Roberts’ group was sitting at 11 members, and was not a fully-fledged group, when the new leadership team decided to take matters into their own hands in November last year.

Thanks to the relentless energy and enthusiasm of Robert and his Leadership Committee, BNI Britomart has now grown more than 100% from 11 to 23 members (as at June 2011).

As well as the amazing increase in high-quality members, the chapter is also now making between 18-25 referrals a week, and has even starting to attract members from other chapters (the ultimate compliment).

Some of Roberts’s tips about how to rejuvenate a chapter are listed below:

Work out your goals for the group:

• At BNI Britomart, the goal is to become the ‘premier’ group in the country
• This means we intend to have: 
  • the best, most connected members
  • The most quality referrals per week
  • the highest trading amongst members
  • the best contribution to Hospice
• we wanted to reach 25 members by the end of the membership cycle (June this year)

Once the above goal was set, all other activity was planned around achieving those goals, including major changes such as:

Moving to a new venue:

• To run a professional networking group it makes sense to meet in a professional environment that reflects the ‘standard’ and lifestyle of the members.
• Try to avoid noisy cafes, or environments that are distracting.
• Worry less about the food, and worry more about the location!
  • A great location will bring visitors back, but food is simply ‘nice to have’.
• Try to be unique: BNI Britomart moved into the incredible modern/funky Mini Garage for a while, which was a creative environment to do networking
  • Be cautious though: environments not set-up for meetings may have noise issues, service issues, and may not have audio visual equipment easily available.
• The group has found its ‘ultimate’ home in the brand-new Generator complex in Britomart, which is also the home of SublimeNZ. The meeting room is equipped with views of the ocean, a separate bar, wireless internet, a lounge, and full audio visual equipment. www.generatornz.com
• A good option for many groups would be to move into the board-room of one of the members. See if someone in your group can facilitate everyone: tell them to look at this as an opportunity to dance with everyone, every week!

Change the group name:

• Once your goals are set, start thinking about a name that best represents the composition of your group (or, where you want to be).
• The name BNI Britomart came about because of the new proximity of the group in the bustling business hub in the CBD, which had positive associations with ‘big business’ and entrepreneurs alike
• What name best captures the energy in your group?

Get new members!

• Sometimes this starts with looking closely at the performance of your existing members, and perhaps replacing some with ‘new blood’
• Hand out the PALMS report weekly. Soon enough the under-performing members will either pick up their game, or move on
• It is not a bad thing for some long-serving members to move on to make space for a co-worker or competitor: the new members will open up a whole wealth of new referrals, or new visitors.
• Look at attracting PR/Marketing/Events/Website people: they are well connected, and meet lots of people in their day to day lives.
• Ask your members to invite suppliers, or people they want to do business with. This can help to create ‘hubs’
• Avoid the trap of one company capturing too many ‘categories’. In BNI Britomart we have:
  • Graphic design
  • Web design
  • Email marketing
  • Web optimisation
• Each of these members has some cross-over, but respect each others core offering, and does good business between one another.

The basics:

• Use PALMS accurately: use it to keep the group accountable for output.
  • If the V.P is not comfortable/experienced with using the website to update it regularly, then get someone else to do it.
  • Ask the VP to hand it out weekly during the re-build phase. It will show positive improvements, and also make non-performing members aware that they are being watched (in a subtle way).
• Time management:
  • Ensure everyone arrives on time!
  • Visitor Hosts should be at the venue at 6.45am at latest.
  • The V.P and I arrive at 6.20am every week at BNI Britomart, to ensure that the meeting room is perfectly set up, and that there is a great first impression for visitors
  • Ensure your 60 second and 10 minute speeches are kept to time, regardless of the size of your group. Time management looks professional: no one wants to listen to a 20 minute 10 minute speech!
• Getting the leadership team working well
  • Send your leadership team to a leadership training, if they have not been for a while
  • Make it a social outing, and have a beer and debrief afterwards
  • Ensure leadership meetings happen at least once monthly
  • See if someone else in the group wants to step up, to take load off someone who has been in the role for a while.
• Getting the VP doing his job
  • It is a temptation to let the President do everything
  • The VP is meant to ‘run the chapter’, meaning they need to look after the Membership Committee, and all of the PALMS information.
  • If your VP is unclear of his role, you should take him through his job description and take load off yourself.
• Monitor cash deals by using the new ‘Thank You For Your Business’ forms.
  • You should only record cash deals, AFTER the deal is done!

Whilst some of our strategies require a ‘hard line’ approach, the results are clear at BNI Britomart.

With strong leadership, a commitment to grow, and by getting the whole group on board- I am confident you can achieve growth also.

Robert is the managing director of leading experiential marketing agency SublimeNZ. www.sublimenz.co.nz

Given that we recently had a long weekend to celebrate the birthday of our beloved monarch. I thought I’d muse on a few of the business, communication and networking lessons we can all learn from the British Monarchy.

Lesson 1: If you’re going to conquer someone (or some countries), don’t go in half hearted. All guns blazing was the only way the Brits of history knew. Far from the aristorcrats we now see, the monarchs of old were ruthless, driven individuals with an eye for expansion. I don’t suggest ruthlessness as anything worthy to be praised. The ruthlessness of the British historically has earned them more than a few enemies – particularly those closest to them. But being driven, having an eye for expansion and going into business fully committed are worthwhile traits for any of us to consider.

Lesson 2: When you conquer new territory – either make friends with the locals, or get rid of them and start afresh. I cringed as I wrote this last night, but in business this is probably a wise line. If you take over someone else’s territory, or business – you’ve either got to entirely rid the business of everything that was there to do something new, or (if it’s functioning) befriend the locals – find out how it works in the new territory and try to align the values you see, with those of your organisation.

Lesson 3: Build bridges. If the monarchs of old were ruthless in conquering and killing, then our present monarch is single-minded about building bridges – see the recent trip to Ireland, the improved relations with France and Europe in general not to mention her general willingness to get chummy with the Obama’s as a valuable lesson, those you can’t conquer, might as well be your friends.

Lesson 4: Before you speak. Take elocution lessons. Have a think about how you want people to consider you, then present yourself in such a way that your audience knows it well. Do you want to be known as articulate, considered, even thoughtful? Or dynamic, intelligent, passionate, excited… the opportunities are endless.

Lesson 5: Plan. Write it down. Practice. Old Lizzie’s addresses aren’t exactly off the cuff. Some people can pull that off well. Most can’t. If you’re not sure which of those you are, err on the side of caution and plan well.

Lesson 6: When it comes to the media, feed out the information you want the world to know about you. The royals do this brilliantly, drip feeding the public only what they want as public knowledge. They almost always remain in control of what gets out. The closest you or I will likely get to paparazzi wanting to pry in on our business are the calls from those who would seek to sell us advertising – I love those phone calls and am all for someone offering me an opportunity to advertise – but ensure that the info that goes out is what you want it to be.

Lesson 7: Be confident in your kingdom. None of us here have a trace of the responsibility or privilege our monarchs are born into, but we each have our own businesses in which we are the key person. I have no doubt that the queen experiences moments of doubt as to whether she can do the job she’s been given, but when you watch the queen in public, she exudes confidence wherever she moves within her kingdom. She knows it’s hers. So today at work this is my suggestion. Look around you, smile, enjoy the privileges your business gives you, and have confidence in your abilities – you weren’t born into this job you’re doing – it’s your abilities that got you to where you are at.

Lesson 8: Warmth trumps austerity.

If there’s one thing that lizzie lacks, it’s a bit of warmth. It’s what Diana had that earned her the title ‘queen of hearts’ And it’s why people still talk about her. She got down to the level of the people in her service and worked alongside them, embraced them, and led them. Warmth will always trump austerity – so don’t be afraid to share a little of yourself with those whose custom you enjoy.

Two months on from the big one and reality is setting in. Some members were immediately affected having their house/business damaged/destroyed, for some the effects of the quake are just staring to set in and for others the effects may appear in the near future. Conversely for some things have never been better.

Post quake a BNI Earthquake support forum was established on BNI Online ( http://www.bnionline.co.nz/group/christchurchearthquakebnisupport ) as a place where offers of support and requests for help could be posted and acted upon. Sadly it looks as though this tool was not utilised to the extent hoped. This may have been because so soon after the quake some people did not have had access to online resources, they were in shock and/or unsure of their actual situation pending zone access, govt subsidy announcements and discussions with insurers, landlords, tenants, clients, suppliers, employers etc.

Now that the dust has settled, you have had time to take stock of your situation and govt subsidies have had tighter criteria applied, please advise of any assistance you need, specifically:

•         Your story i.e. what has happened
•         The assistance you need i.e. premises, employment, legal, accounting, coaching, trades, IT, psychological, physical, respite, equipment etc
•         Your preferred contact details

We will collate these requests and distribute them BNI wide to the many chapters/individuals that have offered assistance but not known specifically who or how to assist.

If you are in need of help, we urge you to reply to this blog post by commenting below as soon as practicable.
 
Sam Williamson is BNI Director, Canterbury Region, BNI New Zealand

Saturday 26th March, 7.30 pm

1127 Scenic Drive, Swanson.

Tickets $25 per person.

More info here: BNI Invite

It’s the start of a new week, six days on from the earthquake, there is still the odd tremor that is registering over 4 in magnitude, strong enough to get us to stop and ask “is this another big one?” but generally they are over almost as quickly as they start.

My intention this week is to get back to work, and try and treat everything as if it is business as usual.  I pull out my list of things to do that I prepared on Friday just past and started the day with a ring round all my current clients.

My longest running client was the first on my list, the news was not good.  Having been displaced twice previously from their offices, the first time after the September 4th quake, then again after the Boxing Day aftershock, this client had only just moved into new premises on Monday 21st February, the following day the most recent quake hit, they were in the office at the time, watching everything around them, very quickly being destroyed.

They all managed to get out of their building and escape to safety, now they have nothing, all their equipment was destroyed.

The client is resilient, they are currently talking to their insurance company to get the equipment replaced as soon as possible so they can carry on doing what they do best.  We have agreed to catch up later in the week, I am going to donate my time (at no cost to them) to help them re-focus, prioritise what needs done immediately to help them get back on track as quickly as possible.

My other clients have work premises that did not get hit quite so hard, they should recover reasonably quickly, albeit some of their homes are nearly destroyed.  There is a very mixed bag of issues everyone is facing, having talked to all those that were contactable

I realise that really, my family and I are blessed, we still have a roof over our heads, we have power, we haven’t lost any friends or family, I really, under the circumstances can’t ask for anything more than that.  It is likely to be another couple of weeks before my clients get truly back on track, financially I will be able to cope with that, so I carry on down my list and tackle other areas of my business.

Cash flow will be really important over the next couple of months, having wrestled within myself over the weekend as to what I should do with those who have not paid my invoices, I decided to follow them up.  My reasoning for this was, the invoices were all ready overdue prior to the earthquake hitting, so no-one can really blame that as a reason for delaying the payment; also, I have already done the work, I do this not only to help the client but to put a roof over my families head and to put food on the table, that more than ever is of the greatest importance.

So I send out another email, it’s short, straight to the point, “This invoice is now well over due, please give this your immediate attention”, there is nothing soft about the email, it is designed to spur the client into action.

To any business owner in a similar position, there are a number of things you should consider when ensuring you’re clients don’t compromise your cash flow.

>>> Read all of Dave’s post here

Christchurch – a city that is no stranger to earthquakes, having been hit by a 7.1 on September 4th 2010, less than six months ago, felt as if it was well on the road to recovery.

Many businesses got off to a good start in 2011, business still had its challenges and many of us had a way to go to get business at the level it was prior to September but there was an optimism in the air. An optimism that said 2011 was going to be a great year.

At 12.51pm on Tuesday 22nd February 2011 nature, in all its ferocity, shook Christchurch to its knees and with the crumbling of many iconic, historical buildings the optimism in the city was extinguished. As our Prime Minister, John Key aptly stated, this is New Zealand’s darkest hour.

My experience of this earthquake is by no means the most harrowing, but an experience it was and one I hope never to have to repeat.

2011 for me started off really well, I had several new clients come on board, I had joined the Business Mentors New Zealand so that I could give something back to the business community, I had a series of workshops planned the first of which is on the 10th March and I had found out I was to be a training provider for an initiative put in place by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, indeed I had my first client confirmed through its partner on the West Coast (South Island).

In a buoyant mood, I was driving across town to an appointment when my car started shaking, my immediate thought was “Oh no, not a puncture” but the shaking of the car became more violent, I was losing control of it, I slammed on the breaks and quickly pulled off to the side of the road, fearing my wheels had come loose.

It was only when I had stopped and the car kept shaking that I knew we had been hit by another major earthquake.

My first thought was I hope my wife and my 1year old son were safe, I called home, my wife didn’t pick up, I called again, this time my wife picks up the phone, I could hear the emotion in her voice as she was trying to control the tears so she could talk.

They were ok, albeit badly shaken, my son Lachlan was asleep when the earthquake hit, other than waking up, he was fine. I immediately perform a u-turn and race back home, hoping that my client was ok, with a thought to phone her when I get home. As I make my way from Riccarton back to Hoon Hay, the damage did not seem bad, there were several sets of traffic lights not working, which were the most challenging parts of the journey home.

As I get closer to my street I start seeing signs of liquefaction, just patches here and there, the thought went through my mind “I hope my street is ok”, it has suffered quite a bit of damage during the last quake.

I’m just about to turn down my street when I see, what can only be described as a scene from the sea side, there was extensive flooding in the street and that now familiar grey sand all over the place. I decided not to drive down it, instead opting to drive round the 5km block.

My wife and son were on the street talking to neighbours, I was so relieved to see them, we just hugged each other, trying to make sense of it all, why us, why Christchurch, why now?

>>> Read Dave’s complete post here

The first step is to manage your expenses and pay your bills on time. Develop a budget, do not spend more than what you make, and learn to reduce your expenses when you can.

Learn to manage your responsibilities by assigning certain tasks to others. If you do not have time to do a task, then let your assistant do it. You are only one person and can only do so much on a given day. Do what is most important and delegate the rest.

Talk with your customers and employees on a regular basis. Find out what is on their minds. Ask for any suggestions on how to improve business productivity and morale. Communicating with your workers and clients will help prevent future problems and conflicts.

Most importantly, develop a business plan and follow it. Being organized and goal oriented is very important in managing a business. Following a plan or set of goals will prevent you from a lot of stress and anxiety.

Learn to take it one day at a time. Instead of worrying about how you will get through the rest of the week or coming month, try to focus on today. Each day can provide us with different opportunities to learn new things and that includes learning how to deal with your business problems. Hopefully, when the time comes, you will have learned the skills to deal with your situation.

Be smart in how you deal with your business problems. Do not try to tackle everything all at once. When facing a current or upcoming task that overwhelms you with a lot of anxiety, break the task into a series of smaller steps. Completing these smaller tasks one at a time will make the stress more manageable and increase your chances of success.

Managing a business can be stressful, but the key is knowing how to manage your anxieties. There is a right way and wrong way to manage a business. Continue to learn effective techniques in managing your business and improve your bottom line. This will go a long way in getting rid of your stress and other business problems.

By Stanley Popovich
Stan Popovich is the author of “A Layman’s Guide to Managing Fear Using Psychology, Christianity and Non Resistant Methods” – an easy to read book that presents a general overview of techniques that are effective in managing persistent fears and anxieties. For additional information go to: http://www.managingfear.com/

So, do introverts connect better than extroverts? Sometimes, yes.

Recently, probably the nation’s best known networking professional, came to the realization that he is an introvert! Ivan Misner, PhD, founder of BNI and the author of 11 books on networking, shared with me in an interview I conducted for The Connectors that he discovered he’s actually an introvert. What?! Misner said that his wife of 20 years told him during dinner one night that he displayed many introvert tendencies. Misner was shocked! How could the founder of the largest networking organization be an introvert? “It struck me why I started BNI,” Misner said. “I was naturally uncomfortable meeting new people. BNI created a system that enabled me to meet people in an organized, structured, networking environment that did not require that I actually … talk to strangers.”

So, if we all can potentially be great connectors, how do we jump into it or how can we focus to improve our skills and results? By having a plan. Click here to download the free tool, “For Introverts…and Extroverts: A Plan for Connecting” and become a better connector today!

Guest Author : Maribeth Kuzmeski, MBA is the founder of Red Zone Marketing, LLC, which consults to Fortune 500 firms on strategic marketing planning and business growth. Maribeth has personally consulted with some of the world’s most successful CEO’s, entrepreneurs and professionals

>>>> View original post here

                     i.            Deleting information we don’t need, or don’t think we need

                   ii.            Generalising – you don’t need to relearn how to drive a car when you get into a new one, you generalise based on what you have previously learned

                  iii.            Distort – you fill in the blanks e.g. you see someone drive up in a Jaguar, and you make presumptions about them … e.g. wealthy, business owner, big house etc

 In fact there are only about 160 bits of information (out of 2 million) that our conscious and unconscious brain retain from every moment.

This means is that from the 20 plus 60 second’s you hear (early) each BNI morning we are each only going to retain a very small proportion of what has been said.

The other significant learning from communication models is the impact of Distortion filters.  People are ‘filling-in the blanks’ based on previous experience rather than the reality of what you are actually saying.  For example, if you hear someone start doing a 60 seconds on HR, some people immediately starting thinking about recruitment; others about disciplinary stuff; others about fluffy time wasters.  This is all based on their previous experience of HR/accountants/insurance brokers/web developers….

In the context of BNI we need to: 

• Actively listen to increase the chances of really understanding what people are all about
• Dance to get a greater focused set of information on which to base our understanding
• Make your key points clear to maximise the chances of them being 1 of the 160 bits of info retained
• Make our 60 seconds as engaging as possible

 Remember, this is not only applicable in the BNI situation, but in every situation where you are talking about your business, and making sure you don’t go incognito

 Lisa Mackay is Managing Director of HRtoolkit Ltd.

As educational coordinator for her BNI chapter she ran a series of educationals; this is the second of five. Next week... Using words to make you memorable

In Washington DC, Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007 a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. two thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After three minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:
The musician played continuously.  Only six people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed.  No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin valued at $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold out a theatre in Boston where the price of seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities.

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:  we need to promote and sell our own talent.  If we play incognito we can’t expect people to recognise us, we need to tell them who we are, and how good we are… and we are!

Lisa Mackay is Managing Director of HRtoolkit Ltd.

As educational coordinator for her BNI chapter (Masters of Business) she ran a series of educationals; this is the first of five. Next week is ‘How we take on Information’.