In this 200th episode Neil tackles the problem of facing up to uncomfortable truths. What must we do to face up to identify what is good and bad for us, about us and move forward with a more honest viewpoint of ourselves? 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Recognise the habits and routines that are not taking you where you want to go and change them.
• We always want to justify to ourselves our damaging habits but concentrate on not telling lies to yourself.
• Be courageous with yourself consistently with brutal honesty.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Coach said that if my aim was to be ripped and lean I should go to my kitchen and remove everything that wasn’t going to help me to be lean and strong.’

‘I had to recalibrate everything based on a harsh reality.’

‘It conceals the truth behind a smokescreen and that’s a recipe for disaster.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Tutor Podcast

 www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected] 

Research suggests that 80% of New Years resolutions are broken by the end of January. Neil has suggestions about how you can direct your good intentions more fruitfully by detailing what he’s going to be doing at this turning of the year.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• New Years resolutions are a daft idea because they’re a one-off that fails for most people. How about a daily resolution.
• Do something every day that propels you forward, benefits your business or increases your success.
• Your finances are a result of your actions throughout a whole year not just one day.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Joggers will be all over the place for a week or two’

‘What if you had 365 New Years Days and you just rolled the start of your year forward one day at a time.’

‘I love hearing from you guys because I’m here to learn from you too.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Tutor Podcast

 www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected] 

In this episode Neil talks all things Christmas and what it means to him from his spiritual take to what he will be doing over the holiday. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Why is Christmas the one time of the year where you break away from your normal way of being and demonstrate good will to all men? 
• Neil is going to be in the mountains this Christmas, walking and riding and surrounding himself with nature. He needs to keep himself occupied when not teaching.
• Spend Christmas looking forward at your finances and any changes you can make for the future in your business and your personal life, your health and your family.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I’m not going to rant about it.”

‘It’s important to step back and take care of your principle tool, your body.’

‘My family is he reason I do what I do. My big family ; my students and my blood family ; my son, my brothers, cousins, nephews, nieces.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Tutor Podcast

 www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected] 

In this episode, Neil covers accounting for expenses and all the not so obvious in and out costs of the business that can affect your profitability and your tax liability. He details the tax allowances you are entitled to and what you should be asking your accountant about.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• If you are using a vehicle for your business you are entitled to claim a mileage allowance for use of that vehicle. Keep a daily record of your mileage.
• If you take any training courses, uniform or mobile communication keep receipts and claim it back.
• Remember to include depreciation of assets. As your assets devalue, you may claim that back that as an expense.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I keep a single A4 sheet across all my business and they just have a single column each from which I can extract the data.’

‘Parking for business is essential. Claim it back.’

‘These are things that aren’t tangible. This is where your accountant should be doing some work for you.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Tutor Podcast

 www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected] 

This week, Neil explains how crucial it is to keep accurate regular accounts of your sales. In the second of this three part series of episodes detailing his method of accounting, Neil shares his tips on how to accurately record your daily sales into an easy referable format to streamline you and your accountants overview of your business and not fall foul of the taxman.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Do not second guess the taxman! Don’t assume what they will and won’t want to see 
• especially when recording cash transactions. This will protect your peace of mind in the future.
• Keep a simple record sheet of everything you’ve sold during each day by all transaction methods ; cash, cards or transfer. Use this to cross reference against your banks statements.
• Keep your personal finances and business completely separate from each other. Bank cash promptly.

BEST MOMENTS

‘31st of January is your deadline. Get everything lined up, get it sorted. You won’t want to do it after Christmas’

‘If you’ve got clear records of how you’ve been impacted you can obtain grants.’

‘Like they said in Ghostbusters ; “Don’t cross the streams! It could be bad.”’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Tutor Podcast

 www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected]  

This week, Neil explains how crucial it is to keep accurate accounts of your purchases. In the first of this three part series of episodes detailing his method of accounting, Neil shares his tips on how to easily and accurately store and record all your purchase invoices for easy reference.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Every unaccounted for purchase means you are voluntarily going to pay more tax.
• Use an easy software package like QuickFile to electronically record your purchases.
• Write the software generated code for each entry directly onto the hard copy of your purchase invoice for easy cross reference.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Get your ducks in a row so you don’t fall foul of Jonny tax man.’

‘My purchase invoices are easy to find.These can add up to hundreds of pounds every year.’

‘HMRC love sloppy business owners.”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Tutor Podcast

 www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected]

This week, Neil discusses the importance of your workspace and how to maximise efficiency so you can concentrate on inspiring and informing your students.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When designing your working space keep in mind the image you are presenting to your student and the learning atmosphere you wish to present.
• When arranging seating always leave a clean line of exit for your student. This will ensure that they are psychologically relaxed..
• Pay as much attention even when remote teaching, keep your zoom teaching bright and presentable.

BEST MOMENTS

‘The movie set on which you act out your part as teacher.’

‘Everything about your teaching space transmits the level to which you’ve thought about thing.’

‘All this stuff matters, it matters more than you realise.”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Tutor Podcast

 www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected]

This week, Neil discusses the power of journaling – how it has positively impacted not just his own journey as a tutor, but his life in general, and why keeping a journal for yourself might be the missing tool in your own world.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Countless famous and successful people have kept journals, either as part of a collective series of memoirs, or as a way of diarising and organising.
• Journaling keeps up focussed, positive and committed to our personal work and vision.
• Journals can consist of a record containing our daily routine, and can aid us in gaining new perspectives on the way we have thought over a period of time, and the habits that we have developed.

BEST MOMENTS

‘I can vouch for the power of journaling’

‘It’s helped to keep me focussed, sane and positive’

‘It’s kind of like me talking on paper, to myself’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Tutor Podcast

 www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected] 

This week, Neil reflects upon the words of Carlo Cipolla from 1976, and his work on ‘The Human Laws Of Stupidity’ – five laws that may explain a lot about the world around us today…

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Everybody underestimates the number of stupid people. The number around us is way higher than you may think.
• Stupidity does not rely upon factors such as race, religion, sex, profession, or income level.
• Non-stupid people underestimate the danger of stupid people. Stupid people are irrational and unpredictable, and we cannot plan for their effects.

BEST MOMENTS

'The probability of someone being stupid doesn’t correlate with any other factors’

‘It’s a behavioural trait of stupidity’

‘Stupid people are the most dangerous people in the world. They are the spanners in the works of the world’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Tutor Podcast

 www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected] 

One thing that we can all rely on in life, is change. No matter how hard we try, the world around us will change, and so will we. But as Neil discusses on this week's show, since change is inevitable, what can we do about it?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Everything changes every day. We must stay positive about the things we want, staying firm on our outcomes and our desired end-point.
• If change outside of ourselves occurs, respond to it, but in a way that preserves our momentum as we move towards our dreams.
• Recent tribulations have proved that we are resilient and adaptable. Life is never completely smooth sailing, but remember that fun comes in the twists and turns.

BEST MOMENTS

'Change is the one constant in life'

'Dance with the changes - be fleet footed and agile'

'Keep faith with yourself'

'If we can remain robust, strong, and ambitious with ourselves, then whatever change comes we'll make it'

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Tutor Podcast

 www.Neilcowmeadow.com

ABOUT THE HOST

Neil Cowmeadow is a maverick peripatetic guitar teacher from Telford with over 19 years’ experience in the business of helping people. Learn how to start, grow and love your business with Neil’s invaluable advice and tips without the buzzwords and BS!

CONTACT METHOD

[email protected]