We would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best for the holidays, and for a prosperous New Year.
While many people were already winding down for the holidays, this week saw Santa visiting BNI(R) Spitfire – the new chapter in Kent that we have mentioned several times before.
BNI(R) Spitfire chapter launched in April of this year, and has already passed 878 referrals so far - in nearly 9 months, worth £185K.
Keith Edwards played the part of Santa in this weeks meeting, with over £185,000 of business passed within the new chapter already Christmas has come early for the members… and they are looking forward to continuing their growth in 2012.
When members join BNI they are given a grey badge to hold their name card, however you may have noticed people with blue badges and wondered about the significance?
These badges are given to members who have made a significant contribution to their chapter, for example:
Andrew Paine, the builder from BNI(R) Spitfire chapter was recently awarded a blue badge due to his exceptional performance – in the last six months he has had zero absences and has also given 64 referrals, of which 53 were external!
Maybe you know someone in your own chapter who has made an exceptional contribution? If so, please do mention them for consideration.
We are very pleased to introduce a new workshop for 2012
“Earn more MONEY by using Social Media and BNI Connect”
A guide on how you, and your chapter, can benefit from using the popular Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc and also now BNI Connect.
We will take you through all you can do with BNI Connect and how to have a great online BNI presence, within your Chapter, Nationwide and Worldwide.
This training will run by, Zoe Cairns (Trainer Consultant Speaker – Social Media Marketing), James McBrearty (Business Social Media expert) and Tim Kidd (BNI)
Together we will give you the ‘Know How’ to use Social Media to help you in your business and the BNI angle to help your referral marketing and growth for you and your Chapter.
The first of these workshops will be on Friday 10th February 2pm until 5pm, at the Russell Hotel in Maidstone.
Please find details of this event and online booking . http://www.bnikent.co.uk/eventdetails.php?eventId=9488
Looking forward to seeing lots of you there, book quickly as we have had lots of requests for BNI Connect Training and Social media, so this will be a busy one.
The dates for the International Networking Weekd® 2012 are February 6th – 10th.
This is a great opportunity to promote networking worldwide as other networking organizations are invited to participate with BNI in this annual event, which has already been celebrated by thousands of businesses since its inception.
This year’s theme is “Business Networking and Sex: not what you think”.
We have just heard some exciting news about BNI member and assistant director Trevor Smith, who is based in Maidstone:
Independent travel agent Trevor Smith is celebrating after hitting an impressive £1 million in sales, which he attributes largely to his extensive business networking alongside the unique level of personal service he delivers to his customers.
Running his own travel business from home with the support of award winning travel company Travel Counsellors, Trevor is a keen networker and since joining the company over four years ago has built up 80% of his sales through his local BNI group as well as other BNI contacts around the UK.
Trevor says: “I am delighted to have reached £1 million in such a short space of times. I really believe the ‘Giver Gain Philosophy’ of BNI and the relationships I have built up in this time has brought ‘word of mouth’ referrals and attributed largely to this figure. Of course these referrals wouldn’t come if I didn’t provide the right service, and I am so proud that working as a Travel Counsellor I am able to deliver a truly personal travel service to my customers that goes above and beyond. I am available to my customers around the clock and using the company’s award winning technology I can provide expert advice and great savings; from specialist areas such as tailor-made holidays, cruises and business travel to a simple flight or hotel booking. This achievement really means a lot to me and wouldn’t have been possible without all my loyal customers.”
With over 22 years’ experience in the travel industry, Trevor has built a growing following from the region’s holidaymakers and business travellers. He has attended an astonishing 600 BNI morning meetings since he joined in 2007, and has racked up 372 referrals in his own Member Chapter ‘Maidstone Invicta’.
Working from home, Trevor is one of over 1,100 individual Travel Counsellors located throughout the UK and overseas, who all pride themselves on the personal service and attention to detail they offer their customers. Unlike most high street agencies which are owned by a big name tour operator, Travel Counsellors is completely independent, meaning that Trevor is free to recommend the holiday or business travel trip that exactly suits his customers’ needs.
Trevor adds; “I am proud to have built up such a successful business and am extremely passionate about what I do. I really do believe it pays to network and would encourage all businesses to engage in some type of networking, as it really allows you to showcase what you do and there is nothing more powerful than personal recommendation from others. ‘Invicta’ is the motto forKentand is Latin for ‘Unbeaten’, which I feel reflects the way in which I run my business. I even attend my meetings first thing in the morning as I believe the early bird catches the worm!”
Travel Counsellors is one of the top scoring companies in the world when it comes to customer service, having achieved a world beating score of over 90% in its customer satisfaction survey. In addition, the flexibility of working from home allows Trevor to be available at times to suit his customers – 24 hours a day, seven days a week if the need arises.
For more information or to discuss your future travel plans please contact Trevor on 0845 058 7708 or email trevor.smith@travelcounsellors.com.
We recently held a special motivational & training seminar in the South East (full details can be found here)
Following the event, we have had very high feedback from attendees with the majority scoring it as 9/10 or 10/10.
Key questions asked, which most attendees have said they achieved are:
Did the training give you lots of ideas / tips to implement in your Business?
Did the training give you lots of ideas / tips to implement in your BNI Chapter?
How would you rate our Guest Speaker Phil Berg?
Will you encourage the other members of your Chapter to attend future events of this type?
Will this training have a positive impact on your Business?
Will this training help you increase your return from your BNI Membership?
We would suggest perhaps arranging a one to one meeting with those members who attended, so that you can benefit from their knowledge and increase your own business and chapter growth.
We are all aware that one of the benefits to members of being in BNI is that they receive high quality training as part of their membership.
On a number of occasions over the years, many of our professional members (eg solicitors, accountants, architects etc) have asked us whether the training can be accredited to allow them to count it towards their Continuing Professional Development hours that they are required to do each year.
We are delighted to let you know that BNI has managed to get BNI training accredited by the Institute of Continuing Professional Development:
This means that now any AD or equivalent running a workshop for BNI anywhere in the UK is entitled to issue a certificate stating that a member has attended a course and the number of hours with the CPD logo.
We will be producing certificates in due course to provide to Members after workshops as and when appropriate.
We hope this will provide excellent added value for our professional Members.
As a Committee member, I had participated in several meetings where we brainstormed ideas to increase the membership. I pitched the idea for an exhibition to the Committee – all members to be present at the event and they would be given an exhibition stand sponsored by the Chapter in return for a commitment to work on the planning and to invite as many people along as possible.
Colin Hegner, the then Chapter Director and Julian Portch, the then membership Coordinator were very keen on the idea and the rest of the Committee unanimously voted in favour. Making use of our Power Teams, we allocated tasks to each member and team so the planning was shared as fairly as possible. The Finance team came up with the idea of a Dragons’ Den style panel where business owners or prospective business owners could present their vision to the panel and would receive advice. They also sourced a PR expert to help us get publicity and Julia Booton negotiated with De Vere Hartsfield to offer a
free night’s stay at the hotel and a Cream Tea in the visitor’s prize draw.
I wrote the copy for the flyers and Crispin Jones created the artwork. We also created a Flash presentation which would be displayed on a loop during the event. Flyers were allocated to each member to distribute in their area and were placed in shops and organisations with notice boards for added exposure. Holding the Social Media slot, I was in charge of spreading the word online and also created an EventBrite page so we could capture visitor data for future marketing. Julian Portch walked miles handing out flyers and Colin Hegner generously donated a huge Banner to be placed along the main road outside Bridge House Hotel – the venue for our event.
On the day the Mayor of Reigate and Banstead came along and with Crispin Jones the incoming Chapter Director delivered the opening address.
He was taken around to meet all the members and the attention seekers (meJ) took advantage of the photo opportunity. Over the course of the three hour event, 53 visitors came through the doors! The Dragons’ Den style panel consisting of Julia Booton,
Stephen Campbell and Antonio Falco was a success with John Hunter-Hashke (who
trades as Professor Twist, a Balloon Sculptor around his full time job) gave
the winning pitch and was awarded two free visits to our Chapter meetings and
four hours of mentoring from the panel.
We held the event on Thursday 22nd September 2011 – three weeks ago. Since the event we have three confirmed new members, one additional application pending and a renewal. Even better than that, the morale of our current members has been given a massive boost – there is something in telling people why you joined BNI that reminds you why you joined BNI!
Don’t forget exhibiting is another marketing skill you can use in your business away from BNI too! Remind yourself why you joined in the first place – maybe create an Education slot of each members’ reasons why BNI excited them in the first place – a great boost!
However, if you are local to Reigate and reading this Blog because you are considering joining BNI, do come along to one of our meetings!
We meet each Tuesday at Bridge House Hotel on Reigate Hill at 6.45am and I
guarantee you’ll be given a very warm welcome. If you’ve got ten minutes to spare, ask me why I joined BNI – it was one of the best decisions I made for my business and it could be for you too!
BNI(R) Spitfire chapter launched in April of this year, and has already passed 878 referrals so far - in nearly 9 months, worth £185K.
Keith Edwards played the part of Santa in this weeks meeting, with over £185,000 of business passed within the new chapter already Christmas has come early for the members… and they are looking forward to continuing their growth in 2012.
