SuccessNetSuccessNetSponsor one or more new

members over the nexttwo months and you could

be taking a helicopter trip overone of the world’s most breath-taking natural wonders – theGrand Canyon in Arizona – asthe climax to an action-packedstay in the most vibrant city onearth, Las Vegas!

If you’ve always promised yourself atrip to Nevada’s funtime capital, butcould never quite afford it – here’s yourchance of a lifetime to spend four glori-ous days and nights experiencing thesights, style and sheer excitement of thecity that never sleeps.

To gain an excellent chance of join-ing BNI prizewinners as they head westin May, all you have to do is attract oneor more new recruits to your chapterduring February and March.

With the single proviso that membersonly qualify to go into the draw whentheir Chapter has collectively signed upsix or more newcomers, the competitiongives the most successful ‘recruiters’ thebest chance of winning.

This is because, once a Chapter hasqualified, members who have nomi-nated new members receive one entryin the draw for each individualrecruited. So the more new membersanyone brings into their participatingChapter, the more chances he or shehas to win the spectacular prize.

Gillian Lawson, BNI NationalDirector who is co-ordinating the mem-bership drive said: “We have again allo-cated one winning ticket to every fourqualifying chapters, which means that amember who sponsors a single newmember has a reasonable one in 24chance of winning this trip for two. But ifthe same individual brings in two, threeor more new members, that person canmuch improve his or her chances.

If YOU become one of the lucky LasVegas winners you must be able totravel on the set dates booked for ourcompetition winners, departing on

Fly the Big One

european edition

AN EDUCATION AND INFORMATION BULLETIN FOR BNI MEMBERS WINTER 2001

Grand Canyon beckons forMembership Drive winners

Thursday, 17th May and arriving backin the UK on Tuesday, 22nd May. Datesand prizes are non transferable.

You should also note that meals arenot included, nor travel between homeand London or Manchester Airport.

Gillian added: “It should be a fantastictrip for the winners, but even those whodon’t win will gain by having helpedincrease the size of their chapters.”

The following simple rules must be followedin order to enter the prize draw:

1 The membership drive starts on Monday,29th January and ends on Friday, 30th March2001. Without exception, only applicationsdated between these dates will be eligible,and the date on the new member’s applicationform will be deemed their official joining date.

2 Any BNI member who sponsors a newmember during this period will go into thedraw, provided his or her Chapter has quali-fied by collectively bringing in six or morenew members. If your Chapter does notachieve this target, you will not be eligible.

3 A member of a qualifying chapter will

receive one entry to the draw for each newmember he or she sponsors between the datesshown. One prizewinner will be chosen fromevery four qualifying chapters.

4 The sponsor’s name must be clearlyshown on the new member’s application form.

5 All prizes are for two people (ie. the BNImember and a partner) and must be taken onthe specified dates in May 2001. The prizesare non-transferable.

6 The winning members’ tickets will bedrawn in individual regions during December,either at joint chapter events, or at chaptermeetings. All winners will learn of their goodfortune no later than Friday, 20th April.

Membership drive prize draw rules

GRAND VISAGE: One of the spectacular sights that awaits the winners.

Alan’s talk puts members to sleep – Page 5

As a winner you will:➠ Fly into Las Vegas from LondonHeathrow or Manchester Airport ➠ Spend four nights at the ExcaliburHotel close to all the main attractions ➠ Have time to take in all landmarkattractions and the colourful night life ➠ See some world-famous touristsights, including the Grand Canyon.

®

When Chris Piggott juggledthrough his ten-minute pres-entation to members of North

Bucks chapter he never expected it toproduce an instant referral that turnedinto a £1⁄2m contract!

But Dr Paul Thomas of County ManagementAssociates had picked up on two key words inhis presentation – industrial and storage – andfelt that Chris’s company, Interior Systems ByDesign, sounded like the perfect solution forone of his clients – then in the process of re-locating their manufacturing facility in the UK.

2 W I N T E R 2 0 0 1 S U C C E S S N E T

The Big Deal

North Bucks nets £1⁄2mbig one for Simon

It’s amazing how far the power ofBNI’s networking can reach, as IanWeaver, a friend of JamesCruickshank, Executive Director forEast Anglia, recently discovered.

Ian planned to expand his executivetravel business by purchasing astretch limousine, and knowing ofJames’s connection with BNI heturned to him for help to find thevehicle he needed.

Shortly afterwards, James attendedthe international conference inAmerica where he met Ivan Misnerand asked him if he knew of a sup-plier in the States who could producethe ‘perfect limousine.’

Ivan scanned his business cardholder and came up with Tony Daliaof Inland Auto in San Dimas,California who just happened to havethe exact vehicle that Ian wanted, in

BNI founder puts Ian in driving seat

The client, Klockner Pentaplast is a pan-European manufacturer of plastic film packag-ing for the food and pharmaceutical industry,and due to expansion needed to relocate theirmain manufacturing base in the UK. Chrisentered into discussions with them and has sincebeen retained to furnish the new premises – fora fee of £450,000 plus consultancy fees.

”That was the best ten minutes I’ve everspent,” said Chris. “Paul hadn’t realised that Iwas involved in industrial refurbishment or stor-age, and that’s what triggered the referral. It’s notevery day you pick up a contract of this size andit just confirms my belief that BNI really doeswork. I’ve been a member for only eight months

now but I have at myfingertips a great baseof professional andtrades people that Iknow I can rely on,and business is allabout juggling theresources you have.

“We have a greatsense of camaraderiein our chapter and itswonderful to be witha group of similarlyminded people,” headded.

stock: a 4.6 litre Lincoln StretchTowncar V which has considerablyincreased Ian’s business revenue.

“It was a big investment,” Ian toldSuccessNet, “but definitely worth trav-

elling 7,000 miles to secure the car,which has now increased my businessrevenue. In fact I’m so impressed withBNI’s networking skills, I’m seriouslythinking I should join up withoutdelay,” he added.

Martin escapesfor New Year!

When a crushed discunexpectedly landedNational DirectorMartin Lawson inhospital early lastSeptember, he jokedto his family: ‘Don’tworry, I’ll be home forChristmas…”

Four major spinaloperations later intwo hospitals, BNI’sresilient leader couldstill smile and see thefunny side when, hav-ing failing to achievehis tongue-in-cheekdeadline, he finally‘escaped’ from hospi-tal on New Year’sEve, able to wake upon New Year’s Day inhis own bed for thefirst time in almostfour months!

“What should havebeen intricate butfairly straightforwardsurgery basically wentwrong not once butthree times,” saidMartin, “so instead ofspending a few daysin hospital it became15 weeks.

“I’m just glad theordeal is over and amdelighted to be back.”

• Ian Weaver and James Cruickshank with the new stretch limo.

Chris Piggott practising what he preaches.

Amajor national campaign tohelp re-unite missing childrenwith their families has been

given an important boost as a resultof some nifty networking by mem-bers of Braintree Chapter.

Printer Steve Davis of Econoprint knewthat one of his customers, Capco, had runinto practical problems developing the cam-paign, which involved posters being attachedto the backs of construction industry lorries.Each poster carries a picture of a missingchild, and appeals to the public for informa-tion that could help find the youngster.

Capco’s problem was that while some ofthe information would be common to all theposters, other details – including the photo-graphs of missing children – needed to bechanged on a regular basis, with new infor-mation being overlaid onto original posters.

Steve was confident his chapter colleague,Lynn Rushen of Fastsigns would be able tocome up with a cheap but reliable solutionfor the poster problem, and she did not lethim down. “We were pleased to be involvedwith such a worthwhile campaign,” saidLynne. “I deal with the marketing side of thecompany, but my colleague, Ian Clemsonwas soon able to come up with a solution,using low tack self adhesive materials con-taining the images of missing children,which could be changed as required.”

Ian added: “This will be a cost effectivesolution for Capco. So far we have made ten

prototype signs that were used on lorriesfor the initial campaign launch – covered byGranada and Central TV last month. Thesevehicles are already on the roads, but by theend of January we aim to have a further 150vehicles displaying the ‘missing’ posters.”

The campaign is being run in conjunctionwith a charity, the National Missing Persons’Helpline, whose co-founder Mary Aspreysaid: “Every year in the UK over 100,000 chil-dren under the age of 18 disappear. The firstlorry appeal seeks information aboutKatherine Baillie, a 15-year old schoolgirlfrom Portsmouth who went missing after adisagreement with her mum and dad.”

Diana van den Dungen of Capco said:“People read messages on trucks so wethought why not use the backs of lorries tohelp the National Helpline re-unite fami-lies?” For more information contact Diana on01582 569 407.

Essex chapters help tofind missing children

Door prize with a differenceAn imaginative chapter door prize led toCheltenham photographer John Moore get-ting the fright of his life before being pre-sented with a major business opportunity.

John, a member of Gloucester & Tewkes-bury Chapter, had been briefed to bring hiscamera to the pre-Christmas meeting to takea photo of the door prize winner who was toreceive a dramatic low level helicopter tripover the flooded Severn Valley countryside.

But when it was announced that he hadwon the prize, his long term fear of heights(and flying) quickly subsided as he recognisedthe newsworthy value of his aerial trip andlater turned to positive enthusiasm when hewas invited to develop and launch a new jointaerial photography venture with his pilot,Greg Forrest from Staverton-based Heliflight.

The prize was organised by fellow chaptermember, Marketing Consultant Dan Ransted,

of Stratagema, and Philip Swinford, a col-league from the same company, who is amember of neighbouring Gloucester Chapter.

Although delighted with the result, John(pictured above right) confessed to a few mis-givings during the flight. “I was somewhatnervous at 8.30am, but as the flight went on Igrew more confident by the minute.”

More jointhe ‘black

badge’ clubSlough Chapter mem-ber Ian Friend hasjust collected hisblack badge afterintroducing ‘count-less’ local business-men and women tothe benefits of BNI.

Ian, an accountant,is one of 12 membersto join the covetedBlack Badge Club inthe last three months.Others are:

Terry Calder (North-wood), Graham Stowe,(Leeds Moortown), AlanMcLaren (KilmarnockKappa), Arthur Beverly(Glasgow Alpha), PennyEdge (South Cheshire),David Lewis and OliviaStefanino (Chester), BobHaworth (Altrincham), NickDutton and Philip Swinford(Gloucester City) andAudrey Fenton (Perth).

S U C C E S S N E T W I N T E R 2 0 0 1 3

The Big Deal

SuccessNetgoes online

While we hope you dohang on to your copiesof the real thing – ide-ally filing them forlater reference – didyou know that everymember with access toa computer and theInternet can read pasteditions of SuccessNeton BNI’s website.

The website storesthe last three issues ofSuccessNet and futureissues will automati-cally appear.

National DirectorMartin Lawsonstressed that thenewsletter would con-tinue to be publishedand distributed to allUK and Ireland mem-bers, as well as appear-ing on the net.

To access SuccessNeton the web, go towww.bni-europe, clickover the UK on themap, navigate to themembers area andclick on the newslettericon.

WakefieldChaptermember

John Kaye ofYorkshire OfficeContracts solicitedthe help of a com-puterised owl tohelp chapter col-leagues easilyremember hiscompany’s tele-phone number – and in theprocess win this quarter’sprize for the best businessmemory hook.

Having received a distinctive tele-phone number from BT – Wakefield(01924) 88 88 00 – John saw how theinclusion of an owl in his corporatelogo could provide a crucial ‘aidememoire’ for potential customers, aswell as an award winning memoryhook. His winning line? “For allyour office products be as wise asthe owl – phone Wakefield (two-eight, two-eight, two-0ooo).”

Congratulations John; a bottle ofbubbly is on its way to you.

The impending festive seasonseemed to bring out more than theusual level of marketing creativityamong members, more than 40 ofwhom submitted memory hooks forthe champagne prize.

Among the best of the rest werethose from Hove Chapter memberLee Pryor an independent finan-

4 W I N T E R 2 0 0 1 S U C C E S S N E T

BNI News

We all know that BNI’s successis based on the philosophyof Givers Gain. And we also

know that the practical demonstra-tion of this philosophy comes in ourweekly exchanging of referrals acrossbreakfast tables from the SouthCoast to the Scottish Highlands.

While this will obviously continue to bethe mainstay of BNI membership and thereason for our growing chapters to theirmaximum capacity, there is another new andexciting phenomenon emerging in BNIgroups throughout the UK and Ireland – thatof an increasing range of non-financial bene-fits accruing to members, often in the mostunexpected or least likely circumstances.

You have only to glance through thepages of this issue of SuccessNet to see whatwe mean: there’s the North London fengshui consultant who urgently needed to finda new bank manager willing to give him asubstantial loan after a broken anklestopped him working; there’s the chef fromGravesend who wanted to go into businesson her own, but lacked the confidence to doso, and then there’s the locksmith from Kentwho unexpectedly found himself required toaddress a theatre audience of 2,000 people,without any public speaking experience.

All three happily acknowledge that with-out their involvement in BNI, they wouldhave been lost and, you don’t need to lookmuch further to find other members’ experi-ences of their gaining similar benefitsthrough BNI.

Dig just a little deeper and you’ll find aneven more precious commodity emergingfrom newly created BNI and business rela-tionships: personal friendships. Time andagain, BNI members who first forged busi-ness relations with their chapter colleagues,have gone on to develop strong and lastingfriendships with them, outside both theworking environment and BNI meetings.

Such ‘hidden benefits’ of membership arethe direct product of a fast-maturing andexpanding organisation, whose membersfeel comfortable and reassured with eachother, happy to learn from BNI’s substantialrange of training and educational aids, andconfident to practise their new-found busi-ness skills with their colleagues – and thenamongst the business community.

All these things point to a vibrant, highlyeffective body, and clearly one that is drivenby its members, for its members. BNI’s futurelooks good – and so do you!

Lawsons’Lore cial adviser whose company,

Barton Pryor Associates spe-cialises in life assurance,leading him to remindbreakfast colleagues that

“With Pryor thought, thereis ‘Life after death,’ andfrom architect MarkGuyatt, one of the foundermembers of Coventry

Central Chapter whosums up his work mostsuccinctly in “Our vision,could be your future”.

The judging panel, led bySuccessNet Executive EditorGillian Lawson, also liked thesecontributions:

“A business with a poor sign isa sign of a poor business” – JaynePickard, Sign A Rama, a memberof Leeds Armouries (Friday)Chapter;

“Let us squirt the dirt” –RonParker (J.J.A. Green Clean –Waterless technology), a memberof Ipswich Chapter, Suffolk;

“Add to your ardour withRDO” – Evelyn Kay (RichardDenny Organisation – trainingand development company), amember of Collingtree Park.

Many thanks for all your contri-butions, we had a great response thistime. Keep them coming in becausethe more original they are the betteryour chances of winning that bottleof champagne – and ensuring yourBNI colleagues keep rememberingyour business proposition.

The wit to woo!

Scotland the brave!BNI’s Scottish directors are working on draft plans for another joint net-working day following the huge success of their first event last autumn,when more than 100 members from 22 Scottish chapters turned out for aday’s networking at the Deer Park Country Club in Livingston.

While many members and guests took part in golfing competitions, oth-ers enjoyed less strenuous ‘getting to know you’ activities in the leisurecentre, under a theme of Healthy Networking.

Various BNI member companies had set up exhibition stands aroundwhich members from different chapters spent considerable time network-ing prior to the highlight of the day – a video presentation from BNIfounder, Dr. Ivan Misner, produced especially for the day.

The day finished with trophy presentations over a buffet supper, whichsaw the BNI Scottish Golf Cup awarded to Strathkelvin and EdinburghCentral Chapters (Stephen McGrath and guest partner, with Kevin Patersonand guest partner).

Meanwhile, three members – Charles Rose of the Scotland West Region,Ron Hain of Dunfermline Chapter, and Mark Thirgood of Edinburgh WestChapter – all received engraved plaques for notable networking.

S U C C E S S N E T W I N T E R 2 0 0 1 5

Around the Chapters

It wasn’t the Christmas spirit thatprompted members of MaldonChapter to hold their meeting bycandlelight at the end of last year,nor a lack of funds – but that’swhat happened after a power cutplunged the whole area into dark-ness, including the Three RiversGolf and Country Club where thechapter holds its weekly meeting.

Resolute members were deter-mined to go ahead – by candle-light! Some 30 members and visi-tors went on to enjoy a somewhat

novel and enlightening meetingduring which 32 referrals werepassed and after which, membersdispersed in desperation to find ahot cup of coffee and breakfast.

“To me this demonstrated thecommitment of the MaldonChapter and the importance theyplace on their meetings,” said JamesFinch, Assistant Director for NorthEssex. “This is a group that is reallygrowing well because the membershave the right attitude – they treatit as if it was their own business.”

Don’t be camera shy!What happened to all

those wonderful pho-tos we asked you to

submit, bringing to life thecountless moments of fun,laughter or downright mad-ness in your chapter?

While SuccessNet has been delugedwith your e-mails, poems, contributedarticles and editorial suggestions (forwhich we are very grateful), there hasbeen an unexpected dearth of picturesto accompany your contributions –

despite our promise in last autumn’sSuccessNet to award a quality digitalcamera to the chapter whose membersubmitted the best, relevant photo-graph for this issue.

Sadly, the few pictorial contributionswe did receive were not up to scratch,either in terms of their subject matteror technical quality – so we’ve left thecompetition to win a digital cameraopen for a further three months, to seeif you can do better in time for ourspring edition, to be published in April.

We need lively, colourful, action pic-

tures which reflect the creativity, theenterprise and the determination of BNImembers and your business activities –whether inside or outside the chapter.

So start planning your BNI photoassignments now and “be the eye forBNI!” Who knows, your Chapter couldsoon be the lucky recipient of a new dig-ital camera – on which further Success-Net contributions can be captured!

Send us your colour prints or e-mailthem as jpeg/tif files (minimum 300dpiresolution) to the Editor, SuccessNet,(see back page panel for details).

THINGS became unusually quiet dur-ing a recent meeting of the Royal SpaChapter, Leamington, when every mem-ber fell asleep during a ten-minute pres-entation by colleague, Alan Armstrong.

Rather than feel offended or hurt,however, Alan was delighted with theirresponse – having concluded his presen-tation on hypnotherapy with a practicaldemonstration which saw him put therest of the chapter into a light trance.

A well-known clinical hypnotherapist,Alan explained to members how heused hypnotherapy to help people over-come fears and phobias, pain, addictionsand stress, including many conditions ofa lifelong nature.

At the end of his talk, Alan invited hisaudience to close their eyes and, in theirminds, count slowly down from ten toone. His soothing voice soon had every-one completely detached from the busysurroundings of their breakfast meetingand the business in hand and, as our pic-ture shows, heads quickly bowed asmembers fell into a trance.

Alan puts chapter to sleep

You can’t hold a candle to BNI

Alan (pictured inset), who trades asThe Anvil Consultancy in and aroundLeamington, already has one of theGroup’s strongest memory hooks: “Ifthere’s trouble in mind, bring me tomind – Alan Armstrong, the Mind Man”– and after demonstrating his profes-sional talents, he hopes to haveentranced even more people to consider

using his professional services.Chapter Director Brian Bassett said:

“The last thing we normally want is formembers to drop off during our break-fast meetings, but in Alan’s case we werehappy to make an exception. He cer-tainly showed us the power of hyp-notherapy and even sceptics wereimpressed.”

6 W I N T E R 2 0 0 1 S U C C E S S N E T

Focus on Yorkshire

Three senior executivesof a Leeds-basedtelecommunications

company have taken BNI’s‘Givers Gain’ philosophy tounprecedented limits byoffering chapter colleaguesthe services of a profes-sional ten-strong sales teamto work on their behalf.

Traditionally, all new members aretold that one of the major benefits isinheriting a ready-made sales forceof around 30-40 people (their newchapter colleagues) who will workto generate business on their behalf.

But, for the fortunate members ofthree Yorkshire chapters – Moor-town, Leeds Armouries (Friday)and the soon-to-be-launchedSheffield – their weekly tally ofreferrals is soaring because theyhave the added benefit of a secondsales team finding them business.

“I would like to think that everytime one of our directors attends achapter, we are offering our BNIcolleagues one to the power of ten,”said Jeff Cohen, Sales Director forYorkshire Telecommunications and

member of Moortown chapter.“Every week after our respective

chapter meetings, we brief our ownsales team – who can’t all be mem-bers of BNI – to act as our eyes andears and look for specific referralsfor our chapter colleagues.

“We have been able to bring inan average of 15 referrals a weekbetween us – rather more than wecould expect to achieve from justthe three of us,” Jeff added.

At one pre-Christmas breakfast,Jeff’s board colleague, CommercialDirector Rachel Rowling, delivered21 referrals to her colleagues at theLeeds Armouries Friday Chapter.She explained: “Our company has avery active sales force who act asdelegates for us.

“We attend our different chaptermeetings and then relay to our ownsales team meetings, the kind ofreferrals our BNI colleagues arelooking for – right down to theirparticular preferences. Each weekwe give our sales team a spread-sheet with information about ourchapter members and we discussBNI at every sales meeting.” Racheladded.

Taking it to the limitSALES BRIEF: From left, Jonathan Hudson, Rachel Rowling and Jeff Cohen.

Heidi Milner is wearing a broadsmile these days after her recruit-ment company recently won newbusiness worth around £8,000 aweek, for ever, through a referralpassed to her at Chester Chapter.

The referral was passed to herthree months ago by chapter col-league Dominic McParland fromJamandic, on behalf of a large serv-ice industry company with an ongo-

ing requirement to recruit tempo-rary shop floor staff.

And already, it has proved muchmore lucrative than Heidi had everimagined. She said: “When I joinedBNI I really expected to get onlysmall referrals now and again but,in terms of profit, this one contractalone is worth about £3,000 perweek for as long as we hold ontotheir business, so I am delighted.”

Meanwhile in Cheshire…

You might wonder what abusiness manager from oneof the big city banks could

possibly be doing in a trendyAldwych wine bar at seven in themorning.

Before anyone tries to cast aspersions onPaul Monaghan, Business Manager for theRoyal Bank of Scotland’s Holborn Branch, weshould point out that his regular presence inthe nearby Columbia Bar is all in the bestpossible cause – as he settles into BNI as oneof the newest members of Central London’sHolborn Chapter.

What makes Paul’s position a little differ-ent to that of his BNI colleagues is that, with-out knowing it at the time, when he joinedBNI recently he became its 5,000th UK/Irishmember!

Laura Hurren, BNI’s executive director forNorth and Central London, said: “ We wereonly advised afterwards that Paul’s member-ship was the 5,000th since BNI started in theUK nearly four years ago.

“However it is significant that he shouldhave filled this milestone position comingfrom a large corporate organisation whichitself is openly committed to business net-working.

“It shows just how much BNI has maturedas a representative business body over theyears.”

In fact Paul confesses the early morningmeetings initially nearly put him off BNI.

“But once I overcame the thought of get-ting up so early, I began to realise thetremendous potential of BNI for the bankingworld,” said Paul.

“I manage the accounts of city businesseswith a maximum turnover of £2m, so there’sgreat opportunity not only in terms of thereferrals which I might get – after all, every-one needs a bank manager – but also theopportunity for introducing many of myclients to BNI, for whom the benefits of net-working would prove so valuable.”

For Paul the main benefits of BNI so farhave been meeting people who work in thecity, and hearing their views and ideas onbusiness development.

He was recommended to BNI by JimMullen, his area manager for London City,and his colleague, business manager, GaryLee, a member of Liverpool Street chapter.

Banker opensdoors earlyin the bar!

S U C C E S S N E T W I N T E R 2 0 0 1 7

Sharon’s call to action

Focus on Yorkshire

Chapter and verse!It’s allabout

attitude!We all know that inbusiness, as in mostaspects of life,Attitude is every-thing – but wereyou aware that thisis happily borne outby a mathematicalformula? Nor werewe, until Ian Walker,a member of LeedsArmouries (Thurs-day) Chapter sent usthe following.

Ian wrote: “Take asheet of paper, andwrite the word ATTI-TUDE verticallydown the paper andthen, alongside eachletter, write itsnumerical position inthe alphabet (i.e. A= 1 etc). Draw a hor-izontal line beneaththe E, and after leav-ing a space for yourtotal figure, write ina % sign.

“Add up the fig-ures and the totalwill tell you every-thing you need toknow about theimportance of hav-ing the right atti-tude in business.Sadly I can’t take thecredit for this, butneither do I knowwho can,” he said.

We know the importance of inviting prospectivemembers to BNI meetings, but Sharon Cain(right), Director of Leeds Armouries FridayChapter, decided that waxing lyrical on the sub-ject might have an even greater impact on hercolleagues as they prepared for a forthcomingVisitors Day.

The former Yorkshire TV and Sky TV presen-ter put her creative talents to the test and cameup with the following gem which she e-mailed toall chapter members:

Russell Stoner has comeup with a novel wayto keep BNI breakfast

colleagues entertainedwhen substituting for mem-bers in neighbouring chap-ters: he presents their busi-ness activities in the form ofa unique poem.

As a high profile Yorkshire busi-nessman and member of LeedsArmouries Thursday Chapter,Russell is sometimes approachedto stand in for members of localchapters who cannot attend forlegitimate business reasons. Inagreeing to substitute for them, hefirst insists on spending time learn-ing about their business services.

The result is a growing catalogueof memorable and sometimeswitty personalised odes whichhave earned Russell the epithet of

BNI’s very own ‘poet laureate.’ Russell, who runs Withy Grove

Office Interiors, loves to practisehis rhyming presentation skills.“Poetry is one of my favouritehobbies,” said Russell. “I get abuzz out of helping BNI membersthis way. I enjoy doing it, and ifthey are happy with my poems,then I am happy to continue.”

He’s also found some amusingways of presenting his own com-pany, whether it’s a poem, a rap oran amusing anecdote, Russellbelieves “If I make them laugh,they’ll remember me!”

Among his recent offerings isthe poem (below) written for pho-tographer Chris North and pre-sented to a Leeds chapter a fewweeks ago. Due to pressure onspace, SuccessNet has been unableto print it in full, but we trustRussell will be happy with ourabridged version.

Great meeting on Friday with positive vibesLet’s bring more visitors to accelerate the driveA plumber, joiner, dentist and car hireAre among the categories that we desireFlorists, travel agents and beauticians galoreWill guarantee that our future referrals soarTrebling our efforts before the festive seasonWill reap New Year bonuses – a very good rea-sonGrowing our chapter to our 40-strong goalWill boost business for all – as more we enrol

So contact Maggie Fear with your visitor detailsBy Thursday at 3 – and preferably by e-mailRemember, visitors and referrals are crucial tous all‘Turn your contacts into contracts’ – after all,it’s your call!

SuccessNet wishes the chapterevery success for its visitors daynext month. Hopefully, you willattract plenty of new faces!

Members missing outA call for more UK and Irish members toshare the benefits of BNI’s monthly onlinebusiness learning sessions in the BNI Yahoochatroom has come from National DirectorMartin Lawson.

The sessions enable members worldwideto gain valuable networking advice fromexpert BNI directors. But, while the hour-longdiscussions attract members from all over theworld, Martin would like even more UK andIrish members (and BNI directors) to benefit.These sessions should be a ‘must’ for everyChapter’s education co-ordinator.

The sessions take place on the secondMonday of the month at 9pm. Subjects forthe next three chat room sessions are:

MONDAY, 12th FEBRUARY: How does your chapterrate? (and how to evaluate its effectiveness);

MONDAY, 12th MARCH: Changing the focus ofyour chapter from internal to external referrals;

MONDAY, 9th APRIL: Twenty things you should bedoing outside your chapter meetings, to get morebusiness inside the chapter.

• Russell Stoner,BNI’s Poet Laureate.

Picture yourself in a portrait, a snap of historyThen think of the camera holder, and then consider meI create a picture of drama, captured in a moment of timeA person, an object, a story, perhaps the closure of an old coal mineThere’s the time when I flew in a chopper, in the navy going to warThere’s that horrible sense of waste, when you’ve photographed mud, blood and goreI took snaps of the Bosnian conflict, seeing hatred of every creedThen there’s the birth of a new born baby, bringing hope to the life of the freedI can work in a team of designers, or alone being unrestrainedShooting in film and digital, capturing pictures of priests being ordainedWith manipulation of post photography, to scanning of colours for chartsWith rapid turn around of my pictures, a guarantee of very fine artsSo think of me when you want attitude, or humour of qualityThen pick up the phone and ask for me, Chris North, Photography

As every good networkerknows, one of the fastestways to grow your busi-

ness quickly and successfully isthrough word-of-mouth mar-keting. That’s why networkersattend networking events.People who have made a sci-ence of systematic networkingkeep six essentials in mind.

Think of each networking event as ajourney. You have a purpose for the trip,a destination in mind and a plan for get-ting there. You start driving, you evaluateyour progress and modify your plan asyou go and, once at your destination,you use what you learned on the trip.

Why not use the same logic, set out inthe following six points, to get the mostfrom your networking time and effort?

1 PURPOSEWhat is your reason for attending the

event? Do you expect to show up, shakehands and exchange business cards andphone numbers just to be sociable? Ofcourse not. To build your business orincrease sales? Maybe. But really, aren’tyou there because you see networking asa philosophy for doing business and liv-ing your life; that helping others is thebest route to helping yourself?

If this is true, then it’s good to keep itin mind at all times. It will motivate youto attend every meeting, meet every newperson and give freely of your time,effort and expertise to help others. It willalso help you do the work. If your rea-son is not strong enough to motivateyou, then find another purpose that is.

2 GOALWhat is your destination? What do

you need to accomplish at the event?What do you expect the outcome to be?How many contacts do you need, and inwhat kinds of businesses? Do you needto become a gatekeeper as a steptowards obtaining your outcome? Askyourself all these questions.

Think of the professions, trades orbusiness owners that would most likelyhear or see people who need your serv-ices or products, and target these peoplefor your networking efforts.

3 PLANOnce you know your destination, you

need a map to get you there. A completemap will show you trouble areas andpoint out good rest and refuelling stops.A good networking plan will alsoinclude these things:

8 W I N T E R 2 0 0 1 S U C C E S S N E T

Education & Training

Attendance is just the startExperienced networkers know that the fastest way to expand andenhance their network is to regularly attend gatherings wherenetworking takes place. Having many people with overlappinginterests within arm’s reach, facilitates the process of making con-nections based on mutual benefit. Here, in the first of three arti-cles extracted from Dr Ivan Misner’s latest book, ‘Masters ofNetworking’, which highlight the strategies and tactics for makingthe most of networking events, CINDY MOUNT, Director of aCanadian training company, and JEREMY ALLEN, a BNI ExecutiveDirector in Alabama, present six rules for achieving success at suchmeetings.

i) Research: Who do you have tomeet? Where do they have lunch? Whatdoes the target company’s annual reportsay? What are some of the new trendswithin your target company?

ii) Competition: Who are your com-petitors? What is their market share andhow much market share do you expectto capture? What edge (if any) doesyour competition have? What are yourstrengths and advantages?

iii) Resources: What resources do youneed, and where will you get them? Doyou need guidance? Are your listeningskills good enough to get you yourmoney’s worth?

iv) Back-up: Do you need to recruitnew contacts or associates who can takeover some of your duties or help youreach your goals faster?

v) Schedule: How much time haveyou given yourself to achieve yourgoals? Do you have a contingency planin case you encounter problems?

4 EXECUTIONPlans don’t work unless they are

implemented – so grab your map andstart driving. Your time and project man-agement skills will be tested. Use a timemanagement planner and project organ-iser that can show you a week at aglance. Mark dates by which you expectcertain results, and work backwards tothe monthly, weekly and daily comple-tion of specific objectives.

If your target for accomplishing yourgoal is 12 months, decide where youneed to be in six months, three months,three weeks and tomorrow!

5 EVALUATIONAs you reach each check point in your

plan, stop and evaluate your results. Didyou find what you expected along theway, or did detours throw you offcourse? Do you need a new route? Ifyou find a particular network group is

not meeting your goal, adjust your plans.If, after a suitable interval, you’re not

getting referrals, it is time to evaluate thereasons. You may need a new skill orsome help to meet your goals. You mayalso need rest or relief to re-energiseyour mind.

6 FOLLOW-UPOnce you’ve arrived at your goal, take

a moment to savour your accomplish-ment, before getting back to work. Makecomplete notes on everybody you met,keep their business cards and brochureshandy, and think about the potential ofeach new contact you’ve made.

Begin making appointments to meetand work with these contacts as soon aspractical. Don’t let a recent introductiongrow cold and be forgotten; if cultivated,it could turn into a rewarding relation-ship.

A well organised contact managementsystem is critical for future networkingsuccess. Keep it current. Master network-ers include among their essentials, anelectronic contact management systemthat includes an e-mail programme, proj-ect planning software and a database.

If you don’t already have such a thing,consider buying and using a personaldigital assistant (PDA) to manage infor-mation that you might need at any time.

Once you’ve established your system,use it to contact each member of yournetwork every six to eight weeks,depending on the nature of the contactand your objectives.

This keeps you in your contacts’ mindswhen they consider their own purchases,or their friends’ needs.

The key part of the word in ‘network-ing’ is ‘work’. It takes time, effort andpatience. But the payoff of powerful net-working will be a personal marketingstrategy that accelerates the achieve-ment of your goals.”

I t has long been said(mainly by men) that awoman’s place is in the

kitchen!And that’s certainly how it was

for Hayley Goodson who, untilrecently, had spent most of herworking life as a restaurant chef inGravesend – cooking up thou-sands of mouth-watering dishesbut never meeting the diners whosampled her culinary delights.

Then last autumn, Hayley, right,decided it was time for a changeand promptly set up her owncatering business four months ago,only to discover a fundamentalproblem: after more than 16 yearslocked away in her kitchens, shedidn’t really have any idea how todeal with other people in the busi-ness world.

She told SuccessNet: “Thebiggest problem I had to over-come was talking to a whole vari-ety of people I needed to dealwith in the business world. Afterso many years of being stuck in akitchen and not having to dealwith the public face to face, I wastaken aback to find I lacked theconfidence and the various ‘peo-ple skills’ necessary to run yourown business.”

Fortunately, help was close athand and Hayley joined BNI’sGravesend Chapter, where withthe help and support of membersshe’s really started to sizzle. “BNIwas just what I needed to developmy confidence and inter-personalskills,” she said.

“One of the first referrals Ireceived was from Balbir Judge of

S U C C E S S N E T W I N T E R 2 0 0 1 9

Going worldwide– with BNI’s help

Around the Chapters

BNI’s recipefor success

MOST members appreciate the impor-tance of bonding through one-to-onemeetings but two members from Kenttook the idea to a higher level whenthey bonded in the skies over Spain!

Stuart Albon, a member of WealdChapter, teaches skydiving and when hevisited Tunbridge Wells Chapter as asubstitute and announced in his 60 sec-

ond slot that his company, Winter SunSkydiving, runs accelerated free fall sky-diving courses in southern Europe, MikeHazell-Smith, who runs the PerfectPaint Company, decided to give it a go.

“I tried a tandem jump a few yearsago, and since then I’ve always wantedto try skydiving on my own. With ayear to go before I’m 50, now seemed

as good a time as any,” said Mike.Stuart said: “When I joined BNI, I

never actually expected to be takingother members away on a course, butthere is no better salesman than onewho uses the product himself. Over thecourse of the week, we both learned alot about each other’s business, as wellas each other.”

Kent members bond in the sky

the local stockbrokers firmEdward Jones. The partnershipheld an open day in Gravesendfor its clients and I was invited toorganise the buffet for the event.Since then I’ve had other referrals,including funerals and dinner par-ties. January is rather quiet – thenew year’s ‘diet resolutions’ tendto last till February, but after thatI’m expecting things to liven up,”Hayley added.

She’s been passing some goodreferrals too. “That made me feelgood, and so did being able tocope with my ten minute presen-tation with confidence,” sheadded.

WHEN you’re running one of the largestand most successful satellite televisionretail companies, with offices all overEurope, why would you want to join BNI?

“To provide all the expertise we need foreven faster expansion,” comes the instantanswer from Barry Wood who, with sonTristan, runs Littlehampton, Sussex-basedBradley Wood, and has found a host of rea-sons to be pleased he joined BNI a year ago.

“BNI has been a fantastic revelation.Between us we’ve been able to source awhole group of trades and professional peo-ple whose advice and knowledge has beeninvaluable,” said Barry, “and without theneed to employ expensive specialist staff orconsultants.

As Europe’s most comprehensive e-tailer,Bradley Wood is able to source almost anybroadcast channel subscription from satel-lites anywhere in Europe, and then providethe relevant hardware. With branches beingestablished worldwide, their customer basealready includes Nokia, France Telecom,University of Northumbria, Samsung, theSaudi royal family and an ex Irish Premier.

“Having now expanded, we are indebtedto several members of BNI. From myWorthing Chapter, I found Kathy Lewis ofWorthing Enterprise Centre who introducedus to export and courier consultants, whileNicola Cairncross, a life coach, made me takestock of my planning and resources,” he said.

“Then Geoff Snowden from NewmanBusiness Systems introduced us to colourlaser printing and Mike Rayment of APL tookover the management of all our printing andsignage. We used Mike Tenton, a polymersengineer, to plan and install the main fabricof our office building while Debbie Lewis ofTMBE Ltd re-wrote our website and set upe-commerce facilities for us, giving us directorders from customers, auto credit card vali-dation and acceptance through world pay.

Meanwhile, over at his Arundel Chapter,son Tristan found Nick Hanniwell to take onboard the company’s major courier work,while Nigel Barnett of Global 4 fromHorsham Chapter was asked to install thefirms’ new phone system!

Around the Chapters

Members ofMilton KeynesChapter have

two good reasons tobe feeling proud ofthemselves after twicesetting records for thehighest number ofreferrals passed at asingle chapter meet-ing in their region.

Last November they blewtheir trumpet after breakingthe previous HomeCounties West record of 67referrals passed at a meet-ing of Thame Chapter.

When Milton Keynesmembers reported theirachievement of 71 referralsto Executive Director GavinBain, he was so pleased withthe performance that hefaxed his congratulations tothem direct from the BNIconference in California.

Chapter Director, CaroleKerridge, read out Gavin’smessage at the next meet-ing, and inspired by hiswords, members then broketheir own new record witha staggering 79 referrals!

“Nearly one third of thosereferrals came from just onemember, Angela Rhodes,who had been dealing with alocal company that wasmaking a number of seniorpeople redundant whom shereferred to the Chapter’srecruitment expert HowardHitchcock,” said Carole.

Again the Chapter’sleadership team let Gavinknow – this time contactinghim while was out of thecountry on holiday – andagain he faxed his congrat-ulations,adding that per-haps he should stay awaymore often since theyseemed to do better whenhe wasn’t around!

Doubling up on a record

SITTING PRETTY: Milton Keynes’ record-breaking chapter.

WHEN Feng Shui practi-tioner Kenny O’Cruz brokehis ankle while pot-holingjust before Christmas andwas told by doctors itwould need a slow andlengthy period of recupera-tion, his first thought was:“How am I going to feedmy family?”

But help was at handfrom a close and unex-pected quarter. After hob-bling along to the nextmeeting of his Muswell HillChapter, still in its infancyafter launching lastSeptember, Kenny used his60-second slot to announce:“I’d like a referral please toa new and sympatheticbank manager, who’ll bewilling to give me a loanuntil I’m back on my feetagain…”

To his great delight, andno little relief, Kenny – whohad left his bank account ina rural farming communitywhen he moved to NorthLondon – found himselfimmediately referred to alocal bank manager whopromptly offered him anew account and a loan, aswell as being introduced toa new solicitor andaccountant.

“I didn’t really expect apositive outcome to myplea for a new bank man-ager – but it shows howBNI can help in the mostunlikely circumstances.”

In the Chapter’s first twomonths it generated aremarkable £500,000 worthof sales through more than200 referrals.

Members to the rescueas Kenny breaks a leg

THREE years ago DominicMurnane (right) couldn’tunderstand why, after sev-eral months in Cork CentralChapter, he wasn’t getting asingle referral. He had greatwebsite design services tosell through his company,Foundation Marketing, andwas frustrated that col-leagues seemed bemused byInternet marketing.

“I used to stand up andgive my presentation andno-one seemed to have theslightest notion what I wason about,” he said. “I beganto wonder what was wrongwith my presentations.

“Then I went on a train-ing session with MortMurphy, Executive Directorfor South-West Ireland, andhe drummed home to methe importance of meetingmembers on a one- to-onebasis, as well as networkingduring our weekly chaptermeetings. After just twosuch meetings with fellow

One plus one equalsloads of referrals

members, the referralsstarted flowing in and theyhaven’t stopped since. Idon’t even need to look forbusiness any more!”

Dominic came to realisethat his presentations hadsimply been too technical. “Icould have kicked myselffor being so stupid,” he said.

“I’m no longer gettingreferrals just from chaptercolleagues,” said Dominic,“I’m now getting referralsfrom referrals, and so it goeson. From a point where Iwas ready to throw in thetowel three years ago, I’mnow devoted to BNI.”

The write idea!Thanks to a joint venture between two BNI members ofPerth chapter, new authors are guaranteed to get theirbooks published.

Audrey Fenton, events organiser, and Fraser MacDonald,who runs the IT company, Computer Cable Network,joined forces to launch internet publishing house, SellYour Books Ltd, which publishes works rejected by main-stream publishers. Tayside chapter member, GordonKohler, CCN’s IT Manager, is also involved in the project.

“This isn’t just a vanity publishing business,” saidAudrey. “If an author had the faith to write a book in thefirst place, then we have the faith to publish it. We willpublish anything – novels, poetry, anthologies – just solong as they conform to British law.

Anyone wanting further information should visitwww.sellyourbooks.co.uk.

1 0 W I N T E R 2 0 0 1 S U C C E S S N E T

S U C C E S S N E T W I N T E R 2 0 0 1 1 1

‘Expert’ eavesdrops on breakfast

Around the Chapters

MEMBERS from Coventry CentralChapter are having to watch their ‘Psand Qs’ these days since Dave Kearns,a director of a corporate detectiveinvestigation agency, has taken to giv-ing his colleagues first hand experienceof his company’s professional abilities.

Happily, it’s all being done in the bestpossible taste – and for the best of rea-sons – as happened during one of theChapter’s meetings just beforeChristmas when Dave was absent,working on a complex surveillance casefor his company, Expert Investigations.

Chapter colleague, Pete Lane fromLane’s Landscapes had just deliveredhis ten minute presentation and, whenit came to passing referrals, he was sud-denly asked to take a phone call inreception. It turned out to be Davewho had been monitoring the meetingthrough one of his covert audio (bug-ging) devices, through which he heardPete’s request for new garden jobs,large or small.

“I arranged for the meeting to bebugged with a small room bug whichwas on microwave relay to a recorder,”

Dave told Successnet,” so I was able tolisten to Pete’s presentation. Earlier inthe week I’d spoken to a colleagueabout some fencing he wanted and Iknew Pete could handle the job per-fectly, so I decided to phone in myreferral at the appropriate point in theproceedings. It was a great way tomake my colleagues aware of the tech-nical facilities used frequently byExpert Investigations, even though Icouldn’t attend the meeting,” he added.

For further information Dave can becontacted on 01926 640090.

A MODEST Greenwich-based locksmithfirm is about to become a nationalcompany after winning substantialnew business – and a hatful of ‘goodemployer’ awards – through BNI.

Such has been the A1 performanceof his colleagues in the modest ElthamChapter in South East London, thatsecurity specialist Mark Radford hasenjoyed 12 months of considerablebusiness growth, resulting in his com-pany, A2 Security, taking on morestaff, opening up regional offices andshedding its ‘local business’ image.

And in a year which saw the com-pany win both the London regionsmall business category and overallbest employer in the Government’sNew Deal employers awards, pre-sented by Employment Minister TessaJowett MP, Mark is happy to acknowl-

It’s A1 for A2 in SE9!

While an ardent supporter of BNI’s philosophy,when dentist Mel Rosenthal joined BoltonChapter he believed right from the start that hewould struggle to find – and receive – referralsamong his chapter colleagues.

After all, most people tend to stick with thesame GP and the same dentist over the yearsand, barring relocation or a particularly nastyexperience, they don’t change in a hurry. So, aftertwo years of BNI membership, Mel was neithersurprised nor disappointed that he had receivedfew referrals – other than acquiring five mem-bers of his own chapter as patients.

But despite such limitations, he has foundother reasons for belonging to BNI – not least inbeing able to save money in contracting goodsand services, and also by having total confidencein the suppliers of those goods and services.

The chapter has 30 members, and Mel says he

All smiles for dentist Mel

has already used the services of at least 20 ofthem.

He added: “Our chapter has a great mix oftrades and professional people – nearly all ofwhose products and services I need, so althoughreferrals are very slow for me, knowing I can geta good job done for a good price is a great bonusof BNI membership.”

edge that BNI played a major role inhis business’s success.

He told SuccessNet: “Membership ofBNI has helped me at every stage ofgrowing the business. In the firstplace, it was because I started toreceive so many small but importantreferrals from my chapter colleagues,that it became necessary to increaseour workforce.

“We felt we couldn’t afford to takeon fully qualified senior locksmiths, sowe decided to use the Government’sNew Deal scheme to employ a numberof youngsters, giving them propertraining and qualifications. Thanks tomy BNI colleagues we were able totake on half a dozen extra staff,” saidMark (pictured, top right).

Back at the Eltham Chapter, it seemshis colleagues have also recognised A2

Security’s growth, giving Mark largerreferrals – including one that hasturned into an ongoing national con-tract to provide and maintain all sitesecurity across 2,000 of Shell’s UK fill-ing stations. “I haven’t yet calculatedthe value of the total contract, but itmust be worth at least £20,000 a yearto us in profit,” he said.

Foundersdouble

Two further Essexchapters – ColchesterCastle and Epping –have been presentedwith BNI Founder’sAwards, adding to twosimilar awards givento other chapters inthe county barely 12months ago!

The awards, given atthe personal discre-tion of BNI FounderDr Ivan Misner, areissued only to the topten per cent perform-ing chapters in eachBNI region aroundthe world.

around the world – including the UK.Gillian Lawson, UK and Ireland

National Director urged all membersto read the book: “Everyone will drawsomething useful from these first handbusiness experiences, not least chaptereducational co-ordinators for whom itis an ideal single reference source.”

Use the cut-out coupon below toensure you receive your copy fromthe first batch to find its way out ofthe US. Complete the details and sendthe slip to your local BNI Director.

Become a Masterof Networking

The Last Word

SuccessNet is published quarterly anddistributed free of charge by BusinessNetwork International plc to all membersthrough BNI directors and chapter direc-tors. Additional copies can be obtainedby writing to, or calling, the BNI NationalOffice, at Gate End, Northwood,Middlesex, HA6 3QG. Tel: +44 (0)1923-826 181; Fax: +44 (0)1923-827 813;E-mail: bninet@aol.com.BNI web site: www.bni-europe.com.

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Gillian Lawson, BNI National Director

EDITOR: Malcolm Grosvenor,WriteAngle Communications, NewHouse, Palmer Crescent, Kingston UponThames KT1 2QT (020 8541 1121).Fax: 020 8546 1611;E-mail: successnet@write-angle.co.uk

DESIGN & LAYOUT: Ken Sheldon,Amigo Books (01579-350 579).

Copyright © BNI 2001. All rights reserved

By Bob Stokes, Crawley Chapter. For brochure of services call 01342 317099

Of course you do! Which is why‘Masters of Networking’, the newestand perhaps the most revealing ofthe definitive marketing booksedited by BNI’s Founder and ChiefExecutive Dr Ivan Misner – thistime jointly with Don Morgan,Founding National Director ofBNI in Canada – is a MUST read.

Within a month of its publication inAmerica, this definitive guide to businessnetworking shot to third place in the NewYork Times Best Sellers list.

Messrs Misner and Morgan offer a wealthof advice, with personal contributions frommany leading figures in business, academia,TV and communications.

Their book, subtitled ‘Building relation-ships for your pocketbook and soul’, alsofeatures contributions from some of theworld’s best-known business and personaldevelopment authors including DeepakChopra, John Milton Fogg, Joyce Hadley(Copeland), Mark Victor Hansen and TomPeters. There are contributed articles fromsome of BNI’s most effective directors

Would you like to be areal master of net-working? Every BNI

member knows that giversgain, and creating and main-taining a wide network of closecontacts, leads to great busi-ness and personal rewards.

But, would you like to know whynetworking is the most effective mar-keting tool today? Wouldn’t you liketo understand the characteristics of theworld’s most successful networkers,and how they nurture and sustain theirnetworks? Most of all, don’t you wantto know how you can build a success-ful networking lifestyle?

Please supply me with ............ copy(ies) of

‘Masters of Networking’edited by Dr. Ivan Misner & Don Morgan @ £12 each

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