Thanks a million. That’s what this group of island businessmen and women had to say to one another.
Pictured are members of ‘Manannan’ the local chapter of Business Network International (B.N.I.) who meet once a week, usually at breakfast time, with a ‘givers gain’ philosophy.
Together, they have been successfully generating referral business over the last 24 months which has, as of June 18, totalled a whopping £1,044,446.38
Membership co-ordinator Martin Corkish was delighted with the level of business members of the group have passed to one another.
He said: ‘It’s a brilliant result for everyone involved and what’s special about it is that it proves the ‘‘givers gain’’ philosophy really does work.
‘Each of us represents just one sector of business such as accounting, building, recruitment, finance, insurance, estate agency, electrical contracting, removals, landscape gardening and others too.
‘We work hard to get to know each other and each other’s business really well.
‘This way we quickly recognise opportunities that arise to refer one another and most importantly, do it confidently because we genuinely trust one another and know that the client will have a great experience, which reflects well on us too.’
Paul Maddocks, local director of the group explained what ‘‘givers gain’’ really means.
‘The Givers Gain philosophy is about thinking of ways in which you can help someone else first and finding out what it is they need or what introductions they need to help them grow their business and delivering on that.
‘After which, there is an expectation that sometime later that person will be more likely to want and be able to reciprocate and deliver back.
‘It’s a very refreshing change from the usual networking scenario where members try and promote themselves to people in the room, normally with the aim of selling to the people directly in the room.
‘In our meetings you’re far more likely to hear things like, “so- tell me how I can help you in your business’’ and “how can I help you connect with such and such a person”, rather than, “My business offers this… we just won this award, or that award… and now we are expanding to this, that and the other!” ’
The Manannan group see their next target as achieving another million pounds of business within just 12 months and growing the membership by a further 10 members.
They usually gather at a Douglas hotel at 7am which serves them fine as they can have their meeting before going on to work for the day.
They come from all walks of life and are determined to carry on with being a success.
Last month they opened things up to a select number of visitors to have a look at how their weekly business meetings operate and are planning another visitor event for August 6.
Membership co-ordinator Martin Corkish said: ‘We would be very interested in speaking to businesses who want to know more about BNI and how it could be of benefit to them in the longer term’.
Martin Corkish can be contacted on 410216 and Paul Maddocks is on 452351.