What will you be Thankful for?

What is in your Plan for next year?
The dishes are cleaned, the leftovers packed away, and I am thankful that nothing was burned and everyone was safe. I realize the year is in the waning days, and it is time for us to begin to plan for the next year.

As you are planning for next year, setting your goals, creating your marketing plan, and making your plans, ask yourself this question...."How does my BNI Chapter fit into my Business Plan for next year?" Is it "JUST" another meeting that you have to go to? Is it something that you have to "fit in" every week, one more thing to do? If that is the way your BNI chapter is being viewed, I would like to challenge you to take another look.

Your BNI chapter should be written into your business plan. Those weekly meetings, the one on ones and the time you spend in training should be part of your marketing plan. Let's take a look at all the ways that you can market your business next year;

Advertising
All of us must advertise in some form or the other, from radio, print ads, coupons, to television. We strongly encourage each of our members to have an advertising plan, even if it is just brochures, cards and yellow page listing. Here are some questions that you should ask yourself.

What is your advertising budget?
Where will you advertise?
How will you advertise?
Who will you target your advertising to?
How will you track your results?

Cold Calling
There are those who are so good at this, they almost do not have to do anything but find good list. This is becoming harder and harder to do. The no call list, answering machines, and people just being very curt on the phone. If this is your answer here are some questions you will need to ask yourself.

How much time each day will you dedicate to making your calls?
Where will you get your list?
Do you know and understand the cold call list?
What kind of training might you need?

Word of Mouth
It is important to understand the difference between word of mouth and business by referral. Creating Word of Mouth means that people are talking about you and your business. Many people spend time Networking believing that they are creating Referrals for their business, reality has it, what they are creating is Word of Mouth. Nike, Coke, Burger King and many major companies spend time developing Word of Mouth. To learn more about Word of Mouth visit the Word of Mouth Marketing Associations website. If you are going to create a word of mouth plan for 2007 here are the questions that you will need to ask yourself.

What will people be saying about your business service or products?
How will you measure your results?
Who do you want talking about your business?
How much time will you need to invest to create Word of Mouth?
Will you utilize the internet to help with your Word of Mouth?

Referrals
This is the kind of business that everyone wants to recieve, but are often left to guess when they will get them. Getting solid referrals take time and a plan. You should be able to plan how many referrals you are going to get and from whom they will come. Here are the questions that you will want to ask yourself about a referral plan.

How much time will you invest?
How much money will you invest?
Who will you build a referral relationship with?
Do you have a system to train your referral partners?
What organizations will help you build credibility with your referral partners?
How will you track your results?
How many referrals are you prepared to develop for your referral partners?

A combination of several of these programs will be important to your business; each of them that you choose to implement should be included in your Annual Plan, including your Referral Plan. BNI is the place to develop the relationships you need to get regular referrals, treating it your meeting as one of the important parts of your business will make all the difference. You will become proactive and begin to receive proactive referrals from your key referral sources in your chapter.

Good luck and let me know if I can help;

Hazel WalkerExecutive Director