Each Thursday we will bring you a financial tip or article. Mostly supplied by our Wealth Coach and Financial Mentor, Clive Bydawell from 7 Year Wealth Plan. This week Clive’s message is short and plummets straight to the heart of the matter.

The best way to generate long term wealth is to continually focus your energy on buying appreciating assets with your hard earned income. Period.

Ok, time to go shopping!

Today we took some time off to visit the Hospitality Expo at the CTICC. We knew from experience that this is one expo to look forward to in terms of free snacks and give aways but this year we over did it just a tad. We walked away with not only some great new contacts for business and networking but also a huge snack and coffee overdose. At one stage I even got the shakes as the caffeine surged through my veins. Oh Yes!

Hostex Cape has become one of the best expos we attend (and we do a lot) The people behind the stands are trained in hospitality and service and actually enjoy being there and chatting to people. They are keen to give you free, engage you in conversation and let you play with the toys as they offer advice and coffee, did I mention coffee. I am willing to bet that the expo floor for these 3 days offer more coffee per square meter than other spot on the planet. I did feel sorry for the few who were there to sell coffee, much like selling water during a monsoon.

All in all a great experience and lots of new contacts to follow up with EI as well as for our members. And I got some free Lavazza coffee for our workshop tomorrow. May the buzz continue.

They are open until Wednesday evening so get down there if you can or diaries it for next year.

I have been using Ping.fm now for a while to manage my social media broadcasts. Ping.fm allows me to send the same message to many different platforms from one single application. It is fast, easy to use and FREE. No up sells to get the full functionality or pesky little emails each week offering me more stuff for just $14 a month.

I like to be left alone and allowed to use an application for what it was marketed and designed for without all the up sells. Apps like Ecademy, FastPitch and SocialOomph are fast becoming huge pains in my life with all their marketing invasion into my inbox.

My tip for this week is simple. Ping.fm have added a function application that sits on your iGoogle page and allows me to ping from my browser home page. No hassle, no fuss, just ping and all my chosen platforms are updated. Give it a try. Convenience at its best and you know how I like convenience.

This event is always an interesting time in Cape Town. The ‘Pride of SA’ opens their doors to let tens of thousands of people into the normally well-secured premises in Simons Town.

This year the German navy were in town for war games and have been kind enough to open some of their vessels for tours. I took Friday afternoon off and took my son to do the boy’s thing and got to play with the big guns and see all the creative ways technology has evolved to kill more people with less effort.

They put on a mock battle for us with lots of noise, smoke and helicopters. The Navy task force over came the pirates and took them away in cuff with a loud applause from the spectators, giving us all a sense of safety and warm and fuzzy just before the World Cup.

A day well spent, good to see what my tax money goes to and that we do actually have ships, subs and crafts with competent people to man them.

If you have ever spent the last remaining time with a person who has been diagnosed with a terminal condition you will see how they become aware of using each and every moment to its fullest. The movie ‘The Bucket List’ is a prime example of this.

But is not Life itself a terminal condition? We get one shot at this and if we let it slip by we may never have the same opportunities again. As we strive to inhabit our life to its fullest, here are some points taken from the Sphere of Mankind to ponder on:

• Our Body’s function is survival; its purpose is to live.
• Our Mind’s function is to develop; its purpose is to learn.
• Our Heart’s function is relationships; its purpose is to love.
• Our Souls’ function is legacy; its purpose is to disciple.

Take these into consideration we can sum up our life: Participate fully in life through Teaching, Loving and Mentoring others. These should be on our bucket list each day.

It has been time for me to get a new phone for some while now and honestly I just do not have the energy or time to do a full matrix comparison of what is available and what suits me best.

Does anyone have info or know where I can get a comparative sheet on functions, benefits and uses of the phones on the market.

I just need a phone, sms, camera, video, email, navigator, web browser with blue tooth. All with a week of battery time. Not too hard?

Help warmly encouraged?

Having your business listed on any mapping system is a huge advantage for when customers are trying to find you. Google Maps is easy to register for and now you have the chance to get your business listed on the Garmin and Garmap systems.  For just R100 your business will be loaded to the software that is rolled out to all Garmin GPS units.

Well worth the investment if you want customers to come and visit. Remember that with the Soccer World Cup just 98 days away, you will want all those visitors to know where you are. Go here to get listed.

With just 100 days to kick off we thought it would be a good way to do another 100 day plan for your business with 100 questions to ask as a business owner, one for each day until 11 June. So here is the first 10, about creating a better niche market for both yourself and your product.

1. What am I really good at doing?
2. Does this translate into what I want to do in my business?
3. What does the market (the people out there) want/need related to what I am doing?
4. Who else is doing what I do in close proximity to me?
5. What tools/equipment do I have?
6. What tools/equipment will I need?
7. What skills do I have that I can use?
8. What skills do I not have that I will need?
9. What skills could I source from others whom I already know?
10. What is stopping me from doing something today?

Get going with your answers, the next set in 10 days time.

With just 100 days to go to the Soccer World cup in South Africa, the city of Cape Town is a buzz with activities. People are running around wit their soccer shirts on and waving flags. A company I visited today, Laser Logistics had a staff soccer match in the car park over lunchtime with lots of cheering and support from on lookers. At last we are beginning to see the buy in from the general public for this event.

We are looking forward to the count down to the 11 June kick off.