Socials and Hertford & Ware Showcase

The referrals kept coming this week with a total 27 referrals 5 referrals coming from George Hughes which brings our total referrals past to 260 

At this weeks meeting our 10 minutes speaker was David West from the Probate Bureau who explained what he does and save our money from the hands of taxman and how planning for the future can save a lot of trouble. I also found out an amazing 70% of people do not have a will (I'll admit I'm one of the 70% but not for much longer!). If you need a will or probate dealing with give David a call.

Socials are another important part of participating in BNI as it helps to build relationships and get to know the other members a lot faster and on a personal basis, which can give us even more confidence in referring each other to people we know, whether it be friends, family, our contacts or customers. On top of that we generally have good fun, I think we did learn one lesson from a social we had last week when we went for a curry at Ruby on St Andrews St, Hertford on Wednesday the evening before our 0645 meeting, a few of us decided that it would be a good idea to go for a drink after the curry at the Black Horse on West Street, Hertford, it possibly wasn't such a good idea.

We have an open meeting this week along side the Hertford/ Ware business showcase and we also have a stand during the day, so if you'd like to come along and find out more, do get in touch.

To your success
Paul

In this episode of the Hertford and Ware business networking group BNI Endeavour.....

We have lots of news from our weekly networking meeting this week.

we officially inducted Emma lippiatt from The Isabel Hospice and Plasterer Robbert Rose from R Rose Plastering. we look forward to working with Isabel Hospice to raise lots of money for a very worthwhile charity and to Helping Robert grow his business. As you can see from the photo we are in need of a great photographer in the Hertford /Ware area to come and join us, as my skills on my smart phone aren't up to much. 

We passed 38 referrals this week, So far we've passed 233 referrals converting into £55,313.95 worth of business.

We had 2 Testimonials this week, one from Allan Pennington to Nigel Adams and one from Nigel Adams to Matthew Aubery, I'll be adding them to the testimonial page as soon as possible.


Isabel hospice are running their networking event the3rdthursday on the 20th September in Bishops Stortford.

John Lancaster our excellent oesteopath in Ware is opening his new shop at 94 Ware High Street this weekend, he has been very busy painting and decorating to get it ready and you'd be very welcome to drop in and visit between 10am & 4pm on the Saturday 15th September.

and Big Black Hen celebrated it's second birthday and has now become an established estate agent in Hertford and Ware.

Finally Sandra Jones spoke about her experience as a games maker at the paralympics, I must say it sounded like an amazing experience and I take my hat off to her and everyone involved for giving up their time to make it happen. 


To your business success

Paul

Top networking tips

I've personally been networking for a few years now, so I'd like to think I've got a bit of experience in the field and of various networking groups, Now I often see networking faux pars so I thought I'd put this networking tips post up.

• Don't expect anything. - This may sound like a strange one really, since we go to networking groups to get more business! The attitude you should enter any networking group or meeting with is that of making contacts to build relationships with and of how can you help people. I've met people over 5 years ago and it's only now that anything has come from it and not exactly how I would have thought either
• Be yourself. - People buy from people so don't try and be something your not, people generally get an unconscious signal if you're being false, then they just won't trust you
• Business cards are not confetti. - Forget just going to give out as many cards as you can or collect cards and add them to your email newsletter - It's just plain rude. Let me reiterate, networking is about building relationships
    
• Make the most of it. - Get their early and stay to the last, I've often found the best conversations happen nearer to the end of a meeting, so I always stay as late as I can, this may mean leaving extra time in your diary after, so you're not anxious to get out
• Ask open-ended questions. - So that the conversation isn't killed with a yes or no reply Such as questions that ask who, what, where, when, and how.  By using this it opens up the discussion and shows people you are talking to that you are interested in them
• Don't dismiss anyone as irrelevant. - this has happened to me on a number of occasions, such as butting into a conversation between 2 people and taking it in a different direction so it excludes the 3rd person or asking for someones card and then giving it back because you know someone from their profession for example. It didn't make me feel good and one of them in particular, I could have passed business to, also you don't know who they know
• Keep in touch. - Add them to you contacts database and follow them on twitter and linkedIn etc to continue building the relationship. Also make notes so you can follow up later, such as if you are talking about their next holiday note down where and when they are going, and bring it up next time you see them
• Get involved. - Consider taking up a role in a networking group, it builds your profile rapidly.

• Be Happy. - This is possibly the biggest tip and that's why I saved it until last and that is Smile, Nobody wants to talk to someone who looks miserable. 

Happy networking

Paul

Open networking meeting at the Hertford and Ware business showcase

Endeavour the new dynamic Business Referral Group for Ware and Hertford open meeting Thursday 27^th September at the Roebuck Hotel

As part of the first Hertford and Ware Showcase the ‘Endeavour’ business referral group are delighted to support and open this event with an Open by invitation meeting at 7:45am.

Say Hello to your new sales team!

THIRTY well connected and experienced Hertford & Ware based business people planning to share £1 million worth of new business opportunities through each other’s professional and personal contacts. Endeavour use BNI’s (Business Networking International) globally proven strategies to maximise every members opportunity to win new business. The strict application process ensures only the best local professions and trades become members. Having only one business per profession, guarantees maximum exposure for every business member.

This is a great opportunity for good businesses in Hertford, Ware & surrounding areas to experience this successful dynamic group. So come and meet your new sales team. 

Click here to email and book your place for Thursday 27^th September 07:45 – 09:30am at the Roebuck Hotel, 1 Baldock Street, Ware, SG12 9DR. 

There is a £10 meeting fee and a light breakfast and refreshments will be provided.

Lock out your competitors, call us now.
                              Ring Martin: 07710 353 054; Dayle: 07515 050 392

“It’s time to breathe new life into the local economy and maximise the amount of business to increase profits, it’s not easy but it works” - Dayle Guy

The power of Power teams

Another lively meeting this morning with BNI Endeavour, packed with energy and plenty of activity showing that we're getting closer to our goal of 40 Members passing over £1,000,000 worth of business in the Hertford & Ware area.

Wendy receiving her new member pack

We'd like to welcome 2 new members Wendy Stevenson from PS Cleaning and George Hughes from Alex Clarke Lettings The Pictures show them both receiving their new member packs from our Chapter Director David West. We look forward to learning more about them and their business and helping them grow their businesses over the coming weeks and months ahead. 

George receiving his new member pack

In BNI we have what we call power teams, a networking power team is a collective of businesses within the chapter that have synergy, Therefore can work well together. You also find that a member will get the majority of referrals from their power team and we certainly saw a power team in action this morning when our builder Matthew Aubery of Aubery Homes gave out a massive 11 referrals to members of the construction (or trades) power team.
We're currently still looking for members from the construction industry such as a gardener, carpenter, tiler and painter/ decorator among others so if that's you and you'd like to get in on this power team action I'd suggest you get in touch ASAP before your competitor does and locks you out.

This weeks 10 minute speaker was, well erm..... me. I had fantastic feedback from the members saying how good my 10 minutes was. I gave the chapter an insight into my business as an Independent  Distributor for The Utility Warehouse Discount Club and I think I covered all the bases after going on the presentation skills workshop on Monday. I covered a bit about me and how I joined Utility Warehouse, Why I think the company has integrity and what makes the company so unique to other Mobile phone, Home Phone, Broadband, Gas and Electricity suppliers and the (over 40) benefits of switching. 

I did learn one extra thing about presenting though and that is always have a glass of water to hand. 

We had lots of contributions today even if you exclude Matthews fantastic 11 referrals, We had a total of 34 referrals, and 6 visitors in attendance and several testimonials. 




To your networking success 
Paul

The stats are coming in......and they are great.

Well we had another great meeting last week, I wanted to leave the blog post until today as 11 of the chapter members went on a presentation skills workshop yesterday evening and I wanted to cover that too, plus I've been pretty busy.

We had the stats in of how many referrals have been passed and how that's turned into revenue for the members.

A Referral Slip

Since the Endeavour chapter was set up at the end of Feburary, we have passed an amazing 163 referrals – that’s approximately 32 referrals per month! £52631.95 worth of business has been passed!  That’s approximately an average of £10000 per month since the start! Now the thing to remember here is that from the first meeting we had four members and grew that up until now with most of the membership joining within the last couple of months, and at launch we were on 22 members. 

Personally I think that is an amazing amount of business passed, and of course there are business referrals passed in that time, that are still in progress.

Thank you for the business box

In case you don't know, we monitor the business in the chapter, business is passed on a referral slip and once a member has invoiced for business he thanks the member by adding a card in to the 'thank you for the business' box. That's how we can show the figures above and show that our networking group works. 

This week alone, we have had an incredible 24 referrals given and an additional £474 worth of business in the Thank you for The Business card box.

A particular well done to Matt Aubery from Aubery Homes for 7 referrals and brand new member Wendy Stevenson from PS Cleaning for 5 referrals!!

We had a great 10 minutes from Nigel Adams from Big Black Hen telling us about his business and what makes him different to other estate agents. I'd say his business is very different and would not hesitate to recommend him, as they have fixed pricing and no contract term, why wouldn't you go with BBH to sell your home. Also Nigel has a background in advertising and marketing so he really knows his stuff, On top of that since most people look online for houses these days he has no high street office, so his overheads are lower which is great for his clients!

We also had 2 Testimonials one from Nigel Adams to Andy Richards from PC Resolve and a Very emotional one from Michael Rudd from Berkshire financial services to Isabel Hospice.

Finally onto the presentation skills we attended last night, As I mentioned in the last post, part of BNI includes training and we spent 3 hours last night learning how to present our business so that we get remembered and make it easier for our colleagues to find referrals for us. I certainly picked up a few tips for my 10 minutes which happens to be this Thursday. Some great tips were things such as the structure of a 10 minutes of letting the members know how I add value, being specific about who I'd like as a referral, what to listen out for and what to say to get a referral. It was certainly time well spent.

If you'd like to join our growing group and get new business and lock out your competitors then get in touch for an invite to a meeting, we'd love to meet you.

To your success

Paul