Blog by Peter Fletcher | Peter Fletcher

I’m grateful for email

July 4, 2014 by Peter Fletcher

I don’t recall when I sent my first email. It wasn’t earth shattering or life changing. If anything it probably felt like a gimmick, like CB radios from the seventies. They were great for truckies and tradies but didn’t make for great business tools.

But if that’s what I thought about email, I was wrong. Since then I’ve sent thousands of emails and it’s become an essential business tool. I use it to communicate with colleagues and competitors, prospects and past clients. If ever business had a Swiss Army knife, email is it. Quite literally, if my email stopped working I would struggle to get anything done.

So I’m grateful to the people who had a hand in inventing email. I’m grateful that provides me with such a powerful communication tool. And I’m grateful that it allows me to leverage my time.

31 things I’m grateful for — the tap in my shower

July 3, 2014 by Peter Fletcher

Every morning, the tap in my shower gives me a choice. Push it to the left and enjoy a hot shower, push it to the right and endure the sting of cold.

It’s a choice that reminds me of the power of removing options. Options cloud our judgement and turn yes or no into maybe. In business and in life, making swift, meaningful decisions create purpose and direction. Yes or no? On or off? In or out?

By choosing to have cold showers I’ve removed the options. There’s no question about which direction to push the lever. There’s no wondering about how much hot water to add. There’s just cold, only cold, no questions.

My shower tap also teaches me that the choice is mine. I can choose the warmth and comfort of the easy road that always gets bumpy or I can choose the hard road that ends up smooth and scenic. That moment of choice defines who I’ll be for the rest of the day.

My shower tap also teaches me to lean into the pain. The secret to enjoying a cold shower is to be fully present to the sharp slap of cold water. By focussing on the the icy sensation the pain goes away. Soon the cold turns into something that’s indistinguishable from warmth.

That experience helps me to lean into the pain during the day. Sometimes business can be painful. Things don’t go to plan and relationships can become strained. But leaning into the pain helps me to remain engaged during uncomfortable moments and to keep my focus when I’d like to retreat to a more comfortable place.

And those are the reasons why I appreciate the tap in my shower.

31 things I’m grateful for – My Eddy Merckx bike

July 1, 2014 by Peter Fletcher

This bike helped change my life

When Rita bought a flash new Eddy Merckx bike for my 40th birthday in 2003 I never imagined how much it would change my life.

At the time I was riding a lot but then, in 2004, I set myself a challenge to ride from Kalgoorlie to Perth in under 24 hours. Except for my best mate Russell, none of my fellow riders thought I could do it. A lot said that I’d do the ride in a single effort but none thought I’d be able to do it in less than 24 hours.

So, at 12 noon on March 5 2006, Russell, myself and John Harmsen set off from Hannan Street Kalgoorlie. 19 hours 6 minutes later we arrived at the Paddy Hannah statue in Burswood. We’d done it, with hours to spare.

That ride gave me a direct experience of my power and determination – an experience that has continued to serve me to this day. Up to that point I’d been married – enslaved even – to my business. After the ride I felt a sense of freedom and possibility about my life that I’d never experienced before. 12 months later my business was sold and I’d set off on a new adventure that took me back to university full time.

That event will always be a defining moment in my life. And it was this bike that carried me through the journey. For that, I’m grateful.

31 things I’m grateful to have in my life

June 30, 2014 by Peter Fletcher

Tomorrow is the start of a new series of blog posts called 31 things I’m grateful to have in my life. 31 is the number of days in July. When I refer to ‘things’ I mean inanimate objects. People and pets don’t count. Technologies, art and possessions do. Spaces don’t count. I love Jacobs Ladder and San Francisco but they’re not objects.

Each post will explain how the object has changed my life and why I’m grateful to have it.

Here’s the start of my list.

My Eddie Merckx bicycle,
The cold tap in my shower,
Email,
The internet,
Facebook,
Twitter,
WordPress,
My wedding ring,
My Cliff Street sign,
My barbecue (even though it’s the worst designed barbecue in the world),
My passport,
An autographed poster of Jen Hawkins,
A book called I Only Love You,
Uncle Will’s military saddle,
My joggers,
Our gas heater,
My iPhone, and
My house key.

OK, that’s not 31 but it’s 18 and that will get me a start. I’m sure as the month goes by I’ll come up with new ideas. If you can think of something that I’ve forgotten, let me know.

The theme for my blog posts for the rest of 2014

June 29, 2014 by Peter Fletcher

So far this year I’ve written approximately 180 blog posts. As best as I can figure it I’m about 2 off the pace of a post per day, a challenge I set myself at the start of the year. So far, so good.

But there’s a problem. There’s no single, unifying theme to my posts. Possibly there’s a general theme of commitment but it’s more inferred than explicit.

So it occurred to me last night that I could use the theme of gratitude for the last 6 months of the year. The posts would create a series called 184 Things I’m Grateful For. When I write about a person I’m not writing about a thing, so I’d need to change that to 184 People I’m Grateful For.

It seemed like a plausible idea but then I started listing the people I’d put on my list. I got to 17. That’s a long way short of 184.

Rather than make it such a daunting task I could break the last 6 months into two. The first 90 days could use the Grateful theme and the last 90 days could be something else.

I could even beak the last six months into monthly chunks. July could be the 31 Things I’m Grateful For. August could be 31 People Who Inspire Me. September…that’s ages away.

So that’s it. The rest of the year will have six different themes starting with gratitude.

Beware technology’s bright, shiny objects

June 20, 2014 by Peter Fletcher

When you’re building a website or choosing a new CRM start the selection process with a clear-eyed view of your business strategy. Get your strategy right then start selecting the technology that will help you get there fastest. Go the other way around and you’ll be spend too much and end up with something that you don’t need.

Business owners who aren’t clear on their business strategy tend to allow tech vendors to shape their strategy. For example, they’ll meet with someone who’s flogging CRM software and will find their strategy and business processes being shaped by the bells and whistles contained in the software. Not that there’s anything wrong with taking advantage of the efficiencies that the latest technology can deliver but there’s a very real risk of the business owner losing focus on what they want to achieve.

Rather than focussing on building revenue or asset growth the business owner can be seduced into thinking that the technology is an end in itself. It’s not!

Instead, smart operators focus on what they want then look for technology that will help them get their in the most efficient manner. In doing so they need to be aware of the starry-eyed tech enthusiasts who overstate the transformational capabilities of the latest technology platform. They also need to be aware of being overly cynical of the effects of technology on their business or industry.

As an example, many real estate agents in the nineties dismissed the significance of email and the internet to the way their businesses would operate. Had they moved earlier to build a database and a web presence they would be significantly better off today.

To recap: have a sound business strategy, keep scanning the horizon for technology that will effect your strategy and select technology that will help you achieve your goals in the most efficient manner.

Does your real estate investment survive the Back of The Envelope Test

June 19, 2014 by Peter Fletcher

I’m going to start out this (short) post with a disclaimer: This is not investment advice. Rather, these are reflections on what’s worked for well for me when I’ve bought and sold properties.

Here’s the deal. If the investment doesn’t look great when you do the sums on the back of the envelope (0r a napkin or whatever scrap of paper you have available at the time) it probably won’t get better when you run the numbers through a fancy Excel spreadsheet. And it definitely won’t get better by spending more money on a renovation.

The sums that you’ll fit on the back of the envelope are these:

Purchase price,
Stamp duty and bank fees,
Renovation costs,
Interest,
Agent fees,
Profit (yes, that’s a cost to the development),
Sale price of the end product.

If these numbers don’t show a conservative 15% profit start looking at #1.

Most junior investors blow their budget on renovations and most projects last longer than anticipated – and that blows out the interest costs. That only leaves the sale price as a variable and, in the main, there’s little you can do about that. Sure agents will tell you that they’ll get an amazing price for the property but the reality is they can only do as much as the market at the time will allow them.

And that brings us back to the purchase price. Work on getting that right. If you can’t, find another option.