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HUDDLE TIME
Will ‘Do Not Call’ Lists Ruin Your Business? BNI’s legal team offers guidance on how to make this new legislation work for you
In October, the U.S. Congress passed special "Do Not Call" legislation that prohibits salespeople from calling individuals at home who are listed on a Do Not Call registry.
BNI has had our legal counsel review this matter. Here is a summary of their findings (click here for a full review of their findings): 1. This should NOT affect most or all referrals given by BNI members in the United States. 2. The Do Not Call provision does NOT apply to any business-to-business calls. Therefore, we should inform all members that they should list a referral's business phone number whenever possible. If this is done, we completely avoid the Do Not Call legislation. 3. Member's may contact any of their existing clients because there is an "established business relationship" exception to the Do Not Call legislation. 4. Members may give the home phone number of a prospective client (even those who have asked to be put on the national Do Not Call list) IF that prospect says in writing (this includes email) that it is okay for the other BNI member to call them. THEREFORE, it is important for us to warn members about the possible danger of giving a home phone number of a prospective client out as a referral, unless that prospect has sent a note to the BNI member who has given the referral or to the BNI member who received the referral saying that it is okay to call that person at home. This is an area that we need to train members on because it was not necessary in the past. This new legislation is going to make it difficult for the average business person to call people at home. This is great news for BNI. We pass referrals. The best referral is one where the prospect has said, "It is okay to contact me." This is good news for anyone who does business through referrals. If members understand the four points above, our BNI members will have a distinct advantage over the average business person because they will have a "referral system" in place to deal with this new legislation. Look at it this way: the government has just legislated most of what we have been training on for almost two decades. This is not a bad thing for those who know the government rules and follow them. If you have any questions on this matter, please contact your local BNI Director. HUDDLE TIME
When Every Hour Counts 5 things you need to know about maximizing your ‘hours inventory’
Professionals and contractors who bill their time, either by project or hourly, need to think of hours the same way that hotel managers think of rooms or airline executives think of seats: as expiring inventory. It’s a case of fill ’em or lose ’em.
Hotels and airlines might reach nirvana when they hit the magic 100% occupancy, but when it comes to providing services, there is no equivalent—100% occupancy of your work hours just doesn’t exist. However, carefully managing your “hours inventory” can enable you to maximize revenues from whatever occupancy rate (i.e. billable hours) you do have. What does managing your hours inventory mean? Two simple examples should help explain the concept. Imagine that you are working on a document for Client A. At that moment, Client B calls and you consult for 20 minutes. You return to your document, then get called to a meeting and find yourself doing other things the rest of the day. At the end of the day, you log your time worked on the document and completely forget about the 20 minutes invested in Client B. The next day, you are asked by Clients C and D to take on projects, both in the same time frame so you must choose between them. Client C is offering about 20% more money for a similar amount of work. It looks like an easy choice: Client C wins. What a shame you didn’t have the information at your fingertips showing that Client C is a chronic late-payer—about 120 days slower than Client D! In these scenarios, you are paying a hefty price for not managing your hours inventory: not keeping accurate track of your inventory reduces your income; not basing decisions on complete information exposes you to cash flow problems and means you are in fact lending money to Client C—for free. Software solutions to help manage hours inventory abound. The key is selecting the right solution for your needs. But what criteria should you use in evaluating the options? 1. You need a timer on your computer. The timer should track time for the project you are working on, and it should enable you to pause quickly and switch to another project, without losing track of the time spent on the first project. Using our example from above, when you answered the phone, you could have switched clients on the timer and recorded accurate time for both. Avoid anything too complex—you don’t need to link every specific document or activity to a project, since you will end up spending more time managing the timer and less time working. 2. You need to keep detailed records of your clients, their projects and your vendors. When you need to order some office supplies, or send an invoice, the last thing you want to do is spend time searching for the right address or phone number. And when your client calls to ask how many hours you’ve worked or what expenses you’ve incurred on a particular project, you want to be able to answer immediately. 3. Did you ever notice that every client wants different payment terms? Your software should support this, not make it more confusing. Look for software that supports hourly and project (fixed) rates, retainer and contingency billing, depending on your business. Also look for the ability to define the payment terms (Net 30, Net 60, etc.), if there is a down payment, and if there is a discount for early payment. Many small businesses pay, and get paid, in partial or incremental payments. Make sure your software can handle that. 4. Sometimes, you want to get an overview of how your business is doing. Look for a tool that will generate a variety of reports—you probably don’t need hundreds—on some key data. For example, you should be able to create reports about cash flow, upcoming expenses, accounts receivable (what they owe you), and how much you’ve worked on each project for each vendor. The important thing is flexibility without complexity—you should be able to create a report showing how much you worked for a client last month without looking at the manual. 5. Remember that no management tool is an island. Make sure you can export your data in standard formats such as TXT and CSV files (which can be opened by Microsoft Excel, for example). Invoices should be sent as the client wants them—either printed or in “tamper proof” electronic formats like PDF or HTML. When it comes to managing your hours inventory, look for an easy-to-use tool that addresses your real world business issues but doesn’t demand too much of a learning curve. After all, you have a business to run. HUDDLE TIME
Attracting Visitors and Making Members How to play and win the invitation game
Why is Babe Ruth remembered as such a great baseball player? What is his claim to fame? Well, he held the strike-out record for many of the years he played baseball. Not exactly the answer that first comes to mind, is it? Now, if that was his only claim to fame, he would have faded into history, but of course it wasn’t. He became a legend because he hit more home runs than anyone else—until Hank Aaron broke his record. What does this have to do with people who visit your BNI chapter? Everything. I have received the award for the most visitors for the last three months in a row. Why? Because I invite more people than anyone else. For every person who shows up, I have to invite four or five people. For every five or six visitors who attend, one joins. Do the math. It takes approximately twenty to thirty invitations to get one new member. So I keep swinging. I have called many people from the numbers posted on their service trucks driving down the road or parked at Home Depot. I invite every new member I meet at the Chamber of Commerce. I keep swinging. And I strike out a lot. But when I don’t, someone shows up and maybe we get one more member. You probably know four or five people right now with whom you are already doing business who could be potential visitors or new members. So follow your money. And follow that plumbing truck and write down the phone number. That plumber might be your next source of awesome referrals. Babe Ruth used to say that the coaches told him to “hit the ball where they ain’t, and they ain’t on the other side of the fence.” Keep swinging and keep inviting visitors. What have you got to lose? |
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