Sadleronline

80 years ago today (1^st Feb) a world changing moment happened, the world was graced with the addition of a beautiful soul, my mom Doris.

Leading up to this historic day she has dropped her shoulder a few times on actually admitting how old is she really is, like the queen I am sure she has several birthdays a year and misses a few every other leap year.

Our Mom

For those who know “Deadly Dancin Doris” you may agree she is a bit of a case!  and puts her own slant on common phrases when getting her ”worms middled up” but can reduce a crowd to silence with tales from her youth when she was one of 7 children bought up single handed by her mom Polly due to the early passing of her father.

One of my favourites is when her friends were going swimming but because the family was so poor she didn’t have a bathing costume, so her friends decided to make her one from some old velvet curtains, so off she went feeling proud as punch with her new regalia.

This joy was short lived due to the stitching in the swimsuit coming apart leaving her in the shallows clutching the living room drapes to try and preserve her dignity.

She didn’t learn to drive until she was 60 and a trip in her rally Ford KA is enough to make Evil Kinevil brick it, pulling off at 6000 rpm riding the clutch while waving to us is a sight to behold.

While we were growing she always had her hands full with 3 sons and as we got older and faster we managed to escape the clip around the ear, but she was a bit too street wise for us, a few strategically placed fishing rod tops gave her the extension to our backsides she needed to get her point across.

So happy birthday my beautiful mother you don’t look or act 80 and thanks for always being the one who pulls our family together and smothering us in love and affection.

Love ya Dexter x x x

Alan

It seems the world has gone Cyber Friend mad and unless you have 1000’s of friends or followers you are considered to be behind in the new world.

Let’s just take a step back and apply the Facebook and Twitter approach to real life relationship building, would it work?

I know a few like this

So you’re at an exhibition and you see someone you have always wanted to do business with and using your new Facebook friend approach you walk up to them and say “Can I be Your Friend ? I have some photo’s you can look at if you like” Knowing some of the stalwart businessmen in our industry you would probably get a slap BUT should they agree to be a friend not sure how they would respond to you wanting to poke them every now and again !!

So the real life Facebook approach failed, so try the real life Twitter approach, you’re at the football and watching the players enter the ground followed by the WAG’s one of them is slightly famous and you say “Are you on Twitter ? Can I follow you?” She says yes and gives you her @username but you actually follow her into the club, then to her seat, then to the loo, then back to her seat then I am sure a nice security guard would give you the guided tour to the exit and perhaps a nice Judge would give you a restraining order.

And imagine your real friends keep giving you pointless updates in 140 characters or less “Watching Emerdale”  “At Work” “Looking forward to Friday” “Had a curry last night loo roll in the fridge” Who blooming cares !!!

Please don’t get me wrong I love a bit of social networking and have activities in a few arenas but always prefer a chat or even pint with friends and customers, I have met some people I now call friends and customers over the interweb so that can’t be a bad thing.

I think what I am saying at is simple, while Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, LinkedIn, email marketing etc are all with us and are here to stay never forget the human touch, the old saying “People buy off people” sounds corny but it is true, don’t hide behind a Cyber Wall go and introduce yourself you never know where it might lead.

Alan Sadler

Well we are halfway through the worst month of the year, the Christmas cheer has gone and the new year resolutions are already under strain plus that gym membership you’re paying £ 60 a month for is not getting you fit, the fact you have to go to the gym to achieve fitness was not explained when you signed up and why do they sell beer and burgers ?

If you’re running or involved in running a business the pressure is worse, no one pays but things need paying, suppliers, Corporation Tax, VAT, PAYE  all are due and order intake is down.

You speak to a friendly competitor and ask them ”hows biz?” when you hear “really busy actually” resist wanting to kill them but indicate to them in a stern but friendly manner perhaps you are not telling you the whole truth, for me the direct response is best but I promised not to swear on here .

Dawson The Methane Factory

To top that when you get home the “Mrs” has got the holiday brochures out “I really fancy Brazil” yeah and I really fancy Kylie but that isn’t happening either! So we agree to disagree but she suggests now the kids are grown up it would be nice to take the dog. Take the Dog! Yeah the dog really needs a holiday although I am pretty sure if I could harness the methane that comes out of him we could halve our fuel costs.

So time to knuckle down and generate some business in a pretty quiet market, for my fellow window and door colleagues it is time to up your game, make sure your products and service tick all the boxes so you don’t give the potential buyer an opportunity to say no because XYZ company products are higher up the food chain than yours.

It is no secret this year will be a tough but don’t give up before you try, work hard, try new things and stay focused, you will be OK, stay away from the negative crowd they will only bring you down.

That said I’m off now to develop my Methane Regeneration Engine for my flatulent Pup.

And remember………………..

“This time next year Rodney we will be millionaires” ~ Delboy Trotter

Alan Sadler