With investors fleeing for safe haven assets, now is the time for gold to shine. Diamonds, on the other hand, have lost their sparkle. In March, when stocks were plumbing new depths in the coronavirus crisis, the price for a single diamond carat fell by 6.8%. But the woes facing the industry actually go beyond the current crisis. Over the year, the single-carat price is down by 13.1%.

What’s going on?

Well, for starters, Covid-19 has exacerbated an existing problem. India, where 90% of the world’s rough diamonds by volume are cut and polished, is in lockdown. That has resulted in a 50% drop in diamond exports from this processing hub.

For an industry that depends on being able to dig jewels out of a mine from Canada to Angola, fly them to the trading hubs of Antwerp or Botswana, and sell them to wealthy, hopeful consumers from London to New York and Beijing, coronavirus has been a fiasco. 

With shops shut and people losing their jobs in, say, the US, the world’s biggest consumer market for diamonds, but also in Europe, and China, where the market is growing, diamond prices can be expected to fall further – by 15% or more this year.

De Beers cancelled its latest sale after witnessing a 28% year-on year drop in sales, and it’s been a similar story for its rivals.

But even before the coronavirus outbreak, the market had been in a sorry state owing to a glut, coupled with declining marriage rates among millennials. London-listed Petra Diamonds, already crippled by debt, has also had scant recent success at its famous Cullinan diamond mine in South Africa.

That, in itself, wouldn’t be so bad for diamond merchants. Scarcity in other markets leads to higher prices. But the diamond market has had to contend with “fakes”.

In fact, artificial diamonds are not fakes – they have the same chemical and physical properties as their earth-born brethren. They are just “grown” in a lab. They are also cheaper to produce, free of any historical and ethical taint and, in theory, are potentially greener. 

Colour, in the literal sense, is important for collectors, as coloured diamonds are among the most sought-after – and few more so than the pink diamonds from Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine in western Australia. Most mines will be lucky to unearth one pink in the entire haul; at Argyle, it’s about one pink carat for every 1,000 carats mined.

They are also consistently of the highest caliber, with a strong, pure, intense shade. But the mine, which gave the world around 90% of its pink diamonds, has given up all but its last 150 or so carats. It is set to close later this year.

Demand has been rising, however. So coveted are Argyle pink diamonds that it’s been rumoured Rio Tinto could end up selling the Argyle name.

Today’s National Day  

NATIONAL GORGEOUS GRANDMA DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

Dear Streetwise Customer,

I’ve already written to you a couple of times about this cash generating system.

This time though, I’m not going to tell you how good this is. I’m going to let our customers do it instead!

Here are just some of the comments we’ve received recently…

(Incidentally, all of these comments are completely unsolicited and the original copies are held on file at our offices and are available for inspection.)

To get the full story take a couple of minutes to read visit the website below and read the message from David Houghton who figured this out. It reveals this extraordinary opportunity in detail. 

Take A Look Now By Visiting:

www.streetwisenews.com/AB

There is absolutely No Risk to you in taking a look at this. The whole
thing comes with a full Cast Iron Money Back Guarantee.  All the best for now

John Harrison
Streetwise Publications

PS. Just for good measure here are Mike Pears comments on the A Minus B System:

“O.k. – here are my updates on the A-B System up to my trading week 51. These are all to level stakes. 

Week 40 – w/c 16/2 – loss of 16 pts
Week 41 – w/c 23/2 – profit of 37 pts
Week 42 – w/c 2/3 – loss of 2 pts
Week 43 – w/c 9/3 – profit of 80 pts
Week 44 – w/c 16/3 – profit of 37 pts
Week 45 – w/c 23/3 – profit of 75 pts
Week 46 – w/c 30/3 – profit of 38 pts
Week 47 – w/c 6/4 – loss of 51 pts
Week 48 – w/c 13/4 – profit of 62 pts
Week 49 – w/c 20/4 – profit of 30 pts
Week 50 – w/c 27/4 – profit of 144 pts
Week 51 – w/c 4/5 – loss of 45 pts

Total Level stakes profit is 1,821 pts which averages 36.42 per week… A £1,000 starting bankusing 0.1% stakes, now stands at £5,569.”

Pasta was not eaten.

Curry was a surname. 

A takeaway was a mathematical problem.  

A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower.  

All potato crisps were plain; the only choice we had was whether to put the salt on or not. 

Rice was only eaten as a milk pudding.

Calamari was called squid and we used it as fish bait.

A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining.

Brown bread was something only poor people ate.

Oil was for lubricating, fat was for cooking.  

Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves and never green.

Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days, and was regarded
as being white gold. Cubed sugar was regarded as posh.  

Fish didn’t have fingers in those days.  

Eating raw fish was called poverty, not sushi.

None of us had ever heard of yoghurt.

Healthy food consisted of anything edible.

People who didn’t peel potatoes were regarded as lazy.

Cooking outside was called camping.

Seaweed was not a recognised food.

“Kebab” was not even a word, never mind a food.  

Prunes were medicinal.

Surprisingly, muesli was readily available, it was called  cattle feed.

Water came out of the tap.

If someone had suggested bottling it and charging more than petrol for it, they would have become a laughing stock!!

But the one thing that we never ever had on our table in the sixties …..”Elbows or Phones”

New Way’s To Profit A Love Of Whiskey

Investing in whisky has never been easier from the comfort of your home, even when it’s still in the cask. Whisky Invest Direct is a platform that was launched five years ago by the people behind gold and precious-metals dealing service BullionVault.

Users simply log on and buy whisky that is still in the barrel and kept in the original distiller’s bonded warehouse. The idea is that, as it slowly ages, and other whiskies get consumed, your whisky appreciates in value.

Then, you sell it via the platform. Just like on BullionVault, there is a live order board that allows you to set your own asking price. Another option is to buy and sell whisky by the cask via an online auction.

In February, Cask Trade’s newly launched auction service, called auctionyourcask.com, held the world’s first live, online whisky auction dedicated to casks. Around 300 whisky lovers registered to take part, with roughly 100 samples sent out to prospective buyers in North America, Asia, Europe and Australia.

Today’s National Day  

NATIONAL SLEEP UNDER THE STARS DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

Dear Streetwise Customer,

I’ve already written to you a couple of times about this cash generating system.

This time though, I’m not going to tell you how good this is. I’m going to let our customers do it instead!

Here are just some of the comments we’ve received recently…

(Incidentally, all of these comments are completely unsolicited and the original copies are held on file at our offices and are available for inspection.)

To get the full story take a couple of minutes to read visit the website below and read the message from David Houghton who figured this out. It reveals this extraordinary opportunity in detail. 

Take A Look Now By Visiting:

www.streetwisenews.com/AB

There is absolutely No Risk to you in taking a look at this. The whole
thing comes with a full Cast Iron Money Back Guarantee.  All the best for now

John Harrison
Streetwise Publications

PS. Just for good measure here are Mike Pears comments on the A Minus B System:

“O.k. – here are my updates on the A-B System up to my trading week 51. These are all to level stakes. 

Week 40 – w/c 16/2 – loss of 16 pts
Week 41 – w/c 23/2 – profit of 37 pts
Week 42 – w/c 2/3 – loss of 2 pts
Week 43 – w/c 9/3 – profit of 80 pts
Week 44 – w/c 16/3 – profit of 37 pts
Week 45 – w/c 23/3 – profit of 75 pts
Week 46 – w/c 30/3 – profit of 38 pts
Week 47 – w/c 6/4 – loss of 51 pts
Week 48 – w/c 13/4 – profit of 62 pts
Week 49 – w/c 20/4 – profit of 30 pts
Week 50 – w/c 27/4 – profit of 144 pts
Week 51 – w/c 4/5 – loss of 45 pts

Total Level stakes profit is 1,821 pts which averages 36.42 per week… A £1,000 starting bankusing 0.1% stakes, now stands at £5,569.”

Personal assistants used to work only for the rich and famous. Not anymore. Sign up for a subscription at AskSunday.com and you can have the site’s virtual secretaries do tasks for you, like schedule appointments, set up dinner reservations or give you a wake-up call even if you are on a trip around the world.

In fact pretty much any secretarial, administrative or organisational task can be arranged through the site. Time can be booked in just five minute increments.

I mention it for two reasons: 

1.  You might be a one man/woman band or run a very ‘tight ship’ and have use for such a  service on an occasional basis.

2.  There could be a business idea for you there.

Is there a service you could provide over the internet in short time slots, which would help entrepreneurs to run their businesses more effectively?

Motivational Quote Of The Day

Alternative Quote Of The Day

“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.”
       

Jack Handey

Information Publishing

Information publishing is one of the most heavily promoted ways to make some extra money, and yet many people aren’t really clear on what it is.

Put simply, an information product is any piece of knowledge that has been recorded in some way – whether that be in a printed format, an audio format, or a video format-so that it can now be passed on to others.

There are dozens of ways to package and sell information. Some of the most common products are, printed books and e-books, booklets and special reports, manuals and workbooks, CDs, downloadable audio files, DVDs, newsletters, subscription-based web sites, workshops and seminars. 

All of us have information or knowledge that would be useful to others, and packaging and marketing it in the right way can be highly lucrative. If you have an idea for an idea for information product, and want a second opinion on it, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Today’s National Day  

NATIONAL TOSS AWAY THE “COULD HAVES” AND “SHOULD HAVES” DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

Dear Streetwise Customer,

I’ve already written to you a couple of times about this cash generating system.

This time though, I’m not going to tell you how good this is. I’m going to let our customers do it instead!

Here are just some of the comments we’ve received recently…

(Incidentally, all of these comments are completely unsolicited and the original copies are held on file at our offices and are available for inspection.)

To get the full story take a couple of minutes to read visit the website below and read the message from David Houghton who figured this out. It reveals this extraordinary opportunity in detail. 

Take A Look Now By Visiting:

www.streetwisenews.com/AB

There is absolutely No Risk to you in taking a look at this. The whole
thing comes with a full Cast Iron Money Back Guarantee.  All the best for now

John Harrison
Streetwise Publications

PS. Just for good measure here are Mike Pears comments on the A Minus B System:

“O.k. – here are my updates on the A-B System up to my trading week 51. These are all to level stakes. 

Week 40 – w/c 16/2 – loss of 16 pts
Week 41 – w/c 23/2 – profit of 37 pts
Week 42 – w/c 2/3 – loss of 2 pts
Week 43 – w/c 9/3 – profit of 80 pts
Week 44 – w/c 16/3 – profit of 37 pts
Week 45 – w/c 23/3 – profit of 75 pts
Week 46 – w/c 30/3 – profit of 38 pts
Week 47 – w/c 6/4 – loss of 51 pts
Week 48 – w/c 13/4 – profit of 62 pts
Week 49 – w/c 20/4 – profit of 30 pts
Week 50 – w/c 27/4 – profit of 144 pts
Week 51 – w/c 4/5 – loss of 45 pts

Total Level stakes profit is 1,821 pts which averages 36.42 per week… A £1,000 starting bankusing 0.1% stakes, now stands at £5,569.”

When Mike Michalowicz was trying to grow his first company he got locked in a cycle of make-sell-make-sell. Although he was making steady money, there was never much left over. His company was alive, but hardly a fortune maker.

That’s when he discovered an unlikely source of inspiration-pumpkin farmers! He tested this Pumpkin Plan on his own company and transformed it into a remarkable, multimillion-dollar industry leader. He’s now written a book about it. Here’s the gist of the plan…

1.  Plant the right seeds; Don’t waste time doing lots of different things just to please your customers. Instead, identify the thing you do better than anyone else and focus all of your attention, money, and time on figuring out how to grow your company doing it. 

2.  Weed out the losers: In a pumpkin patch small, rotten pumpkins stunt the growth of the robust, healthy ones. The same is true of customers. Figure out which customers add the most value and provide the best opportunities for sustained growth. Then ditch the worst of the worst.

3.  Nurture the winners: Once you figure out who your best customers are, look after them. Discover their unfulfilled needs, innovate to make their wishes come true, and over-deliver on every single promise.

The Bicycle Library

Imagine you want to buy a new bicycle. There are hundreds of models to choose from, each with very different characteristics. Choose the wrong one and you can end up making an expensive mistake. That’s the scenario behind the launch of the London Bicycle Library. 

The library is based on a double decker bus. The bus contains information and resource materials where visitors can research their choice, and also a wide selection of bicycles which they can try out, and even take home for a few days. If it’s a marriage made in heaven, they can the order their own bike, direct from the manufacturers via the library. 

One of the greatest fears – and one of the greatest barriers to making a sale – in any market, is the fear of making a mistake. Anything which allows the customers to try-before-they-buy will ultimately be rewarded with increased sales.

So is there some way you could adapt or apply this concept to your business?

Today’s National Day  

NATIONAL DIFFERENT COLOURED EYES DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

   Dear Streetwise Customer, 

  I hope you’re keeping safe and well. 

  This offer is limited, so we are only make it available to our most valued Streetwise customers at the moment. 

  Back in the autumn, we alerted a few of our customers to a course, created by a guy making what seemed at the time to be an outrageous prediction. 

  He predicted the world would soon be gripped by a unprecedented crisis which would create a huge financial opportunity. Crazy eh? 

  Anyway the course revolved around a strategy which would enable anyone to make £2,803 a month to ‘tick over’ in normal times, but would then transform into a massive fortune maker once the implications of the predicted crisis hit. 

  Not many people (including me!) believed the prediction, but £2,800 a month is certainly worth having and a number of our customers got on the bandwagon and started doing well with it…and then the crisis came…sooner than anyone thought. 

   The big opportunity he planned for is about to hit, and I want as many of our customers as possible to benefit…but there’s a hitch. 

   For reasons explained when you take a look at the details here, I can only help NINE people at the moment. But those nine people are going to get something nobody else has been able to get up until today…

       The full programme in one package and at a huge discount! 

   For full details take a look here.

        www.streetwisenews.com/secret  

     
    Very Best Wishes,

John Harrison 

A speciality food store in Brisbane Australia, recently made the headlines by announcing that they were charging $5 for customers to come into their store and browse.

I’m not sure whether it was it was a publicity stunt, or a genuine protest against the number of people who were coming into the shop to check out products before ordering from someone else online, but it raises an interesting question – could you charge customers in a different way? 

With more purchases being made online, is it impossible that ‘shops’ become showrooms that you pay to enter in the future? And that’s just one alternative source of revenue for retail businesses aside from product sales.

For example, we recently featured a coffee shop where the coffee was free, but you paid for the time you spent in there – perhaps a reaction to the number of people taking an hour over a filter coffee while taking advantage of the free Wi-Fi. Given the number of people ‘browsing’ magazines in places like WH Smiths, how long before they provide seating and become a paid-for library? 

If you can come up with an innovative way to charge for what you do, it could separate your business from the crowd and generate valuable free publicity. Something to think about.

Brown Toilet Paper 

I’m not sure whether it’s a colour issue, or the fact that people are sensitive about what they apply to their more delicate areas, but recycled toilet paper isn’t as popular as you might expect.

Cascades Tissue Group in the US hope to change that with a toilet paper called Moka that is made from recycled cardboard boxes. People are accustomed to brown napkins and paper towels, but how receptive they’ll be to brown toilet paper is unclear. Without going into detail, there may be issues.

This is further proof though, that thinking outside of what is traditionally accepted is worth a try. Is your product always a certain size, shape or colour and are there good reasons for that?

A little critical thinking might lead you to the conclusion that there is no logical reason why you can’t do something very different, and doing that will help you stand out from the crowd.

Today’s National Day  

NATIONAL GET OUT OF THE DOG HOUSE DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

   Dear Streetwise Customer, 

  I hope you’re keeping safe and well. 

  This offer is limited, so we are only make it available to our most valued Streetwise customers at the moment. 

  Back in the autumn, we alerted a few of our customers to a course, created by a guy making what seemed at the time to be an outrageous prediction. 

  He predicted the world would soon be gripped by a unprecedented crisis which would create a huge financial opportunity. Crazy eh? 

  Anyway the course revolved around a strategy which would enable anyone to make £2,803 a month to ‘tick over’ in normal times, but would then transform into a massive fortune maker once the implications of the predicted crisis hit. 

  Not many people (including me!) believed the prediction, but £2,800 a month is certainly worth having and a number of our customers got on the bandwagon and started doing well with it…and then the crisis came…sooner than anyone thought. 

   The big opportunity he planned for is about to hit, and I want as many of our customers as possible to benefit…but there’s a hitch. 

   For reasons explained when you take a look at the details here, I can only help NINE people at the moment. But those nine people are going to get something nobody else has been able to get up until today…

       The full programme in one package and at a huge discount! 

   For full details take a look here.

        www.streetwisenews.com/secret  

     
    Very Best Wishes,

John Harrison 

Do you think you could start a car repair business for $15. Sahid Khan did, and the way he did it could provide a template for creating a business in many fields. 

SK Motor Syndicate is a one stop shop providing vehicle inspections, servicing, body repairs, interior fabrication, exterior add-ons and everything else the motorists might need. It does none of the work itself, but claims to be a value-adding intermediary between the customer and about 18 authorised service-providers in different parts of Karachi.

Why would a customer involve an intermediary and not deal with the companies themselves?

According to Khan, the company provide a pick-and-drop service along with a seven-day workmanship warranty. They charge customers strictly the going market rates, absorb all risks and get the repair work done from a select group of service-providers at discount rates.

So there you have it, they market the service, pick up the cars and get someone else to do the work – taking a percentage for their trouble. Could you copy something like this in your area? Or how about taking the model and applying it to another market? As a middleman, you can let someone else worry about start-up costs.

Local Video Reviews 

Here’s an idea which combines two trends…people love to access reviews and they love to watch videos on You tube. It seems like these are perfect conditions for online video reviews becoming a viable business opportunity. But what do you review? 

It could be anything, but my thought here is that a You tube channel featuring reviews of businesses in a specific locality could build up a regular audience, while being something that a lone entrepreneur could run.

Your channel could be called something really imaginative like ‘Rotherham Reviews’ and feature video reviews of restaurants, cafe’s, pub take-away’s, shop and service providers. Revenue would eventually come from advertisements on the channel. 

Whilst I wouldn’t expect one local review site to make a fortune, it could be great fun, combining business with pleasure. And there’s excellent expansion potential. If you can make the ‘Rotherham Reviews’ channel work, why not extend the idea out to ‘Sheffield Reviews and so on.

Today’s National Day  

NATIONAL COFFEE CAKE  DAY!

PUBLISHERS NOTICE  

   Dear Streetwise Customer, 

  I hope you’re keeping safe and well. 

  This offer is limited, so we are only make it available to our most valued Streetwise customers at the moment. 

  Back in the autumn, we alerted a few of our customers to a course, created by a guy making what seemed at the time to be an outrageous prediction. 

  He predicted the world would soon be gripped by a unprecedented crisis which would create a huge financial opportunity. Crazy eh? 

  Anyway the course revolved around a strategy which would enable anyone to make £2,803 a month to ‘tick over’ in normal times, but would then transform into a massive fortune maker once the implications of the predicted crisis hit. 

  Not many people (including me!) believed the prediction, but £2,800 a month is certainly worth having and a number of our customers got on the bandwagon and started doing well with it…and then the crisis came…sooner than anyone thought. 

   The big opportunity he planned for is about to hit, and I want as many of our customers as possible to benefit…but there’s a hitch. 

   For reasons explained when you take a look at the details here, I can only help NINE people at the moment. But those nine people are going to get something nobody else has been able to get up until today…

       The full programme in one package and at a huge discount! 

   For full details take a look here.

        www.streetwisenews.com/secret  

     
    Very Best Wishes,

John Harrison