Since logging onto the internet way back in 1997 I have become increasingly suspicious and cynical of anyone offering me a great deal.

Do you remember the email that was circulated telling us that Bill Gates was tracking its progress and would give a free trip to Disneyland for everyone who forwarded it on?… I don’t know how many times I received that email, from people sending it ‘just in case’. As if…

There are the obvious scams that go straight to ‘spam’ – the Nigerian type where you inherit a gazillion dollars from a person you never met – if you will just send $10000.00 and your bank details… Obviously it works because people have fallen for it and been scammed.

Then there are the less obvious scams and they can be harder to detect. Recently an ad for DIY solar power came up on facebook so I clicked to see what it was about. I was interested…

The ad page looked a familiar – a very long page with lots of testimonials and a book to buy to show you how to make your own solar panels. I then googled ‘Solar Panels Scam’ and discovered what others were saying about this product – and it wasn’t pretty. It was clear that the information wasn’t worth the $40.00 even with the money back ‘guarantee’, but the clincher to tell me it was a scam was the pop-up that flew out at me when I tried to leave the page. ‘Are you sure you want to miss out on a great deal!!!??’ it said (or words similar). Now I was convinced…

Any time you come across a very long page full of testimonials, youtube clips and multicoloured font be careful… very careful…

And google the name of the product alongside the word scam. Chances are you will discover some interesting facts. I was recently surfing and came across another promise of great wealth working from home and doing very little. I picked it as a scam straight up but out of curiosity followed the trail. I discovered the names of the people behind it, googled them and saw that they were actually pyramid selling herbalife. Not illegal at all, but not likely to make anyone (but them) rich in a hurry…

The other sites I reckon it would be easy to get sucked into are the ‘penny auctions’ where you don’t actually purchase a product but you purchase the right to cast a certain number of bids. Again this ad popped up on Facebook and with my aging 4 yr old Sony laptop grunting at me I clicked to see how I could get a new macbook air for $9.99… Did I mention it sounded too good to be true?…

I didn’t see the fine print at first and was casually surfing my way thru the ‘sign up’ screens when I got to the one that wanted some $$. It must have been my cynic reflex kicking in because I googled the site and then discovered a whole bunch of people crying foul because they had paid for ‘bids’ rather than a product. Its legal and the fine print does explain it, but its a reminder how few of us can be bothered reading that stuff.

Whew… I reckon I am pretty net savvy and almost got my butt kicked here.

Then there are the stories we preachers tell – often presented as fact – but once ‘snoped‘ we discover that we have been perpetuating an urban myth… Some are so good they deserve perpetuating, but I never like to present as fact something that is clearly a myth.

Of course there are online casinos where you can easily throw some money away, or if you want to explore a totally different money losing option then google HYIP (High Yield Investment Portfolios) and see how a Ponzi scam works. If you get in early you can make some big money, at the expense of those who get in late just before the pyramid implodes.

I reckon its still as simple as that old saying ‘if it looks too good to be true then it probably is’.

I’m sure there are some great legit deals out there and there are some ways of making $$ quicker than others, but the risk is almost always proportional to the return. If it promises 45% / month then don’t expect to see your money in 6 months time…

Of course to draw this back to my own playing field – churches – its amazing how the internet can make a little ‘mom and pop’ backyard church look like a great grand slicko megachurch simply with some great design. I reckon the real challenge of a church in the internet age is to actually live up to their online presence, so that when people join you they experience what they thought they were going to experience.

Anyway rant over…

As you were.

Almost every time I have quoted on a job and someone has asked for a discount I have given them one.

Sometimes it’s $50, sometimes $100 and on bigger jobs even more. There have only been one or two occasions (typically jobs I haven’t wanted to get), where I have refused to negotiate on price.

If you want a discount just ask!

I figure if that’s how I operate then chances are most others are similar. The philosophy I work on is that its always better to get the job or get the sale than to lose a customer over a few bucks.

Just this week on a job worth $2200.00 a woman asked if that price ‘was the best I could do?’ It wasn’t. I gave her $100.00 off for asking. She was happy and I will still make a good profit. More than that, I got the job and some goodwill.

Often it’s all in how you frame the request.

By comparison a very wealthy customer rudely questioned my hourly rate and told me it was exorbitant. (It is the ‘going rate’ for retic blokes.) I offered to stop work then and there and let her find someone else. She got the message that it was a fair price, and that if you want a discount you might have to ‘ask nicely’. 

Now obviously some items aren’t negotiable and it would be dumb to ask, or you may just be happy with the quoted price, in which case no negotiation is necessary, but on other occasions there’s no harm in politely asking ‘can you do a better price than that?’ because nine times out of ten the answer is probably ‘yes’.

It was 12 months ago to the day that we were wrapping up our round Oz adventure and getting ready to head home.

Funnily enough we were in Busselton then, as we are now. It’s one of our favourite places and has that definite ‘we could live here’ feel to it. Right now that’s not possible, but in a few years time it might be a different proposition.

This has been a short 5 day getaway after a busy few months with church and Retic work. We haven’t ‘done much’, but then that was kinda the plan.

Simple R & R and then head home and get back into it. We didn’t particularly plan to be back here in an exact 12 months, but that’s how it has turned out. 

You gotta be grateful for space in your life to chill, regroup and recharge

After 46 years of life I have discovered that I enjoy my job most when I am learning while doing it. Once I feel like I have mastered it to a point where it becomes somewhat automatic I inevitably begin to look to something else. I’m not sure if it’s a character flaw or a positive quality, but it’s there. I like new adventures and fresh experiences.

It happened with teaching, youth pastoring, leading Forge and now I can feel it happening with reticulation. I’m not ‘over it’ but I am looking to either expand it, reinvent it or do something completely different. I didn’t know much about Retic when I started but I’m feeling like I’m fairly on top of it now. It isn’t rocket surgery.

Lately I’ve been reading up on mini-bobcats and trucks and considering investing in some gear to add another dimension to my business. Ironically, part of the reason I actually resist buying some machinery is because I don’t know how to use it…

But of course therein lies the opportunity to learn something new and to be in that place I enjoy again.  I guess the extent of damage you can wreak with a bobcat is quite a deal larger than that of a trenching shovel so you don’t just hop in and start digging!

It’s also a fair bit of cash to invest – maybe $70K – and then there’s the question of storage… More than that even there’s the question of finding time to actually do the work when I already have as much work as I can manage. Then there’s the desire to keep life simple. I could employ staff to do Retic & turf while I get earthmoving up and running but it’s starting to feel a bit more all consuming than I like.

Its also partly prompted by the question mark that hangs over my right arm and how long it can remain usable. It may be necessary to have a plan b if it gets too sore. Add to that the dire situation Perth finds itself in this year with water and the possibility of a complete watering ban and it pays to at least have done some homework on a plan B that could get us thru a drought period. 

So we will see what develops…  For now it will be business as usual but I don’t think it will be forever.

Sorry India.

We really gave you guys curry (to coin a phrase) in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games and portrayed you as backward neanderthals who couldn’t pull off a major event to save yourselves. We worried about everything from security to hygiene and we even pulled a few nasty stunts to discredit you and make you look incompetent.

We made a big deal of all of the ‘bad’ and said very little about the good. If self fulfilling prophecies were precisely that, then our propaganda alone would have seen the games a dismal failure.

But from my observations you did a pretty good job of making it all happen. I wasn’t there in person (and I actually think it might be time to lay the games to rest) but your management processes seemed to work and there were enough fireworks and regalia to please even Dame Edna.

So – well done India. In spite of the odds you did a decent job.

And interestingly I spotted another blog post on a similar title here.

Having enjoyed the big lap last year I am always interested to read of the journey others are taking around this great country, so these two blogs have been of particular interest lately.

Gallagher’s travels by (now very old mate) Steve Gallagher and Aussie Road Trip by the Busso family Robinsons are both well worth a read if you are considering a similar adventure.

Currently the Gallagher’s are making their way down the Qld coast and getting rained on as they go, while the Robinsons are near Sydney and travelling in the opposite direction.

I haven’t bought a caravan mag for a few months now and the roots are starting to feel like they are sinking back into terra Butler, albeit for a few more years until we launch off again! Yes, that’s our hope – to be able to crank it all up again and take off on another adventure.

I must admit that with the Aussie dollar in its current state, its tempting to fly across to the US, buy a caravan over there, tour the US and then ship it home, sell it and pay for the trip. With a comparable US caravan about half the price of an Aussie one its a very doable prospect…

But for now I’ll keep my head down and bum up as we dig in for another few years of suburban life. Sigh…

Today there were 35 of us at church – a small crowd even by our standards, and at 9.30 it looked like maybe some of us didn’t get the memo that church had been cancelled for the day.

This used to bother me. In fact I’m sure part of my self worth was linked to it.

It doesn’t now. It was actually a great day, with people sharing stories of what has been going on in their lives, one young couple announcing an engagement and an absolute screamer of a sermon… ok I made the last bit up…

There are things you can do with 35 that you can’t do with 135 and things you can do with 5 that you can’t do with 35.

If the end game is to make disciples – and it really is as simple as that – then we just need to get on with it. So these days I don’t get too worried about how many are there. I get more concerned about who we are becoming, or even ‘if’ we are becoming.

I imagine one day there may well be 135 gathering to ‘do church’, (whatever that may mean to you), but I sure as hell hope we keep the focus on the important stuff.

Lately as ‘visitors’ have come to ‘check us out’, I have felt the tyres get kicked and the scratches on the paintwork get pointed out and its been all I can do not to say some very unsavoury things. If we were actually setting out to impress them then maybe I’d accept that sometimes we don’t ‘measure up’ but given that is not our primary goal, tyre kickers and church shoppers will likely be perennially disappointed if they choose to shop with us.

So it was good to day to be with the 34 other people who are part of the family and to enjoy the different conversations, challenges and encouragements that came along – to recognise that for whatever reason God has thrown us together to help one another as we ask what it means to follow Jesus.

World Habitat Day is a day the United Nations has set aside to call attention to the dire need for affordable, adequate housing.

Its this Monday and you can read more about this worthy cause here.