Welcome!
I am very pleased to announce that BNI New Zealand has been selected as a finalist in the inaugural 2005 Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards!
Being identified as one of the leading pack when it comes to offering a service or product that positively impacts on business owners’ lives, is a huge honour and we’re very excited about being finalists!
Organiser of the awards and small business sector specialist, Sarah Trotman, said:

“The Inaugural Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards recognise and set apart those individuals and entities which have a demonstrable understanding of business owners’ needs and help support small business growth in New Zealand.”
The Awards will be evaluated by the New Zealand Business Excellence Foundation and the winners will be announced at the Awards dinner on July 21 which dovetails with the Small Business Expo, a business to business marketplace for small business owners happening at the Auckland Showgrounds on July 20-22.

A huge thank you to all our members who have written to us – recently and in the past – to tell us about the huge impact BNI has had on their business.  Remember, our theme this year is ‘Givers Gain’ – make the most of it and you will succeed. 

Wishing you a year of Givers Gain!

Regards
Graham Southwell
BNI National Director New Zealand

Ask top referral givers what their secret to giving so many referrals is, and you will probably find that they all have five things in common…
1. When meeting with someone – even if it is a long standing client, sales prospect, family member or friend – they are always asking themselves: “How can my BNI chapter help this person?”
2. BNI is part of who they are and what they do – so networking by finding and giving referrals is always at the back of their minds.
3. They ask open ended questions.
Not: “How was your weekend?”
Instead they ask: “What did you do this weekend?”
They want answers that go beyond ‘good’, ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘flat-out’.
4. They LISTEN to what other people are saying.
They resistant the temptation to join in, interrupt or start empathising immediately. They let people talk and talk until they’re all talked out, and then they get them talking again. And they really do listen.
5. Always Be Closing (ABC). They always close the referral.
“I will get my friend John, the electrician, to call you – even if it’s just to answer some of your questions.”

Generous donations from chapers nationwide during Hospice week in May means that Hospices will receive more than $10,500 from BNI - and that's not counting contributions from more than a dozen chapters which still need to be collated.

The total collected from BNI chapters so far exceeds $3,500. BNI NZ has pledged to donate two dollars for every dollar donated by its chapters - taking the total so far to more than $10,500.
BNI New Zealand donates 5 per cent of its profit to Hospice and money from this 'challenge' forms part of that.
A special congratulations must be extended to the Hibiscus Coast Chapter which went way beyond the call of duty and raised a fantastic $634.40.
Thanks to the generosity of chapters like Hibiscus Coast, the Hibiscus Coast Hospice will receive a donation of at least $1,800.00 from BNI.
The money will be split amongst the chapter nominated Hospices throughout New Zealand.
Hospice cares for the terminally ill, and is responsible for ensuring that these patients have access to quality hospice palliative care.
Well done on an awesome effort – ‘givers really do gain’.

Liz Somers-Smith (Howick, Auckland chapter) - pictured left - travelled all the way from New Zealand to join Beverly Kepple at the West Lothian BNI Chapter (Scotland) for breakfast recently – and even received a referral for her efforts!
The two met in 2000 when they attended the inaugural meeting of the Howick Chapter of BNI in Auckland.

Both joined and have been members of BNI ever since.
When Beverly of Great Attitude (UK) Ltd, producers of Behavioural Profiles, moved to the UK with her husband in February 2004 she immediately joined the Wilmslow Chapter. “I believe in the concept of networking so naturally I looked up the website to find my local chapter and just went along where I was made to feel very welcome.
“I believe networking is about building rapport, forming relationships, and not just about exchanging business cards. Once trust and an understanding about each other’s businesses are established, the referrals flow. In September we moved again, to Livingston, Scotland so I applied to have my membership transferred.”
Liz has a Taxation, Accountancy and Software business called TAS Ltd in Auckland. “Most of my clients come from referrals so BNI has been invaluable for my business,” says Liz. “I was born in the UK and my twin sister still lives here so I visit most years. I am now looking at setting up another business to import goods from New Zealand, so I came up to Scotland to quiz Beverly on the best contacts. When I found out she was still a member of BNI, I just had to go and meet everyone.
“When we got up at 6.00am there was very heavy snow, but we decided I had come all this way, that a snow storm wasn’t going to stop us,” says Liz. “And it was well worth it – I even got a referral!”

To ensure dances were made at the Glenfield (Auckland) Chapter, Virginia Stallard of Vision Accounting Solutions created a jigsaw dance card concept.
Terry Buckley from Absolute Print said Virginia cut colourful cards into jigsaw-like pieces and put each half in a separate envelope.
“One envelope was handed out to every member and at the ‘coffee break’ members had to find the other half of the matching card.”
When each person had found their ‘dance’ partner they had to arrange a dance before the next meeting. This prepared each person to do their ‘dance’ partner’s 60 second slot at the next meeting.
“It worked extremely well and got our members out dancing. Congratulations to Virginia for a fantastic idea.”

HRH The Prince of Wales was in New Zealand recently and, whilst in Auckland, he hosted a lunch to promote the Prince's Trust.
The Prince's Trust was founded by him in 1976 to improve the lives of disadvantaged young people. Prince Charles started the Trust with his severance pay from the Navy.
Financial planner, director of Capital Investment Planning Ltd and BNI member, Katrina Hawker, attended the lunch along with one of Capital's clients who has a special interest in the Prince and his youth work.

More than 28 years on, the results of the Trust's delivery on The Prince's vision in the UK are impressive: 74,000 have taken part in the Trust's Team Personal Development Programme; 147,000 have benefited from schools-based programmes and more than 60,000 have set up a business.
The Trust has become the UK's leading youth charity. It has been active in New Zealand since 1995 and the Auckland lunch was a celebration of the ten year milestone. 
E:  katrina.hawker@capitalinvest.co.nz