Thursday, October 13, 2011

Mental Health Week - talking about the silent illness

Article courtesy of AXA insurance

Mental Illness can affect how a person feels, behaves and interacts with others.  The symptoms can be so wverwhelming that sufferers have great difficulty with daily tasks that others take for granted.  In more severe cases people with depressive disorders may not be able to get out of bed or care fro themselves properly.

During Mental Health Week, from October 9-15 2011, beyondblue will be helping to raise awareness of depression and anxiety and reduce the stigma associated with these conditions.

DID YOU KNOW.....
  • Around 1 million Australian adults have depression and 2 million have anxiety disorders.
  • 1 in 5 women and 1 in 8 men will experience depression in their lifetime
  • Depression and anxiety are the most common mental disorders experienced by Australians, Depression alone is predicted to be one of the world's biggest health problems by 2020.
  • Depression can be linked to family conflict, isolation or loneliness, unemployment, serious medical illness, and drug and alcohol abuse.

Depression is an illness, not a weakness - those struck down shouldn't be ashamed to seek help and they deserve to be free of financial worries while they are receiving treatment.

Income Insurance can help protect your lifestyle and support you through the financial stress that depression can cause.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Is your Christmas Card list growing out of control?


Do you dread spending hours organising your Christmas cards every year? Whether it is for your family and your friends or for clients and business colleagues, sending Christmas cards can be time consuming. Finding quality cards that are meet your expectations can be a  chore in itself, let alone the hours it takes to write them out, addressing envelopes and sticking on stamps.



The fact is you would love to be able to remember everyone, have the time to sit down and write your message of good tidings and well wishes to all but unless you are lucky enough to have a personal assistant with nothing else to do chances are you just won't send them.
Well there is a new way to send your cards out this year and not only is it cost effective (around $1.50 for a standard card which includes printing and postage) it is also time efficient.

In past years it has taken my office staff days to complete all our cards to our clients and business associates but last year we changed the way we do it and it took just 15 minutes. Yes that’s right we sent out over 400 cards and it only took 15 minutes to do it.

This new system for sending greeting cards is called SendOut Cards and for my business it has become and invaluable tool in our overall business procedures. Not only do I use it for our Christmas Cards we also use it for client birthdays, thank you cards even review reminders and invitations to special events. 

I still get to write my heartfelt message to each client, but without having physically do it.  You can even personalise it with your own family or staff photo.

It is so easy to use, there is an inbuilt client management system, much like and address book and you can import your contacts from Outlook or any other database system. To send a card you simply create a card, choosing a designed card or you can design one from scratch using your own photos. Write your message (you can even have your own handwriting set up as a font) and sign your card. Select your recipients and press send.

It is as convenient as email put with the personal touch of a real greeting card. This system has made a huge difference to my business. I often have several phone calls from clients every month thanking me for their beautiful cards. In fact for some clients it is the only card they get.

Never underestimate the power of a card with a special message.

Also with this system there is the opportunity to earn an extra income if you choose, otherwise you can just be a retail member and enjoy all the convenience and value of SendOut Cards.

If you are interested in finding out more about sendout Cards you can visit www.sendoutcards.com/wayne1 or call Wayne Lennan on 0412 494 243