After graduating from Uni I had a stark choice - get a well paid programming or design job with a flash London software company, or move back to Cornwall where I had grown up and face an employment climate that was unlikely to fulfill my dreams. I needed experience (or so I thought) before starting my own business, but after 3 years of studying in Manchester I was longing to get back to my roots…

As I suspected finding meaningful employment in the IT sector in Cornwall was near impossible. I ended up working for the family business - a mail order clothing outlet, hardly what I was looking for. I did drag the company kicking and screaming into the 21st century by first getting them on email (wow - technology!) and building them a small website. I took this to the next logical stage and developed an online store and within a year or so a large percentage of their business would be online.

From the back of this experience I started delving more into web design and in 2003 I finally set up my own company - Kernow Web Designs

I was proud of my new venture and worked hard to get the business off the ground. I took on work at a knockdown price to ‘get my foot in the door’ and build a client base. I advertised online and offline, and slowly picked up bigger projects. I taught myself Flash and built a number of games in the process which I used as promotional tools (and posted them to a free website for others to play and use : Kwikgames And I even moved into a nice big office in the local town… but the problem was there was simply not enough hours in the day!

The harder and longer I worked the more money the business made, but there was only so much I could physically do. It was getting obvious that I would need to employ others if I was to build the successful business that I hankered after. This was a real sticking point - on the one hand I wanted to expand the business, but on the other I knew only too well the pitfalls of taking on employees (my fathers business had taught me all about health and safety, pensions, redundancy, sick pay… all the things that caused management stress and problems!) so I was very reluctant to do so.

Then salvation…

One day after leaving the office I found a business card on my car window, “Major Second Income - Earn £500 to £3000 extra per month without affecting your existing job or business”. It sounded too good be true and so I concluded that it probably was - but there was a website address on the card so I browsed the site with the idea of selling them my web design services. I filled out an application for a free info pack and waited.

Two days later an info pack dropped through my letterbox that would change my life. I had discovered Kleeneze, a company that I had never heard of, and Network Marketing “The most powerful income structure ever devised”. I decided it was worth trying and got started immediately.

I made back the investment within 10 days and was well into profit by the end of the first month… Although only working very much part-time for a few hours each week I was bringing in a few hundred pounds extra each month on top of my Kernow Web income. Over the next few months I started to get involved in the sponsoring and very slowly built my Kleeneze business on just a few hours a week. It would be over a year before Cressy joined my in the business and we hit Gold status within 8 weeks after that. With the foundation of a very strong team we can now see that the sky is the limit. We can have as many people working for us as we like - without the headaches of being an employer, and finally I have the high end successful business I’ve always wanted… you can to!

Following on from their success in The Netherlands, Internet registration for German distributors starts next month on April 25th. To ensure a successful launch Kleeneze are holding their summer sales conference in Bonn, Germany on May 6th. Tickets for the conference are now available for existing distributors and of course guests are free. The exact location of the conference is The hotel Maritim, Godesberger Allee, D-53175, Bonn.

How will YOU benefit from the German launch? Your plans should already be in place. Do you know anybody who lives in Germany? Do you know anybody who speaks German? Do you know anybody who may have German contacts?

Don’t forget it’s not who YOU know, it’s who your contacts know. Now is the time to recontact your warm-list, talk to your friends, family and neighbors again. Talk to your customers, talk to old prospects, talk to everybody! As Edward Ludbrook says in his book International Networking, “By far the biggest incomes come from International Networks”. If you want to build a large, successful business then Germany could be the way to go!

The truely amazing thing is, these cars are given to top performers for achieving their own goals… How would it feel to have reached a new personal highest level of income in your life and then being given a car as an extra reward for all your hard work!

I must be honest and say that the car incentives have never really inspired me that much. My thoughts were always along the lines of, “what’s so inspiring about someone who’s been with the company for years and has a massive team being given a car - I’ll never get there…”, but… that’s where I was wrong!

These cars were being awarded not just to the very top levels of the pay plan, but to Bronze Executives and above… and Cressy and I are aiming for Bronze this year! We will be in the running for a Mini Cooper within the next few months and seeing them with my own eyes really made me think - why not me?

Of course there was lots of other news. The launch date for Germany has been confirmed as May of this year which is fantastic news - 90 million fresh prospects! And of course all those new prospects will get us well on the way to a new car

If you missed out on this conference then make sure you get to the next one - truely inspiring!

Six months on and their cheque last period was a whopping £1,742 which works out (with 13 periods in a year) to around £22,000 per annum… not a bad wage for Cornwall, especially considering they are only 6 months in and still learning the business!

Now Su is confident about their future, “Clint was a full time delivery driver, he has always been on the road. I had a child at school and needed something to fit around him. So we did this part time for six months and then in December we decided we would do it full time so Clint handed in his notice and we started full time in January. This has given us the time and freedom we need to spend with the family and also to earn the extra cash we needed. We are now looking forward to so much. We know we can turn our dreams into reality.”

It’s been an exciting six months… With their team growing along with their turnover, and their income, I wonder what the next six months has in store!

There are now a team of native German speakers online at the service centre to answer questions. The launch conference on 6th May will be fantastic but to back that up there are now a series of confirmed BOMs over the next few months:

May
15 Frankfurt
16 Düsseldorf
17 Hanover
22 Frankfurt
23 Düsseldorf
24 Hanover

July

17 Frankfurt
18 Düsseldorf
19 Hanover
24 Berlin
25 Dresden
26 Leipzig

August

7 Berlin
8 Dresden
9 Leipzig
21 Berlin
22 Dresden
23 Leipzig

Germany will take this business to a new level, with many people building large and successful teams in mainland Europe. If you want to be part of that success story then you need to be planning your success now!

Kleening Up

CATALOGUE shopping firm KLEENEZE is giving away 11 new cars to its top distributors.

The seven BMW 3 series and four Mini Coopers will be awarded at a conference next month attended by 2,000 of the firm’s sales people.

Most started out putting catalogues through doors and now run their own teams of workers.

The ex-teacher, 53, from Billericay, Essex, said: “Big sellers when I started in 1992 were silly things like apple corers. These days things to do with health and beauty have come to the fore. �

Another successful distributor is Chris Mason-Paull, 49, of Saltford, Bristol. The former dry cleaner runs a team of 2,745 people — and took home £212,751 last year.

The firm is owned by EUROPEAN HOME RETAIL, which also owns web site Iwantoneofthose.com and eeZee, the home shopping TV channel.

I’ve also scanned the article and you can see it here

Sounds like it will be one fantastic conference (although I think there will be a few more than 2000 attending)… see you there!

The pension crisis in a nutshell

Life expectancy is on the increase with Government figures showing that average life expectancy in the UK rose by five years for men and four years for women between 1980 and 2000.

Dwindling stock market returns… Pension funds depend on steady stock market returns to pay policyholders.

An additional gripe, as far as employers are concerned, is the 10% tax on dividends earned by pension schemes.

What does this mean for the average employee?

Basically the amount of money they need to put aside in order to ensure a given level of retirement income is rising steadily.

Experts say that a 30-year-old man aiming to retire at 65 on an annual income of £20,000 a year in today’s terms would currently need to save about £260 a month… and that rises with age - a 40 year old man would have to set aside £450 per month! (Figures taken from BBC News)

The solution

Want to set aside £260 per month towards a pension scheme but can’t afford to - welcome to Kleeneze! The average distributor in our team earns that much per month, part-time, from personal retail alone! Of course by building a team a residual income of many times that could easily be achieved by most people meaning that the pension in effect becomes superfluous as your Kleeneze income way outgrows your pension… if you know anyone worries about pensions (and hey - who doesn’t!) make sure you tell them about the business.

Cornish couple benefit from staying in county

A young Cornish couple who refused to move out of the county to seek their fortunes have built a business with a turnover well in excess of £100,000 in just 18 months.

From their home in Penhallow Close, Mount Hawke, Bill Deakin and Cressy Chapman run a Kleeneze franchise. Bill, who was born and grew up in St.Agnes, is a graduate of Manchester University.

“Half of my friends wanted to move back to Cornwall after university and the others moved to the city for well paid jobs. For me there was no choice because after three years in Manchester I didn’t want to stay away from Cornwall any longer.”

Bill, who is a self-employed web designer, had his interest in Kleeneze sparked by a business card stuck on the window of his car.

“I thought there was potential there but didn’t know whether it would work for me. I didn’t really expect that much.”

He and Cressy now head a team of 15 and have just been entertained to an all expenses five-star trip to Budapest. They hope their franchise of Kleeneze, which operates catalogue sales, will reach a turnover of £250,000 turnover this year.

Bill added: “If someone had told me while studying at uni that I’d be selling mops for a living, and enjoying it, I would have laughed. Whoever said we couldn’t stay in Cornwall and have a successful career should take a look at the Kleeneze opportunity.”

Not a great photo but great publicity!

1. Treat everyone with respect
2. Set an example for your team to follow
3. Be an active coach
4. Maintain a high standard of honesty and integrity
5. Insist on excellence and hold your team members accountable for their actions
6. Create a sense of team pride
7. Show confidence in our people
8. Create a strong sense of urgency
9. Be available and visible to our team
10. Develop ourselves to the highest possible level

So why should you be there? Well, you’ll be among the first to see the new Xmas catalogue, you’ll get all the news about this years European expansion and new products, you’ll get some great training from our network stars, and there will be massive recognition for those who have moved up the network… plus the destination for the International conference 2008 will be announced!

All the top distributors from The UK and Europe will be there - make sure you and your team are among them!