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Aintree is the home of the Grand National which is arguably the greatest horse race in the world. No other race comes close to matching the excitement at Aintree Grand National day.

The story of the Aintree race course is also the story of the Grand National. It’s inconceivable now to imagine the Grand National being held at any other race course in England but this looked a distinct possibility in the early post war years. In 1965 the Aintree course looked likely to be sold to a property developer and every year the press warned this could be “The Last Grand National”.

In 1973 the course was eventually sold to property developer Bill Davies who gave a commitment to keep the race going but his heart never quite seemed in it. Attendance at the 1975 Grand National was the lowest in living memory (admission prices had been tripled by Davies) and the Grand National had reached its lowest point and it looked like the end for the great race.

In 1975 a campaign was started by Ladbrokes Bookmakers to revive the ailing Grand National race. Ladbrokes had a deep love for the National and when they took control of managing it they were determined to keep it going. After 8 years of management by Ladbrokes the future of the Grand National and Aintree seemed secure.

Property developer Davies was unimpressed by the swift chances in fortune and still seemed determined to sell the Aintree course. Finally the general public realised that this may be the last chance for the Grand National to be saved and a huge campaign was launched to rescue the race once and for all. Generous donations from the public allowed the Jockey Club to purchase Aintree from Davies. In 1984 distillers Seagram stepped in to provide the solid foundation on which Aintree’s revival has been built. The last Seagram sponsored National was in 1991 when the race was won by a horse which chairman Straker twice had the opportunity to buy; the horse’s name was Seagram!

A subsidiary of the Seagram company, Martell Cognac, took over sponsorship in 1992. During this time the National experienced a big boom. In 2004 around 150,000 people were at Aintree to witness the last Martell backed race. Aintree racecourse now enjoys its most successful period ever.

There is much debate among historians regarding the first official Grand National race held and most who have trawled the newspaper libraries and archives of the United Kingdom now prefer the idea that the first was in 1836 and was won by The Duke. This same horse triumphed again in 1837 while Sir William was the winner in 1838.

These races have often been disregarded because of the belief that the 1837 & 1838 runnings took place at Maghull and not at Aintree. However, in the last twenty years several race historians have unearthed indisputable evidence that these three races were all run over the same course at Aintree and were regarded as having been Grand Nationals up until the mid 1860s. To date though, their calls for the Nationals of 1836-38 to be restored to the record books have been ignored.

For three years during World War I, while the Aintree racecourse was closed, an alternative race was run at Gatwick Racecourse on the site of the present Gatwick Airport. The first of these races, in 1916, was called the Racecourse Association Steeplechase and in the following two years the race was known as the War National Steeplechase. The races at Gatwick are not always recognized as “Grand Nationals” however, and their results are often omitted from winners’ lists.

In 1923, Sergeant Murphy became the first American-bred horse to win the Grand National.

In 1938 the American bred Battleship, son of the famous Man O’War, became the first (and so far only) horse to have won both the Grand National and the American Grand National (won four years earlier). Battleship’s jockey was Bruce Hobbs and at 17 years old was and still is the youngest ever winning jockey.

By far the most successful horse in Grand National history was Red Rum. The only horse to win three times in 1973, 1974, and in 1977. He also came in second in the two intervening years, 1975 and 1976.

Don’t do it. Why not? You’ll spend a lot of money and a lot of time getting certified and learning all the latest platforms and technologies. But the reality is that hardware repair is a commodity – a low margin business. And it’s becoming more and more of a commodity service every year as the components become more disposable and more replaceable than repairable. In this article, you’ll learn why consulting contracts with national service organizations are not the best choice.

Computers Are Now Replaceable

Let’s take a $600 consumer-grade PC for example. Who’s going to spend money on an out-of-warranty repair on a $600 PC? Who’s going to spend money on an out of warranty repair on a $400 laser printer? How much money are small businesses willing to spend on this kind of repair?

Low Labor Allowances for Consulting Contracts

Since national service organizations are going to primarily be dealing with warranty repairs on relatively inexpensive hardware, how much labor allowance do you think they’re really going to give up on a $1,200 notebook? Many big hardware vendors are so cash strapped that they’re always on the verge of going out of business constantly. Dell, HP, and IBM are pretty much the only major hardware players that are still in reasonably good financial shape (even if you consider IBM in the hardware business anymore).

The Profit Margin on Repairs in Consulting Contracts

So, what are you going to make on a repair? Fifty dollars? A hundred dollars? $150 or $200 at the absolute most? You’re going to do a lot better by finding small businesses in your area that need high-level professional services on a regular basis.

Consulting Contracts with National Service Providers Aren’t Profitable

Acting as a subcontractor for a national service provider is a really hard way to run a consulting business. Do you want to be in eight different offices every single day, or do you want to be in one or two? Do you want to be billing out at $100 or $150 an hour for high-end network support services and network integration services? Or do you want to be told that you’re going to be allowed a $65 labor allowance to replace a system board, no matter how long it takes you?

The Bottom Line about Consulting Contracts

Repairing and troubleshooting hardware is low-end commodity work. It’s work that can be done by people that are billing out at $20 or $30 an hour. It’s not the high-end consulting you could be doing with consulting contracts. Don’t ever confuse the two.

If you are looking to get involved in an interesting network opportunity, you’ll find that there are plenty that allow you to decide on your own level of investment and participation, and if this is what you are looking for, than the Team National MLM Income Opportunity might be exactly what you are looking for. Essentially, the Team National MLM Income Opportunity is affiliated with larger corporations like Wal-Mart and Home Depot, among several others, and through shopping at those places and selling these memberships to your friends and family, you will find that you quickly make back your investments.

One of the things that might turn the average consumer off of the Team National MLM Income Opportunity is the fact that the investment to start off with is rather high. The initial investment does seem to come in at around an excess of 2000 dollars, but this is something that is eventually evened out in the savings. Essentially, you can see this opportunity as buying your way into many very good sales; you’ll be able to purchase goods and services for a fraction of the cost after you have put down this initial investment.

Many people who have taken part in this opportunity have seen that the savings are fairly incredible. While some people choose to simply use it for day to day savings, other people make up their savings in high end items, of which there are many. Many individuals who get involved in this opportunity will simply work on a way to make sure that it works when you are getting to high end items like cars or furniture, where the savings can simply be astounding.

How can you tell if the Team National MLM Income Opportunity is the right one for you? The first thing you need to look at are your own spending habits. How many of the stores where it is available do you shop at and how regularly do you do so? By figuring that out, you can take a guess and make sure that the savings you are due to get are good ones. You will find that if you have a rough idea of your savings, you will be able to justify the 2000 dollar initial expenditure a great deal more easily.

When you are looking into the Team National MLM Income Opportunity, you will start wondering where the MLM part comes in. The fact is, you can get your friends and family into this opportunity quite easily with just a little bit of work, and you’ll find that the pay off to yourself is quite high as well, While some people go all out and decide that they want to give presentations and seminars, other people merely use their membership casually and tell other people about it as they ask.

When it comes right down to it, if you are interested in the benefits that the Team National MLM Income Opportunity has to offer, it is definitely one of the organizations where you can make your own commitment and decide your own level of participation.