Monday, May 3  

Turning the big 10

Hello. Hope you've had a good weekend.

It's a long weekend here in my state (Queensland, Australia) and I've ducked into the office for an hour or two- (2) to finish off work.

My youngest child, Harrison (Harry), turned 10 last week. We had his birthday party on Saturday in a local park. He had about 11 friends turn up for what was 3 hours of soccer, cricket, football, cake eating and cordial drinking.

Pretty much a 10-year-olds perfect party!

Every year is a party year

My kids, and all of their friends, have a birthday party pretty much every year.

When I was a kid, I only ever had one- (1) party. That was for my 10th because that was seen as a bit of a milestone. But these days, every year is a party year. Kids somehow we themselves as deprived if there is no big party.

It's a changing culture

It's a changing world and a changing culture. As business people, we need to be aware of changes in our market so we can react quickly to the changing market forces.

Here's an example: almost every gift Harry received on Saturday was a card with $10.

And he received that from almost everyone (he ended up with $90) because, kids being kids, didn't want to give him something different from the others.

Peer influence is huge

Peer influence is such as big influencing factor for children - if children are your market, then there are big advantages in looking at how you can influence them through word of mouth and being associated with the 'cool' kids (I was always one of the dorky kids).

Oh, one last thing.

If you're a 37-year-old, don't try and keep up with a dozen 10-year-olds playing soccer.

You'll only embarrass or injure yourself. Trust me on that one.

Cheers

Brendon