How to save for a house deposit

There’s plenty of things we can do grow that money pot in the process of how to save for a house deposit. So what are the stages and options?

Accountability

The first thing that is the least glamourous one, is being personally accountable for your finances. The old saying is look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves is right. So… what are you doing to

How to save for a house deposit

Need more inspiration? Read the blog here

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Why go swimming with crocodiles ?

It’s a fair question. I could give a cavalier answer like “why not?” but in truth, the reason is far more detailed. And the reason most would not, is far stronger than my”why not”. Their “why” is pretty understandable.

Though it’s probably not for everyone, swimming with crocodiles was the greatest adventure I have ever had. It was something I will never forget. It was an adventure I didn’t take lightly. I’d thought about it long and hard over many years ever since I realised I was being hunted by one. It’s quite a humbling feeling when you realise the planets top predator is hunting you. Vulnerability is an understatement, if a croc decided to take you, it would be quite a problematic situation. But it was this moment that began a much deeper interest in them. I soon realised something… there’s a lot more to them that tail and teeth.

I’m being hunted

I was walking along the bank of the Mara river while on safari in Kenya and Tanzania. I had left the safety of the lodge and gone for a walk to checkout the area. I’d hoped to see the masses of hippos in the river and other life that might be a long the waters edge. Of course, there could be Lions or Leopards too, a Leopard had killed a man working at the lodge a few days before. But lighting doesn’t strike twice, right? Maybe it does, either way, I was going for that walk.

Eyes peeled for all kinds of wildlife I soon noticed a large Nile Crocodile in the water along side me. I was up on the bank, elevated, but it was close. Amazed I stood and watched it, holding it’s position in the water effortlessly, that big tail hypnotically moving from side to side. I took some pics on my little average camera, a time before I could afford a good one. Having spent enough time marvelling at it, I carried on up the bank. As i neared the bend in the river where I hoped to find the masses of Hippo, I was surprised to see another large croc. It was big, around 5m (17ft), facing up river and holding it’s position in the water effortlessly. Just like the one… a moment ago.

Realising what was happening I walked back a few paces, the croc turned and followed. I continued and so did he. I changed direction and went back up along the river, so did he. Suddenly the steep edge of the bank I was walking along seemed all the more precarious.

Unforgettable moments

Knowing you’re being hunted by something capable of killing you is unforgettable, but so is the moment that a decade later that you get into the water they are the masters of. The water up to my shoulders a slowly lower myself beneath the surface, camera at the ready, looking around keeping aware of my surroundings at all times. It wasn’t long before a crocodile pushed through the shadows and came into view.

The crocodile didn’t come slowly, nor fast. It wasn’t aggressive, but neither was it cautious, crocodiles it turns out are pretty confident. Of course not all are but this one was confident, interested and keen to see what was in the water. This was a truly unforgettable moment, I won’t pretend I felt no fear. There was a 5m crocodile coming towards me. He moved around me and settled in front of me, as if he was thinking. Suddenly fear was gone and simply I was at peace. The more time I spent with him, the more calming it became.

The crocodile would go sometimes test you, it would come forward to see what you’d do. Would you run, would you become aggressive or hold your ground. Remaining calm I’d hold position, small adjustments left or right so, like a game of underwater chess. But your opponent can kill you.

Misunderstood

Crocodiles are very much misunderstood. They absolutely can kill people and do, but they have a reputation of being merciless monsters and that is entirely unfounded. In the animal kingdom there are those that eat plants and those that eat those that eat plants. It’s the simple circle of life and crocodiles site at the top of it. Apex predators they are unbelievable at what they do, the perfect hunter. However that’s not all they are. Like people pretend sharks are monsters whilst entirely ignoring the data that shows you’re far more likely to be killed by a vending machine, or bitten by a New Yorker than a shark, people do the same with crocodiles.

They are hyper intelligent and capable of a variety of behaviours and seem to have a broad emotional range. Like all animals they aren’t always hungry and even when they are the will make choices about what is a good choice for food and will avoid conflict that puts them at risk.

From all the crocodile species and individual crocodiles I have come into contact with, my experience tells me there is much more to them than the myth of the monster.

The first time i slipped into the water, knowing there was a croc nearby I was alone. I didn’t know exactly where it was but locals had said there was one. There was even a vaguely threatening sign that said “Caution Crocodiles”. I’d dived down and looked under the rocks but to no avail. After two and a half hours of searching the camera batteries were running low and it was time to head back. As I swam back, frustrated and a little deflated I was looking back at my fins moving through the water and my shadow on the bottom. But as I turned to look where I was going

I found it to be a spiritual experience, one I can’t explain. Looking into the eyes of a top predator as it moves around you, working you out and then accepting you… there’s really nothing like it.

Swimming with Crocodiles

For some it will be hard to understand, but for others this will I’m sure offer a moment of excitement, a sense of adventure. On this adventure I took my SONY A7S ii and GoPro Hero 11. Managing to take some interesting pics I was happy when SONY asked me to do an interview to talk about how and why I used the SONY Alpha system to capture this amazing adventure.

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So who’s to blame for the decline of the high street?

In reality the largest chunk of the blame is with the government. Whilst the problem of people shopping online is real, there’s a bigger problem. What is it? It’s how retailers are being squeezed by government and how shoppers are being pushed away from the high street and town centres. So what is the problems that government is creating and how do we deal with it?

There’s a couple of major issues with the UK government and the impact on the high street, lets examine them.

Business Rates – an unnecessary evil

Business rates (sometimes called commercial rates) are a tax levied on business properties. The money collected is channelled by local authorities into services such as police, fire and waste management. Which seems ok, but when you realise the business is already paying tax, paying staff and the tax on their wages, paying tax on all the goods and services utilised in the running of the business you soon see it’s not only unnecessary but actually quite evil.

Businesses need to pay for waste collection etc, but should they also pay huge Business Rates in addition to rent? For which the landlord is already paying tax on? The cost can often incredibly high and equate to the wages of 2-8 staff in small to medium sized sites. Now let’s look at that impact.

If a business employs people, taxes are paid on that employees salary, but more importantly that person is employed. It brings benefit to them and to the community, where they spend their money. The tax revenues still come into the system, but we create and protect jobs.

We also take some of the pressure of businesses that are already feeling it. Sadly this is a glaring example of the short sightedness of government. They’d rather take the fast money today, than keep a local economy going for longer.

Parking Restrictions & Costs – Fools Gold

The idiocy of high priced parking and overly limiting restrictions is astounding. Of course, it gives our shortsighted government and easy stealth tax, but that’s not all it is. Overly limiting Parking restriction or high charges drive (great pun) shoppers elsewhere. Whether it’s it the out of town retail parks or simply to buy online, they are not coming into town.

But what is a town without people? Without a community the lifeblood of the town is drained. How can parking charges and fines be more important than a thriving town. There’ll be an argument for public transport but we all know that’s not why the restrictions exist.

An element of control prevents issues of course, but a 2-3hr FREE parking allowance would revolutionise the volume of visitors. Imagine if you will if popping to your high street was accommodated. If when you visited it was busy and vibrant. How would that feel? How would the shops and the community benefit?

Economy – A House of Cards

Zoom out, look at the big picture. The UK, like other major economies endless print money and devalue the currency means peoples money doesn’t go as far. In small scales, remember what a chocolate bar cost 10 years ago vs now. Now extrapolate that across everything in our society and peoples budgets are tight. The Governments solution is to tell businesses to increase wages. Of course to everyone that seems right, but the only reason people need more money, is the devalued currency. So while the government create the problems with the financial system, they point the finger at businesses, demanding higher pay.

What could go wrong? With high business rates, parking charges limiting footfall, increased business costs and higher waves, what is the result?

It doesn’t take a genius to see businesses have to cut staff or cut hours. If they don’t they’ll be forced to close. They can’t simply increase costs, as people aren’t visiting already and costs are cheaper online. So what is the solution to keep the business going? Automate where possible, cut the costs of staff. But what’s the impact of that? Less employment within the local community. If people aren’t employed in the local community, there’s less local people with money to spend. And so continues the cycle.

The Solution

It’s fair to say the government is largely to blame for the decline of the high street. Some elements are hard to resolve of course, but others are much easier. We as the public need to put pressure in the government. both local and national to make radical change. It’s not about businesses making more money, it’s about protecting communities. It’s about retaining jobs, increasing footfall and rebuilding our local economies.

Companies like Amazon are taking a huge chunk of the business our local areas would traditionally have provided. Whilst our local businesses are being hit with endless taxes and costs, Amazon isn’t. Amazon gets away without paying taxes in the UK. Why does the government allow the tax revenues of products sold in the UK to not be paid by these giants? Whilst they are based off shore, the tax office could require taxes to be paid on business done in the UK. Why don’t they? It seems like a huge amount of tax revenue that should be in the country, that’s being missed. Tax revenue that could quite easily be retained.

The realistic solutions seem to be:

• Cut Business Rates
• Cut Parking Restrictions
• Appropriately tax big business

These challenges are big enough. How can we tackle them? Or more importantly, what is the cost of not tackling them?

What can we do in the meantime?

If you’re looking for ways to increase visitors to try and support the local economy, there are options! Creature Events offer a range of activations that really boost the local economy. See Creature Events HERE!

Want something more techy? Have you seen the Ultra Reality VR / AR and Holo solutions?

Want to discuss this more Get In Touch!

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The good news is there are lots of things that can be done and in this blog we cover some of those. You can use our free tips or utilise our amazing services to increase footfall and encourage shoppers back to the site in a sustainable way.

The Solution to encourage shoppers back

There are many solutions you can use to encourage shoppers back to the site, but here is our guide to what we think are the best options .

1. Great Communication – Take charge of your social media and use Engagers and Inciters to get the community talking about what you’re doing at the site and why they should visit.
2. Reasons to engage – what are you offering to the community that encourages them to come you the site? What are the features and benefits of your site over others?
3. Increased Value – what additional value can you offer the local community to encourage footfall, visits and revisits? What will drive them to you rather than another site?
4. Grow the Community – People buy from people and they want to be together. Consider what can be done to increase the community feel and to build on that.
5. Keep it up – ensure you build the community but also keep it up! Look at what you can do to increase traction and revisits on a regular basis. There’s some great ideas below.

What services can encourage shoppers back?

What can BID’s, Shopping Centres and Retail Spaces do with closed units? How can these closed units be transformed into an opportunity to increase footfall?

We have devised a range of medium to long term Retail space Installations and Activations to help retailers re capture the hearts of their local communities. Our installations help boost the local economy and engage communities whilst offering unbelievable value.

Installations can take a section of a unit or an entire unit as desired. Find out how encourage shoppers back below.

Retail Space Installations & Activations

We have separated up the Retail Space Installations and Activation options into sections to make it easier for you to go over. If there’s a combination you’d like that’s not listed, please just ask. For all these activations we offer an all inclusive solution, with props, theming and design.

Staffed Experiences – Our team manning the installation supporting the activation to improve the look and feel of the venue and increase footfall. Staff can be there 2-7 days per week for anything from 4-8hrs per day. These can be FREE or Revenue generating activities, but don’t worry, we’ll handle it all.

Unstaffed Free Experiences – These unmanned installations generate footfall improve the venue, can be FREE to use, opened up and left for people to enjoy on their own terms. Promote it with signage and social media. Want a secondary benefit? Checkout the Add on options.

Unstaffed Revenue Generating Experiences – Unmanned self running activities that support increased footfall and improve the site, but also have a range of Revenue Generation options. This not only increases footfall and benefits the site, but also the opportunity for revenues from the installation.

Retail Space Installations

Staffed Experiences

The Staffed Experiences can be Free to use for your visitors or we can run with an element of Revenue Generation. The benefit to the Free to use version is it encourages visitors regularly to use a zero cost activity, but the running cost has to be covered by the site. With a Revenue Generating version, the site can claw back some or all of the costs depending on how it’s priced. Want a hybrid option? We can do that too, see below for more information.

Dino Safari Park: Petting Zoo – Mini Experience

The Dino Safari Park Petting Zoo is a smaller version of the hugely successful Dino Safari Park experience, redesigned for Retail spaces. Think of it like almost like a soft play or mini immersive theatre, but with our amazing Dinosaurs and performers.

The Experience is available in varying formats and levels budget dependent. Included as standard is set dressing, theming and photo opportunity points as well as multi media experiences that make the space look and feel wonderful. This is a huge footfall draw for families and a massive benefit for Retail spaces and Retailers.

Options Available

• 2/3/4/5/7 days a week 4-8 hrs per day
• Available as a Free or Charged activity
• Available at different size and scale levels
• Flexible duration from 1 week to 1 year
• Check the Add on options at the bottom of this section

CLICK HERE to find out more! OR   Email us for a Quote

Safari Ranger Club: – Mini Experience

The Safari Ranger Club is a wild experience designed for Retail spaces. Similar to Dino Safari Park in terms of structure, think of it like almost like a soft play or mini immersive theatre. At Safari Ranger Club, the visitors go on safari and meet our amazing Apes, hippos, Rhinos, Lions and more with our amazing performers.

We offer the Experience in varying formats and levels,with options that are budget dependent. Included as standard is set dressing, theming and photo opportunity points as well as multi media experiences that make the space look and feel wonderful. This is a huge footfall draw for families and a massive benefit for Retail spaces and Retailers.

Options Available

• 2/3/4/5/7 days a week 4-8 hrs per day
• Available as a Free or Charged activity
• Available at different size and scale levels
• Flexible duration from 1 week to 1 year
• Check the Add on options at the bottom of this section

CLICK HERE to find out more! OR   Email Creature Events for a Quote

UR Game

UR Game is an experiential game focused installation that turns a closed retail unit into a fun family friendly mini arcade. Transform a closed, dark and dull shop unit into a striking and exciting world of neon and fun, with an installation that suits your local demographic. We offer the highest end experiential games including Immersion VR and also simpler variations, to fit your needs perfectly.

Our awesome installation can be a either a Free or Chargeable activity staffed by our Team members or alternatively, in some variations available unmanned (see below). We have 40+ game options available, let us know what kind of thing you’d like.

Games Available Include

• Immersion VR Multi Player Combat Environment – be in the game
• Virtual Racer – race through a variety of environments in VR
• FLY VR – fly through the skies in VR while the machine title
• SingBox – sound proof karaoke pods that keep the fun within
• Virtual Bowling/ Darts – play the games without equipment
• Virtual Shooting Range – practice your skills in in a safe fun way
• React AR – interactive AR wall
• PingPong & Air Hockey – Simple but effective Games the old school way

Options Available

• 2/3/4/5/7 days a week 4-8 hrs per day
• Available as a Free or Charged activity
• Available at different size and scale levels
• Flexible duration from 1 week to 1 year

CLICK HERE to find out more! OR   Email Creature Events for a Quote

Add on

We love giving our clients exactly what they need, so here’s a bunch of Add on’s that are an easy addition to the above Installations. For example, if you’re looking to offer a Free activity a simple Add on can support you with some revenues. Do you need something more? Ask us we are happy to help!

• VENDY Vending Machines for revenue generation – we manage, you earn
• Merchandise – we manage, you earn

CLICK HERE to find out more! OR   Email Creature Events for a Quote

Retail Space Installations

Unstaffed Free Experiences

We offer a range of Unstaffed Installations that are perfect for Free Experiences that Retailers can offer to the local community as a draw to increase footfall. The increased footfall and loiter time supports local stores and encourage shoppers back on a regular basis. The activations keep the area feeling lively and positive. Checkout the sections below for more information.

Immersive Art Exhibition

Turn a closed retail unit into a stunning Immersive Art Exhibition and add a sense of style and class to your space at an incredibly low installation cost. Our Immersive Art Exhibition couldn’t be easier to set up and is perfect for an Unstaffed Experience as it runs itself. But how does it work? We set up the space to look like a Gallery, and hang canvas or frames with QR codes. The visitors come in and scan the QR codes with their phones camera to open stunning art pieces and have a wonderful experience. The pieces can be still image, moving image and video or Virtual Reality and it all works without the need for an app or and hardware. Just a simple scan of the code with their phone to enter a truly Immersive Art Exhibition.

The exhibition pieces can be changed and updated regularly by simply updating the QR codes.

CLICK HERE to find out more! OR   Email Ultra Reality for a Quote

Relaxation Zone with QR code activated VR

Turn a closed unit into a chill out zone with bean bags, mood lighting and relaxing sounds that take your visitors to a place of total relaxation. Want to teleport yourself to a beach or yacht? Scan the QR codes to open up a Virtual world on your device and relax while you enjoy the experience. Want to get away from the device? Sit back and listen to the relaxing sounds or watch a hypnotic projection.

These Relaxation Zones are a low cost, low maintenance offering that make a huge difference to a site.

CLICK HERE to find out more! OR   Email Creature Events for a Quote

Experiential Themed Installation

We will take the closed unit and turn it into an an enticing Experiential Themed Installation. From staging to decor, props and multi media experiences, we have it covered. These Installations are designed to be unmanned and just allow people to come in hang out, see the elements and take pictures. They are simple cost effective attractions that draw visitors to the site time and time again. Whats more we can regularly rotate the theme to keep it fresh!

Themes include:

• Dinosaurs
• Dragons & Fantasy
• Safari
• Pirates
• Winter / Ice

CLICK HERE to find out more! OR   Email Creature Events for a Quote

TheeMee

TheeMee is a fun installation for all those wannabe influencers out there looking for the perfect pic of them in the coolest places. But what if those cool places were actually in your unused Retail units? You can increase footfall and loiter time with fun retail space installations that give everyone the chance to get the perfect shot for the Instagram and Tiktok.

Be it life on a private jet, yacht or at a luxury travel destination, with TheeMe your visitors can be anywhere. But don’t worry they can also get a shot with your branding on the Red Carpet Media Wall as if they are at a premiere for the latest movie.

Sets Available Include:

• Private Jet
• Yacht
• Beach
• New York
• Film Premiere
• Ski Village
• Paris
• Vegas Casino
• Supercar
• Castle
• VIP Helicopters
• Celebrity Life posing for Fans

CLICK HERE to find out more! OR   Email Creature Events for a Quote

UR Game – Unmanned

UR Game is an experiential game focused installation that turns a closed retail unit into a fun family friendly mini arcade. What is the benefit? Transform a closed, dark and dull shop unit into a striking and exciting world of neon and fun, with an installation that suits your local demographic and drives footfall. We offer the highest end experiential games including Immersion VR and also simpler variations, to fit your needs perfectly.

Our awesome retail space installations can be a either a Free or Chargeable activity that can be run without the need for our Team members. We have 40+ game options available, let us know what kind of thing you like.

CLICK HERE to find out more! OR   Email Creature Events for a Quote

YourStudios – Remote Work or Space Hire

Have you thought about offering your closed units to the community? Either as a pop up or remote work location? What about as a rehearsal space? Why do this? The answer is simple, engage the community, increase organically driven footfall and turn a dead space into a living one that the community want to come and use..

With our friends over at YourStudios.com you can temporarily list your unit as a space for hire. Be it by the hour, day, week or month you can list your space for whatever people need. Whats more you can list with with them for FREE hire and just use it as a one stop booking system OR you can take a fee. This is a fantastic way to encourage shoppers back in new ways. We’ll talk more about that in the section below,or reach out to them direct.

For YourStudios CLICK HERE or for our solutions CLICK HERE to find out more or  Email Creature Events for a Quote

Retail Space Installations

Unstaffed Revenue Generating Installations

UR Game (R)

UR Game is our experiential game focused installation that turns a closed retail unit into a fun family friendly mini arcade. But more than that you can use it to automatically generate revenues as well as footfall. Turn a closed, dark and dull shop unit into a striking and exciting world of neon and fun, with retail space installations that suit your local demographic. As can be seen, we offer the highest end experiential games including Immersion VR and also simpler variations, to fit your needs perfectly.

Our awesome retail space installations like UR Game can be a card tap Chargeable activity that can be run without the need for our Team members. We have 40+ game options available to encourage shoppers back and to increase loiter time significantly. Let us know what kind of thing you like and let’s set up your retail space installations today.

CLICK HERE to find out more! OR   Email Creature Events for a Quote

TheeMee

TheeMee is a fun installation for all those wannabe influencers out there looking for the perfect pic of them in the coolest places. But what if those cool places were actually in your unused Retail units? You can increase footfall and loiter time with fun retail space installations that give everyone the chance to get the perfect shot for the Instagram and Tiktok. But would you like to add an element of Revenue Generation to it? Either by adding a camera system that takes the images for the users or a Tap to Enter system you can increase revenues and make the attraction self sustaining. What about adding a VENDY vending machine to capture some sales opportunities while people visit TheeMee?

Be it life on a private jet, yacht or at a luxury travel destination, with TheeMe your visitors can be anywhere. But don’t worry they can also get a shot with your branding on the Red Carpet Media Wall as if they are at a premiere for the latest movie.

Sets Available Include:

• Private Jet
• Yacht
• Beach
• New York
• Film Premiere
• Ski Village
• Paris
• Vegas Casino
• Supercar
• Castle
• VIP Helicopters
• Celebrity Life posing for Fans

CLICK HERE to find out more! OR   Email us for a Quote

VENDY – Vending Machine Installation

VENDY is a Vending machine offering that can be utilised anywhere within our other installations,simply around your site OR as an installation. But lets’ look at how!

As an entire Installation VENDY is a bank of vending machines that offer a range of products, supported by enticing design elements. Or if a VENDY machine is placed within another installation or around the site, it’s simply a well stocked and enticing vending machine. Why have a VENDY on your site? Have none of the responsibility of it and instead take the benefit. Take 35% of the profit and our team will provide ALL the responsibility of provision, maintenance and supply.

CLICK HERE to find out more! OR   Email Creature Events for a Quote

YourStudios – Work or Space Hire

Have you thought about offering your closed units to the community? Either as a pop up or remote work location? What about as a rehearsal space? Why do this? The answer is simple, engage the community, increase organically driven footfall and turn a dead space into a living one that the community want to come and use..

With our friends over at YourStudios.com you can temporarily list your unit as a space for hire which can encourage shoppers back to retail spaces. Be it by the hour, day, week or month you can list your space for whatever people need. Whats more you can list with with YourStudios and make great revenues on hire with their one stop booking system. Reach out to them direct.

Go to YourStudios.com to find out more OR for our solutions CLICK HERE OR   Email us for a Quote

The Retail Space Installations service was born out of working with clients to help them overcome the challenges they have encourage shoppers back. Ultra Reality and Creature Events are passionate about helping businesses and communities thrive and are proud to support them with our offerings.

Want to see more of what we do for individual activation and entertainment? Checkout the range of products and services we have here.

Want to see more of what we do? Talk to me on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK or Contact me here

CLICK HERE to find out more! OR   Email Creature Events for a Quote

Want to know more about what Creature Events do? Check Creature Events out on INSTAGRAM or  FACEBOOK

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Let me start with a story. When I was a kid I started my first business by accident. I went into school with some chocolate worth 0.25p and another kid wanted to buy it for 0.50p – that’s a good deal. If i was willing to go without my chocolate bar now, I could have two later. Or.. I could have one and buy another to sell. And very quickly my mind started racing.

And then it all changed

The next day I went in with more chocolate and sweets and it became like an auction, people were bidding each other up to get the items. I found it so odd, they could have bought them in the morning themselves, but instead they were pay, two, three, even four times the price buying from me. They wanted in then, they wanted it there and they were willing to pay the price.

Ok we are talking small numbers here but for a kid, still at school it was great. Before you knew it I was making and where from £50 – £100 a week. The money it gave me as young teen was good, the lessons it taught me were better and worth a lot lot more.

Business is the solution

I quickly realised you can provide a service to someone that wants it and they’ll pay you for your time, assets, experience or knowledge in return. Pretty simple. So if you’re trying to figure out how to start a business from nothing, first ask yourself:

1. What skills / knowledge do I have?
2. Who needs that?
3. Does that work in person? Or online?

Now I’m a huge fan of a scalable business, specifically one that can be online and give you access to worldwide customers. But much like my little sweet shop or many other things I started out with, not everything needs to be that, nor does it have to start that way.

So lets start with some SIMPLE examples.

How to start a business from nothing – Start Easy

Everyone will tell you to do drop shipping or some online business and yes that can be great, but the truth is it takes money and time to start. So let’s look at something that we an do right now.

Tour Guide: Print or Buy a stock T-Shirt or Jacket that says GUIDE on it, head to a tourist spot near you with 5 or 6 different tour options that last an hour or so. Call out TourGuide, take the tour of X Y Z, charge £10 per person for a group and you’ll very quickly be earning £50-£80 an hour. Ok you need to know you’re area, you need to be confident enough to talk about it, but with nothing else, no more investment you are up and running and could easily do £300 – £450 a day.

Now it’s time to grow – get yourself on AirBnB and list yourself as an activity. There’s a whole sections for activities and things to do. Get yourself listed, get some reviews and start getting bookings rather than just having to “hawk” calling out.

Now it’s time to manage – imagine you’ve been doing it a while and you’re busy, you can’t respond to your bookings and enquiries quick enough because you’re doing Tours, so it’s time to get some people in and become a manger. Find a few actors or two pay them a percentage of what you make, set them up with the training of your tours, book the people in and before you know it, you’re growing. You figured out how to start a business from nothing, you did it and it’s working.

Different suggestion?

Ok lets look at a different option.

Reseller: This one is as old as time and can be done anywhere. Find a product used or new that is undervalued and sell it on. There’s a few ways of doing this. You can physically buy it, you can agree a service agreement with the original manufacturer, list it for sale or you can set up a proper drop shipping arrangement.

So lets talk the simplest one first.

Buy & Sell on – You know a particular products value or at least reasonably. You look online and deo your research, find the deal, buy it and sell it on. It’s really that simple. This will take a week normally because you have to do your thing and actually sell it but as you grow and do more volume it starts to really work out. But where can you get your items? Go to eBay, Facebook, Flea Markets, even stores like TJ Maxx /TK Maxx there will be great items selling at below market. You take the time to list them properly and sell at a profit.

There are a million option how to start a business from nothing – the only question it what works for you and what will you do.

Reality check:

• You don’t have to love that thing – what it gives you can be what you love
• Time will pass with indecision
• Success comes from hard work more than it comes from talent

So what is your idea? What are you going to do?

Need more inspiration? Read the blog here

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Yes… you can go swimming with crocodiles.

Though it’s probably not for everyone, swimming with crocodiles was the greatest adventure I have ever had and something I will never forget. I found it to be a spiritual experience, one I can’t explain. Looking into the eyes of a top predator as it moves around you, working you out and then accepting you… there’s really nothing like it.

Swimming with Crocodiles

For some it will be hard to understand, but for others this will I’m sure offer a moment of excitement, a sense of adventure. On this adventure I took my SONY A7S ii and GoPro Hero 11. Managing to take some interesting pics I was happy when SONY asked me to do an interview to talk about how and why I used the SONY Alpha system to capture this amazing adventure.

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I’m a person that’s live three or four lifetimes and reinvented myself more times than I can count. If something is no longer good for more I’ve moved on and used those times as stepping stones to take me from a place I didn’t like, to a better one. Now I’m a multi business owner living just outside south west London.

Contrary to my last name, that sounds like I had a silver spoon well wedged in my mouth at birth, I have actually lived a life of relative struggle. Nothing compared to others, but certainly not a privileged nor easy one.

Taking Charge

I had my first job at 11, working as a butcher boy 12 hours a day on a Saturday and Sunday and I’d cycle the 6 miles each way. I was so happy that I made £24 per weekend, getting it in my little brown envelope that you did back then. Happy until I realised I was exchanging my time for £1 an hour that is. It’s funny.. but that job in a butcher shop actually taught me so much. It taught me not to simply exchange my time for money and that.. is everything. It would lead me to my first business, a “Tuck Shop” operated out of my school bag. I was maybe 13 years old and on a path that would forever change me.

Don’t get me wrong, I have had the odd job where I have had to do nothing more than exchange time for money, but the entire time I did them, it was only to set up another thing, create another opportunity. The misery of the job creating the fire underneath me to create opportunities.

Then & Now

These days, I run my businesses and develop more opportunities to grow personally, while spending a lot of my time efforts and most of my hard earned money helping causes I care about, like animals, homeless people and those in vulnerable situations.

I’ve gone from being nothing, leaving home at 16 to a person that speaks at top universities, lives a good life and creates awesome projects, opportunities for people to work in, to watch, visit, enjoy and consume. I’ve made endless mistakes don’t get me wrong, I just keep learning and keep working and keep developing.

In my personal life I love shooting stills and video of a range of subjects, most often wildlife. Sharks, Crocodile, Lions, Tigers, Wolves and much more.

My passions extend beyond imagery to art, cars, property and all kinds things that ultimately come back to the beauty of perfect design.

Want to know more? I’ll post something else soon…. Feel free to ask me a question or talk to me on social

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