Company A

This person turned up on time which in itself is a big bonus. She was dressed in a professional way and was very efficient in her manner. I knew what I wanted and all Mary had to do was measure up and provide quote. She was extremely helpful and pleasant to deal with. I said to Mary to call me in a couple of days as I had also arranged for another company to quote. 'No problem', she said. "I'll ring you then"…and she did.

Company B

This sales rep. was totally different. He turns up 15 minutes early which is very unusual. I don't mind people arriving a few minutes earlier than agreed time, but 15 minutes is a bit too early. He should have rung first to see if it was okay. John was obviously a smoker because smell wafted through my front door before he walked in. That really put me off. Not only that he was unshaven and dressed in a sloppy manner. John looked like he just got out of bed, got dressed, had a cigarette and turned up at my house.

Maybe I shouldn't have been so quick to judge him, however his image gave me perception that company must be very unprofessional to have people like this representing them.

John had no sooner walked through door, when his mobile phone rang. Instead of switching it off, he answered it and had a conversation for a couple of minutes with someone from his company. I thought this was rude. Wasn't it more important to focus his attention on this potential sale? He could have checked his phone when he left.

John did measure up for blinds and provided a quote which compared to Mary's one was $600 cheaper. It appeared he hadn't included one of measurements therefore justifying why his quote was so much cheaper.

That's fine if you want to live from week to week and are not concerned about your financial future. However if you want to increase your wealth and have more options, action needs to be taken by you otherwise you could end up like most people further down track, totally dependant on a pension.

Karen's Story

Karen is Marketing Manager for a well-known organisation. She's 39 yrs old, single and earns over $80k a year. She is paying off a mortgage and that's all debt she has.

Karen buys whatever she likes and says she has more than enough money for her lifestyle…or so she thought. And that's a very important point - Karen 'thought' she had plenty of money to splash around yet she had no real idea of where it went.

She was at stage where she wanted to achieve more in her life including taking charge of her financial future.

One of exercises I gave her to do was to sort all her financial statements - visa card, bank accounts and any cash receipts and list her income and expenditure under specific headings ie: loans, clothing, utilities, food etc. Karen recorded everything that occurred for past 6 months . She nearly fainted when she saw how much money she had wasted and how much she was overspending! She was going backwards fast and only realised it by doing this simple exercise.

In past Karen hadn't put a high priority on her financial well-being as it was just too hard. Being a marketing manager, her life was busy at work and she had a hectic social life. She didn't want to bother doing something that wasn't exciting like working on her financial future. After all, she had a well-paid job, didn't she?

Karen has now come to her senses and knows her true financial situation. If she lost her job, financially she couldn't afford to be off work for more than a month. She realises that she is responsible for her future.

The area of wealth creation hadn't been of great interest to Karen in past. Now that she was undertaking coaching, she was serious to making a change. Prior to writing down where her money was going, Karen was completely closed to any suggestion to read more about how she can accelerate her wealth (or lack of it), so I didn't pursue this with her. Her attitude had now changed so she was ready and willing to move to next step.

The next move…I referred Karen to an organisation who would look at her total financial picture and be able to recommend what she could do. The reason I chose these people is because they take a holistic approach to wealth creation. They look at every aspect and provide an on-going education as well as a hand-holding service.