#NEENTREPRENEURS
IT’S TIME TO TALK ABOUT MONEY
RECOMMENDED READS
Poor mental health affects one in six workers in the UK every year according to charity Mind, while the cost to the UK economy is somewhere between £74 billion and £99 billion a year.
It comes as no surprise that increasing numbers of employers are looking at their role in staff wellbeing and introducing mental health training throughout their businesses - North East businesses and Entrepreneurs’ Forum members included. The rationale is obvious: improved wellbeing can result in improved performance, productivity and quality of work and greater job satisfaction.
LINCHPIN: ARE YOU INDISPENSABLE? by Seth Godin
Recommended by Karen Weir, Weir Insurance I love Seth Godin and ‘Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?’ is my favourite from him. In it, Seth writes: “There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labour. Now there’s a third team: the linchpins. These people figure out what to do when there’s no rule book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.” I aspire to be a Linchpin, to employ Linchpins, and to create and bring up Linchpins! This book is a must read for everyone, not just business leaders.
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ENTREPRENEURS’ FORUM NEWS
EXPERT SECRETS
THE POWER OF HABIT
Recommended by Tim Ward, Bid and Research Development
Recommended by Jessica Williams, Just Williams
For me, the main thing I look for in a book is something that I can use, a golden nugget, one little thing that changes the way I think or do things. I love this book so much as it is absolutely packed with practical advice, teaching us the techniques that Russell has used in turning his customers into a tribe of fans. He provides real value and marketing advice that can be implemented and used in any business. A great read!
The Power of Habit challenges the everyday things that happen in the office that you’ve always done, that you don’t even question - allowing the reader to take stock and consider why. It provides some exceptional examples of how creating new habits within your own schedule and your workforce can improve all aspects of your business. From buyer habits, altering existing processes to challenging embedded personal habits, this book will make you think specifically about your marketing and sales processes. As well as your team’s activities whilst encouraging goal setting and identifying those unsaid habits we all hold as individuals and businesses.
by Russell Brunson
by Charles Duhigg
However, the one area that can be a persons’ biggest source of stress - money - tends to be one that gets ignored the most. This could be because it is a more complex topic than some, or because talking about money can be difficult and uncomfortable. With a view of taking financial wellbeing seriously, Brewin Dolphin has conducted the study ‘The Family Wealth Report’ to understand what is important in people’s financial lives. Working with Opinium Research, an independent company, Brewin Dolphin surveyed 5,000 people across a range of age groups throughout the UK to look at three broad areas:
1. Amid Brexit, and a decade on from the global financial crisis, how are Britons’ finances faring? 2. What are people’s concerns, their expectations and their aspirations in relation to their finances? 3. What are their attitudes to saving, retirement and passing on their wealth? “By creating a detailed picture of peoples’ finances, we could fully understand the myriad of financial pressures we all continue to face. However, this also gave us the wherewithal to help steer people to where the opportunities lie to make their money work harder,” said Gary Fawcett, Divisional Director at Brewin Dolphin. “Many will have struggled with rising living costs, trying to build their pensions and making sure they have a rainy-day fund for when the car breaks down. All at a time of statistically low wage growth and historically low interest rates giving their savings little help. “Or what about the struggle faced by younger members of the work force who are trying to get on the housing ladder while often paying down the debt from higher education? This is before they have even considered how they will afford a family or fund their retirement. This perfect storm of pressures on current and future financial goals has led to personal debt reaching record levels while saving levels have fallen to all-time lows. 34% of the working population regularly run out of money before pay day. The stress of this is untenable.” The study also reveals that, regardless of life stage, having a financial plan can help you make the most of your opportunities for the future. Gary continued, “Many of us feel uncomfortable talking about money or find it hard to imagine what the future holds, planning for the unknown is even harder than planning for the here and now.
“While so many of us just don’t quite know what our options are and how we can solve the issues we are confronted with. This means we are prone to putting the conversation off and hoping the problem will go away on its own, which does not ease the stress and anxiety. “Whether some of these issues resonate with you or not, they are likely to with people you work with. No one should carry this burden around with them, but it is only with knowledge and understanding that we can stop worrying. That is why it’s important to get people thinking and play a role in people having the conversations that could transform their finances, to be armed them with the knowledge that will help them look to the future with confidence.” Brewin Dolphin are helping to raise awareness and address the issue of financial wellbeing by working with companies and organisations to deliver programmes that help their staff find financial peace of mind and wellbeing and learn to have those difficult money conversations in a constructive and stress-free way. Through this, people create their own financial plan to achieve what matters most to them. The team at Brewin Dolphin explore how to reach goals, the importance of revisiting the plan in the future, and how to protect income, making the most of work benefits and some clever money saving tips. Offering a final comment, Gary said, “Entrepreneurs’ Forum members are renowned for being proactive. They are committed; they strive to be responsible in business and as an employer; and are always seeking to improve. With support from other firms in the business community, such as Brewin Dolphin, they can more easily achieve those objectives.”
ENTREPRENEURS’ FORUM NEWS
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