Even for a Pollyanna like me, it’s been hard to keep a chin up in the face of the tough news we’ve had to bear over the past few months.  I am so grateful for people like Alan who remind us that we have a lot to look forward to.  Hope is an infectious thing! For those of you who haven’t yet read his latest letter to his staff at iBurst, take a moment.  You’ll be so glad you did!

“Hi guys, Why am I writing this email? Because I’m getting the impression there are some depressed people walking around. So let’s recap: At the beginning of the year people were panicking about the oil price, inflation, electricity and economic recession.

Of those big 4 concerns, 3 have taken care of themselves. Oil is now below almost one Quarter of the price of 4 months ago, inflation is not such big deal because oil is cheap nowadays so food & all other costs are falling and we haven’t had any crazy power outages since February (the Eskom saga is a complete mystery to me- The NEWSPAPERS said it would last 4 years What about the Recession? Well, as it turns out, that was something that deserved panic. Especially if your name is Dick and you run a New York investment bank. Fortunately we don’t have any Dick’s at iBurst.

After the merry-go-round of bad news at the beginning of the year, capped by the xenophobic attacks  it’s been quite surreal to watch the u-turn executed by those heading for the exit door. It’s a bit like watching naïve tourists run into the sea off Camp’s Bay, scream in pain, and then race back onto the beach. The water looks so nice but don’t go in there unless you’re an Eskimo. Suddenly foreign shores aren’t as attractive when there are no jobs, no credit, and no sunshine so people who left are returning to tell those who haven’t left not to go.

Just to put a couple of things in perspective, here is some info on the year-to-date performance of world stock markets (as of 10 Nov):

Iceland              -89%
China                -64%
Russia               -64%
India                 -48%
Hong Kong      -46%
Brazil                -40%
Japan                -40%
USA                  -36%
Australia          -35%
UK                     -32%
New Zealand    -29%
South Africa     -26% 

..SA is not so bad is it? I’d rather be here than in Iceland?? !!

Sunny SA is certainly not immune to the global economic crisis. Our companies are suffering too, which means fewer bonuses and more retrenchments (always a winning recipe for unhappiness). How long will it last? Who knows, but brace yourselves for a tough 2009.  The good news is that after every tough time comes good times, so at least we all have something to look forward to!

What is the silver lining for SA? Our interest rates are still high, but will decrease to ease the burden on your back pocket. The UK and USA do not have that luxury, their interests rates are already too low to cut further and it hasn’t helped them at all yetWhat else? Mad Bob can’t last forever. When he heads off into the sunset there will be an absolute bonanza of investment and aid flooding into Zimbabwe, and a large chunk of that windfall will be via sunny SA… oh happy days. Who said there were no plusses to having a failed state as a neighbour? … What else? Anyone noticed the cranes everywhere you look? Seen the Gautrain progress?

I went down to CT 2 weeks ago, and virtually the entire highway is under construction. Durban has a new Stadium; a bigger harbour AND a new Airport all finishing in the next 18months. The unintended consequence of the government procrastination on infrastructure investment over the past 10 years is that now that it’s finally underway just in time to prop up our economy! Gotta love those bureaucrats.

What else? The Soccer World Cup is coming. If we get it right we’ll be the hottest spot on the planet and we’ll have a shout for hosting the Olympics

But don’t crack open the champagne just yet, we still have our fair share of challenges. Your average Yank may be swapping his house for a trailer, but at least he’s not worried about being shot in the head on the way to his next job interview. If any of you have a relative or friend in the government, please pass on this message, “Crime is out of control and most of our schools and hospitals are in disarray.” Don’t for a second fool yourself that we can ignore these structural problems and live the rest of our lives in blissful ignorance. We must constantly remind the politicians to do their jobs, but we cannot absolve ourselves of our responsibility to make individual contributions

It is our business to make this land a success. Report crime, pick up litter, give to the needy, create jobs, look after the children, practice safe sex, drink filter coffee. We’ve all got a responsibility to make the magic happen, otherwise you’ll just end up lying in bed in 50 years time, looking back and saying “What if?”

The time of opportunity is upon us, now it’s up to us to seize the day. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Life is not about waiting for storms to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain. Looking forward to dancing in 2009

We’ve been waiting a long time for this and it’s finally happening!  

Footprint’s first words in the media have been printed.  Yesterday in the Star Workplace Jules speaks about how our economy has shifted in the last 12 months and Footprint’s role in it all.  Financial literacy needs to be shared with people from the bottom all the way to the top of the income ladder… 

Read the article to find out more.  (Click on the picture here to download the PDF)

Jules rocks the world of Destiny. 

After a short trial run in December, Jules now writes her weekly blog for an online magazine called Destiny Connect.  Some new features as well as some previously blogged articles will appear weekly on the Destiny Connect blogsite.

To check out some of her published pieces, click the picture and you will be redirected to the site.

What do you do in difficult times?

How are you coping with the recent economic crisis? 

In Jules’ latest article features in the Business Brief, she writes about emotional intelligence and resilience.  If you want to know how to survive emotionally in this modern day and age you must check it out.

Click on the picture to view the article in PDF format.

No matter how deep the roots, or how frequent the rainfall, sometimes its just too hard for an Avo tree to withstand the onslaught of internal disease! 

We suddenly realised, in late November, that our precious Avo tree that stands so proud on the Kensington hillside was seriously ailing.  Leaves were falling off the tree and turning brown, branches were clearly dying.  We watered and cleared space and hugged the tree (when nobody was looking), but to no avail.  The tree seemed to respond to no normal treatment.

Grant, Anabela and Clay realised that urgent action was required to save the tree that, after all, is the symbol for growth and sustainability here at Avo.  So they called in the big guns.  A tree doctor came out to examine the Avo, and found an internal fungus that was rotting the tree from the inside - we had found it with about 2 weeks to spare before the rot killed the tree completely!

The tree doctor applied the medicine, and cut off some of the branches, and we all held our breath over December to see whether the medicine would take in time…. and slowly….very slowly, our tree began to recover.  This morning it is full of brand new green leaves, and even new branches starting to sprout. 

I feel the new, refreshing surge of light and energy flowing through Avo the company too - how interesting!

I’m back from leave. I’ve had an incredible time with my family, and am feeling really rested and ready for the new year.

But I’m feeling really cross today. We have some really large corporate clients with whom we do happy business most of the year. We did fabulous work for a couple of those in October and November, and had two hefty invoices generated for them, well in advance of the silly season. Each invoice was big enough, in fact, to cover our entire salary bill for a month, and if even one of them had paid when they said they would (which was WAY after their actual due date), we would all have had a happy Christmas with salaries in early.

BUT guess what: neither of them have paid yet.  We had to go grovelling to the bank to cover our salary and VAT bills, and now, on the 6th of January, we’re staring down the barrel of our PAYE and supplier payments, and STILL no payment from our corporate clients!  Everyone seems to have headed off on holiday with their salaries and Christmas bonuses comfortably in their pockets, without a passing thought for the small guys who just don’t have the cash flow to carry their companies until some person comes back in the middle of January and presses the ‘PAY’ button they forgot to press before going on leave.

It’s not fair, guys!  We are known in the industry for giving every ounce of the extra mile: we deliver way above the standards of our competitors, and often at great personal cost!  We love to do what we do, but when our clients don’t pay their bills on time, it really makes Avo an unhappy place.  We all feel very compressed, stressed and unappreciated for the work we do, and a lot of our productive time goes into scrabbling for cash to pay OUR suppliers on time!

So big guys - spare a thought for the little guys!  The economy isn’t being kind to anyone right now, but we’re the ones sailing closest to the wind.  Your lack of care in managing payment on time could well mean the demise of some of the small guys out there!