Hoxton Hotel Rocks Again!

I’m hanging out at the fabulous Hoxton Hotel, in London, EC1 after our Money Gym Membership Bootcamp “Fast Start” day, which is rapidly becoming my London home from home.

I can’t tell you how good (and how incredibly reasonable) this hotel is. I keep meeting people of all ages and nationalities in the lift who are grinning ear to ear and saying “this is a great hotel isn’t it?”.

I love a nice boutique hotel, don’t you?

It actually feels like a little unique village in the City – you really never feel like you need to leave, once you wheel your wearie lappie through the welcoming lobby.  The buzz of conversation of the trendy crowd of all ages (from teens to 70’s), mini shop, the amazing welcome from the reception staff, the real fires, the paper eagles, the amazing music…love it.

Up to the great rooms – perfectly formed with everything you need including spare pillows and towels, proper coffee bags, waiter’s friend bottle opener, self-proclaimed “Boring Sign No #5″, the little fridge with proper milk, mirrors where you need them, a glass shower with drencher and alternative shower if you don’t want to get your hair wet

“Well, it would be rude NOT to!!” said my 13 year old Pheobe said on first glance at the drencher, heading right in there……

And free wireless internet throughout the hotel, anyone?.

The Hoxton has the most comfy beds – soft but firm – and gorgeous bed linen which feels somehow feels more divine than any other, plus the brilliant and funky restaurant ruled with a rod of iron by Richard Moul (more about him later), to the live DJ in the bar who plays old rare groove on Fridays, funky disco house on Saturdays and jazz and all that laid back hip hop groove on Sundays.

What’s the significance of the Paper, Stone, Scissors pillows then?

And I’m loving the cashpoint machine and Evening Standard dispenser (free natch!).

They even do “stay for £1″ offers on the internet (see below for the website details).

Around the corner from Jamies “Fifteen” and the apparently amazing “Hoxton Apprentice” – where not just the chefs, but the whole staff are ex-homeless people.

What can I say about the Hoxton Hotel staff?

O man, the staff………..they are just SO GOOD.

(Even better than the Mediterranean Risotto (with feta, sun dried tomatoes and olives) I had tonight and the Pan Fried Sea Bass with Sweetcorn Chowder & rocket and parmesan salad, last night….pheweee)

The warm welcome at reception, the brilliant front of house people in the restaurant, the really hot but friendly bar staff through to my personal favourite, the Italian head waiter Mauro, who is so good he inspires his staff to try and beat him in terms of excellent service….they are all having such fun and it’s just awesome to watch.  They are “on stage” and they know it, and they perform like its the first night every night.

We have only been there three times since June, and when Mauro spotted me in the bar, he headed over from his busy restaurant and gave me a big hug…..how can he have remembered me when you think how many people they see a week?

The bigger question is…….How can a place get it so right?

I needed to know because I was blown away on our first visit, and I’m endlessly fascinated about why businesses survive, thrive or fail…….so I did some digging….and I didn’t have to dig far.

I’ve discovered the secret weapon of The Hoxton Bar & Grille……and his name is Richard Moul.

He looks about 12 (and I’m not kidding!), he is everwhere at once, his eyes are everywhere he is not, and he not only nutures that bar and restaurant like it is the love of his life, but he delivers food to the table too, when they are pushed, with joy and grace and an amazing smile.

I asked Richard about his staff hiring policy, and training schedule.

“I hire for personality and attitude and then train them up”.

Simple but devastatingly effective.

And very E-Myth.

I have to interview this man for my podcast as he’s got the most incredible story.  And he’s a whisky expert too.

The Hoxton Hotel – you rock. Again. And I’ll be back – very soon!

Is A Property Boom The Death Of Entrepreneurialism?

This week I posted a blog posting picked up from another site, about whether the property boom had meant the death of entrepreneurialis

Read it here >>

The author seemed to be putting forward the view that entrepreneurs had been getting lazy and flocking to the property market – they put their premise forward thusly…

“The net effect of this (property) boom has been one where the incentive to become truly entrepreneurial was significantly reduced – why try and create a new product or service if there was a guaranteed high return from property development? Similarly, from an investment point of view, why consider any other investment opportunity if there was a perceived guaranteed high return from property development?”

Interesting how they slipped that “perceived” in the second sentance eh?  Do they mean that the return being gurarnetted

Let me give you a bit of context for my fascination for this….

In 2003 I bought my hotel The Acacia.  Property investment and business in one I thought.  A big TICK x 2 on the Lanes of The Wealth Highway.

I created an E-Myth’d business, one which would run without me, whereas I could market the place from anywhere in the world. Which was based in a building that would appreciate in value.

Then I met Andy Shaw and Greg Ballard, no strangers to business or property themselves.  They started to come to a lot of our Money Gym events at The Acacia and we used to spend time in the breaks in the back garden, because some of their team smoked in those days, and we could talk to Steve (the Manager / Chef at the time) through the kitchen window while he prepared his latest sumptuious feast for the clients.

I’ll never forget the day, when one of them uttered the following immortal words ….

“Of course, this place will never make you a good enough return in terms of profit, to make up for how much effort, worry and risk you have put into this place”.

They were not being unkind, just honest, and they knew what they were talking about, because they had had a big business;  two factories, over 100 staff who got up in the morning to cause them grief, over 100 pieces of equipment and a fleet of vans that did likewise.  They realised that, in their first property deal, they had made more profit than they had made in half a year in their business.

So they sold the business and went into property.

They suggested I sell the hotel business and concentrated on the virtually virtual coaching company The Money Gym, my internet marketing activities and property investing – but focusing on simple little one bedroom flats.

I was in a hurry to get out now, becuase the scales had fallen from my eyes in terms of the best use of my time and efforts.

Then I discovered the other problem – that Andy and Greg had also experienced – nobody wanted to buy my business when I wanted to sell it.  Or perhaps I didn’t know how to go about selling a hotel business properly.

And there were other people’s jobs depending on me – you can’t just walk away from a business if there are othere people working in it – your employees.  You have a responsibility.

Grim.

Anyway, with time it all resolved itself – not easy but we got there.

Because at the end of the day, as I never tire of saying, wealth creation is a simple matter of deciding where your best return on investment is, and putting your money, time (which is money) and efforts there. If you don’t know how to work out your return on investment (ROI) here’s one of my previous articles on the subject, which tells you how to work it out, and how to compare different opportunities, and make chalk like cheese for the purpose of comparing different opportunities.

Aye, but, here’s the rub.

We all have our personalities and emotions to deal with and that can muddy the waters.

We find that our Money Gym Gold clients

have distinct preferences about which one or two Lanes of the Wealth Highway they want to work with first.

Analytical people like the idea of the Stockmarket, women are always keen on property and often have a business idea (or existing business / self employed venture going already) while techie and marketing types are drawn towards the internet Lane.

The skill in the early days, as their coach, is in finding out if that is, indeed, their fastest route to the money, as Judith would say.

Because our main goal in The Money Gym is that we want them to recoup their investment as quickly as possible, then go on to create oodles of cash so that they can re-invest it and create more cash, and re-invest it………..you get the idea.

And here is where I get back to the point – hurrah!

We want them to do it as quickly and easily, and effortlessly as possible.

Because why would you want to flog your guts out creating something new, and trying to bring it to market, when you can make pots of cash from following a tried and tested system, a step by step process, one that is proven to work, with colleagues alongside you, and mentors who have gone before, to hold your hand and stop you making painful and costly mistakes?

Why would you go it alone?

I suspect the article was written by a “Creator” in Roger Hamilton’s “Wealth Dynamics” and as one myself (Creator / Star profile moi!) I can almost sympathise.

Almost, because I wasted 38 painful, poor years, trying to create a new business, and bring it to market.

I now harness my creativity into making money out of thin air, created great win/win deals, helping others to create wealth, and finding new ways to make our marketing better.

Who said wealth creation had to be hard work?

And unless your business can create a better return than the property market, why would you go there?  Current blips notwithstanding, the property market appreciates at an average of 10% per annum and the more sophisticated investors create an infinity return on their investment.

Most businesses don’t even break even.

Now, I can hear howls of protest from Judith in the distance (takes a while for sound to travel from Streatham to Shoreham) so I will finish up by saying that we are not anti-business in The Money Gym.

But we are anti-hard work.

So bring us your business idea and we will help you shape it into something that will run happily alongside your property empire building.  We will help you harness the power of the internet to market your business automatically, and then, only when you have nothing to do, will we let you look at the stockmarket.

Unless you want to start there, of course!

Client led coaching, with laser like focus, with a right old boot up the bum, that’s The Money Gym.

Come join us!

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/Gold

PROMOTION:

Talking of whom, one of the supermodels of the property investing world, Greg Ballard, will be joining us tomorrow to tell us how to get an infinity return on your investment.

Then I will be sharing how to make money from property without buying any.

Then Maria Davies, another star of the property world, will be showing us what she’s buying, and sharing how to buy a luxury holiday home in the Caribbean AND create a monthly income, for just £1000.

http://www.TheMoneyGym.com/MGPresents/property2.htm