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The NEWORK Centre
Level 2 Willbank House
57 Willis Street Wellington
Phone 499 1048
e-mail nework@xtra.co.nz

No 32 September 2004

Work Till You're 70 Proposed In Uk

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is calling for the UK government to increase the basic state pension by £20 per week and to pay for it by lifting the retirement age to 70 years. The CBI says such a move would put paid to the looming pensions crisis that will see, over the next 40 years, the number of UK pensioners rise from 10.8 million to 15.3 million. Yet company pension schemes, according to CBI figures, have already sunk into a £100 billion deficit and just stabilising them will cost employers £6b a year in extra contributions.

Unions accuse the CBI of proposing a "work till you drop" policy. The Trades Union Congress general secretary Brendan Barber says that employees will be angry that their employers are suggesting they should work until they are 70 years, especially as the CBI is lobbying for legislation that would allow employers to force people to retire at age 65.

Source — The Guardian, UK 19 July 2004 "Work till you're 70, says CBI" by Patrick Collinson.

If you imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.

Identify What Drives You To Run Your Own Small Business

To jump-start your thinking about your values, consider these five driving factors, named here the "five F's": fortune, fame, family, freedom and fun. They are primary motivators for any entrepreneur. Let’s take a look at each one.

Fortune. Many entrepreneurs place fortune first on their list of goals. After deeper thought, however, they usually find that the accumulation of money, while certainly important, is not necessarily where they derive their greatest satisfaction. Probably more gratifying is acknowledging how closely their bottom line is tied to their efforts, talent, and capabilities. So though they may not strike it rich overnight, as they work to build their business, they will reap the rewards that come from being responsible for its growth.

Fame. A healthy love of self is another key drive of entrepreneurs. They are very comfortable seeing their name in lights—or (more commonly) on company letterhead. Making their mark on the world is part of why they struck out on their own in the first place.

Family. Many solo entrepreneurs seek a better way to balance the competing demands of their home and professional lives. They want to be able to spend more quality time with their families, and they want to provide a good livelihood for their loved ones.

Freedom. Not surprisingly, more important than money to many entrepreneurs is the ability to call their own shots. Many turn down better-paying jobs because they place a high value on working for themselves; they want to set their own schedule, to ensure that it honors the needs of both their clients and their family. And they want the freedom to pursue new prospects when these come along.

Fun. There often isn’t a lot of tolerance (or respect) for self-expression in the corporate workaday world. Entrepreneurs, in general, are creative individuals who need an environment in which they can express their personalities in the context of a business. Incorporating a sense of self is also the way they ensure that those intangible inner, spiritual needs are met.

Challenges are what makes life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.

Five Common Time-wasters and How To Avoid Them

With only 24 hours in each day, 168 hours in each week, it's important to make each minute count. Determine which (or if all) of the following activities are wasting your time and keeping you from being productive.

The wrong software. With an increasing number of computer programs available for accounting, project management, contact management, word processing, image processing, data management, and more, you can afford to be picky. Before you invest in a computer program, talk with others to find out the program's ease of use, usefulness and backup support reliability (whether timely technical support is available). One program may be ideal for one person and worthless or too confusing to another. Also, a program may offer more features than you need, costing you time and money when a simplified version of the same program will do. Check to see if the simplest meets your needs. Check the available freebees.

Interruptions. Close your office door and let your voice mail take messages while you work on important tasks. Start by ignoring your phone for thirty minutes, then work up to an hour and longer.

Postponed decisions. When you're faced with several solutions to a problem, it may be difficult to decide which direction to take. Rather than wasting time contemplating each choice, to the point that you continually miss deadlines, make a decision and develop a backup plan in case your first choice fails.

An indecisive person appears unstable, unreliable and unprofessional. Avoid all three by making a conscious decision to decide.

Long-winded callers. When you call someone who is notorious for keeping you on the phone too long, state up front that you have only a few minutes to talk. Then ask the caller for the information you need or respond to their request, then finish the call. If the caller starts to ramble, remind him that you need to go and if necessary, will call him back later.

Searching for lost items. If you waste one hour a day, five days a week, at the end of the year (with two weeks off for vacation), you'll have wasted more than 32 eight-hour days. If you take time to set up files, organise reference materials and store extra supplies, when information or products reach your office, you'll know where they belong.

You can't add hours to your day, but you can increase the number of tasks you accomplish each day by recognizing the time-wasters in your life and more importantly, reducing or eliminating them.

The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is thinking that having problems is a problem.

Keep Your Office In Your Office

When you worked in a corporate office, your storage space probably was limited to your office or cubicle and any other rooms that were designated for storage. At home, your storage space can easily go from your office, to your basement, to your garage and attic. Before you know it, you may consider adding on to your home or investing in an outside storage shed to hold more "stuff."

1. Be realistic about what you need to keep vs. what you want to keep and how much storage space you have.

2. Store anything related to your business in your office, rather than scattering it throughout your home. If your office is bursting with information, supplies and products, designate another closet or portion of your home to storage.

3. Don't go overboard and turn every empty space into a storage annex. The more places you have to look for something, the more likely you are to end your search empty-handed.

4. If you use a spare bedroom or guestroom as your office, convert the closet into storage space for files, supplies and reference materials. Take anything out of the closet that is not related to your business (if you have the room) and devote the closet to business supply storage. If you can't spare the entire closet, devote a portion of it to your business.

The NEWORKer can be viewed online at the Work & Age Website http://www.nework.co.nz