Dear Clients, Associates & Friends,
Welcome to our De Freitas & Ryan Monthly E-News Update.
The month of September will go down in financial history as the month all the American chickens came home to roost. I am personally very fond of American people but the more I read, learn and analyse their fiscal system, the more frightening it seems to become and the old ’house of cards’ comes roaring into reality.
Last Saturday’s ’The West Australian’ front page headline (20th September) had big bold red capital letters saying the ’CRASH OF 2008’ and they dedicated an eight page lift out to their story.
I read the whole lot from start to finish (which I must admit goes against my father’s advice of only reading the sports pages) as I find it amazing how very smart people can get it so terribly wrong. Words like catastrophic and financial disaster are frequently thrown up at the reader and you just shake your head in disbelief.
HOW DOES ALL THIS NEGATIVITY AFFECT US?
Fortunately I remember way back in 1961 in Melbourne when our family had a small plumbing business with my father as the owner employing three plumbers and one apprentice. A ’thing’ called the credit squeeze happened and I remember asking my father why all the ’boys in overalls’ as I used to call them, were painting our house, mowing lawns, washing the trucks, cleaning windows and even doing the gardening. My father said, ’There’s no work, son. So we’re all trying to keep busy until things come good.’
Six months later, the three plumbers were gone and it was down to Dad and the young apprentice, ’Crooksy’. It was very hard times for the Ryan family and I’ll never forget it. It was a good lesson learnt very early in life. Obviously we are all headed for another credit squeeze and money is going to get tight and money is going to become hard to obtain. Some values may drop considerably, people’s financial positions change dramatically and we will have to continue to work harder, longer and smarter to ensure we stay afloat.
MAKING A POSITIVE OUT OF A NEGATIVE
All this negative, shock, horror press can have a very damaging effect on business, or you embrace and challenge it and do my old favourite chestnut and ’turn a negative into a positive’. Strangely, my best years in business have been when things were tough and even way back in the early 70’s when big banks ’dried up’ we had to arrange what was termed ’cocktail loans’ to get our deals together. Yes, it was $10,000 from the bank, $5,000 from a finance company, $3,000 from the building society and $2,000 from mum’s bank card. But you know, I still sold a lot of homes, my competition fell away and I finished the year on an excellent note.
Here in Western Australia, we have everything going for us. We have some 900 people arriving in our State every week and they all need to live somewhere. They all need cars, fridges, microwaves, etc... and they all have the potential for high incomes.
The State is short of homes and rentals subsequently are on the increase. Our Northern neighbours need our raw materials and they are prepared to pay for them. Things in that direction are only getting started.
SO WHAT HAPPENS FROM HERE
Head down, tail up, nose to the grindstone, no more reading the financials, only the sports pages (today is AFL Grand Final day). Remember it was 25 years ago yesterday that the Americans lost the America’s Cup and 25 years on, they have lost again only this time as financial ’mugs’ (only being serious). All we have to do is simply get on with it, the opportunities and rewards are right there in front of us.
Our IT website people inform me that they are amazed at the hits our De Freitas & Ryan web site is receiving and our e-newsletter distribution is growing rapidly every month.
Hope I haven’t offended anyone, but you have to admit it is interesting times out there at the moment and might I say most enjoyable.
I’ll catch you again next month when I’ll be able to share some really positive news about the direction of our company.
Rod Ryan
M: 0408 405 262
