SMARTER goals will help you conquer

As you know I am getting ready to take the CFA level 3 exam very soon now! If you want to work in finance, I would strongly advise you to go for it. Not only does it increase your employability, it is also surprisingly inexpensive, compared to other qualifications: around $1,200 per level, a small sum when compared to the tens of thousands of pounds that some of my peers in college had to pay for a Masters d Keep Reading...

When I want to reach a big, life-changing goal, these are the strategies I use

Think of a big project you’ve been wanting to tackle. It’s exciting, you would really want the results that come from achieving it, but you think that you don’t have enough time, or you are afraid that your motivation will wane as soon as the first difficulty appears, or you don’t believe that you can (really) do it. As you well know, life always gets in the way. Move Keep Reading...

Don’t believe that “if you give, the world gives back”? Where does that leave you?

I was delighted to have a very busy week recently with International Women’s Day. I talked to two corporate audiences, spoke at the “Women & Enterprise” Week in Derry, and sponsored an event for Roscommon Women’s Network, among others. In each case, I always finish with a slide that shows the word give superimposed over receive. As you won’t have missed I’m sure, the latter has more l Keep Reading...

Is your online shop actually shooing customers away?

E-commerce has now been alive and well for 17 years. Everyone (that is, everyone who sells something!) knows you should be able to do it, that you should have a virtual shopfront allowing people to buy products online. And still, when it comes to e-commerce, sellers do a number of things that they would never, ever do in the real world. Like forcefully turning away customers who have their mone Keep Reading...

Exporting to the UK? Should you set your sights on London only, though?

Quick survey: if you were to start exporting to the UK, where would you choose to have your British headquarters? If, without thinking, your first, intuitive reaction was “London, of course”, welcome to the club. I thought so, too. After all, isn’t the capital of a country, especially a capital as glamorous as London, a symbol of fame and success? If you can make it there, you Keep Reading...

Is your business missing out on this ideal target market?

If your business has been struggling in the recession, you might have been dreaming of a huge group of customers, with lots of disposable income, who are immune to the recession and even – you can always dream, right? – promising huge growth in years to come. Wouldn’t that be nice? Well, it turns out these ideal consumers actually exist. They’re called “the over 50s”. Keep Reading...

Yes, there is an effective way of dealing with Ireland’s huge mortgage crisis

In previous articles we talked about government deleveraging and the promissory note, and about the credit crunch that is affecting businesses. Let’s now talk about the huge mortgage crisis that we urgently need to face up to before catastrophe ensues. And I’m carefully weighing my words here. What’s the current mortgage landscape like? There are at Keep Reading...

What happens when banks are not lending

We looked at government deleveraging in a previous article; corporate and individual deleveraging also have implications for the general state of our economy. Indeed, if the government, businesses and households are all saving and paying off debt at the same time, they are not spending. Which means wealth creation, and as a result economic recovery, is dramatically slowed down. No spark Keep Reading...

May I offer some help with your New Year resolutions?

And it’s that time of year again… It’s back to work after the holidays; you might be reflecting on the year that passed, making plans for the year to come. You would also like to think that this year, it will be different. This year, you will… lose weight / exercise more / stop smoking / save more / spend less… And at the same time, there is this little nagging vo Keep Reading...

What will your life look like, one year from now?

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, sharing quality time with your loved ones. If you are anything like me, during the holidays you also like to sit back and reflect on the year that has elapsed. Christmas and the New Year are the ideal time to take stock and do a review. Looking back at 2012, this is a list of things I achieved this year. This year, I… spoke at some of my biggest conferences eve Keep Reading...

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