Success Story Patrick Dove, Dove Gardening Services.
Patrick was invited to BNI Kingstown Bevan in 2015 as a visitor. He liked the group but with a small Hull based gardening business, he wasn’t in a position to join immediately. Instead he joined the bank of substitutes and regularly attended the meeting to support members who were on holiday or away on business.
Naturally he started to gain new business over the months and Patrick became a member in December 2016. Straight away he began getting referrals each week and testimonials for an excellent job done. The way BNI works is that once you have done a good job for one of the members they pass your name on to friends, family and colleagues, knowing that you can also do a good job for them. Gardening services is a great referral and now Patrick’s business has grown exponentially.
Patrick reached a milestone in his business when Lavender, his much-loved blue van which had some unusual quirks including: to turn the radio up Pat had to turn the van’s lights on, he had to knock the passenger side electric window winder with his elbow to make it work and although he had become used to listening to the wind whistling through the rust holes, he knew it wouldn’t be long before Lavender gave up the ghost.
In the summer of 2018, Dove Gardening Services is in a strong position, able to invest in a new van and the Group welcomes Snowdrop onto the scene, leased by Chris Goodman the Group’s vehicle leasing member from Auto Funding Solutions. Patrick has also moved online with a new website from fellow BNI member Nic Johnson at it'seeze websites Hull.
Patrick says:
“I know from experience that for a small business the BNI membership fees can feel like a barrier to growth, but I would say to anyone who offers a good service to find the cash and pay the fee, you will get it back ten-fold with the willing support of your own personal team of marketeers, always looking out for the next opportunity they can pass on to members.”
Success Story Diane Parnham, A New Horizon
For many people leaving a career in the public sector to set up a business is like taking a fish out of water! Many public sector employees never had to network to generate work and when moving into sectors such as health and wellbeing, finding clients outside the friends and family circles can be very difficult.
Diane Parnham is one of our great success stories and our 2017/18 Chapter President. After taking voluntary redundancy from a public sector career in Children’s Services, she re-trained as a Life Coach and was looking for ways to grow her business. Diane came along as a visitor just over 3 years ago and decided to take the plunge to join BNI Kingstown Bevan Group and has never looked back!
All of our members have been coached by Diane, she always brings something unexpected to the surface during sessions and her favourite response from clients is:
“I’ve just never thought of it like that before.”
One of the best ways to get to know fellow members of the group is through one-to-one sessions which follow a structured format to draw out the information to help members introduce each other to their personal and professional networks. This is a great opportunity for Diane to demonstrate her skills as a coach and members leave Diane’s one-to-one sessions feeling like they’ve had a weight lifted, even if they didn’t know they were carrying one around!.
Diane says to anyone looking for the best way to grow their business:
“I always look forward to Friday morning, excited to find out what the meeting will bring, not just from a referral point of view, but we really support each other in all kinds of ways AND we have fun doing so. I was the Chapter President in 2017 which means you become much more involved with the inner workings of the Group, helping to increase member numbers, working with other people on the top table and the visitor teams.”
“BNI is a great value for money way to grow your business, you can try before you buy and visit us twice to check out our meetings. I was apprehensive before I came along but everyone made me feel so welcome and when I saw the amount of referrals and thank you for the business being generated I knew I could make it work for me.”
Success Story Marketing Power Group
When you join BNI Kingstown Bevan there will be other types business you have a natural affinity with, making the formation of power groups a natural occurrence. The trades usually work well together, knowing that they can depend on a colleague to do a good job for them, we have a legal and finance group that also works together as well as a Marketing team.
Our Marketing Power Group is made up of:
Jess Clark from Divine Clark PR
Nic Johnson from It’seeze Web Design Hull
Pam Wainman from Jadan Press - Digital and Litho Printers
Sam Cawley from Blink Video
Together the marketing power group pass referrals to work together, with the ability to provide a full agency service to their clients.
This website is a great example of a project completed by the Marketing Power Group, each contributing to make us stand out and show that we are the best local BNI Group for you to join.
The group worked together to launch HI Commercial, a division of Hedon Insurance, with branding and marketing material, Divine Clark PR wiritng the content and promoting the business through news, features and PR covearge and it'seeze websites Hull designing and developing the website. Sam at Blink Video produced photography and works on ongoing video material.
A promotional golf day to launch the business included printed material from Jadan Press.
Success Story Alcohol and drug awareness training
BNI members are working together to raise awareness of the issues relating to alcohol and drug usage amongst local workforces.
The Directors of HI Commercial completed alcohol and drug awareness training with Generis, a specialist service which works with employers, as part of the charity, The Alcohol and Drug Service (ADS).
As an accredited training provider, experts at ADS, developed the content based on over 35 years of experience in specialist Drug and Alcohol services, working in partnerships with the NHS and local authorities. It includes; Drug Awareness, Alcohol Awareness and Tackling Substance Misuse.
E-learning platform
Laura Jarvis from Generis has launched an e-learning platform to improve knowledge and ability to manage the issue, when substance misuse affects a person’s work.
The portal offers a practical training resource for managers and supervisors to reduce risk within their organisation, return to productivity and better support employees who display issues. More information can be found here https://ads-uk.org/generis/.
Screening tools
Alcohol - Click here
Drugs - Click here
Laura Jarvis, Senior Manager at ADS explains:
“As it is not possible in the current climate to gather teams together for training - our solution makes everything available online, so learners can participate in a virtual classroom.”
“We are acutely aware that it can be difficult for employers, who often lack the skills and knowledge to support staff with these problems and we want to help by providing this solution.”
“We know there is an issue out there. Numbers presenting to ADS have more than doubled since restrictions first came into place in March 2020, with home workers being one of the biggest groups affected.”
Concerns and misconceptions
HI Commercial completed training with fellow BNI Kingstown Bevan member, Laura Jarvis who addressed the misconceptions and concerns surrounding alcohol and drug usage amongst local workforces, in order to advise HI Commercial’s clients on where to find help.
Luke Byron, Director at HI Commercial explains:
“As a commercial insurance broker, we are aware of incidents where workers have been affected by alcohol and or drugs, especially in safety critical sectors where risks are obvious. However, we were surprised to find that the number of people, particularly those who are usually office-based, actually make up the majority of those affected.
“Because of lockdown, home-workers are the biggest group affected, as last year, individuals started drinking earlier in the day, more regularly and consuming more.
“The training revealed some surprising statistics and we hadn’t expected that more senior employees and Directors are more likely to be risking their health by using alcohol and drugs than those in less senior positions. Some case studies show that this can be more than ten times the recommended weekly alcohol consumption and illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine are used widely to increase performance and aid relaxation.”
Hangovers are affecting productivity in your business
“A powerful message for clients like ours is that even one person who works with a hangover is affecting productivity, morale and the bottom line. Multiply this across the workforce and the impact can be enormous.
“The screening tools are particularly useful. The results are confidential and give advice on advice that could be required.
“We can recommend this training for employers, managers and supervisors.To allay the misconceptions and help you to approach individuals for support.”
JOIN US FOR A MEETING
As a new member, you can expect to be supported by seasoned members to help you settle in. You get to know each other and use the services of the group. We don’t necessarily expect you to bring lots of referrals until we know you do a good job. So within the first few months and weeks it is very much a getting to know you exercise.