The Tasmanian Networker
October 2008

Welcome to the Tasmanian Networker

What a beautiful day it was here in Hobart yesterday! Sun shining, flowers everywhere and yet all we hear is how the world is going downhill fast. More than ever you need to enhance and maintain your relationships in business and in life. We feature plenty of advice this month to help you navigate the pitfalls.
Dr Ivan Misner gives great advice about ignoring the doomsday headlines, Tash Hughes talks about getting your business ready for Christmas, Gihan Perera asks why podcasting is so popular and Mark Hunter has tips on voicemail survival!

Ignore the Doomsday Headlines

Continue to flex your networking muscles.

By Dr Ivan Misner, Founder & Chairman of BNI.

Today's news is full of economic soap operas. In the United States, Congress, the White House, and the pundits are debating the so-called bailout of yet another pillar of Corporate America.
European nations and others around the globe are struggling with recessionary pressures.
Voices everywhere seem to be spouting economic doom and gloom.
Now, please, lean in close and listen carefully. I'm going to ask you to do something difficult, yet very important: Ignore all those doom and gloom voices.
It's not that I want to deny reality. Nor am I judging whether all those important voices are right or wrong.
What I am saying is, all those voices are sending you useless information. Not only are they urging you to be afraid very afraid they are completely ignoring the solutions on which you need to focus.

There's nothing like good old fashioned fear to freeze an entrepreneur in his or her tracks!
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt wisely said during America's Depression that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, he left something out. When you are in business, at any time in any nation, the other thing you have to fear is inaction. Not very poetic, I know, but it's true.
Let others worry about the macro economic picture. You have a micro economy in which you are a vital and central player. Does the government or an economist know the ins and outs of your business better than you? Have you received any calls lately offering to bail you out with taxpayer money if your business slides to the brink of ruin? I'm guessing the answer is "no" to both questions!
You already know this in your gut: No bailout is coming your way unless you do it yourself.
No rescue plan is being prepared for your business unless you prepare it yourself. And no
solutions to your problems will be developed unless you develop it yourself.
The more you focus on fear, the more afraid you will become. The more you focus on obstacles, the larger they will loom. And the more you focus on today's global economic doom and gloom headlines, the less time, energy, and faith you'll have to focus on building the prosperous, successful, well-networked business you really want.
A close friend of mine recently got hit by a car and spent weeks in hospitals and rehab centers.
He says he learned a few things about fear during this time. When he tells himself, while
perched on one leg to perform some ordinary task, "Wait I might fall over," sure enough, he falters.
But when he tells himself, "I have perfect balance," something funny happens: He remains
steadily upright longer than he thought possible.
Your business is not much different. If you tell yourself, "I can't succeed in this economic
downturn," you probably won't. But if you focus on specific solutions to the particular issues and challenges and opportunities of your businessyour niche market, your current and prospective customersyou are likely to enjoy more success than all the naysayers put together would have predicted.
What the bigwigs of Wall Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, the London Financial District and the
European Central Bank don't seem to understand is this: Out here in the real world of
entrepreneurial small business, "Givers Gain."
Want to help the economy? Just turn to your BNI network, find someone who needs help, then give them all the referrals you can.
By sticking together and helping one another, we can face down the doom and gloom; we can build our businesses despite the headlines; and, we can show others around the world the economic power of persistent, skillful, and generous networking.
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Called The Father of Modern Networking by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the worlds largest business networking organization.
Dr. Misner is also the Senior Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company.

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BNI Tasmania
BNI Australia
BNI International
BNI Podcast
Channel BNI
Helloworld
Ecademy

• Real Estate Agent
  (BNI Clarence)
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BNI Bowen
Tuesdays - 7-8.30am Australian Croatian Club, 1 Eady Street, Glenorchy

BNI Mersey
Tuesdays - 7-8.30am Barclay Motor Inn, 112 North Fenton Street, Devonport

BNI Seacoast
Wednesdays - 7-8.30am Baltimore Restaurant, Marine Terrace, Burnie

BNI Wellington
Wednesdays - 7-8.30am - Kingston Beach Golf Club, Channel Highway, Kingston

BNI Derwent
Wednesdays - 7-8.30am - Mercure Hotel, Bathurst Street, Hobart

BNI York
Wednesdays - 7-8.30am Mercure Hotel, Earl Street, Launceston

BNI Clarence
Thursdays - 7-8.30am Salamanca Inn, 10 Gladstone Street, Salamanca, Hobart

BNI Lomond
Thursdays - 7-8.30am - Mercure Hotel, Earl Street, Launceston

BNI Royale
Thursdays - 7-8.30am - Mercure Hotel, Bathurst Street, Hobart

BNI Discover
Fridays - 7-8.30am - Mercure Hotel, Bathurst Street, Hobart 

Join us on Ecademy!

As networking evolves, we are going to see a greater combination of online and off-line or face-to-face networking.
In the next few years we will also see BNI start to incorporate more online types of communication between members and bulletin board type access.
As we move in this direction, BNI Tasmania has set up a special group within Ecademy, one of the popular global online networking sites.
Our BNI Tasmania Club on Ecademy, has a number of features to help raise our profile, allow us to post articles, organise functions and to include networkers in our area to participate even if they are not quite ready to become face-to-face networkers.  People around the world may also wish to join our online group if they wish to do business with Aussies.
We invite you to register to join this online networking site.  There is no cost involved.  The link is as follows:
http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=club&c=5903
The BNI Australia club is now on Ecademy as well. You can now network and trade with BNI members Australia wide!

Getting your business ready for Xmas

by Tash Hughes

It isnt easy to plan Christmas and get into the Christmas cheer in winter or spring, but you need to do so if your business is to make the most of Christmas sales.

Obviously, it is too early to hang the tinsel or send out Christmas cards, but the following tasks can be done well ahead of December and in fact, many must be done in advance.

Plan your Christmas theme and get your cards, banners, ads and so forth designed now. This will make sure your designer gets it done in time and gives you time to be fussy rather than accepting whatever can be done fast enough.

Book any major advertising. Magazines in particular close bookings for Christmas editions in September/October for a November print run. If your artwork isnt ready or you havent booked, you will miss out on those options for advertising.

Book any newsletter advertising you want, too. Many newsletters limit the number of ads included so its first in only.

Plan how you will acknowledge clients, suppliers and staff e-card, paper card, letter or gift? What is your budget? Prepare a list of people to include, too, and add their email addresses to a file ahead of time.

What promotions will you offer leading up to or after Christmas? How will you promote these?

If you have many local clients and suppliers, will you organise a Christmas event? If so, what type of event will it be?

Are there any join ventures or fund raising events you can establish or participate in? Maybe book a stall at your local kinder or school Christmas break up party.

Plan for increased sales do you have enough stock? And dont forget to allow for additional packaging materials, wrapping paper, stamps and so on.

By booking and planning ahead, you allow time to fix any problems and find alternatives

Close to Christmas, you will be busy and tired so the less you need to do at that time, the easier business will be

If you are adding new web pages, the sooner they are live, the sooner search engines will find them so that you may have some rankings in time for Christmas sales

Getting in early may result in some savings, too. For instance, if you order ahead for November and December, you may get a bulk discount you wouldnt get if you placed monthly orders. Close to Christmas, many of your supplies will be in demand and therefore less likely to be on special

Give your web or graphic designer time to come up with something special

If you want to handwrite cards and envelopes, the sooner you start the easier it will be. A few a week is much easier than fifty in a day mid December!

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Tash Hughes is a professional and skilled writer who makes technical and otherwise boring information accessible for everyone a business needs to communicate with. Next time you need a media release, webcopy, articles, newsletters, reports or any other business document, visit www.wordconstructions.com to see how Tash and her team can help your business succeed.

Having an effective on hold strategy is not only important at a marketing level it can also serve an equally important role as a customer service tool.
With more and more business being conducted over the phone first impressions have never been more important in this competitive business world.
On hold messaging enables you to talk direct to a captive audience, market your products and services, enhance your companys image and let your callers know that their call really matters.
For any further enquiries please info@voiceoveronhold.com.au.

Why is Podcasting So Popular Now?

By Gihan Perera

In 2005, the New Oxford American Dictionary defined "podcast" as its word of the year.

Three key things have made podcasting spread so far and wide so quickly in the last few years.

1. Broadband Internet

In the past the Internet was usable for written material, but was too slow for audio or video. That was one of the things that held back podcasting (and multimedia in general).

Now more people have fast Internet access, which means they can download audio and video files conveniently. It's still not super-fast, but it's much faster then ever before.

2. The iPod

The name "podcasting" comes from a combination of broadcasting and iPod (the portable music device from Apple). It's a bit of a misnomer because you don't require an iPod to do podcasting (we'll talk about that a little bit later).

Some people think Apple unfairly got credit for podcasting because it really didn't have much to do with the technology at all. And yet I think Apple deserves some credit. It's because of the popularity of people walking around with iPods that podcasting has really taken off. And part of its popularity is that it makes it easy for people to get audio and video clips onto their computer and their iPod.

As an analogy, before spam destroyed much of the value of e-mail, the value of an e-mail newsletter was that the writer could send information to readers' in-boxes automatically. Without that, if somebody published a Web site and kept adding material to that regularly, it still required people to go back and check the site for new information. On the other hand, if you subscribe to a newsletter from that Web site, that information would appear in your inbox automatically.

The same thing applies to podcasting. For years, people have been putting audio and video clips on their Web site, but it still required people to go to the Web site to get the latest files. Podcasting automates that process, which is part of what makes it valuable. And the iPod means that you can download the audio and video files onto your computer, then on to your iPod. You then listen to it in the car, in the gym, when you're going for a walk, or in other situations. It's made the technology portable.

3. Publishing Tools

The third thing that has made podcasting popular now is that now there are some very simple technology tools, software and Web sites you can use to make podcasting easy.

The technology behind podcasting has been around for a while, but in the past you required some technical knowledge to make it work. You required special codes on your Web site to make it possible for people to download your podcast onto their iPod or onto their computer. Now, there are simple tools that make it easy for you as a publisher to publish your podcast - and we're going to talk about that a little later.

Don't forget to visit the BNI Podcast site regularly to obtain insights from the man called the Father of Modern Networking, Dr Ivan Misner.

15 Tips To Voicemail Survival - Part 1

by Mark Hunter

1. If your goal is to get the phone call returned, do not leave information that would allow the person to make up their mind. Add a call-to-action to your message by providing a key date or something of interest that will encourage the person to return the call. You have to create a reason for them to call you back.

2. Repeat your phone number twice. If the person cannot quickly write your number down, you have given them a perfect reason to not call back.

3. Avoid asking ask the person to call you back at a certain time. This provides them with an excuse not to call you.

4. Never state in the message that you will plan to call them back. Again, this only gives the person an excuse to ignore your message.

5. Messages left on a Friday afternoon are the least likely to be returned. For most people, Monday mornings are very busy and, as a result, only high-priority activities will get their immediate attention.

BNI Tasmania News

Book of the Month

Truth or Delusion

Truth or Delusion, Busting Networking's Biggest Myths co-authored by Ivan Misner, Mike Macedonio, and Mike Garrison.
In this book we tackle 49 questions and/or myths about networking and show how they are in fact "truth" or "delusion".
Truth or Delusion? If you provide good customer service, people will refer business to you.
This one's a delusion. Many, many entrepreneurs think that good customer service is the number-one way to cultivate word-of-mouth marketing and referrals. But it's not! It's a good policy and one that's vital to the health of your business, but it's not at the core of building a referral-based business.
People have come to expect good customer service. In fact, they demand it in today's marketplace. When considering customer service and its role in the referral process, it unfortunately works much more effectively in reverse: People are more likely to talk about your business when they're unhappy with you than when they're happy with your service.
So if you want to build your referrals, you must actively cultivate your referral sources and not rely on good customer service alone.
 

Buy Now 

Other Books available now

Buy Now
 

Business by Referral - A Sure-Fire Way to Generate New Business co-authored by Ivan Misner and Robert Davis, another expert on the subject, this book is a blueprint for maximising your referral business within a three-month period. 
It gives detailed step-by-step instructions of what needs to be done, how to do it and pro-forma worksheets to help you control and monitor your progress. 

A must for any professional networker. 

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