This is a time of renewed enthusiasm to mark the new leadership team changes, and also a time to really exercise the benefits of being plugged into the close business network that your chapter represents to you. Building close business relationships is what BNI is all about. With that in mind, we were delighted to launch the BNI Entrepreneur Support Programme, to benefit business start-ups, at the Big Breakfasts in February this year.
Essentially BNI will pay one annual membership fee for one business start-up per chapter (see the story in this newsletter for more details). It was with great pleasure that we welcomed our first scholarship member, Natalie Robertson, to the Warkworth Chapter of BNI in March. Congratulations Natalie and welcome on board – we wish you every success with BNI and your fellow chapter members. Continuing on with the milestone’s theme, BNI Support has just completed a very successful round of Leadership Team Dinners – with the Minister for Small Business Lianne Dalziel as one of our guest speakers – and now we’re into leadership team changeovers and training around the country. If you haven’t already stepped up to contribute to the leadership team, we strongly urge you to do so. The more you put into your structures, the more you will get out – our philosophy is after all, ‘Givers Gain’. I have always maintained that BNI is a structured referral network intended to complement the various Chambers of Commerce and business enterprise organisations around the country. In keeping with that spirit, we were more than happy to help initiate and support a joint effort with the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce to put on a networking seminar recently. Professional speaker and communications trainer, Kim Chamberlain, presented the workshop: ‘You can network your way to endless referrals’ to a joint CECC and BNI seminar. In this context, BNI looks forward to working with other Chambers and enterprise organisations throughout New Zealand – we have much to offer each other. More on that in our next newsletter. As mentioned earlier, we recently held a series of Leadership Team Dinners to thank the outgoing leadership teams and in Auckland we were joined by guest speakers Lianne Dalziel and co-founder of Home Biz Buzz, Heather Douglas. Also present were members of the media. Leadership team dinners such as this one help in many ways, one of which is to contribute to our public relations initiative through raising awareness of BNI amongst government, media and other business organisations. The benefit to the chapters is that the higher awareness contributes to high membership inquiries, bigger chapters and more business referrals for you. The BNI Team – including your assistant or regional director - looks forward to working with you in 2006 to create a year in which ‘Business is Booming’.
The Minister for Small Business, the Hon. Lianne Dalziel, has praised BNI NZ for having come a long way in a short time, saying she was immediately attracted to the principle “Givers Gain” and to the network process itself. Ms Dalziel told more than 100 BNI members at the Auckland Club that we take our informal networks for granted, essentially because we don’t have to think about them. “It’s the phone call I make to a former lecturer at the University to ask a question. It’s the discussion with an old friend from school, who's in accounting now, who can give me an informal steer.
It’s referring a constituent to someone I know because they have the expertise and I know they won’t rip them off. These are the networks that we are part of because we live, work and play in them. Ms Dalziel said BNI is a formal network, but with the protections of the informal network built in through the Code of Ethics. “We know and trust the people in our informal networks – if they let us down, we know where they live. You can rely on referrals you make to and through each other, because you have a Code of Ethics that commits members to quality, truthfulness, goodwill and trust.” In her short time as Minister for Small Business, Ms Dalziel has been inspired by the breadth and depth of ideas, innovation, talent and vision that she has encountered. “What I have learned of your organisation’s work is that it is a positive and effective response to these challenges of building a successful business. By enhancing business skills, raising awareness of the very real opportunities for small businesses and building a network of trust, it achieves very real results for its members.” Ms Dalziel said her priorities as Minister for Small Business are: * Improving business and management capability; * Making transactions between SMEs and government agencies easier; * Enhancing communication between SMEs and government; * Providing more enterprise education for school students and young entrepreneurs; and * Maintaining a quality regulatory environment that eliminates unnecessary compliance costs and minimises necessary compliance costs.
BNI’s Entrepreneur Support Programme gets underway
Director of Fatgrape Design, Natalie Robertson, became the first successful recipient of BNI New Zealand’s Entrepreneur Support Programme scholarship when she joined the Warkworth Chapter in March. Designed to help start-up businesses, The BNI Entrepreneur Support Programme aims to help small business owners benefit from being a member of a BNI chapter – the benefits include not only business referrals, but also the opportunity for leadership development, public speaking skills, mentorship and support from fellow members. The idea is for every BNI chapter to actively seek to assist a new business to become established, by nominating them for a complimentary 12 month membership. The criteria for acceptance is: * The applicant must own a new business that is less than two years old; * The applicant must be approved by the chapter membership committee in the normal way (existing and renewing members exempt); * Upon approval by the chapter, the application form together with a covering letter from the applicant detailing their business, when they started and why they want to be considered for the scheme, should be forwarded to BNI Support; * Your chapter's Assistant or Regional Director will arrange to have a dance with your nominee and pass his or her completed dance card on to BNI New Zealand; * BNI will consider all requests and advise both the chapter and the applicant of their decision within seven days of receiving the application and covering letter; * Successful applicants will be asked to complete an undertaking to abide by the policies of BNI, to include an undertaking to attend MSP training and to dance with every member of their chapter within the first six months of membership; * At the end of the 12 month period, the chapter will be notified so that they can put forward new candidates for the scheme.
Modelling is the pathway to excellence. "It means that if I see anyone in this world producing a result I desire, I can produce the same result if I'm willing to pay the price of time and effort. If you want to achieve success, all you need to do is find a way to model those who have already succeeded."- Anthony Robbins Anthony Robbins' statement applies perfectly to BNI. Let's examine the three key factors for achieving success from his statement in his book, "Unlimited Power." 1. Follow the Model. BNI was founded on the premise that word-of-mouth is the most cost-effective form of advertising. Dr. Ivan Misner, in his book "The World's Best Known Marketing Secrets," tells us that to make it work in your favour, word-of-mouth has to be positive and planned. The structure needed for successful word-of-mouth marketing is found in BNI: the trained Leadership Team and Membership Committee, weekly agenda, Sales Manager Minute, Showcase Presentations, the Director Presentations, the policies to abide by and code of ethics to uphold. The networking philosophy of "Givers Gain" that binds these together helps all who choose to participate to achieve a common goal. I say "choose to" because BNI's programme is not meant for everybody. It's not for those who have nothing better to do in the mornings. It's for the committed go-getter, able to see this time-tested model for what it is worth, and simply follow it. 2. The Price of Time and Effort. Meeting weekly for members in BNI takes effort and commitment, but consider this: do you stop talking about your business or do you talk about it every time you are given the opportunity? At BNI you are given the opportunity to talk about your product, your services and yourself. Since you need to have breakfast every morning, why not invest a couple of hours having breakfast with your "Sales Team"? 3. Achieving Success. BNI has close to 82,000 participants in 27 countries who are "followers" of a system that works. It's astounding. BNI really is a success model to follow not to modify. The question is not whether this system will work; it has worked for countless others. The question is whether you are willing to put some time and effort into making it work.
To assist our BNI chapters to run as smoothly as possible, BNI has built up a series of recommended policies which have been developed over more than two decades of networking, they’re tried and tested, optimal solutions in most given circumstances. Sometimes trades and professions overlap. For example, a graphic designer – as part and parcel of their work – buys the print for the client, managing the whole job to completion. By managing the print for the client, the graphic designer adds value to the client in terms of convenience and expertise. By accepting responsibility for the job, the graphic designer often protects the client from risk should anything go wrong with the print job – whether it be a brochure, leaflet, annual report, advertising campaign etc. However, within the BNI context, a graphic design company and a print company are two different categories and one may not hold on to the other category. The reasons are simple… * By holding on to more than one category, the member inhibits the growth of the chapter and that’s not good for the chapter. Who knows what type of person they may lock out – perhaps the best referral giver in the chapter’s history? * Holding on to more than one business category is not demonstrating the spirit of “Givers Gain; * Categories that might overlap – such as graphic design and printing – work together in the industry, so there’s no reason why this shouldn’t be the case in a chapter as well; * Categories that might overlap are also, more often than not, able to create a fertile hub for co-operation, joint initiatives and for passing referrals to each other – in the same way as an accountant and a business adviser might co-operate. We achieve more by working together!
Leadership Team Training – Important Reminder Attending the Leadership Team Training events in April is essential for everybody serving on the leadership team – even if you have previously served on the leadership team. Like other successful international companies, Business Network International is founded on a system for structured referral networking. * Work the system properly, such as following the agenda, and you will succeed. * Developed and refined over time, the BNI system is constantly updated and it’s important that you keep up-to-date with new developments. * If you are not familiar with the components of the BNI system you will end up introducing your own modifications and moving away from the formula, thereby increasing the risk of creating all kinds of problems with the dynamics of your chapter. By agreeing to serve on your chapter’s leadership team you are taking on the responsibility for the wellbeing and prosperity of your chapter – your chapter’s success will stand or fall, according to your contribution. Get your term off to a good start by attending leadership team training.
Do you have any colleagues, friends, clients - trades people, accountants, business bankers, web designers, graphic designers, printers - who would like to benefit from being a member of a Hawera Chapter of BNI? Tim Levchenko-Scott is holding an information session on Wednesday, 3 May at The Gables Restaurant. Anybody interested is invited to contact Tim on (06) 769 5050 or 027 281 7744.
Titirangi / New Lynn BNI member Nigel Cattell – of Steels Glass Systems – recently won second and third place at the Honourable Guild of Town Criers National Championships in Fielding. Nigel told his local newspaper – The Western Leader – that it was his first championship. Contestants were judged on their delivery, content and consistency of their cries, as well as voice and costume. He is also the Waitakere City Town Crier.
SATURDAY Spend ten minutes working on your tag line. Make it memorable, highlight the needs you fill, and have it recall your brand name. SUNDAY Spend ten minutes working on your 60-second presentation. Make sure you include your name, the location of your office, the types of business you want including your 70/20/10 percent activities, and highlight the benefits your service provides and close with your tag line / memory hook. MONDAY Spend ten minutes thinking about which businesses or professionals could refer business to you. If those people are in your group, think about how to strengthen your relationships. If they aren't, add them to your invite list. TUESDAY Pick a member of your chapter and, for ten minutes, think of what you could do to generate more referrals for her. The less you have in common with the member, the better. WEDNESDAY Have lunch with one member of your chapter. Meet in one of your offices, not a restaurant. THURSDAY Spend ten minutes talking to a non-member about your chapter of BNI—whether she is a potential new member or not. When she has a need, she'll remember that you are a resource. FRIDAY Get to your BNI meeting ten minutes earlier or stay ten minutes later than you planned. If you can't do that, pick up the phone during the day and spend ten minutes talking to another member about the meeting.
BNI New Zealand is committed to donating five per cent of its annual profits to hospices around the country – but BNI New Zealand also has a gold coin challenge for you. For every dollar your chapter donates during Hospice week during May this year, BNI will donate two dollars to your local hospice from out of the five percent earmarked for hospice. The amount of money you raise will determine the portion your local hospice receives of the overall donation. BNI New Zealand National Director Graham Southwell says a list of hospices will be sent to all presidents so the chapter can nominate their local hospice for a donation, as well as invite a representative to come along as a guest to the chapter meeting that week. BNI will take charge of collecting the donations and distributing them to the various hospices. Hospice is active in helping terminally ill people and their families through the most difficult time of their lives. Please support them.
A baby and a newspaper advertisement from one isolated home based business owner were two of the catalysts that sparked the founding of HomeBizBuzz – a home business support company with more than 12,000 subscribers. Heather Douglas told the Auckland BNI Leadership Team Dinner recently that trying to pursue a career with ‘baby in tow’ just wasn’t compatible, so she set up her own communications business from home. Not long afterwards a newspaper advertisement looking for home based businesses to get together, as a way to overcome the isolation of working from home, led to her meeting Vicki Fowler, co-founder of HomeBizBuzz. But Heather and Vicki are not the only ones to create a successful business from home. “Pumpkin Patch, Navman, Resene and TradeMe are just some of the big names that had humble beginnings has home businesses. Heather Douglas is a co-founder of Home Business New Zealand, which helps make running a home business fun, easy and successful. Through its HomeBizBuzz website (http://www.homebizbuzz.co.nz), it provides home businesses with information, resources, tools, free directory listings and access to a national community of home business operators throughout New Zealand.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is going to be the venue for the first international event for BNI members. The BNI Worldwide Conference will be held June 20 through June 22, 2006. The event will celebrate not only the first 20 years of BNI but also the fulfilment of Dr. Ivan Misner's vision that BNI become a truly international networking organisation. For more information, visit www.bni.com
