It weren’t me guv!
Once upon a time there was a little shop. It sold things that made money so lots of people liked it. Well, the funnny thing is that making money can occasionally mean you lose all of it or at least some of it. Keep it under the mattress and some beastly burglar might come and steal it, book worms might eat it or your house could burn down. Keeping your money under the bed also might mean that you end up spending it rather than keeping it for the future. What to do then? Let’s go down to the nice solid, been here for ages Building Society. It employs Independent Financial Advisers. They act for YOU and will look at all the goodies in the universe for a good product. They have to do exams, be jolly good eggs and pay their parking tickets.
But the building society is sad. It isn’t making any money because it’s scared of lending to people who want to buy their own house. Some fat juicy commissions will help nicely. Flogging some money creating thingies with words like, Safe, Assured or perhaps even that lovely “G” word Guaranteed on the wrapper, will do the trick.
“Why’s that?” Someone asks. Because these lovely words are like a magic spell, people see them and their brain cells switch right off! People never read all those paragraphs written by smart people which might mention the real picture. Sometimes the people selling them don’t read all these little words either which makes them cross when other people point this out.
Anyway this little shop has lots of products and most of them do what they say, but one or two are a bit odd. The money that goes into them disappears into thin air! They aren’t safe either, they seem to have the wrong label on them? The Independent Financial Advisers in the building society are a bit funny too. The long long list they are supposed to work from when recommending these money making thingies, has only one name on it!
No, you can’t look at any other thingies! How dare you?! We’ve done your independence check for you. Sell them or it’s an Alan Sugar moment for you! How dare you question our 5 per cent commission?
Sadly, some little old people put nearly all their money into the bad thingies. Even worse, the income they needed for their old age disappeared. The little old people couldn’t claim any Income Support either because the Bad old Benefits Office said that they had too much money!
So who did these people turn to? One group said it’s not our fault, because we didn’t know the money had gone, even though it was our company. Another said it looked all right from the outside. The penny counters who looked at it from the inside, said it seemed OK but now we need lots more money to figure out why it isn’t – and some of the penny counters are even related – how nice! Another person involved has passed on. An insurance fund which paid out money to sick people, got into trouble because the policyholders lived too long. A knight in shining armour which might have helped here said “Have a nice day!” and walked away. The label “Covered by a Compensation Scheme” is a definite maybe, at least for now. And there is worse to come.
Fairy story? no sadly, just a part of the Key Data saga which has been running for over a year now. If you want to follow this epic Citywire is a pretty good source. £31 million and counting.
Forget Business Angels, just sweat it!
The Open Coffee meeting doesn’t disappoint. Very good for restoring your faith in human nature. First guy I talk to hates business angels saying if you have a business idea, Do it yourself with your own sweat rather than someone else’s money.
A software guy from Iceland might be presenting at the next 3Cs meeting in September. Another guy is in the UK arm of a worldwide network for entreprenuers which provides discounted health benefits and other stuff. All the services it offers can be obtained more cheaply than going to the respective companies directly. One discussion covers the different types of people in business. A huge web company is mentioned where someone points out that its growth was seriously hampered by the founder staying on too long? I find out about Vodcasts and another entrepreneur who is on his third enterprise, has just signed up a large Private Medical Insurance company as his first client. Still a big huddle of people there when I leave at 12 noon.
Lastly From Twitter
Men who donate blood three times a year reduce their risk of heart attack by more than 50% and their risk of cancer by 40%. #DailyHeathTips Great if true – source requested.
Something the British are quite good at http://www.blokesontheblog.co.uk/how-to-ride-a-bike-time-trialling/
Travelling the world with No Luggage – from the Blog of Tim Ferris http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2010/08/20/travel-with-no-baggage/?utmsource=feedburner&utmmedium=email&utmcampaign=Feed%3A+timferriss+%28The+Blog+of+Author+Tim+Ferriss%29&utmcontent=Yahoo%21+Mail
Pingback: Bank Informer