Take climate change, all you hear is politically-motivated claptrap from people with an axe to grind about something. Where’s the motivation for ordinary people to do anything? Perhaps it’s only experienced old grumpies like me that think about this sort of thing…

Yes, I know about oil, that it’s running out but transportation only accounts for ~28% of energy usage by sector. Industry uses ~22% while buildings consume the remainder. Buildings also gobble up 76% of the electricity generated. Okay, those figures are from the United States but I would guess they apply to pretty much the whole of the developed world.

Common-sense suggests to me that buildings, as the largest consumers of energy, are the first things we should be looking at with regard to averting climate change. Or is that too sensible?

Now, you could go berserk with your insulation but you could also reduce the amount of unnecessary commuting. Why do you need to go to the call centre when it can quite easily be done from home. The same applies to designers, publishers, administrators and many others. The wage bill could be reduced as the travelling costs would be eliminated. Building costs would be massively reduced as they could be much smaller.

Newer buildings could be smaller and more energy efficient – reduction in energy usage. Commuting would be reduced – reduction in energy usage. We over-fifties might get some of these new jobs too! After all, we could do them from our ‘easy riser’ armchairs and our zimmer-frames could remain at home

References:

Architecture 2030 – http://architecture2030.org/the_problem/problem_energy

This is a step forward?

Well it may be for the lawyers as employers use increasingly sneaky ways of getting rid of staff they don’t want, including older people. Of course, the lawyers won’t be giving this service away, they’ll be charging for it!

Some people  will want to continue working while others will not. I’m in the latter category wishing I was retired now but with a pension worth peanuts I’m having to do a few more years to get it up to scratch and get rid of my mortgage. Then I’ll be off!

Some unlucky souls have debts so large they can’t afford to retire whether they want to or not.

But what of the workers who are not up to scratch at 65-plus? Will they get paid they same rate for doing only a proportion of the work they used to do? Employers will resist that and so will younger employees.

So, what’s the point? Well, about 700,000 people become eligible for retirement every year, if they deferred by just one year that would save £3.5 billion a year. For every extra year deferred that’s an extra £3.5 billion! Bearing in mind we are living longer, pensions are paid by people working and there are fewer of those you can see the thinking behind this.

Of course, it’s being sold as a benefit to the older workers like you and me! Well, given what I know now, I would NEVER have worked. After all, there are more benefits to be had by sitting on your fat backside doing nothing, anyone who works just looks like a complete idiot.

Grumps off to make a brew…

So what’s changed my mind?

I was speaking to someone I know who runs an agency recruiting medical staff and she told me that they ALWAYS study CVs, do a minimum of a telephone interview and ALWAYS quiz the candidates on related experience so they can put them forward to the best matches.

Do they do that in IT recruitment? Rarely, in my experience. More likely you’ll apply for a role and some muppet will tick boxes based on what’s on your CV. They usually have NO idea what’s relevant and what’s not or, indeed, whether experience of related technologies can make you a good candidate. They don’t even ask – it’s not on their ‘tick form’.

‘Do you have commercial experience of versions five and six?’, they’ll ask.

‘No, but I do have extensive experience of versions four & six, five is very similar’, I’ll answer.

‘Oh, they’ll say, we can’t put you forward then’

As I said, muppets. Maybe the other candidates are lying and winging it on the job? Maybe I should do that? However, I do have SOME pride left…

Another reason I thought ageism was at work was that so many younger candidates got through. Reality, I believe, is that they’ll take lower salaries; bosses will take a chance that the experience they lack will not be called into play and they’re easier to keep under control.

In other words older employees won’t take any crap and want a bit of time off now and again.

Effectively, I’m retired at 56 by the look, despite having loads of valuable knowledge, skills and experience that any number of organisations could make use of.

Now, I’m not so bothered about being retired because there’s loads of stuff I’m interested in and I can do it now without work interrupting. However, I have a few years still to go on my mortgage so I’ll have to earn a few quid here and there.

Guess I’ll just have to apply myself to other areas…

…maybe I’ll start an IT Recruitment agency, after all, I can’t be any worse than the shower I’ve dealt with!

While 2010 is likely to be difficult year for many of us, don’t give up on the job front. There’ll be more competition because there are more people out of work. You may have to lower your sights a bit in terms of income and while you’re looking, think about selling things online.

You can start simply by opening an Ebay and Paypal account then verify your Paypal account and link a bank account to it – that way when you want to actually spend the money you can transfer it to your account. While Ebay and Paypal are the most well known there are other sites and they may be cheaper although the traffic may be lower. Take a look here for some alternatives.

What to sell? Start off by looking around the house for things you don’t want or need anymore. It costs very little to list items and what you don’t want could be treasure to someone else! If you have expertise in an area, such as fishing, you may be able to sell related items. Check with the shop you buy your stuff from – they will have distributors for the products they sell, perhaps they would let you buy smaller quantities from them to sell on Ebay.

Remember that both Ebay and Paypal charge fees and factor them into your prices. Also factor in the cost of postage and packing. If you are selling items you buy then you’ll need to account for tax. For items you own, tax is not an issue.

If you get to the point of regular income from Ebay then consider your own shop either on Ebay itself or standalone to reduce the fees. Setting up a shop is not difficult but you may want to enlist the help of someone with a bit of computer know-how, at least initially.

Don’t let the technology put you off, it’s not about technology. Selling online is just like every other form of selling. You have products people want, at a price they are prepared to pay and you make sure they can buy them, easily!

Take a look here for some more ideas but remember this site wants to sell you an online store! Nevertheless, the information is useful.

Running an online business is the same as any other business – more money in than out is the objective! Keep your costs down ALL THE TIME. Too many start to make a profit then presume that it will all snowball from there and they’ll soon be rich. If you don’t nail your costs someone WILL be rich but it won’t be you!

Stay legal – selling online is covered by distance selling regulations – find out more here.

To start an online shop you’ll need a domain name, e-mail, somewhere to host your shop and some software to create it with. You can get a domain name from around £6-10 per year from the likes of UKreg or 123-reg who will also provide e-mail facilities and a place to host your site.

For software, there are numerous Open Source options available such as Prestashop, osCommerce and Magento although you’ll probably need some techie help to set these up. Here’s an example of a PrestaShop online shop – take look around here.

You’ll need to market your shop and there is no one-size-fits-all option but you could try free sites such as Gumtree, Vivastreet and Craig’s List. Also, when you ship items from Ebay include flyers, special offers and discount vouchers all only available on your new online shop. Your shop may not be “better than M&S” but if you can find a niche you can still make money!

That’s just a few thoughts for now but I would welcome any contributions…

“This system is so simple I taught my daughter to use it in just one hour!”

“My grandmother is now wealthy using this system”

“I’m even making money from my holiday home in Barbados!”

Yeah, right! If it was that easy we’d all be doing it or, rather we wouldn’t, who would do everything else? In other words the bins wouldn’t get emptied because the binmen (sorry, recycling operatives) would be getting rich trading or selling commodities etc. Who would be growing food, teaching the kids, building houses etc?

Sadly, we can’t all sit on our fat arses doing bugger-all and getting rich. So, if you really feel the urge to spend a load of cash and get nowt for it, send it to me and I’ll spend it on wine, great food and holidays! I’ll even send you a thank-you note listing what I spent it on – now that’s got to be a good deal

Many thanks to friends and family who have offered temporary storage space but I don’t think they realise how much space would be taken up. The furniture was delivered in a 7.5 tonner, packed floor to ceiling, and that was in flat pack form. This amount of stuff isn’t going in a corner of a mates garage…

Actually, while most of it seems to be just general junk and is heading for the skip, occasionally I come across a little gem and it’s off to Ebay!

As well as writing this blog I have been doing a bit of Internet consultancy over the past couple of years and, until recently, have been doing okay. Not okay enough to buy a yacht or anything but okay enough to get by.

But at the end of March 60% of the business simply dried up.

I couldn’t see any way to recover that sufficiently quickly to be able to pay the bills with the office to pay for too so it’s time to contract and pretty sharpish.

Until the end of April, when we will be gone, I’ll be writing about the trials and tribulations…

This is not a political rant, it’s a common-sense one.

Governments are elected by us to manage the Country, sometimes there are difficult decisions to be made and that’s where leadership comes in. This Government simply rides rough-shod over any of our concerns or, more likely, does not even listen.

The trouncing at the weekend should be a wake-up call not only for New Labour but for anyone involved in Government from the smallest minority party through to every single public servant.

We live in a democracy, not a dictatorship, and don’t ever forget that.

Marketing is inexpensive and effective; customers are loyal as long as you deliver good service and the returns are good too.

Why would I want a proper job again