Small Business Marketing Show

Small Business Marketing Show Jan 13

Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:00:00] Welcome to the small business marketing show here we will share actionable, effective, and low cost tips on referral marketing, organized, networking, and digital marketing. To help grow your business hosted by business owners and entrepreneurs who use these techniques every day. Hello everybody. And welcome to our first episode.

[00:00:17] My name is Bo  Kauffmann. I’m a real estate agent with Remax and I’m a member of a business networking group called the BNI Accelerators. Along with my co-hosts, we’re going to be discussing a number of issues, a number of subjects, such as digital marketing, social media, marketing, and referral networking.

[00:00:34] My co-hosts are all entrepreneurs and self-starters in their own. And they’re using these techniques to grow their businesses. So let me introduce them or better yet. Let me allow them to introduce themselves. Up first here, let’s go with Dave. Kirkland. Hey

[00:00:49] Dave Kirkland – Essential Business Solutions: [00:00:49] everyone. Dave Kirkland with essential business solutions.

[00:00:52] I hope they’ll provide some roundabout advice for everyone and have some fun along the way.

[00:00:56] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:00:56] All right. Up next Darcy Barrington of air

[00:00:59] Darcy Berrington – Aire Serv HVAC: [00:00:59] serve. Great. I’m Darcy Barrington, owner of air serve heating and air conditioning. We help people with the comfort in their homes and offices heating air conditioning and air quality.

[00:01:09]Happy to be

[00:01:10] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:01:10] here. Okay. And Tom cascade

[00:01:12] Thomas Johnson – Cascade Financial: [00:01:12] financial

[00:01:13] Yeah, thanks Bo Tom Johnson. I’m a personal financial planner with cascade financial group. Based out of Winnipeg. I’ve been doing network marketing for the last five and a half years as part of a member of the DNR accelerators.

[00:01:25] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:01:25] Okay. And Brian Ross of innovation fabrication.

[00:01:29] Brian Ross – Innovation Fabrication: [00:01:29] Hi, everybody. Brian Ross here from innovation fabrication and box pools. We Gary create project at a seal, including swimming pools, hot tubs and houses. Great to be here, look forward to the

[00:01:40] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:01:40] discussion. All right, so let’s get right into it. And the first thing we want to talk about is digital marketing or internet marketing.

[00:01:47] And one of our members, Tom has recently delved into that by starting his own. Website or a blog. Tom, do you want to tell us how that went and why you chose it and how you went about doing it?

[00:01:58] Thomas Johnson – Cascade Financial: [00:01:58] Sure.  Guess I’ll start with the why. I enjoy writing. I like the creative process of it. So from a purely selfish standpoint, it’s something that I enjoy doing and I can see myself continuing to do so I definitely wouldn’t advocate that anybody who doesn’t like writing try to take that on because I think you’ll run out of steam really quickly.

[00:02:14]Lots of reasons for doing it. Obviously somebody might trip across it on the internet read some of my thoughts, get a good sense of who I am. And she used to call me up and become a client. But what I think is far more likely in this day and age is it makes me more credible and more referrable, especially in the context of network marketing.

[00:02:29] I think a lot of today’s conversations and referrals I’ve done online by sharing. So if you talk to your neighbor, Bo and your neighbor happens to mention you as a problem that, I can help with. He’s, not confident in his retirement. He’s worried about paying too much in taxes or how to leave more money to his kids.

[00:02:44] He tells you that you can either have one or two conversations. It’s either, Hey, here’s a financial planner. I bet you, he can help you. How about you give him a call or I haven’t called you, or you might go, you know what? I just read a really great article about that. It was written by a person. I know he’s really good at what he does.

[00:02:59] Can I share it with you? And I think that’s a nice warm introduction. It’s a really easy way to introduce somebody to me. And the idea of. My business and what I can help them with. And I think that just makes it much, much easier for my existing, network centers of influence friends, family, and existing clients.

[00:03:15]To refer me to folks, as far as the process went I started by, simultaneously writing a bunch of contacts and writing a bunch of content. And I also hired a third party to design and build my site. That’s not my expertise, that’s not what I wanted to spend my time and resources. So I had a professional build a site for me and set me up so that I can on an ongoing basis, keep uploading new content and sharing it.

[00:03:38] And that just made it really seamless. And I’ve got a nice runway of existing blog posts that I can keep putting out, when I can have to write new stuff over Christmas.

[00:03:45]Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:03:45] No what Tom mentioned a couple of times there is new and fresh content, which is important and that’s what separates and that’s what distinguishes a blog from a regular website or regular website could be just like an a business card on the internet.

[00:03:57] Which is okay if people are looking for you specifically by name and they would just want to find out your contact information, but in case of Tom, if somebody is looking, searching for retirement advice, or, how can I retire or anything like that, his stuff, his articles have a better chance of showing up.

[00:04:14] Thomas Johnson – Cascade Financial: [00:04:14] I think it’s

[00:04:15] Dave Kirkland – Essential Business Solutions: [00:04:15] great. The ability to add content on the internet. I know in the past that have created some solutions with people on internet and is some of it’s still there and it’s great how long it actually stays there.  The idea of having that BHAG really helps spread that credibility like Thompson, trying to achieve, especially in a finance world.

[00:04:31]Darcy Berrington – Aire Serv HVAC: [00:04:31] I think it’s good to where it’s an opportunity for a customers maybe to initiate some of those things for your blog. You’ll get a a solid question that, other people are wondering too. And now you can put some content together. Just focus just on that.

[00:04:44] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:04:44] Absolutely.

[00:04:47] Brian Ross – Innovation Fabrication: [00:04:47] For my, for myself as well.

[00:04:49]My whole business is based off my content. So for us to have a blog Anybody because all of our designs and projects are unique and custom belt. People have a lot of questions that I think that a blog would help answer some of those questions, just to give them a better understanding of these pools and the tiny houses and what we do.

[00:05:08] So I would definitely see the benefit in something like

[00:05:11] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:05:11] that. That’s actually one of the tricks too, is if you’re a whatever business you are, if you go on Google and start typing in what could potentially be a question that your customers are asking you’ll see, Google makes suggestions of some of the most common questions asked about your service.

[00:05:27] And then you can use that as part of your title for your. For your blog post or your article that you want to write. And then by sharing it as often as possible by having people comment on it, et cetera, that article can become so popular that it ranks higher and higher in Google, which is what helps you get more

[00:05:43] Thomas Johnson – Cascade Financial: [00:05:43] business.

[00:05:44] That’s a great comment. Bow in one part of the process that I didn’t mention is before I even started the same company that did my blog site. For a few hundred dollars, they did a Google analytics search for me. And they were able to give me the highest search for terms in my field and the province.

[00:05:58] So as I’m designing my website and I’m thinking about the content that I want to create, I can tailor it more towards what people are actually looking for. So again, it makes it more likely that somebody in my. I in my space is going to find my particular blog site because I already know what the average person is searching for.

[00:06:14] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:06:14] Okay. So question I have is you decided to go with, and like you said, it’s not your expertise. It’s nobody really is an expert or a very well versed on that verse on that. Can you share with us what kind of costs, what are you looking at for hiring somebody to design and hosts and monthly cost upfront

[00:06:30] [00:06:30] [00:06:30]Thomas Johnson – Cascade Financial: [00:06:30] In my particular case, it was about $400 to get the to get the analytics search done ahead of time. I believe all in, it was about 1200 to $1,500 to have the blog site built. And that includes the first year of hosting as well. And an ongoing hosting is about 20 bucks a month. Nothing egregious.

[00:06:49] It’s not a huge chunk of advertising dollars for. Something that is a, an evergreen piece to my, personal business model

[00:06:56] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:06:56] marketing. Look at you learning the lingo. Evergreen. Good for you. Now, what business? You also picked a business name for your blog. What did you pay?

[00:07:05] Thomas Johnson – Cascade Financial: [00:07:05] Yeah, if anyone’s interested it’s retirement planning, guide.ca.

[00:07:09] I’m really surprised that the main name wasn’t taken already, but I found a lot Manitoba and we’re specifically searching for questions around retirement when to retire, how to retire, what to do with my pension. And so those were the kind of questions that I was able to tailor my domain name and my content towards to help find the people who are actively searching for my health.

[00:07:29] [00:07:29] Retirement planning, guide.ca.

[00:07:31]Dave Kirkland – Essential Business Solutions: [00:07:31] When you’re looking at building a website, you always want to focus on the client personas. So who are you selling to? Who is your target audience? So in the specific of Brian there, when he was talking about Hey, maybe I should do a blog site while definitely going to talk a little later, maybe about it with them, about setting up a blog site for simply one of your journeys of your trailers.

[00:07:50]I mean your containers, you’ve got this big project where you’re shipping something. Where’d you say some you’re shipping, it’s going to be ridiculous amount just because of this. They want a double side, they want a double wide. That’s a great story to tell somebody. And you could document the whole journey in a blog,

[00:08:05]Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:08:05] With video and for the website’s already set up for it. Exact question. All right. So then the next thing we’re going to talk about a subject that’s dear to all our hearts, and that is referral networking. This is where Darcy comes in an organized way to get people to refer you. Darcy. Tell us about your experience.

[00:08:23] Darcy Berrington – Aire Serv HVAC: [00:08:23] I absolutely. I think the best way that I can just say something about word of mouth or referral marketing is to give an illustration. So it begins with the very famous question who do you know? And and that’s when we talk about quite often. So someone that could Help someone with a problem or a situation, or even just a question and as professionals or trades or other businesses we’re often chosen by customers or clients to help them out with something that’s very important to them already.

[00:08:58]The same people though they have more than one need, right? So if it’s their home or their business they have a lot of items that need to be addressed. And so many of these are outside of the scope of what we do. So when they ask, who do you know, that can assist me on this, you can make a recommendation of a person and say why as well.

[00:09:17]So we know the person we’re recommending and there’s a real assurance to our customers that they will be looked after. So if we extend that out to them and say, I know this person. Helped me with my situation. We’ll help you with yours. And I’ve seen it done lots of times. That’s really what the essence of word of mouth or referral marketing as sir, Madam, you have a need.

[00:09:41]I believe I know the right person to provide a solution. And that is just solid. We can confidently put it out in associate of ours put their name forward to the customer and absolutely know that they’re going to be looked after. The good part though, is that a referral like this? It solidifies our relationship with our customer.

[00:10:01]Because they see us as someone that just wants their best interest. So it’s not just a, win-win, it’s a win because you’re helping another business. You’re helping your customer and you’re helping your relationship too. So that’s the big deal to me. I could talk about this stuff all day, right?

[00:10:17]Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:10:17] Yeah. No, we all can,

[00:10:19] Thomas Johnson – Cascade Financial: [00:10:19] I think a lot of value as a business owner or anybody who’s in a business growing role. A lot of value to their practice by being that person, who’s the center of a referral relationship, like being the connector is a huge value add. So even if it’s not something directly tangent to your business if I have a client who asked me about that, Up with their roof, vinyl, Drake roofer.

[00:10:41] If I had a client who’s looking at solid pool, I know somebody who builds pools. You can connect people with all these different fields and by being that person who can be the connector, I think it elevates your relationship with your existing clients. And again helps make you more referrable and a much stronger business relationship all around.

[00:10:59] Brian Ross – Innovation Fabrication: [00:10:59] Oh, yeah, no, absolutely. It’s it just, it expands. It’s funny where life takes you and from where people are were 20 years ago and the contacts they made 20 years ago and that they keep making today. Now this is seven. Essentially just puts a 20 multiplayer on no. So now anybody that calls me about anything probably, before getting into network marketing anybody would call me.

[00:11:25] Yeah. I could maybe look up and think of somebody now, nowadays. Come at me. What do you need? Do you need, you’re wanting that you want your kids to be able to have sailboats when they turn 18 years old. Let me talk to my friend, Tom here and yeah, no, no issues recommending anybody in our group. And because everybody is professionals, everybody truly understands the power of doing this correctly and openly.

[00:11:50] And honestly, so that’s what I find to be the best feature of the network marketer

[00:11:54] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:11:54] and what Darcy touched on the easiest way. Is what we call power teams so that you have a number. You have one client who can be served by half a dozen different services that are all connected. So for example, if you have in my case, somebody wants to buy a house.

[00:12:10]They’re going to need a lawyer. They’re going to get home insurance. They might need mortgage or life insurance. They’ll need a mover. They’ll need a home inspector and I’ve got antibody, fingertips, and close relations with all those kinds of people so that it makes it easy for me to refer it.

[00:12:28] And my client looks at has gone well, you do more than just sell houses. You actually make the whole process easier. And you can recommend people that are stand up. People that do a good job. That’s it makes me look good. Does he says it’s a win? I

[00:12:40] Darcy Berrington – Aire Serv HVAC: [00:12:40] think just one thing I’d add too is like it’s automatic cause that we’re going to get to know more and more.

[00:12:47] People that own businesses. And if we don’t leverage it, it’s just like buying weight

[00:12:53] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:12:53] tools and leave them sit. Yeah. It’s wasted effort and time. Yeah, that’s right. Th there’s also if you don’t recommend somebody and the client finds that person on their own. Who’s to say that person, first of all, does a good job or second of all might not pull them away from you in the future and work against you.

[00:13:13] So it’s good to have that tight circle where we all keep that client happy and keep recommending him

[00:13:20] Brian Ross – Innovation Fabrication: [00:13:20] well, and it as well too, it just lends credibility that instead of just going through the phone book or just going online and finding somebody. If I get a, for example, from you Bo, if you vouch for a lawyer and say, this is a great lawyer to work with you yourself, have a good, reputation stand up guy.

[00:13:38] So your opinion holds a lot more water versus myself just going on Google and finding somebody if he would vote for him, that’s good enough for me. So that’s where it can really help because we’re all the consumers of our own products as well, too. Being an electrical being heating and cooling. We, at some point they’re all going to be clients as well, too.

[00:13:57] Sure. Yeah.

[00:14:00] Thomas Johnson – Cascade Financial: [00:14:00] And I think something that we’ve all touched on here. That’s incredibly important when developing a network marketing plan is you need to trust your network. You need to know that the person that you are referring, one of the contacts to is going to do a great job. And that’s something that the BNI accelerators does really well is by meeting weekly.

[00:14:16] We hold each other accountable. We get to know people well, and we weed out the folks who aren’t going to do a good job which just means that you can inherently trust that referral you’re giving is going to receive excellent service. And you don’t have to worry that the person that you struck up a deal with is.

[00:14:29] Not going to call your client back or is not going to give their best performance when it comes to being there.

[00:14:34]Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:14:34] Because here’s the key the referral you make reflects on you. And if you refer somebody who falls down who drops a ball, it makes you look bad. So you gotta be careful in who you refer.

[00:14:45] Okay as we, as you’ve heard us talk about we’re all entrepreneurs, we all know each other. There’s another thing we all have in common. We all are members of the same chapter of BNI. Now what’s BNI. BNI stands for business network international. It was an organization started in the mid eighties by Dr.

[00:15:01] Ivan Meisner and its main focus is to help people gain new business by referrals, by members referring each other. And I looked this up. The latest stat are that in the last 35 years, BNI has now grown to over 9,500 chapters worldwide with over 270,000 members. So chances are there is going to be one or more chapters in your city.

[00:15:27] In fact, I did look this up, so I can say that is whether you’re an Albuquerque New Mexico or Zagreb Croatia. See what I did there a to Z. It doesn’t matter. They all have chapters. In Winnipeg. When in fact we have seven chapters. Now, one of the cornerstone ideas, or one of the cornerstone things with BNI is that they only allow one member per professional.

[00:15:49] So for example, Garcia had to take off right now. He’s the HVAC person in our group. Brian Ross is the steel fabricator in our group. I’m the realtor Davis, the, a business financing and leasing expert, et cetera, et cetera. So if you look for a chapter in your city and they already have, let’s say you’re a painter and they already have a painter, you can’t join, but you can find another chapter who might be looking for you.

[00:16:14] Okay, so I’m gonna open up talk about let everybody talk about the experiences that they’ve had. Dave, how long have you been a member in our group? Probably

[00:16:22] Dave Kirkland – Essential Business Solutions: [00:16:22] the newest member of the group right now. I just started just this past summer replacing Travis Katurah from our company already essential business solutions.

[00:16:30]But it did have some prior BNI experience. So I didn’t come in super wet behind the ears, but a web behind the Israeli came to the Winnipeg chapter.

[00:16:38]Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:16:38] What’s unique. There is that you have the the perspective from another city you came from Ottawa,

[00:16:42] Dave Kirkland – Essential Business Solutions: [00:16:42] right? Yeah, that’s right. I was out in the East coast for several years.

[00:16:45] I am born and raised here in Winnipeg, but spent some time in some other careers and definitely enjoyed the time. And I found BNI very beneficial. And the chapter growth obviously is beneficial to everybody because the more centers of influences you have around the more that you’re busy.

[00:17:00] Business can grow just from within the chapter, which is pretty

[00:17:03] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:17:03] remarkable. What I find interesting is that I’m sure you’ll bear this out. We had a person come to our group from Vietnam, who is a member of a BNI chapter in. I don’t know if it was whole Truman city or something like that, but it was in Vietnam and he came and he sat through one of our meetings and he said, wow, this is exactly like we do it at home.

[00:17:22] So I’m sure you can bear that out. That Ottawa with minute differences. Absolutely. The meetings are the

[00:17:29] Dave Kirkland – Essential Business Solutions: [00:17:29] same. The things you’ll find with chapter differences is a lot of the time when there are in-person is the actual layout of the tables. You’ll see here for discussion tables like we do in our chapter, or you’ll see a C a C shaped where you have your speakers in the front and PowerPoints.

[00:17:44] And I think that’s the fun thing about it, right? Is you have a certain format that everybody follows with, the. The, two minute infomercials and things like that, but they also put their own twist on it. And I think with our chapter, we really have that. And that’s why you can see that we’re one of the largest ones in our

[00:17:59] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:17:59] city.

[00:17:59] Okay, Tom, I think you said you’ve been around five years in our group. Yeah.

[00:18:04] Thomas Johnson – Cascade Financial: [00:18:04] Five and a half years now I’ve been a member of the accelerators. I actually had heard about BNI from a colleague prior to join, and she had such stark raving things to say about it that I thought it’d be foolish to not apply.

[00:18:14] And it’s really held its own. I’ve struggled for years to find a. Reliable realtor, who I could have in my contacts, fear, a good mortgage broker and an accountant, a lawyer, all those things that you associate with personal finance and to have somebody who that I could count on her consistently just didn’t exist outside of a structured format.

[00:18:33] So finding BNI was absolutely huge for me. I’ve been tracking my stats religiously and. BNI with the past five years has consistently accounted for between 50 and 20{0b7ed344c46c2c4174578589c151f3b7d18da4d7f92c46373bfd7c97aafe8f67} of my revenue year over year. And so it’s, a key cornerstone to my business plan for 20, 21 and beyond. And I encourage anybody out there.

[00:18:52] Who’s been looking to develop those centers of influence that they can trust and depend on and rely on and looking to grow their business to to come check out our. Our group or a similar networking group, because it’s a, it’s an instrumental piece to my business.

[00:19:06] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:19:06] Here’s the key. And you said at 15 to 20{0b7ed344c46c2c4174578589c151f3b7d18da4d7f92c46373bfd7c97aafe8f67} no single income stream should account for 100{0b7ed344c46c2c4174578589c151f3b7d18da4d7f92c46373bfd7c97aafe8f67} of your business.

[00:19:13] I don’t care what it is. I don’t care if it’s magazine, advertising or radio advertising, you should be getting your income stream, your clients or customers from a variety of sources. So that if one of those sources. There’s something happens. There’s a mail strike and you’ve been relying on sending postcards to people or anything happens.

[00:19:29] You’ve got other streams to rely on and 15 to 20{0b7ed344c46c2c4174578589c151f3b7d18da4d7f92c46373bfd7c97aafe8f67} is a pretty healthy return for the investment in BNI. So good for you, Brian, how long have you been, you’ve been here two years, right? Or,

[00:19:42] Brian Ross – Innovation Fabrication: [00:19:42] yeah. I find I, I do like the weekly meetings. I do the not only is the chance to get together with like-minded individuals which is first and foremost, why, what the benefit I get the most is you have people that you don’t even realize are friends.

[00:19:58] Until you actually sit down every single week. You get to know these people, you get to know the integrity of these people. And as you get to know that it really does expand your thoughts on if you have an issue within your business. I bet you there’s 20 other people in that room that have had that same issue.

[00:20:16] So something that you’re sweating, and this is all new to you. There’s lots of people in the room that can relate. So it’s not just somebody. Yeah, I understand. Yeah, that’s too bad that these people can actually give you good advice and say, Hey, when I first started out, this is how I did this. And just for that inner circle of people that brother and womanhood getting together and just chatting about that it makes you feel very comfortable and I’m all about relationships.

[00:20:43] To me. It’s not about the money. It’s about the relationships. If you have good relationships with people and the answer might be no today, but in 10 years from now it’s yes. And if you have that relationship, people will remember that. And I find it in an art group. We don’t have any high pressure salespeople.

[00:20:59] We don’t have any slick salespeople that just want to tell you all the right things. These are genuine people that are trying to grow their own business and do it ethically. And honestly, and that’s what I. Truly get the most benefit out of

[00:21:12] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:21:12] it. Definitely. That’s one of the hidden benefits of BNI as you’re rubbing elbows with an accountant, with an investor with, so all these people, little questions come up during the week and you can pick their brain at the meetings, get some free advice.

[00:21:25]Show of hands who here is hoping to be go back to in-person meeting soon. No for the food. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So anybody who watching and listening for decades, these meetings have always been in person, of course now with COVID we are in zoom meetings, but I’m going to show you a video right now of what our meetings look like.

[00:21:44] We had a videographer come in and do a 62nd thing. We all hoping to get back to in-person meetings because they’re fun. They’re dynamic, they’re entertaining, educational, and they’re very effective and helping each other. So I’ll play that right now. And then we’ve got a guest, one of our other members we’re going to call him the featured member, waiting in the waiting room.

[00:22:02] We’re going to let him in and talk to him right after that. This Darcy’s

[00:22:06] Announcer: [00:22:06] animal rescue center in Winnipeg is a charitable organization, which helps save and protect our four legged friend. Since it started 15 years ago, Darcy’s are saved and found new homes for over 10,000 cats and dogs in the house of Darcy.

[00:22:33] Oh, Kaufman of Remax performance. Reals is a proud supporter of Darcy’s animal Wesco, and now makes us special offer, buy or sell your house or condo in Winnipeg keys and bow with your agent. And he’ll donate $250 towards Darcy’s arc.

[00:22:59] call Beau Kaufman helped us sallow buy your next home Bo real estate.

[00:23:12] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:23:12] So in the meantime, we’ve had one of our other members, by the way, our chapter currently has 25 members, 25 sort of businesses. As I said before, it’s one member per profession. And we recently had the induction of a property management company and that’s, what’s joined us right now. His name is Eric  and  he and his partner run J X property management, say hello to Eric.

[00:23:37] Eric Vielfaure – JX Property Management: [00:23:37] Hey everyone. Nice to be here. Okay.

[00:23:39] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:23:39] Eric, tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do and how you came to us. Sure.

[00:23:43] Eric Vielfaure – JX Property Management: [00:23:43] Got it. Yeah. So my name’s Eric , I’m a partner with Prince Soriano. Who’s my partner. We both own Jax property management and we’re a I guess you could say smaller business located in Winnipeg.

[00:23:54] We focus on managing small residential properties. So single family homes, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, those kinds of buildings. And we have a strong focus on delivering. What we consider high quality living spaces for our tenants. So we’re always looking at the offering quality spaces, places that are well-maintained.

[00:24:15] And yeah, we had one of the members from the BNI accelerators reach out to us in the summer and asked us to join as guests. And we did and we really liked what we we saw and we decided to join I believe not too long, go here in the summer

[00:24:29] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:24:29] okay, Brian.

[00:24:31]Brian Ross – Innovation Fabrication: [00:24:31] What was the most attractive reason for you wanting to join a network

[00:24:35] Eric Vielfaure – JX Property Management: [00:24:35] referral group though?

[00:24:36]I guess at first when we got the invitation, we were thinking, great, this is an awesome way to grow our business. We’ve got people B and I I actually, I wasn’t too familiar with what VNI was, but when I did a bit of research, I learned that, you got people basically working on your sales team for you.

[00:24:50]They’re spreading your name and that’s a great way to really your business. So that was the. Initial attraction. Then when we got to participate in the meetings, we saw the the energy we saw different people that were part of that group. And that was something that was really attractive to us.

[00:25:03] Definitely the lead generation was one aspect, but also the overall environment of the BNI meeting.

[00:25:09] Dave Kirkland – Essential Business Solutions: [00:25:09] So having a boutique of this property management business like yourselves what kind of, Research did you do behind that? You said you, you checked out some of the other groups and such, but what what kind of led you with that to decide?

[00:25:22] Cause it’s obviously you guys are a little bit analytical. I imagine with us, some of the property management stuff you’d do as well.

[00:25:28] Eric Vielfaure – JX Property Management: [00:25:28] Yeah, totally. Like I said, I didn’t know much about BNI before I was introduced to to this chapter by by one of the members. So it definitely did quite a bit of research there just to learn a bit more about what it was we found out it was a like a global organization.

[00:25:41] So obviously they’re doing something right. And learnt a bit more about the reputation of this chapter in particular, the accelerators chapter and. How it had a strong following and, a good number of members and lots of active members that have been around for a long time. So that was also something that we saw, it’s all good signs.

[00:26:01] Thomas Johnson – Cascade Financial: [00:26:01] Have you looked into any other networking groups before joining the accelerators and what was it about the accelerators that made you choose us over anywhere else that you may have looked at before?

[00:26:11] Eric Vielfaure – JX Property Management: [00:26:11] Yeah. You know what th the networking group was something that was a bit newer to us. We were we have as a business, we hadn’t been around for too long.

[00:26:19] So we were really focused on setting things up. So we didn’t do crazy amount of research into networking groups, but I had looked into actually Toastmasters. And the reason I looked into Toastmasters was. Just that idea of developing a network getting the opportunity to speak with different people.

[00:26:35] Of course, you get the chance to go up front and practice your public speaking skills. So that was something that I had explored. And then, we came across BNI just by coincidence. Like I said, I met One of the members was actually, he’s a contractor and we hired him for a maintenance on one of her houses.

[00:26:50] And he mentioned BNI. And then when we discovered, Hey BNI allows us the opportunity to speak in front of people, just like those masters, but then with the added benefit of that, that lead generation, which is a huge

[00:27:02] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:27:02] benefit. Okay. So I’ve got one question for you. Maybe getting back to your business, how many you’re your residential property manager?

[00:27:09] So you’re helping people who own investment properties, rental properties. How many houses do you currently have under contract?

[00:27:15] Eric Vielfaure – JX Property Management: [00:27:15] Yeah, we have about 110 doors. So that’s not necessarily properties. That’s the units that we manage.

[00:27:21]Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:27:21] Duplex would be two doors, correct.

[00:27:23] Thomas Johnson – Cascade Financial: [00:27:23] Okay. Any advice Eric, that you would give to somebody else?

[00:27:25] Who’s looking to join a networking group. That you think would be the, any actions they could take, that would be the highest return on investment for getting into a network marketing.

[00:27:35] Eric Vielfaure – JX Property Management: [00:27:35] I guess the most important thing is to surround yourself with quality professionals people that you can trust, people that you can network and really get value out of it.

[00:27:44]Finding those tasks that are maybe strategies that are lower costs. But generate the most amount of return, which is obviously ideal.  Think a great place to start is BNI for sure.

[00:27:56]Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:27:56] And research has shown that referral marketing referral network, like this is the cheapest and it’s the best office, the best return on investment for your dollar.

[00:28:07] Yeah.

[00:28:08] Brian Ross – Innovation Fabrication: [00:28:08] Sorry, go ahead.

[00:28:09] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:28:09] No, I was just

[00:28:10] Eric Vielfaure – JX Property Management: [00:28:10] going to say, I believe it too. I agree with both

[00:28:13] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:28:13] there.

[00:28:14]Brian Ross – Innovation Fabrication: [00:28:14] Eric, what have you seen the benefits to network marketing since joining? If you become a believer now spending the time with the people and you would reference Toastmasters, do you find that  what are the true benefits you’ve seen about

[00:28:25] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:28:25] joining

[00:28:26] Eric Vielfaure – JX Property Management: [00:28:26] our group?

[00:28:26]Obviously there’s the fact that you’ve got a, essentially, like I said, a sales team, people that are, you’re spreading your name and working to get you more leads. That’s the obvious one. But one thing that I hadn’t quite realized before joining and when I was looking into it was the.

[00:28:43] The relationships that you develop there in the group and the camaraderie. And when I attended my first meeting in person just the energy and how fun that meeting was really it was really cool. So not something that I was expecting but definitely is a great benefit there if we meet on Wednesdays.

[00:29:01] So it brightens up your day on Wednesdays. When you meet with that group, have some fun over lunch. Another one for us in particular, as a property management business, we’re always looking for quality professionals to work with. We need good electricians, we need good HVAC professionals, all this stuff.

[00:29:15] And now that we’ve joined BNI, we’ve got access to those professionals and they’ve been awesome to work with. So that’s been a great benefit to us as well.

[00:29:24] Thomas Johnson – Cascade Financial: [00:29:24] I think you made a really great point there, Eric. You’re not the first person I’ve had dozens of members current and former mentioned that just the energy from being at that weekly meeting helps them.

[00:29:33]They look forward to it each and every week. It’s a good mid-week boost to get them through to the end of the week. And if nothing, less than just a positive Energizer, there’s a quite a few intangible benefits to having that, regularly scheduled networking meeting with The wrong group of friends and colleagues.

[00:29:48] And I

[00:29:48] Brian Ross – Innovation Fabrication: [00:29:48] think, you know what there’s no cost to doing it. I encourage anyone just to come out to see a meeting, to see what we’re all about, any negative stigmatisms, any and anything that you would, any notes you would see in one meeting, how relaxed everybody is, how genuine everybody is, even though it’s a very structured.

[00:30:07] It’s still very entertaining every week to hear what everybody’s up to and how we can help each other. So it costs nothing to bring a visitor, just come in and see what it’s all about. See if it’s something that would be great for you. And if this can help your business in any way, it’s a fantastic organization.

[00:30:23] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:30:23] And that’s a perfect way to wrap this up.  As Brian says, there is no cost because right now we’re on zoom meetings. There’s no lunch involved. We’re not renting a hall. So there’s no cost right now. And a very simple way to ask for if you don’t know a member of the BNI accelerators, very simple way to ask for an invitation is go to our website, which is business networking, winnipeg.com.

[00:30:45] And there’s a button at the top that says request invitation. So that again, that’s business networking, winnipeg.com and just press the button to request an invitation. Fill that out. It’s going to ask you your name. It’s going to ask you to email and what you do for a living. It’ll come to us and we’ll send to an invitation.

[00:31:02] They are zoom meetings and they happen every Wednesday from noon. Till one 30 it’s an hour and a half long meeting. You get to promote yourself, you get a chance to talk. Tell us about who you are, what you do, what kind of businesses business you’re looking for. Maybe that’s what we’re going to use to, to wrap this up guys.

[00:31:21] I know we have 25 members. Who else do we need in our chapter? Let’s start with Eric. Who else would you like to see in our chapter that would help your business?

[00:31:30] Eric Vielfaure – JX Property Management: [00:31:30] Cleaner would be really useful to

[00:31:31] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:31:31] us. Residential cleaner and commercial, whatever cleaning company. Okay. Awesome. And that’s good.

[00:31:37] You’re looking for somebody that you can give business to. No that’s fantastic. That’s the givers gain philosophy, right? If you’ll give them business, they’ll either return it to you or they’ll return business to somebody else in the group. And that keeps the whole circle going. Tom, what do you want?

[00:31:52] Thomas Johnson – Cascade Financial: [00:31:52] Yeah, my, my number one request would be for a a wedding and event planner. I think our group puts together lots of events. We have lots of businesses who do promotional activities. And quite frankly, I deal with lots of clients who are newlyweds.  Between the three, I think there’s lots of opportunity for that stage in life or that stage in business event for cross promotion.

[00:32:11] And our chapter can support them and I think they could support us.

[00:32:15] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:32:15] Okay. Dave.

[00:32:16] Dave Kirkland – Essential Business Solutions: [00:32:16] I would definitely say a sales trainer or a a coach, a business coach. I think that’d be a lot of value to a lot of us because a lot of us are trying to solve a problem and someone like that would help us guide through the process to be able to do that effectively.

[00:32:30] Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:32:30] Okay. And Brian, what do you need have to give you either to give you business or to give business back to them?

[00:32:37] Brian Ross – Innovation Fabrication: [00:32:37] To for me to give business back to them, I would be a first and foremost for me would be a plumber. For me personally, we build pools, we build tiny houses, always need a plumber. So plumber would be a huge benefit to me.

[00:32:49] As far as the chapter, we need a florist. We could keep a florist busy. And so if there’s any florists that are tuning into this is definitely a group you want to get into.

[00:33:00]Bo Kauffmann – REALTOR: [00:33:00] For me as a real estate agent, we have an electrician. We have a roofer, a painter, an HVAC company. I echo a plumber, a flooring company, a moving company would be huge for me.

[00:33:12]Somebody I can recommend somebody I can trust moving companies. There’s a dozen of just dozens of them out there. They’re a highly unregulated industry and they’re not all very good. I want a good, reliable moving company to join our group. Okay, so that that was our first effort today. If you’ve enjoyed this, thank you very much, guys.

[00:33:30] If you’ve enjoyed this, if you’ve watched this send us some feedback again, go to business, networking, winnipeg.com and leave us a message. Send us send us an invitation request. We’d love to love to hear from you. And we plan to do this again. I don’t know how often, when we can get everybody organized and get everybody together maybe once a month or so, we’ll come up with different topics to discuss and and share our information.

[00:33:54] From the BNI accelerators. And on behalf of everybody here, it’s been Bo Kauffmann, Remax performance. Thank you very much for tuning in peg. Check out the BNI accelerators for more information, contact Bo Kaufman of Remax at (204) 333-2202. Or go to business networking, winnipeg.com.