There are two things in which I have never had much faith: insurance and advertising. This year however my lack of faith has been challenged.
I have always been inclined to think that insurance is a waste of money – the money is paid out every month with no apparent benefit. It feels a little like setting fire to bank notes. The money just disappears. This year we have been so glad for our insurance policies however, as we have had to call on three of them. We claimed on our house insurance after the fire in February. In July we claimed on our pet insurance because of Spots’s operation. Finally in September we had a slight bump in our vehicle and decided that the repair was expensive enough to risk a partial loss of our no claims bonus. So there we are. Insurance policies saved us several thousand pounds this year.
It is still probably true that we have spent far more than we have ever claimed – or will ever claim. The only way around it would be to have invested that monthly amount of money for the same period of time - but who manages to do that? Whilst, for example, the cats’ insurance has cost us a fee every month for more than thirteen years, we could not have known that we would never need to draw on it until they were both so advanced in years. When all’s said and done I have to let go of my negative view of insurance.
In September we opened Aro Ling Cardiff. The initial advertising was achieved by distributing printed leaflets all around Cardiff. This was a lot of work for quite a few people, but was pretty successful. A reasonable number of people attended the open day itself, and we had sufficient interest to run our first courses. By November however, the affect of this advertising appeared to have waned and we had to decide what to do next. We decided to try an advert in a local free magazine this time. The cost was about the same as having leaflets printed and the distribution was part of that cost. We would not have to take the magazine around places ourselves.
To my surprise the advert for our meditation group that we placed in The Local Advertiser has produced a lot of interest. We have had a lot of phone call enquiries and people attending events since the advert appeared. So advertising has proved itself as well, and well done to The Local Advertiser!
I have always been inclined to think that insurance is a waste of money – the money is paid out every month with no apparent benefit. It feels a little like setting fire to bank notes. The money just disappears. This year we have been so glad for our insurance policies however, as we have had to call on three of them. We claimed on our house insurance after the fire in February. In July we claimed on our pet insurance because of Spots’s operation. Finally in September we had a slight bump in our vehicle and decided that the repair was expensive enough to risk a partial loss of our no claims bonus. So there we are. Insurance policies saved us several thousand pounds this year.
It is still probably true that we have spent far more than we have ever claimed – or will ever claim. The only way around it would be to have invested that monthly amount of money for the same period of time - but who manages to do that? Whilst, for example, the cats’ insurance has cost us a fee every month for more than thirteen years, we could not have known that we would never need to draw on it until they were both so advanced in years. When all’s said and done I have to let go of my negative view of insurance.
To my surprise the advert for our meditation group that we placed in The Local Advertiser has produced a lot of interest. We have had a lot of phone call enquiries and people attending events since the advert appeared. So advertising has proved itself as well, and well done to The Local Advertiser!
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