation you found yourself in right now, you will be set for life!

This is not where I am heading however I am just going to chase that rabbit for a second, think about this... if things are going well and all the right things are happening in someones life, they are pretty happy to say that it was a direct result of something that they themselves had done... and I am all for that, they should... so why then when things are not going so well and that everything is seemingly turning to custard it is someone or something elses fault? Now that is something to think about... we have ALL been guilty of this at one stage or another.

Now on subject here... where do you find the strength to carry on? I believe this to be a very pertinent question due to the fact that if you can't answer this, or you have absolutely no idea... I would suggest that things are more than likely not as you would prefer them to be in your life.

Now this is going to be different for every person you ask... in the same way we all have an individual DNA make up so to do we have different motivating factors. That is not to say that we don't share similar motivators to others... however like our fingerprints they are unique to us.

If you have never heard the term 'climbing the ladder of success only to find it was leaning against the wrong wall'... you have now (sorry cracking myself up right now) as a generalisation it really does refer to what I am talking about here today. Let me see if I can put it into context for you... have you ever worked somewhere... you worked hard because you have always had an amazing work ethic, you progressed your way through the company or organisation that you were with, you always received glowing reports, you work your way up to manager (or what ever), you give years of effort and your life.... only to find that you would really like to be doing something else. This is exactly what I mean.

I have experienced this myself in my own life and from observing the life of someone that is very close to me and an important part of my life.

My father had a passion for farming from a very young age that is all that he wanted to do, he like many people of his time (and to a point still today) listened to his father who told him "get a trade behind you son, once you have done that then you will always have that to fall back on". This sounds like good advice right? I know that my grandfather only ever wanted the best for his son, the same as any decent parents want the best for all of their children... unfortunately the advice they dole out is not necessarily the right advice.

So my father started his trade and completed his apprenticeship and started working for the local plumber. It was not long before he was working for himself and supporting a growing family. He made good money and our family never really went without... and that is not what this is about... He was always thinking 'if I do this for another two to three years I will have my farm'

This is a classic example of the ladder being against the wrong wall... yes he did everything that was expected of him as a husband, as a father and of course as a businessman. And while he was successful in the fact that there was always food on the table and clothes on our backs... it was always a struggle. He was always going to work.

Dad no longer works for himself, he took a salaried position with a local company and while he knows exactly what is coming into his bank account every month, he is not even working within his fallback trade (good advice then? You tell me). Now since he has been with this company he has been able to participate in his real passion, farming. Now he can spend hours on the farm and raising his stock... passionwhen I, or anyone for that matter, say "hey you need to take it easy, your working to much" he simply replies "this isn't work... this is fun, its relaxing, its my me time" The same can't be said about his salaried position (or when he was working for himself). Now he only works his farm part time... yet it pays him well... Hmm... imagine if he worked his passion full time...

So where do you find the strength? Is it from your passion? Is it from your family? Is it from your absolute drive to be the best?

You absolutely must find your why... it is that simple.

To Your Success

Andrew-HawkesAbout the Author

Andrew Hawkes is an Entrepreneur that has had good times and bad, he draws on all the experiences that he has had, military and in business, to provide solid information that anyone can use and understand to improve the results in thier own life and therefore show others to imrpove thiers. He believes that anyone can make a difference in the world and that ultimately anything is possible.

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