I got up at 5.20am today to go to BNI. I have been a member of BNI for 6 years now. It has had a very positive impact on turnover & profitability. In fact, I would go as far to say that without my being a member of BNI we would have gone bust long ago. Outsourced Credit Control as a service is still very niche. Niche ideas are very hard to market. The structured approach to networking at BNI is very good and allows you to build long term relationships and trust with members. Once you have built the trust and demonstrated that you are good at what you do, external referrals soon follow. BNI is by no means a "get rich quick scheme". It took around 3 years before BNI started to work for me. After all the word "Networking" is effectively 2 words in one. There is the "NET" part being the members and the "WORKING" part meaning that referrals will not fall into your lap you have to put in lots of work and effort.
In my view if you run a business and are not a member of BNI you are mad! You are missing out on a huge opportunity to market and "brand familiarise" your business. There are hundreds of BNI chapters in the UK and thousands worldwide. Please visit The BNI website for further info on the chapter nearest to you.
I have finally finished my bank reconciliation and am about to start my VAT return.
I received another nice e-mail today from Danny @ Printing.com - Ashford. Danny has been an outsourced credit control customer of ours for just over a year. It is always great to hear from satisfied customers.
From: Ashford [mailto:ashford@printing.com]
Sent: 07 May 2008 10:04
To: 'Louise Green'
Subject: RE: Bad Debtor
You little beauty! Very well done, thank you for all the work on them, the moneys in the bank!----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Just finished my VAT return - surely I can't owe them so much money! Oh well I suppose I will have to do a cash flow forecast now.I've done my cash flow forecast and things are looking fine (Phew). Hopefully, tomorrow I can get back on with selling.
Thanks for reading.
Jamie - Credit Control Solutions Ltd ---Making your cash flow -

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing, one fresh
idea and you can change the world, keep
up the great work.
Posted by: Franchise Whale | May 07, 2008 at 04:31 PM