The benefits of having a business or venture of your own, aren’t just financial and sometimes it’s easy to overlook that.

Yesterday, we took a call from a long-standing customers about one of our current products. In the course of the conversation he told us how something he’d bought from us back in the late 1990’s had proved to be literally ‘life-changing’ – his words not ours.

At the time, he’d been forced to give up his job to look after his terminally ill wife. He was in a difficult financial spot and bought a manual from us which was all about cleaning suspended ceilings. Spurred on by necessity, he went out and secured a number of commercial clients. Because of the nature of the work, he was able to work through the night when his wife was asleep, and then be around to look after her during the day.

The business enabled him to spend valuable time with his wife during the final year of her life – something for which he remains very grateful. As an aside, he made over £30,000 in that year which was a pretty decent sum back in the 1990’s.

Time moves on and the need for suspended ceiling cleaning isn’t what it was, but I think the story shows that taking control of your own financial destiny can be about much more than money. It can be life enhancing in far more important ways.

As always, we will continue to bring you ideas and opportunities that will enable you to take control of your own life and your own time. Taking them up sooner rather than later can give you the freedom and flexibility you may need and cherish one day.

When news broke of United Airlines staff physically removing a passenger from one of their flights in April, the share price plummeted by around 5% in a day. This is a fairly regular occurrence – some bad news surfaces on social media , and the company share price takes a hammering. But here’s the thing – in almost all cases, the effect is only temporary and there’s little or no long term damage done.

Just a few weeks later, United Airlines shares have quickly recovered, and it’s the same story with recent social media campaigns against Lego and Uber – a knee jerk fall followed by a quick return to the status quo. Even Volkswagen shares have been steadily climbing in value after  a social media and international news media drubbing that was about as bad as it gets following the emissions scandal.

So how can you make money out of this? Look for share price falls precipitated by online social media campaigns or publicity – and buy! The effect is unlikely to be long lived and you will, in all likelihood, make a quick profit.

You might recall that back in late June, we sent you a bulletin headed ‘Free Money From Betting’.  It concerned the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor and highlighted the fact that the odds in no way reflected the chances of each fighter.

When I wrote that piece, I fully expected the odds on a Mayweather win to become less attractive as the world woke up to the fact that McGregor had little or no chance. In reality, the odds actually became a little more favourable as the fight approached and gullible punters fell for the McGregor hype.

As you probably know by now, Mayweather won the fight as expected, after doing a good job of giving people the impression they saw a real fight, without actually getting hit!

We’ve heard from a number of customers this week who made money on the fight, and that got me thinking – I wonder who made the most and what was the total? If you won money, we’d love to hear from you.

Opportunities like this are few and far between – ones where the chance of a loss is almost non-existent – but if there’s another one, we’ll be sure to let you know.