Take More Time

This morning I attended my BNI meeting. As part of the meeting we give a short, timed infomercial about our business. To be successful it needs to be within the time limit and it also needs to contain a little bit about what we do and also, specifically what we need.

Last week out of about 25 members, there were 9 specific requests.

Of those nine, I was able to react to 6.

Of those six, one was a "no" answer, two are in progress and the rest were referrals.



This week I am frustrated. Of all the commercials, there were only two specific requests and mine was one of those two. I have fifteen minutes before I have to go to an appointment. If there had been other specific requests I might have been able to be making calls on member's behalf right now. But my co-members wasted their commercial time this morning by not completing their requests. And I don't really have time to do their research, because I have to spend time doing my own. It would be like buying a spot for a TV commercial and then not producing anything to fit that time. Wasted time.

Please, if you want your friends and business associates to help you, you have to know what you want. Do your homework. Figure out who would be a good customer for you. If you don't know, I don't know either.

Helping Each Other

Sometimes we think the only way we can help other business friends is to send business their way. That thinking is nice, but way too narrow!

Wednesday, my friend, Angie Weid and I met at Panera on Dussel to work on our BNI commercials together. Angie is our chapter VP and had expressed how difficult it is to do all the VP stuff and ALSO have a good commercial. I had experienced the same difficulties several years ago when I was president of a chapter.

As a result of that conversation, Angie gave the best, most memorable commercial yesterday. You see, Angie is an engineer, a rocket scientist. She has several patents to her name. Her business is organizing. Up till recently she has focused on the Senior Citizen market helping them when they move from one living arrangement to another.

Serendipity has helped her to see a different type of client to address.

Recently a business owner hired her to clean out the desk of a former employee. This desk was a mess and had been for several months. Using her technical skills, she figured out what was important to save and what she could get rid of. She also created an organized system for all the software disks that were in a jumble in the drawer.

Fast forward to Thursday's BNI meeting. Angie stood, and showed a plaque she had received for one of her patents. She told about some of the stuff she knows (ceramic strength, aluminum something, etc) and explained how this knowledge can help her to clean out the desks of people who work in technical trades. She even asked for a specific referral to the Ford Maumee Stamping Plant, which will be closing in the future and is laying off people. This is the perfect spot for her to make a difference. She can clean out and organize the information these people are leaving behind.

I'm sure Angie could have come up with this idea for her commercial all by herself, but taking the time to do it is sometimes the challenge. Having an appointment to work together helped both of us to think about our commercials in advance.

Thanks, Angie!

What has someone done for you lately?