I am about to be handed the reins of a very successful ‘little’ company on 1 Oct 2011 in Kent with a current turnover of £250,000 per annum and have been instructed to increase the current staff from 20 to 45 and turnover from £250k to £2M in 6 months! Cripes!
Oh, and if it all falls apart I can just walk away after 6 months and go and do something else instead? Sounds like a good deal.
A huge amount of responsibility though, as most if not all of the members of the company (all part of our collective sales team) rely on the business income generated by and for those within the organisation, where all members of that company are fee earners and we have no admin staff at all!
Sounds like a great business model – the Company has a very flat structure – no levels to speak of to get the messages across to those in charge of steering the ship for that 6 month period, and they all meet for breakfast every week at 0615 hours to tell the rest how they got on last week in finding the other members business.
This is, of course, a BNI Chapter – Ashford M20 to be precise. And 1 Oct 11 is a big day for all BNI groups in Kent, Sussex and Surrey as the membership teams all change over on that day.
The business model is so good, I now have adopted it within my own estate agency company at exclusiveresidential.co.uk. We are growing our own Property Power Teams and now expanding throughout Kent, into London and then UK-wide based upon this same model.
Working with other related, but non-competing businesses, for the passing of referrals and business growth.
It is the model of the future for all businesses. Massively reduced office and staff overheads, paying out commissions only when income is received, and dove-tailing with existing businesses providing them with additional income streams at no real cost to them at all either.
If you want to go to a ‘boardroom’ to experience this, check out your local BNI Chapter and go along as a visitor. It dovetails nicely too with the principles here on Ecademy – as the ethos of ‘Givers Gain’ means you get to know people first, help them in the first instance and they will in turn, all things being equal, help you in return.
As we have 20 members at present bringing in £250k p.a., each seat around the table is currently worth £12,500 p.a. For fees of £1000 p.a.
Now that is a no-brainer. You give me just under £100 per month and I will turn that into just over £1000 per month and give it back to you at the end of the month.
And when there are 45 sitting around the table, for the same investment of just under £100 per month, the £12,500 turns into an average of £44,400 p.a. (£2M Chapter). So, the £100 is turned into £3,700 per month. IN A RECESSION!
That is what business referrals via word of mouth marketing is all about and I can’t wait to get my hands on the stearing wheel on 1 Oct 11. Anyone else wanting to join our ‘Cash Convertors’ Company? We have some space available – but not for long!
John A Murray
BNI® South East 