I was a little disappointed this Christmas when i didn't get the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 that i thought was coming my way. My disappointment was tempered somewhat when i started reading the book Freakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner, which i received in my stocking from Santa. I have to admit i'm not much of a reader, in fact if you believe what most of my friends will tell you i can't read! Obviously this is not true, i just prefer to be visually stimulated by watching a film. However every now and then a great book comes along and gets me and Freakonomics is one of those.

One quote in the book that got me thinking about my behaviour and also the whole idea of The Building Experience was this; "Economists love Incentives". Now i'm not claiming to be a world renowned economist but I've studied it for 5 years so i think i can loosely claim to be one. One thing that is most definitely true is that i love incentives. I'd never really thought about it before but i spend my whole life creating incentives for myself and also offering incentives to others to get things done. Take for example the fictitious Christmas bonus that i offer to my two juniors at work. Only one of them can get it and it goes to the individual that makes the most/best tea, gets my lunch most regularly and generally pleases me the most. The fact that neither individual got the Christmas bonus this year because it doesn't actualy exist probably means this incentive won't work with these guys in the future but it worked very well this year. Then there's the protection racquet i run. This is an example of a negative incentive. I take money from my friends and acquaintances in return for not beating them up and making sure nobody else does. Obviously i don't make much money out of this because I've got weak wrists and fight like a little girl but it is another good example of my love of incentives.

So how do incentives work within The Building Experience? There are a number of incentives to take part in The Building Experience. The obvious incentive is that with a bit of hard work our client can have the home improvement of their dreams, be it an extension, a beautiful oak floor or a new bathroom suite. There is also a financial incentive. If the client takes part in The Building Experience it will most probably cost them a lot less than if they get a normal builder in, leaving our clients with some cash to spend elsewhere. Last, but most certainly not least, there is the incentive of receiving and wearing the famous purple T-Shirt that all our clients are given when they work alongside our team. A fine garment that you won't find in any of the designer stores and no amount of money can buy. If you want to wear the purple T-Shirt you have to take part in The Building Experience.

I could go on writing about incentives for ages. We could look at the incentives we offer our staff to work for the building experience or the incentives we offer the people that moderate our forums. However I've got some protection money to collect from my nan today and i promised myself i could have a bacon sandwich if i wrote a blog this morning and i'm feeling very peckish now.