Business advisers send wrong money message
Last night I happened to watch about 5 minutes of the “Your Money, Your Call” show on Foxtel’s Business News channel.
A caller phoned in to say that he and his wife disagreed on pocket money for their children (from memory, one was about 12, and the others about 8 and 5. I didn’t write down the details, so my ages/pocket money amounts are only estimates!).
The caller gave the kids monthly pocket money ($20, $5 and $5 respectively) because he wanted his kids to have their own money and get used to being responsible for it.
His wife disagreed, saying the kids should do some kind of small task around the home to “earn” the money instead.
The two business advisors on the show for this particular episode sided with the caller’s wife, agreeing that the money should only be given to the kids as “reward for effort.”
Oh no.
They’re teaching the kids that the ONLY way to get money is to work hard for it — to swap “time for money”. They’re saying in effect that if you don’t work hard, you’re not entitled to any money (even just $5 monthly pocket money for a 5 year old!).
They’re teaching the kids the WRONG money message. They’ll grow up thinking that earning money is hard work, and only comes to you because you deserve it. How did these guys ever get to be put up as exerts on a business channel?
I think there’s a big difference between giving kids responsibility for money and telling them it must be earned. There’s nothing wrong with the concept of an allowance/pocket money!
This is not the same issue as expecting a handout — or giving in to every demand for money/things… you can still teach responsibility about money without sending a message that “money doesn’t grow on trees” and can only be swapped for hard work.
Let me illustrate.
When I was growing up, we were given money for things like days out with friends at the cinema, or trips to the annual show.
Here’s the difference though. When I was given the money (say, $20), it was mine to spend as I pleased. When one of my mates Sam was given his money, for example, he was told to bring home any change and give it back to his mum.
Sam spent every cent that day. There was no change for mum. It wasn’t Sam’s money, so he saw no need to have any left over. Because the $20 was mine and my responsibility (and I’m talking early 1980s here), I didn’t spend it all, as I didn’t need to. I put aside what was left over and saved it up. Neither of us had to “earn” the $20 we got, but only one of us took responsibility for it. We still got to do the same activities for the day (tram to the city, watch a movie, have lunch etc) … but only one of us had money to call their own at the end of the day.
I’d rather kids learned that lesson than be told the only way you’ll get money is to toil away working hard for the rest of your life!
Lazy-breaking news?
News is “instant” nowadays, right? We are in the accessible 24/7 broadband information age. “News as it happens” has been a media catch-cry for several years.
So I did chuckle this morning when seeing this “breaking” news about the end of daylight savings — four hours AFTER it actually ended.
When I was a teenager, working in a golf shop, the end of daylight savings was always a good day in the shop: golfers turned up early, and with time to spare, spent it in the shop and made extra purchases. And plenty of golfers who were regularly “last-minute” arrivals got to relax for a change (unlike the chaos at the start of daylight savings!).
Maybe back then they’d appreciate the 6am news in a “breaking” sense, but in 2008 that time delay — given the “instant” environment of news reporting — is actually noticeable.
Chipmunk Audio Fix
If you’ve been watching any videos lately where you start hearing chipmunk sounds — it’s not your fault! Don’t touch that dial!
If you make videos with Camtasia prior to version 5.02 (as an SWF file with MP3 audio for online use), this is a MUST read.
What’s happening is that Adobe’s Flash Player and Techsmith’s Camtasia are having a spot of trouble … which is affecting videos made with Camtasia.
Fixing it solves two problems:
- Your site visitors are no longer thinking something is wrong with their browser, video or audio setup — so they can focus on the content and what you want them to do; and
- You stop sounding like a chipmunk!
Techsmith list the issue on this tech support page and how to fix it. Credit to Robert Plank’s blog post where I was first alerted to the issue.
Thanks Al
Last week Mel and I were guests of Alan Kirke at the StreetSmart Hawthorn Connect Group meeting.
The StreetSmart group is run by Alan and comprises small business owners and entrepreneurs who get together regularly to discuss business marketing, swap info on news and success stories, have a “hot seat” session and network together.
The main topic of this month’s meeting was copywriting and that’s the reason Alan got me along, to go through the main points of a Yanik Silver copywriting CD that the members had been listening to. We also enjoyed the information shared between the connect group members and also had fun adding some input into the special hot seat session.
One of the best things I was able to “take away” from the meeting was how the members literally “kept each other going” with ideas and inspiration — aside from having regular goals and responsibilities, the ideas shared were very valuable and an excellent reason to keep up with their membership. That regular get-together outside of everyone’s normal business environment was a great way to stay focused on the future: a proven concept that has worked for a long time and always good to see in action.
We also picked up a business lead for copywriting, so that’s another good outcome from our breakfast meeting.
PS: If you’re interested in Alan’s Hawthorn Connect Group and their monthly breakfasts, drop me a line and I’ll put you in touch with Al.
More Getting Attention Insights
Let’s Connect is a presentation from Dutch agency IN10 in Rotterdam. The opening statistic highlights that only 5.5% of viewers are attuned to ads during tv ad breaks.
Again, while it’s based on big company tactics and “brand communication” it has plenty of lessons for small business on how to connect and get attention in modern marketing.
Some of the slides here refer to the briefings published by trendwatching – an excellent website that highlights “consumer trends and insights from around the world.”
The free monthly trendwatching briefings are well worth the viewing time — and the notification emails are some of the very few messages I allow to directly land in my inbox without being filtered (along with sister site Springwise — a weekly summary of new business ideas).