Arbitrage is when you buy something in one market while you sell it at the same time in another market so that you can profit from the differing prices for the same item. This used to be much easier when knowledge still travelled by paddle steamer or carrier pigeon.

I have spent the past few weeks researching how the CrashProof tactics might work in the UK, and in the process learned so much useful stuff that I feel the urge to over-share.

When I first arrived here I looked up an accountant, gave him the book, and asked whether these ideas might work in the UK. "Do UK business owners also sign sureties, and do they also lose their homes when their businesses fall down a cliff?" I asked.

His abrupt response from the moral high ground (which made me feel very colonial, dressed as I was in my best khakis, long socks and vellies) was "that there is no such thing as surety in the UK and frankly there is little place for this kind of thing  in this country, thank you very much."

As it happens, I was a little upset. Clearly these folk were far more ethical than we Africans (with Bob the War Hero adding new value to this belief these past few months). And so I did not explore that avenue again, having  just paid £100 to get this opinion. (About R1500 in real money.)

Until four weeks ago, when I sat down with a local expert in banking matters. After outlining the CrashProof concepts his instant, very sober response was "I wish I had thought of that." (I got that opinion for the price of a beer: a mere R40.)

Turns out the accountant was right. They don't have sureties here. And they don't have covering bonds either. They speak proper English, so the correct parlance is that the bank takes a charge against your home.

(And they do sign a guarantee, it's just that it is such an accepted part of financing your firm - this giving away of your home when you borrow money - that they no longer even think about it.) And when my new hero saw that there is a way around it - he was stunned. As was I! I am so embarrassed that I did not take a second opinion two years ago!

Which reminded me of the first time I tested the ideas on an accountant in SA in 1992. "That'll never work," he said. I ignored him and took a few other opinions before launching the seminar in 1995. At that time I was living the nightmare.

I did the same seminar to about 100 KZN accountants in 2002. They were very, very quiet though the 3 hours. After talking to about 20,000 business owners over the previous 7 years on this very subject - and knowing what they laughed at - the silence was very disturbing. At the end, as I was about to slit my wrists, the top honcho came up to me and said "Wow. That was amazing. I have never seen them so animated!"

So I have been inspired to meet with local attorneys,insolvency experts and accountants; find out how the laws differ between SA and the UK; and look at what they're doing to protect themselves when things go pear shaped.

(The UK government accepts that business failure is part of the cycle, and that bankruptcy is a very common result. It takes but a few moments to arrange, and exactly a year later it's gone and you get your life back. As a UK bankrupt you keep all the tools of your trade. If you're a techie, for instance, you keep your PC and other stuff, although there might be some discussion about that new R40,000 17" Apple MacBook Pro; or if you're a builder you keep the truck full of tools.

Contrast this with SA where judgments last for 30 years, and bankruptcy is truly stressful, often lasting longer than your wildest nightmare. Of course, you can still keep your tools. The last time I looked you were allowed to keep about R60 worth of them. Lets see, that's about 20 blank CDs.

The more I travel the more I realise how the little things we each do in our home towns really do translate well into new places. We  just have to explore a little deeper to make sense of local conditions, and ask more questions of more people. This is vital if the first person you ask gives you answers you don't like.

Of course, now that I have done this research, I can bring a completely new way of looking at the issues to the SA version of the seminar. Software has improved so much over the past 4 years (since I last presented it) that it is also much easier to lay out the web between you, your bank, and your about to be ex-home - and how to fix them in such a way that your banker will love you.

In my simple mind the concept is one of geographic arbitrage - selling the same idea in different markets for different prices because the local people speak funny.

The CrashProof your Business seminar runs for three hours from 6pm and will give you a new way to look at banks, business and money, including the tools to get your home and your money back.

    * Sandton on 25 or 26 August
    * Cape Town on 1 September
    * Durban on 2 September.

My about to be unemployed systems guru assures me that it isn't his fault that the early bird special price of R997 (which should have closed on Monday night) is still open until Thursday night. I hope to see you at one of the sessions. (They're limited to 100 people because that's about as many names as I can remember in one day.)

Click here and I promise that you will survive anything the economy can throw at you.