Passive Income - Cell C Franchise

Speaking of passive income in the previous post; Cell C has an interesting franchise opportunity. It is an opportunity to offer cell phone contracts and prepaid starter packs directly to the market. The operational costs are fairly low since this is a direct marketing franchise and therefore you don't have to have a physical premises. In addition you don't carry any stock, you sign the customer up and Cell C delivers the goods. The start up costs to register the franchise is R 55 000, I hear that it is due to increase shortly. What I really like though is the fact that it involves passive income. Not only do you get income from signing people up you get a certain percentage of their ongoing bill as long as they remain on the Cell C network. This is just the type of cash flow idea that Robert Kiyosaki talks about in his Rich Dad, Poor Dad book. If any of you run one of these Cell C franchises, let me know I would value your input.

Books to read

Keen to read some good books? On the business side, a book I found really good was "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. He really makes a lot of sense and challenges some of the conventionally held views on making money. The theme he takes in the concept of generating passive income, that requires very little work once it has started. Rental income is an example of passive income, as once it is set up and the money starts flowing it requires you spending little time in order to maintain that income stream.

He is more focused on cashflow rather than capital growth and suggests that you focus on ensuring you cashflow grows. He also challenges the general belief that the house you live in and own is your greatest assest and suggests it is rather your greatest liability as it does not generate income. Hence the big distinction between assests and revenue generating assets. He also challenges the value that some financial advisors can provide suggesting that you should ask them whether they are living off their investments rather than their salaries and if not ask them why not? This book certainly gets the juices flowing and makes you look at financial planning differently.

Mozambique the place to go!

Last year my wife and I decided to go to Mozambique for the first time. We had heard quite a lot about it and were rewarded with a lovely holiday. What a lovely place at a reasonable price. We flew out from Lanseria airport to Mozambique on one of those prop planes, yes they do still exist outside a museum. We were on a package deal that cost about R 7500 per person for the week including flights, accommodation, breakfast and dinner for a week.

We spent the first 4 nights at Barra Lodge. The lodge is right on the beach and has basic accommodation, but is clean which is the main requirement for us. We went towards the end of April and I must say it was nice and hot, I wouldn't go there at a hotter time of the year! There are a number of activities that are co-ordinated from Barra Lodge, including Scuba Diving, Ocean Safaris and activities like quad biking. When on the Ocean Safari we had the opportunity to snorkel with Whale Sharks, which would have been a real experience had we both not been so sea sick!

We then moved to Flamingo Bay a resort also owned by Barra Resorts. Now if you want a romantic setting this is the place to be. The chalets are on stilts above the water that is crystal clear allowing you to see some amazing fish from your chalet as the tide goes in and out. If you lazy or if you have had too much wine, you can be transported to and from your chalet on a golf cart to the resturant.

Here is a picture of Flamingo Bay

Monster beats iTrip hands down

I recently bought an iTrip so that I could listen to my iPod on my car radio. What a mistake, the quality was poor and half the time it just stopped working and I would have to disconnect it from the cigarette lighter and then reconnect it for it to work again. I decided then to try out the monster attachment. What a difference! The clarity is much better, with a stronger signal strength and it also keeps your iPod charged, unlike the iTrip. I am just waiting for iTunes to start selling online music in South Africa, they missing out on a big music market here I recon!! Come on Apple get your act together!

Software sms package for Sony Ericsson m600i

I have finally found a software package that allows me to send smses or text messages as the rest of the world would sat via my cell phone from my PC. One wonders why Sony Ericsson does provide this in their PC suite?? The product is called Float's Mobile agent or FMA and is open source and downloadable free of charge which is great. I think these guys have done a fantastic job, the only problem is that since it doesn't support the m600i officially it does not yet sync your phones contacts, hopefully there will be a future release that does! The download can be found at http://fma.sourceforge.net/

Enjoy