Chairman’s Business Networking Blog – Thursday 16th January 2014.
It was the old maestro himself, David Plumley who presented the Ed Slot this week and he emphasised the importance of and in the following order:-
1. Attending the meeting, it is the bedrock of your membership
2. Using or at least having a gmail account to use with your business
3. Signing up to Street life as an excellent way of generating referrals
I can vouch for the latter as I have already got a referral out of it.
Oh and also of course the ever present Edward Demming, remember him, Japan’s answer to Davey Crocket, Wild Bill Hickock and the New Deal under Roosevelt, all rolled up into one. Once again I have no qualms about his guiding presence ever looming over the Education Slot. This week David referred to the importance that he placed upon ”quality”. Once again, this is something I have been promoting all last year and now this year.
Michelle Adelizzi kicked of the 60 second round and set the scene; he apparently fitted a shower room for an old lady 8 years ago. I assume she was an old lady 8 years ago. She is certainly an old lady now and Michael was asked to upgrade her shower room with a seat, a couple of grab rails by the toilet and a couple in some other places. I think we were all puzzled by these last two additions. Presumably all of these grab rails are of great assistance to her when using the bathroom. They will also no doubt create great fun for her younger relatives when they visit…. hours of fun on the variation of that parlour game where you try to get from one side of the room to the other without touching the floor. Her grand children will now be able to reach the bog in similar fashion. I hope you screwed them on tightly Michael.
Marcelle was selling Garnets this week, apparently much beloved of men and after explaining that they were 77 ½ on the hardness scale you can perhaps see why. Guys, if you are going for a hard stone in a ring on your pinkie finger it’s nice to know you can portray an image at the same time being “well hard”.
David Plumley tells us that he is still fitting Windows 7 rather than Window 8. It is apparently pants… and here’s me, thinking I am totally computer illiterate. Heartening!
Terry Maylin delivered his 60 seconds resplendent in a rather extravagant purple shirt and matching purple tie. He was immediately followed by Graham Thurston who managed to get rid of a quality purple carpet after four years of trying to an old people’s home in Basildon. Any comment I made at this stage would only detract from the image we all had in our minds of a huge room which, when you walked into it came up to meet you in startling purple. As if to tone down his 60 second offering, Graham had standard kit on with no lairy pullovers, jackets or any other garment.
Kevin Radford was looking to sell insurance policies aimed at restaurants in particular “Grahams on the Green.
Just as well it isn’t “Grahams on the Purple” as last week he said he doesn’t “do” Indian Restaurants which would cut our one avenue of potential referrals at a stroke.
Mike Rogers was looking for stupid people. He seems to be taking diversity the extra yard. Quite right Mike, even stupid people deserve a mortgage.
Richard Reed talked of quality and echoed David’s Ed Slot which, quite rightly describes his services but also, hopefully, keeps you all in mind of Quality HR. He was followed by Kim who also emphasised the importance of quality…sort of. She emphasised the importance of employing qualified staff when delivering book keeping services.
Nick Cooke talked about the three “S’s” … Before your imagination runs away with you; Structural Inspections, Subsidence and Settlement. See! Not a mention of bathrooms.
Scott Griffiths confessed to using false names, something to do with his G mail Account, I was a bit confused at this stage despite having been reassured by David Plumley’s Ed Slot that I was not entirely computer illiterate.
Brian Painter rose from his solitary position at the end of the row, 2 seats separating from his nearest fellow member. He laid off the “death by smoking”, only giving it brief mention along with all of the other conditions that he is able to cure.
Paul Booth used the S word again, Self Assessment and Dawn fulfilled her promise of last week to be (yes another S word) Succinct. So succinct in fact that she did not even put her name on the attendance list. I almost missed her… almost!
Who won the Oscar you ask? Well it was the man who described his business as “OFL” no!!….not “Operation Freed his Leg” although he is looking pretty spritely these days following his hip operation – no it was office Office Furniture, Logistics. The O also stood for the Oscar that the multi-tasking Mike Rogers awarded him.
By way of explanation to those who were not at the meeting, Mike Rogers was multi-tasking away like a housewife. He was ringing the bell, awarding the Oscar and later on he even picked out 3 previous referral slips for Scott in order to track our progress in the usual way. What would we do without him? Someone might like to comment…perhaps not.
Enough of the 60 second round let’s move on to the 10 minute slot in which Peter Hood produced an excellent presentation, being only ever so slightly upstaged at the beginning by David Plumley’s introduction when he talked of an “exterior transparent wall maintenance engineer”…a window cleaner. I mention this because he obtained from this comment almost universal laughter and no groans. Must be a first!
Peter Hood on the other hand gave us an update of his business and in particular emphasised his ability to do Gas Work with his connection with someone appropriately qualified with whom he is linked up, a former boss apparently. The highlight however of his 10 minutes certainly, for me, was the revelation that he keeps geckoes of different colours. A good presentation presented confidently which, hopefully, has given us more opportunity now to get him referrals.
We had to come down to reality eventually after a great run of numbers for business passed: we were just short of £9,000 which would always previously have been regarded as more than satisfactory. Coupled with last week’s offerings however we are still approaching £50,000 after only 2 meetings in the year. Well done everyone not only for a fruitful referrals round but a very pleasurable meeting.
One final mention must be made of the Business to Consumer Synergy Team’s Leaflet some of which were dropped this last weekend and which has immediately resulted in three jobs being received by different members. Congratulations to Richard Reed and all concerned.
Just to shamelessly plug the Gmail thing… I’m a reseller for the Business version of Gmail which is called “Google Apps”. I already provide this service for about half of the members of the group, but if anyone needs assistance with this please just contact me.
Great meeting again all. Peter Hood’s 10 minutes just proved what a top chap he really is and a very accomplished plumber too. Looking forward to the B2C meeting tonight… see you all next week if not. have a good week
Lively meeting … let’s keep the attendance really high this coming year.
I got side tracked by David’s Ed slot (& where is Ed by the way???) and felt that I needed to ensure that all amongst us knew that Prestige (i.e. me) can and do provide a quality of service & Knowledge to ensure satisfied clients and secure repeat business. So much was I distracted that I forgot to promote the offer of the week so if you want to know call or e-mail.
Great meeting guys and an excellent 10mts from Peter who is a top plumber.
Great meeting – still got the vision of the purple carpet in my head!!
This morning I visited the Billericay branch of EBF where they had a visitor’s day. Extremely positive … virtually all the visitors [there were lots] want to join. Yep, I was in BNI for about 5 or 6 years … learned a lot there … but EBF is just more “grown-up” and realistic.
That Graham Thurston must be an ace salesman to not only sell a purple carpet but to keep enough back to make a matching shirt and tie to flog to Terry. I am going to make sure I stay wide awake at the meetings otherwise I might end up with his green imitation grass suit ! Great meeting as always with plenty of business going round.
Sounds like the Billericay visitors day was a great success so well done to all those involved.
Ps Aida – it was Graham T who wasn’t doing anymore Indian restaurants. Im quite happy to do them
Ps Im the short grey haired chap in the splendid suit. Not the big chap in the luminous knitwear.
If the Enforcer in his purple attire prostrated himself on Graham’s purple carpet, would that be synergy?