23/10/11
All BNI members know that they are only allowed to represent one category in their chapter. However, although a clash with another member, or potential member, is one of the most common problems in BNI, it even goes further than that. Many members, even if sticking to their category, try and include everything they can within their category, trying to grab as much business as possible, but not understanding that they are losing much more than they gain.
As a business you must stand out. What makes you different to someone else doing what you do? Doing everything, for anyone, is not different. You need to be special; have a category of one!
Take BNI as an example. BNI is the world’s largest referral organisation. It is not the world’s largest networking organisation. It is not the world’s largest membership organisation. It’s not in more countries than other organisations. You can come up with lots of things that BNI does, very well, but the only thing BNI talks about is being the world’s largest referral organisation.
Now you have to be brave to focus on just one thing; think of all that business you might be missing out on. But I promise you, if you are brave, you will see the rewards. Whereas, if you are the same as everyone else, offering everything, to everyone, you will get the same result – nothing special! Think about successful people: do they do the same as everyone else? No, of course not!
So, not because of BNI, but because you want greater success, focus on your core business. Give a clear message to your fellow members and watch your referral rate climb.
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Monday, 19 September 2011
What do 20 out of 21 members at the top of the Traffic Lights have in common?
19/9/11
Other than being at the top of the Member Traffic Lights I mean!
I was playing with BNI Connect today, working my way around it, looking at groups, search, profiles and all sorts of useful stuff and then I got to connections. Who should I connect with I thought. Well I tried a few of the names that popped into my head and found that not many of them were there. And, then I had an idea: how about the top person in the Member Traffic Lights from every chapter in my region?
After some research, I had 21 names and set about asking if they would like to connect with me. The amazing thing was that 20 out of the 21 were active on BNI Connect. And this resulted in more thinking ...
To get the best from your chapter, from BNI, you need to take part - to use all of the tools provided. These members are not only top of the Traffic Lights but they are also using BNI Connect. I know that the two things have to be linked! Don’t you?
So, are you getting the very best from your chapter? And, if not, are you using all of the tools provided?
If you are not I suggest you have a good look at your position on the Member Traffic Lights and get on to BNI Connect without delay.
Other than being at the top of the Member Traffic Lights I mean!
I was playing with BNI Connect today, working my way around it, looking at groups, search, profiles and all sorts of useful stuff and then I got to connections. Who should I connect with I thought. Well I tried a few of the names that popped into my head and found that not many of them were there. And, then I had an idea: how about the top person in the Member Traffic Lights from every chapter in my region?
After some research, I had 21 names and set about asking if they would like to connect with me. The amazing thing was that 20 out of the 21 were active on BNI Connect. And this resulted in more thinking ...
To get the best from your chapter, from BNI, you need to take part - to use all of the tools provided. These members are not only top of the Traffic Lights but they are also using BNI Connect. I know that the two things have to be linked! Don’t you?
So, are you getting the very best from your chapter? And, if not, are you using all of the tools provided?
If you are not I suggest you have a good look at your position on the Member Traffic Lights and get on to BNI Connect without delay.
Sunday, 4 September 2011
Short of money!
4/9/11
I was talking to a Chapter Director recently and they said that their chapter always seemed to be short of money. I asked the usual questions: do all of the visitors pay?, are all the members up to date with their meeting fees?, were they spending money on items they shouldn’t?
It seemed everything was pretty much in order so I started to dig a little deeper. I discovered that for years the chapter had not been run like a business and they had no idea what their costs were or had allowed for things to go wrong. They are not the first chapter to be short on funds and no doubt won’t be the last. So, I thought I would share my ideas on how to run a financially sound chapter.
Firstly, you need to know the chapter’s basic costs: in my region that is two full team trainings, three Leadership Team Forums and one Chapter Director Forum. In total this currently adds up to about £700 per year. Then you need to add something for things that go wrong: visitors not paying and yes, sometimes, members not paying. How much? Good question: your guess is as good as mine, but at least £100 per year. On top of that you might have other costs: stamps, socials, photocopying, not charging your AD a meeting fee, etc. As you can see the chapter’s costs could easily be getting on for £1000.00 per year.
So, how do we pay for this? Well, there is only one way: by charging more than your venue is charging you. I would suggest that you charge £2.00 more per member than you are being charged. Then the maths is easy.
Let’s say that the venue is charging the chapter £8.00 per member each week. No room hire costs – that’s really important. And, no minimum numbers if you can manage it. Add the £2.00 and the sum goes like this.
£8.00 plus £2.00 equals £10.00, times this by 51 meetings per year and you get the cost for a member per year - £510.00. Now divide this by 12 (months) and you have your cost to members, in this case £42.50 per month. I would further suggest that any member paying weekly with cash should pay more.
Two things to consider: 1) most chapters only charge visitors £10.00 so this needs to be taken into account, 2) VAT. Does the price quoted to you include VAT? If not it would add £1.60 to the £8.00 in my example – which means another £6.80 needs to be added to the monthly meeting fee per member. Suddenly £49.30 per month instead of £42.50.
And finally, your aim should be to have a bank surplus of around £500.00.
I was talking to a Chapter Director recently and they said that their chapter always seemed to be short of money. I asked the usual questions: do all of the visitors pay?, are all the members up to date with their meeting fees?, were they spending money on items they shouldn’t?
It seemed everything was pretty much in order so I started to dig a little deeper. I discovered that for years the chapter had not been run like a business and they had no idea what their costs were or had allowed for things to go wrong. They are not the first chapter to be short on funds and no doubt won’t be the last. So, I thought I would share my ideas on how to run a financially sound chapter.
Firstly, you need to know the chapter’s basic costs: in my region that is two full team trainings, three Leadership Team Forums and one Chapter Director Forum. In total this currently adds up to about £700 per year. Then you need to add something for things that go wrong: visitors not paying and yes, sometimes, members not paying. How much? Good question: your guess is as good as mine, but at least £100 per year. On top of that you might have other costs: stamps, socials, photocopying, not charging your AD a meeting fee, etc. As you can see the chapter’s costs could easily be getting on for £1000.00 per year.
So, how do we pay for this? Well, there is only one way: by charging more than your venue is charging you. I would suggest that you charge £2.00 more per member than you are being charged. Then the maths is easy.
Let’s say that the venue is charging the chapter £8.00 per member each week. No room hire costs – that’s really important. And, no minimum numbers if you can manage it. Add the £2.00 and the sum goes like this.
£8.00 plus £2.00 equals £10.00, times this by 51 meetings per year and you get the cost for a member per year - £510.00. Now divide this by 12 (months) and you have your cost to members, in this case £42.50 per month. I would further suggest that any member paying weekly with cash should pay more.
Two things to consider: 1) most chapters only charge visitors £10.00 so this needs to be taken into account, 2) VAT. Does the price quoted to you include VAT? If not it would add £1.60 to the £8.00 in my example – which means another £6.80 needs to be added to the monthly meeting fee per member. Suddenly £49.30 per month instead of £42.50.
And finally, your aim should be to have a bank surplus of around £500.00.
Thursday, 1 September 2011
I’ll have a coffee please!
1/9/11
What’s a coffee cost these days? £2.10p? More? And, in the course of a One2One how many cups might you drink? Two? Then how about your average business week: how many cups might you drink in total?
I mention this because of something I heard this week. A chapter needed to put up their weekly meeting fees and it caused something of a fuss. Now I don’t know about you, but I think our weekly meeting fees are very good value – at my chapter they are currently about £50.00 per month.
For this we get a meeting room for up to four hours every week, often storage for our BNI boxes, sometimes the use of a flipchart, a venue that opens at 6.00am, plus all sorts of other things. And, a breakfast - all in my chapter's case- for £11.75 per week. Now that has got to be great value in anybody's book!
So, I have to say that it always amazes me that members complain when a chapter needs to put up its meeting fees, as in most cases it is never by more than the cost of one coffee per week.
Furthermore, what an investment the cost of that extra ‘cup of coffee’ is: the opportunity to do business with dozens of business owners and thereby make more money for our company.
Plus meeting fees should be looked at as an investment, not a cost. Chapters only put up fees when they need to and I think that you will agree with me, if you think about it, that at less than the price of a coffee that there is nothing to make a fuss about!
What’s a coffee cost these days? £2.10p? More? And, in the course of a One2One how many cups might you drink? Two? Then how about your average business week: how many cups might you drink in total?
I mention this because of something I heard this week. A chapter needed to put up their weekly meeting fees and it caused something of a fuss. Now I don’t know about you, but I think our weekly meeting fees are very good value – at my chapter they are currently about £50.00 per month.
For this we get a meeting room for up to four hours every week, often storage for our BNI boxes, sometimes the use of a flipchart, a venue that opens at 6.00am, plus all sorts of other things. And, a breakfast - all in my chapter's case- for £11.75 per week. Now that has got to be great value in anybody's book!
So, I have to say that it always amazes me that members complain when a chapter needs to put up its meeting fees, as in most cases it is never by more than the cost of one coffee per week.
Furthermore, what an investment the cost of that extra ‘cup of coffee’ is: the opportunity to do business with dozens of business owners and thereby make more money for our company.
Plus meeting fees should be looked at as an investment, not a cost. Chapters only put up fees when they need to and I think that you will agree with me, if you think about it, that at less than the price of a coffee that there is nothing to make a fuss about!
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
£882,000
9/8/11
I have a business with a turnover of £882,000.00 per year and I’m looking for a Managing Director, Marketing & HR Director and Finance Director to run it for me. The question is, once I have found the ideal people, how much training should I give them?
I was thinking maybe a few hours. What do you think? How much training would you want them to have if it were your company? In fact, would you want to be the Managing Director?
The above was a very interesting question posed at an Area Director training (I think by Mike Holman). It certainly made me think.
A chapter of 30+ members will pass around £800k of business in the group each year. For a group of 20 members it might be £400k and one of 40+ members over £1.5 million. Now that is a big business - bigger than many of our own businesses. Even the smallest chapter is in fact a pretty big business.
Now the Leadership Team (and others on the team) are responsible for that business; their job is to maintain it and grow it. And like, John Lewis, we are all shareholders of the business, in that we share in the profits: the ‘Thank You for the Business’. So, we all want a well-run business by well-trained people. Don’t we?
The better the business is run the more profit it makes. Our chapters are just the same. What would you think if you gave your £882k business to a new team only to find it was turning over only £500k 6 months later?
So, I have a question for you. How much training should we and our chapter Leadership Teams get?
I have a business with a turnover of £882,000.00 per year and I’m looking for a Managing Director, Marketing & HR Director and Finance Director to run it for me. The question is, once I have found the ideal people, how much training should I give them?
I was thinking maybe a few hours. What do you think? How much training would you want them to have if it were your company? In fact, would you want to be the Managing Director?
The above was a very interesting question posed at an Area Director training (I think by Mike Holman). It certainly made me think.
A chapter of 30+ members will pass around £800k of business in the group each year. For a group of 20 members it might be £400k and one of 40+ members over £1.5 million. Now that is a big business - bigger than many of our own businesses. Even the smallest chapter is in fact a pretty big business.
Now the Leadership Team (and others on the team) are responsible for that business; their job is to maintain it and grow it. And like, John Lewis, we are all shareholders of the business, in that we share in the profits: the ‘Thank You for the Business’. So, we all want a well-run business by well-trained people. Don’t we?
The better the business is run the more profit it makes. Our chapters are just the same. What would you think if you gave your £882k business to a new team only to find it was turning over only £500k 6 months later?
So, I have a question for you. How much training should we and our chapter Leadership Teams get?
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Successnet
31/7/11
Our quarterly magazine Successnet is always crammed full of really useful stuff and the current Summer edition is no different. Andy Bounds is on the cover and, as I think he is a brilliant speaker, I was interested to see what he had to say.
However it wasn’t until I was having a meeting with one of my Ambassadors, Geoff Alexander, that one of Andy’s comments hit home.
Andy was talking about presenting and the fact that for every 60 Seconds he gives he still spends at least 30 minutes writing and practising it. Now Andy, as I have already said, is a brilliant speaker and yet he still spends a minimum of 30 minutes for every 60 Seconds he gives. Maybe that is why he is so good!
But, and this is really the point of this blog, as a business mentor and long-term BNI member, I am amazed at the number of members who think that they can get the best out of their membership without any practice. Geoff and I discussed this and wondered where things changed as we, as people, grew.
As a baby we all took weeks to learn how to walk. First we would crawl, then stand, fall over, gain our balance, walk a bit, then a bit more, fall over again, and then finally walk. It might be another year before we were good at this walking lark. But, once we had it mastered we were away!
It was exactly the same with our favourite sport, getting a date, learning the job we do, in fact with everything else that we are good at. We continue to learn all of the time.
But, some member’s, think that they can find referrals and visitors, build relationships, without any practice, without learning any new skills, without putting in any real effort and, to be honest, that amazes me.
Everything we do well took a great deal of time and practice and it is exactly the same with our chapter membership. So, my question is – how long do you spend learning and practising to get the very best from your chapter membership?
Note: Just been watching Saturday Kitchen – Lenny Henry was a guest. He said he understood and was able to play Shakespeare’s Othello having studied it for 6 years.
Our quarterly magazine Successnet is always crammed full of really useful stuff and the current Summer edition is no different. Andy Bounds is on the cover and, as I think he is a brilliant speaker, I was interested to see what he had to say.
However it wasn’t until I was having a meeting with one of my Ambassadors, Geoff Alexander, that one of Andy’s comments hit home.
Andy was talking about presenting and the fact that for every 60 Seconds he gives he still spends at least 30 minutes writing and practising it. Now Andy, as I have already said, is a brilliant speaker and yet he still spends a minimum of 30 minutes for every 60 Seconds he gives. Maybe that is why he is so good!
But, and this is really the point of this blog, as a business mentor and long-term BNI member, I am amazed at the number of members who think that they can get the best out of their membership without any practice. Geoff and I discussed this and wondered where things changed as we, as people, grew.
As a baby we all took weeks to learn how to walk. First we would crawl, then stand, fall over, gain our balance, walk a bit, then a bit more, fall over again, and then finally walk. It might be another year before we were good at this walking lark. But, once we had it mastered we were away!
It was exactly the same with our favourite sport, getting a date, learning the job we do, in fact with everything else that we are good at. We continue to learn all of the time.
But, some member’s, think that they can find referrals and visitors, build relationships, without any practice, without learning any new skills, without putting in any real effort and, to be honest, that amazes me.
Everything we do well took a great deal of time and practice and it is exactly the same with our chapter membership. So, my question is – how long do you spend learning and practising to get the very best from your chapter membership?
Note: Just been watching Saturday Kitchen – Lenny Henry was a guest. He said he understood and was able to play Shakespeare’s Othello having studied it for 6 years.
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Use your mobile: two
23/7/11
I have another simple way that I use my mobile.
I’m not sure who said it, but I really believe that in a great many cases what they said is true: “Greatness is really about doing the ordinary, everyday things, consistently well.”
For example, if you invite visitors every week, week in, week out, to your chapter, they will come to your meetings. I invite people every week, using very simple methods, and I average about one visitor every couple of weeks. I really believe that it’s all about being consistent and keeping it simple.
And, that’s where my mobile comes in again. Okay, it’s not the textbook way of inviting (people you know, using their name), but it’s another visitor stream that when added to my other inviting helps to give me my results.
I have a simple message on my mobile: ''If you can handle more business please give me a call. David.” And when I’m out and about and see a mobile number on a sign-written van, or similar, I just send a text.
Now I have to admit that the returns are low, but it’s simple, takes no time, and the few visitors I do get with this method are worth it.
What do you think? Plain crazy?
I have another simple way that I use my mobile.
I’m not sure who said it, but I really believe that in a great many cases what they said is true: “Greatness is really about doing the ordinary, everyday things, consistently well.”
For example, if you invite visitors every week, week in, week out, to your chapter, they will come to your meetings. I invite people every week, using very simple methods, and I average about one visitor every couple of weeks. I really believe that it’s all about being consistent and keeping it simple.
And, that’s where my mobile comes in again. Okay, it’s not the textbook way of inviting (people you know, using their name), but it’s another visitor stream that when added to my other inviting helps to give me my results.
I have a simple message on my mobile: ''If you can handle more business please give me a call. David.” And when I’m out and about and see a mobile number on a sign-written van, or similar, I just send a text.
Now I have to admit that the returns are low, but it’s simple, takes no time, and the few visitors I do get with this method are worth it.
What do you think? Plain crazy?
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