Instructor Newsletter 25th July 2013

Today we are tacking some really interesting topics with brilliant contributions from Liz Hindley, Zoe McNulty, & Cee Oliver plus regular contributions from Cori &  Andrew.

Liz has been a regular contributor over the years on C2GO as she is the  original maverick fitness Instructor tackling fitness in primary schools. Liz, as her alter ego Leaping Liz has been a regular leader in schools all over the North West, she has written super successful programmes that have been implemented in schools, she has trained countless PE staff and teachers and released her own DVDs and books during her career but now she is looking at moving on with her passion for teaching fitness to children into exciting new territories.

Zoe McNulty is another original with her own totally unique style, brand, prescience and teaching style. This week Zoe discusses her journey including body image, business brand and the future of creative fitness and dance classes. If you havent seen Zoe in action then you must check out one her Raunch Fitness events as they are fabulous.

And finally Cee Oliver World Class Body Builder, Head of PE, Presenter, Business Owner and mum lifts the lid on her nutrition and  heavy duty training its an eye opening article where Cee explains in detail the work she puts in.

I am sure you will agree 3 very inspiring ladies all making their way in fitness in very different and unique ways. Which is the whole point of todays newsletter, teaching fitness is so wide and varied and there are so many niches to be passionate about and involved in that I hope you enjoy this weeks info and be inspired to follow your own unique path.

This week I launched Volume 2 of the Kick Start Fat Loss Home Workout DVD which has been flying out its 6 x 10minute HIIT Workouts  Click here to check out all of the details

Facebook – Im now directing all C2GO Members / Fitness Instructors / PT’s /Bootcamper Instructors /Dance Teachers over to my www.Facebook.com/Choreographytogo page as I’ll be discussing business ideas, PR, marketing, sales, online ideas, passive income streams plus choreography & class content daily. Please head over and “like” the page to get involved.

Your Fitness Business Name, Your Domain Name and Your Brand Name – What Should YOU call them?  Your Own Name or A Brand Name?????…by Rachel

I think you may have noticed a pattern in my recent articles. Ive been writing down and saving all of the emails and questions instructors ask me on a regular basis creating articles from them for the newsletter.
This topic always comes up, either on Facebook, Twitter and email and always on every business talk I do.

This is another one of those questions that so many Fitpros cant get past!!! They cant decide what to call their business, website or product, so what do they do…They let that stop them in their tracks and they don’t design the business they want to create. Simply, because they cannot decide on the right name!!!

AHHHHH Is this YOU???

Should you website be called your name or a brand name? Should your business be  a brand name or your own name?……

Decision Decisions…

Here is my take on this and some pointers to help you decide. When you are thinking about what to call your business you need to know what your long term game plan is and that means what is your vision for your fitness business. Where are you headed with it all?

If YOU are your business, you do the teaching, you want to create DVDs, You star in your online fitness videos or be an author, speaker, coach, mentor or consultant then call you business by your name. You are the commodity and as you are no longer confided to your teaching hours or your local area because you can film your information, your workouts or talks and get them online reaching more and more people. In effect you can now “scale you” and create a personal fitness brand so call it Yourname.com.

The benefits to launching a business or website with your own name is that you can launch different brands, classes, and variations under your own name and you are not stuck with a name that may date or you want to change at a later date.

But on the other hand if you want to create a product or service that other Fitpros may want to teach or its something that could be sold one day then call it by a brand name. De-personalise it so to speak

So for example all of my fitness business coaching, personal teaching, mentoring etc is under name name RachelHolmes but underneath that that I have Choreographytogo.com for Training, Educations & Qualifications, Fitness Pilates & Kick Start Fat Loss that are all brands I have created but are stand alone products and services that sit underneath my name and personal brand.

The bottom line is you can be super successful whatever your call your business just think about your long term goals and objectives. Be clear about what you want and where you are going.

I hope that helps you make a decision if this is something you have been procrastinating about for a while Tweet me @RachelHolmes

Are you interested in my Fitness Business Coaching and Mentoring Packages?
I have my Create Your OnLine Fitness Business Package for only £97 Click here to get all of the information

And my premium Ultimate Fitness Business Coaching Package for only £397 (formally £997)which has 12 weeks worth of great content You can click here to get all of the information

Leaping into a new career by Liz Hindley (a.k.a Leaping Liz)

For the last six years I have been a kid’s fitness expert.  Known as Leaping Liz to hundreds of primary school children, I have run Health Week activites, Whole School Wake Up and Shake Up assemblys, Hula Hoop projects across clusters of primary schools and loved every minute.  I have 4 exercise DVDs for use in the classroom, that teachers put on their whiteboards, that I sell into primary schools, as well as my latest product – “Fitness class in a box” – a set of Child-friendly circuit cards with all the support documentation that a primary school teacher would need to run a fitness club or to add more fitness elements to their PE sessions.

As many of you will be aware, the Government has announced a big increase in funding and focus for primary school PE.  The funding will hit the primary school budgets at the end of September.  There are 23k primary schools in the UK and each will receive between £7-9k which is funding that is ringfenced for PE spend.  Additionally, OFSTED will be including assessment of how schools are spending this funding during their inspections.

One of the other things the Government announced was their desire to have more PE experts within primary schools, and this is where the flip in my life is about to happen.

I have applied for one of the coveted 40 places at Chester Uni for a brand new course.  For 4 weeks of the summer holiday, the participants will gain 12 Coaching certificates in sports including football, netball, gymnastics, dance, swimming, tennis etc.  This is followed by an academic year of school-centred training, developing the skills required to be a fully-fledged primary school teacher.  Guess what?…. They only went and offered me a place!

At 42, I was the granny of the group by a country mile.  The interview was a whole day affair and included making us do Handstands, headstands and forward rolls.  It has been a while, but I rose to the challenge.  The DOMS in my shoulders has been intensive since.  We were also put through panel interviews and had to do a dance activity and deliver a 10 minute athletics session to seven separate groups of ten children.  Exhausting but exciting too.

Having worked in the fitness industry for almost 20 years, I am not sure whether this is really a goodbye.  My real hope is that more and more instructors will get involved with improving the health of the youngest members of our society.  It would be great to see PE experts and fitness professionals in each and every primary school, but with only 120 trainees on this course across three universities for the 23k primary schools, there is a way to go yet.  I am looking forward to seeing the work of teachers from the inside, rather than as a visitor to schools and hope that I can bring a level of new and up to date fitness information that I can share with my new colleagues.

As instructors, the opportunities in schools are many and varied.  Please start contacting the Headteachers of your local primary schools as soon as you can.  It is these people who will be holding the purse strings from September and whilst many of them are well-meaning, not many of them have expertise in PE.  They will need good quality, committed individuals who are willing to deliver exciting, relevant and effective PE sessions to their children.  If this is you, then grab the opportunity whilst it is there.  The Government money is guaranteed for two years, but after that the schools will have to prove that the money is being spent wisely and having positive impacts of the lives of children for the funding to continue.

Come up with a unique programme that you could offer to a school over – say – six weeks, that would be challenging and exciting for the 5-11 year old bracket.  I created a great hula hooping programme called Hoopalong.  I taught the hula hoop skills, but also used the hoops for fitness drills, played games with the hoops, created a few dance routines with the hoops and even managed to add in some team building and problem solving activities to make my sessions really rounded.  Armed with this amount of detail I was able to get into all the schools in the local area and, even when the funding in schools was slashed a few years ago, I remained in demand and kept busy.  Once in a school, I was able to cross-sell my DVDs and other PE products and also book in other sessions, such as Bollywood fitness for when the school was covering the topic of India, Healthy workshops when the school had a science focus.  I have even taught traditional Lancashire circle dances during citizenship week and taught a line-dancing session at one school on the day of the American elections last November (thanks to an old VHS video featuring our very own Rachel Holmes – I am a hoarder and this is a classic!).

So, cheerio for now.  I am going to have my head in my books for the next academic year and hope to bring news to you all of my first salaried job being secured for September 2014.  I am going to leave Physikidz ticking along in the background as my safety net, and also maybe to sell some of my products to schools this year too.  I will keep reading the newsletter as it has been my main source of information for keeping up to date on trends in the fitness industry since it started.

Thanks to Rachel for being so generous with her expertise, advise and support.  We are very lucky to have her.

Liz Hindley
(Previously Leaping Liz…. Now to be addressed as Mrs Hindley!)

Liz Hindley is a fitness professional with 18-year’s experience in delivering fun and motivating sessions.  She has specialised in kid’s fitness for the last 6 years and is the owner of Physikidz Ltd and creator of workout DVDs for use in primary school classes.  www.physikidz.com

Technophile or technophobe? by Cori Withell

Did you ready C2Go last week?  I did and got completely inspired yet again by Rachel!

I class myself as one of the worst technophobes going, completely hopeless on the most basic of things and it is costing me a fortune.  I have to outsource even the most simplest of tasks because I do not believe that I am capable of learning to do it myself or have the time to do it through endless tutorials getting more and more stressed at how it still won’t work.

Well, last week, Rachel wrote about technology and she really hit a nerve with me.

We are living in a very fast paced, technological society and if you do not learn and learn consistently you are going to get left behind.  Yes, you can do what I have been doing for years and outsource everything BUT this doesn’t fix it.

What happens when you need to fix/edit/record/whatever! over the weekend and you can’t find anyone to help you or those people that can help you have a waiting list?

You are literally left stranded.  What if that issue impacts directly on your business, say incorrect pricing on your website?

Last weeks C2Go newsletter resonated with me so much that I have now allocated and diarised training time for me to become better at technology.  I have even drawn up a list of all the things I need to tackle.  I’m not sharing that though, my inadequacies in the technological field are simply too great!

If, like me, time was a factor, look at this way.  If you take an hour this week to learn and practise, then next week you can do it yourself, no paying out to someone else and you are fully in control to do what you like.  As a bonus, if you are like me, there is a good sense of satisfaction when you learn something new!  The hour you take this week is going to save you a lot more in the future and leave you to spend your money on more interesting things!  Don’t forget how long it takes you to send the job information, check they have done it correctly, amend if necessary etc etc.

So, here is to technology, let the battle commence 😉

Health and happiness x
Cori – The Progressive Mind Coach

Zoe McNulty – Following Your Own Path

When Rachel asked me to write for the newsletter and suggested something based on me as a female in fitness; my struggles; being unique and following my own path, I mulled it over in my mind for a while.  The phrase that kept springing to mind was ‘keeping it real‘.  Without wishing to sound like the Fresh Prince of East Dulwich, keeping it real does seem to be how I have managed to stay unique in this industry and not only find my own path but sleep, eat and breathe the ethos that I preach.

When I say ‘keep it real’ I mean be true to your self.  It is human nature to compare yourself to others and their progress in life, but this only leads to frustration.  You are not them, you do not have their life experiences influencing you, you have your own unique, God given set of skills and personality traits that make you you!  When I find myself focussing on what others are doing and berating myself for not moving as fast as them in my business I remember 1 Thessalonians 4:11 which quite literally says “Mind your own business”.  It is excellent advice!

My role within the fitness industry is like a superhero sent here to protect women from the dark powers of evil PTs who shout mantras such as ‘Go hard or go home!’ or ‘No more excuses’.  Meh!  I identify with most women who have, for one reason or another have been reminded over and over again that they’re a bit overweight and society tells them they need to lose it, not necessarily for health benefits but generally for aesthetics.  I’ve been there and done that, lost weight, gained weight, gained more weight, felt terrible, loathed my body, lost it again but still loathed myself and that obsession is not healthy, nor helpful to anyone.  So when a young whippersnapper with the metabolism of a hummingbird tells me to go hard or go home the choice is easy!  You see, I’m very human.  I am not a machine.  I get distracted easily.  I get tired (I teach a lot of cardio).  Yeah yeah, excuses excuses i hear you say, but this me and I know there are thousands and thousands of women who can identify with this.  We like cake and chocolate.  We love a glass of wine, or a few and sometimes enjoying life has it’s place over and above being disciplined.

We’re women, with hormones and stuff going on in our lives which more often than not means our best laid plans for self improvement tend to get put on the back burner.  That’s just the way it is.  No amount of ‘Go hard or go home’ is going to change that.  But why should that mean that we are permanently made to feel inadequate.  What I’m concerned with is our state of mind during those times when we maybe feel like we’ve “let ourselves go” a bit.  So what if we have a wobbly belly or a squidgy bum?  I believe it is my mission to help all women realise that their shape, whatever shape that is, is lovely!  I’m talking to the ladies who look in the mirror and believe they need to lose weight even when they’re perfectly healthy.  Those ladies who are unhappy when they look at themselves and are convinced that if they lost a stone they’d be happy.  I say to you “get happy now” because it’s very possible, in fact a strong likelihood that you won’t lose a stone.  I know I just alienated those disciples of Positive Mental Attitude but I’m not saying that to put a downer on things. It may sound pessimistic but I believe I’m a realist and I say all of this with love.  I’m saying it based on my own experiences.  What happens if, even with your best efforts, you still don’t reach your goals, however SMART they are?  How do you feel?  A complete failure?  Even more unhappy?  This was my story.  But then…

I started to listen to the compliments I received.  Women would compliment me on my hair, make up, sense of style and ability to dance.  Guys would come on to me.  Regularly being referred to as sexy, I could no longer ignore all these lovely things that people were saying.  We tend to brush off compliments and do that very British, self deprecation thing.  But sod that!  I’m hot!  So there! Although in the beginning I didn’t REALLY believe it.  I wasn’t REALLY confident.  I pretended to be.  But the funny thing was that people responded to me as if I were a confident person.  The more I faked it, the more they believed it.  After a while I realised I was much less concerned with what people thought of me.  But what a shame it took me until the age of about 33 to realise this.  People don’t actually notice your bad points half as much as you think they do.  As I type this I am reminded of the song by Baz Luhrmann, “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”.  Lyrics such as “Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh never mind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.  But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you imagine.”  Please, take heed of this, now.  I wasted a third of a century believing I wasn’t as worthy/valid as my slim friends because I was overweight.  I only focused on my negative aspects and never looked at my good bits.  NOW, I ONLY look at my good bits.  Highlight your assets, learn to hold yourself well and exude confidence.

This is the ethos behind Raunch and Stiletto, my signature dance classes which have given me some of the most goose-bumpy, tear jerking moments of my career.  You know, those stories that participants come to you with which make your job as an instructor the most rewarding job in the world?  I got this on Facebook the other day: “This is what you did to me in one lesson…  For 23 years since I had my kids I’ve been wanting a tummy tuck. I’m now in the position to have it and I don’t want it. I know I’m sexy, I get told all the time.  The guys I have dated have loved my lumps and bumps.  I just needed the confidence and you, Zoe, gave that to me xxx”  How awesome is that, to be able to prevent someone from going under the knife?  I believe every woman needs the ethos of Raunch Fitness in her life.  I’m working on products at the moment which will mean that women all over the world will be able to benefit.  If you are interested in learning more about these or more about becoming an InStrutter (instructor of Stiletto) or Raunchette (instructor of Raunch), follow this link to register your interest http://www.raunch.steeltoken.com/  You can also catch my Sexy Street and RaveFit classes on www.GymCube.com and get £20 off a yearly membership if you use the code “ZOE”.

I hope you have found my story inspiring.  I’d love to hear your stories about your struggles with weight and body image within the fitness industry so drop me an email at info@zoemcnulty.com me and I hope to meet you all soon.  Stay sexy!!!

Cee Fit Stage Prep Fitness & Figure Part 2

Over the years I have used a variety of prep approaches from carbohydrate cycling for muscle gain and fat loss, High carb and low carb for fat loss, changing calorie intake to steady state. I dont really want to bore you all with the finer details of the pros and cons of each. Try researching and applying some of these methods into your own eating plans to see what best fits you and your body type.

Cee Prep
For me this year it was about changing the way I had look at other competitions, I wanted to have leaner legs, bigger shoulders, more depth to my back, whilst also maintaining muscle and losing body . This needed to happen in the run up to the European Championships in May & Looking forward to the World Championships in September.

Nutritional Prep
In the last 6 months have gone through two types of detox protocols, along side a high carb load throughout the week, My use of protein shakes was reduced significantly to that of previous years and I’ve relied purely on organic food. Its been the most challenging process yet, however I have followed my plan and I got some cracking results in May, stepping it up again inbetween competitions has been very challenging and again I will need to stay focused for the next 7 -8 weeks, I cant wait to see the results again.
The science behind eating food and training for body building is not like the diets you see in glossy magazines that the celebrities follow. Its more of how your own body responds to eating different foods, , when you eat and what you eat. One size does not fit all and you really needs to play around and see what works best. It just fascinates me all the time I’m learning new nutritional information that I didnt know before. When I did my basic nutrition course there was no weigh and measure it went on portions of food in relation to activity, its changed so much over the years.
Heres a sample of what I’ve been eating :
e.g
NO treats, No sugar, No chewing Gum! Plenty of water 🙂
Meal 1
Steak, x 2 Green Veg
Meal 2
Turkey, Sweet Poataoe, x 2 Green Veg
Meal 3
Cod, Brown Rice, x 2 Green Veg
Meal 4
Turkey, Sweet Potatoes, x 2 Green veg
Meal 5
Cod, Brown Rice, x 2 Green Veg
Meal 6
Cod, Brown Rice, x 2 Green Veg
Supplements
Vit C
Fish Oils
L-Cartine
Vitamin D
Variety others dependent upon what phase of plan I was in.

Remember this is an eating plan based on my needs and what I desire to achieve by September ( I haven’t included the macro breakdown) . I’ve followed that for about 6-8 weeks, I’m now reducing my carbs, fat load and working on a carb cycle of high carbs when I’m doing intense training through food and an amino based, multidextrin drink, but also low carb days on my weight training sessions and rest day.

Remember

A good nutritional plan for competing will need to
Determine calorie needs.
Work out your own macro split – dependant upon body type, activity level.
Planning your own personalised menu based on your macro split, what times of the day you plan/ need to eat

Training
For those that are not aware my category with the IFBB require’s me not only to have a great figure, but Im also required to perform a routine of 1:30 inc elements of gymnastics using the best gymnastics bars for home, strength, flexibility. So in effect im training for two different discplines at the same time.
I currently working with Mark Coles @ M10 Fitness Nottingham
Website : www.m10fitness.co.uk

My current training schedule has changed in the run ups to the World Championships after we both analysed my Figure and Routine sections , we put together a training plan for the gym that included strenth, volume and plyometrics. This involves training with heavy weights and im currenlty smaashing PB’s every week. We use a variety of methods to ensure that we recruit a variety of muscle fibres. Remember I have to strong, but also powerful and flexible.

Health Club / Gym Sessions
Example of my 4 days weight sessions ( Some of which you can view on youtube to see how intense they are)

Session 1 – Chest & Shoulers
Hang Clean 6 x 5, Plyo Press ups 6 X 5
Decline Dumbell Press 10-12 x 3, Flat Dumbbell Press 10-12 x 3, Incline Dumbell Flyes 10-12 x 3
Arnold Press 10-2 x 3, Lateral Raise 12-15 x 5, Barbell upright row 10-12 x 3,

Session 2 – Back & Arms
T bar Row 6-8 x5, Decline close grip bench press 6-8 reps
Straight bar press 10-12 x 3, Ez bar tricep extentions 12-15 x 3
Session 3 – Legs
Session 4 – Extra Back

Gymnastics
So the 2nd part of the plan was to develop my onstage presence as well as my gymnastics. So I’m currently being pushed through intense conditioning sessions to develop my flexibility and also work on new gymnastics skills that Ive never done before. eg Back handspring, Standing Ariel.
I have experience with dance choreography ( Being a fitness instructor helps massively) that wasn’t a problem, it was putting the final touches together to raise my game and make my routine look polished. One of the major difference’s we analyzed between my routine and other elite performers at the europeans & worlds is that they are experts in the gymnastics field.
To raise my performance levels, Im working harder than ever before, I’m working with one of the countries Top Elite Coaches to the Olympic GB team ‘ Claire Starkey’ she currently coaches senior girls like Becky Downie, Ellie Downie etc It’s a fantastic opportunity to be coached by the best in gymnastics and training with the girls in an Elite sessions was amazing!! It really shows the dedication that these girls put in week in week out. I was in ore of them. I know if i want to be better then i have to put the time in not only with th weights but with gymnastics also.
I’m currently attending 2 x 2hours sessions per week, along side two additional 1-1 x 2hr sessions per week.
So overall the package that I’m following this year is immense, its probably more of a professional package for an elite amateur . I’m putting in more than 12-15 hours work of training prep, with additional diet prep, supplement prep, wit the help of my top coaches throughout for my chance to look my best and perform my best. Atleast at the end of my season i can say i gave it my all.
I suppose what I’m getting at is dont go into competiting and think its easy. If was easy everyone would do it. It takes a lots of time and dedication to get to the top and keep progressing. Lots of time given up from family and friends and you do have to become selfish in a way as your priority number 1. You also need to know all the ins and outs be sure to get the correct coaches around you for each federation or discipline you chose to enter.

Most of all you must : Dream – Believe – Achieve

Cee

Facebook.com/ceefit

95 ……..Not Out..!!!
By Andrew Crawford

A happy 95th Birthday to Nelson Mandela for last week. Keep strong brother.

If you were STILL waiting the birth of the Princess’s new baby, you don’t have to wait any longer.  A bouncing baby boy….A new Prince to rule your offspring. …Prince George Alexander Louis. Welcome.

In this hot weather, Sure deodorant is your  BEST friend…up until a couple of nights ago….Lord Have Mercy….when thunder and lightening filled the night skies
A BIG Thank you to all those who attended our Fast & Furious Business Tactics day, Rachel poured out her heart and soul to bring some diamond information. I cannot reveal the details here as it would be unfair to those who took the time to attend.

All I can say is……Use the information NOW….!!!! It is steaming hot.

Ashes to ashes…….the UK supporters had something to celebrate as England won the first test match……………that’s if you’re into cricket…it is a hot subject right now.

It is uncomfortably hot……the London underground  was like a mini sauna…..we asked for some heat…..we got it….now we are complaining…in a couple of month’s time, we will be breaking out our scarfs, hats and gloves..!!

So Andrew…..What has the subject of hot got to do with Accountancy & Tax
Well…..I want to cover Hot Topics That Make Money…..once you make a bit of money……you then learn the art of tax planning.

Some of the things I mention here are not all health & fitness related..I’m just using them as examples…!!

So….Here are ten topics that you can make the most money with – I know that because these topics are already making people hundreds.

The list is not in any particular order. One is not necessarily better than any other, apart from number one on the list, which IS my favourite.
Hot Topic 1 – Money-Making Information
This is a huge market place. Not only are there millions of buyers, but there are a thousand and one topics to write about.

Here are a few suggestions, so you get the idea: six pack workouts for busy executives, Yoga for men, Setting up a profitable studio, overcoming stress, life after a divorce, the art of attracting the opposite sex.. etc.

In other words, it’s all the different ways people can make a bit of money within this industry by formulating together information that people may be interested in. (Where you may have first hand experience). Notice I’ve put in a little twist (divorce) I wanted you to think outside the box from a different perspective.

Hot Topic 2 – Money-Saving Information

People want to save money whether it’s on travel, food, cars, classes, almost everything they do.

Topic ideas: cut your grocery bill in half; cheap quality holidays; cut-price travel tips; cut-price property deals; how to live a rich lifestyle on an average income; save with our monthly super-class deals.

Everyone loves a ‘bargain’. Years ago it was very common for things to ‘fall off the back of a lorry’….Remember those days???? You could save money on a variety of hot items.

Hot Topic 3 – Any Good ‘How-To’ Information
This is SO popular. Any title that begins with ‘How To’ is a winner…just like England against Australians, so long as the topic is popular. For instance: how-to build your own house; how-to cook a healthy fat free meal; how to write your family history; how to teach your baby to read; how to make money; how to make wine; how to solar heat your home.

The possible how-to topics list is huge. They have always been popular and they probably always will be.

Would you like to know how to do it??

Hot Topic 4 – Health Information
This is becoming bigger and bigger. Millions of people are looking for alternative ways to protect their health or to overcome illness.

Many people are disenchanted with the health system and are even travelling to other European countries for treatment, rather than attend a hospital in the UK.

As Fitness Professionals you know this stuff already….just look what’s happening with the NHS. This is your time to shine.

Topic ideas: directory of the best hospitals across Europe; Chinese herbal remedies; Shiatsu; the twelve health centres in your body; the book of yoga; the perfect body; think yourself 10 years younger (easy….that one’s for me..!!); acupuncture; diet books.
Let your mind wander……it is infinite…if you let it.
Hot Topic 5 – Computers
Anything related to the computer, obviously, is hot. That’s doubly so if it’s the Internet. There are still many people confused about broadband and wireless.

With the advent of digital and hi-definition TV making analogue TV’s obsolete there was a big market for people needing help on how to link up all of their entertainment ensemble.

Topic ideas: software directory; the Internet; buying and selling on ebay; linking your home entertainment; the digital age and how to get the best from it; making money with internet products; the bite-size computer task book; earn a fortune with computer games; be a PC trouble-shooter.

Hot Topic 6 – Information For Senior Citizens
The number of senior citizens is rising dramatically, mainly because people are living longer, healthier and more active lives. This is a huge and quite wealthy market place, and this can relate to health, too, because seniors are interested in health.

They’re also interested in getting bargains. They’re interested in travel. They’re interested in finding holiday spots and new places to live.

Topic ideas: holidays for the over-50’s young at heart; cut-price travel in style; cake recipes for the grandchildren; 101 leisure activities; the top hotels in Europe; clubs and courses; bargain holidays; selling up and living abroad; investing wisely.

Hot Topic 7 – Gambling
This is big! Gambling is huge in the UK with the advent of super casinos, on-line poker and so on. In America it’s not just in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Reno, or Tahoe, but all Indian gambling sites, hundreds and hundreds of them across the nation.

There is horse and dog racing. People are into gambling whether it’s good for them or not at an unprecedented number. I went to Ascot the other day….didn’t spend any money on the horses……just the veuve…people spend their hard earned cash each and every week on gigi’s and that National Lottery…..

Topic ideas: how to beat the black jack tables; how to beat roulette; how to win at the dogs; the lottery numbers system; how to run your own horse-racing syndicate; the scratch-card winners; how to win at Texas hold ‘em poker, how to be one of those 100 millionaires in tomorrow’s game.

By the way…..I personally don’t like to gamble. I bet that surprised you.!

Hot Topic 8 – Personal Relationships…uh em…!!
This is a very big topic because there are something like 20 million singles in the UK alone. With the Internet you have access to a worldwide audience. Not that I’ve tried….lol

Topic ideas: how to have a happy marriage; how to find your soul mate; how to single out the special person in your life; how to win friends; understanding teenagers; how to keep the peace with your mother-in-law.

You get the idea. Once again I must stipulate that these quick ideas are not all fitness related however, you may have experience in something you can share….in exchange for a bit of mullah…!!

Hot Topic 9 – Investment Information
This is always popular. People want to know how to invest money. This can include all sorts of topics related to property as well as traditional and untraditional investments.

Topic ideas: manuals on stocks; mutual funds; bonds; investing in the future; how to make money on the stock market; buying and selling property; spread-betting on financial indices.

Investing in sub-contractors. These are the people who would cover your classes so you don’t have to. You simply earn a little from each and every one of them. Do you think others might be interested in the information you know relating to this?

Hot Topic 10 – The Unusual
This is anything that’s unusual or bizarre. This covers a wide variety of things from survival information (look at the people making a fortune scaring the daylights out of other people) to things as wild as flying saucers and alien visitations. I know of a company that is making money hand over fist with this. For a very good example of the unusual, check out www. flea-circus.com.

Topic ideas: teach your dog to sing; my night with an alien; scary stories; ghosts are real; how to be totally self-sufficient; grow your own insect-spray-free vegetables; organic gardening; how to eat for free; 101 uses for vinegar; how to talk to your cat…Me? …How?; the hitch-hiker’s guide around the world etc.

Finally

My heart goes out to these three stories……
The children who died from eating the free lunch.
The swimmer who died just one mile from the French coastline.
The people who died in the train crash in Spain.
Just to finish…….
Legislation has just passed through Parliament which allows the use of ‘simplified’ fixed rate adjustments to the profit figure used to calculate income tax liabilities. The use of fixed rate adjustments is optional but you may find the use of some of these rates makes record keeping a little easier. You may also find a larger tax deduction is available compared to the use of actual costs.

Anyone who is self employed can use the fixed rates. Partnerships can also use them (as long as all the members of the partnership are individuals).

The fixed rates apply to:

business mileage (rather than deductions for the actual costs of purchasing, maintaining and running a motor vehicle or motorcycle);
a fixed rate to calculate expenses relating to the business use of home; and
a banded rate to calculate the adjustment for private use of business premises.

The fixed rates do not have to be used for all these areas. For example, you can use business mileage rates but calculate tax deductible expenses for the business use of the home on an actual basis.

The fixed rates apply for the current tax year 2013/14. So, a decision can be made to use the rates when the tax return for this year is submitted in 2014 but you may wish to consider whether you want to use them now as it can affect the business records you keep.

Watch this space for further developments
Have a great start to your holidays………the roads will be clearer for 6 weeks…yippee..!!

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Have a wonderful Thursday
Love Always

Rachel x
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Have a wonderful week!