16-46, 20-27, 20-28, 17-53, 32-27, 29-17,
12-46, 26-31, 27-10, 10-46, 07-25, 07-26, 21-34, 52-21, 13-42,
03-50 (x3), 03-06 (x3), 22-13, 04-36, 40-13, 40-41.
This week's
leads focus...
- James
Bache
- Reg & Jean Batt
- Bob Becker
Expectations of MABE Members
Round Table
Discussion
President
Brian Verbraken began by reciting the MABE objectives...
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To collect, record and exchange
business referrals for and between its members.
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To encourage local business
growth for the benefit of its members.
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To provide for the display,
sale or publicity of the goods, property or services handled or
represented by its members.
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To develop and carry on
activities found to promote the welfare of its members.
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To encourage business and
professional development within the community.
Our members are expected to
be honest business people that display a high level of integrity
and ethics. We also expect them to instill this in their
employees.
MABE members should not
expect special treatment from other members. But they
should expect trust.
Members should keep their
business description accurate and current. They should not
promote services or products outside their business category.
Attendance is very important.
When members don't attend, nobody benefits.
Members are expected to pay
their dues on time.
Members are expected to be
decision-makers.
Members must be committed to
taking care of clients in an honest way.
MABE is not here to get
involved with your business or tell you how to run it. But
we will get involved if you are not meeting the expectations of
what a MABE member should be.
We are a leads group.
But you are not penalized if you don't use the services of
others in the group.
After
reminding members of what was expected of them, our president
opened the floor for new members to tell the group what they
expected when they joined...
It was John Passante's first
meeting as a member but he was ready to speak up. His
cousin Phil spoke very highly of the group. John was
excited to get involved, make friendships and get business
advice along with any leads that may come his way.
Rich Higgs was fired-up about
the relationships here. He was very interested to see how
long many members have been involved and how interconnected
everyone was. He is looking forward to the social events.
The floor
opened up to all members to say what was on their mind...
Do you think taking time to
give leads is important or a waste of time? Members had
varying opinions. Some liked that it gave each member a
moment to highlight their business. Some believe only
outside leads should be recognized since many of us do business
with each other on a recurring basis. Still others believe
that leads between members can be discussed outside of the
general meeting rather than taking up valuable time. One
suggested that instead of announcing numbers, explain how you
got the lead.
What happened to the brain
storming sessions? Several members expressed an interest
in bringing back the question of the day or having
business-related topics discussed. We used to be able to
bring problems to the group and the other members would help you
solve it. Now people are too embarrassed to admit if
things are not wonderful in their business. Have we gotten
to big?
Size and change go
hand-in-hand. There are benefits and disadvantages to
growth. We loose our comfort zone, then get it back
until the next milestone in membership occurs. It happened
when we got to 20, to 30 and now we are at 50. Should
there be a limit to how much growth we allow?
Do we need to mix up our
meetings? It was already suggested that we reduce or
eliminate the leads announcements. Others suggested items
that have been tried in the past such as small table group
discussions, meeting at a member's facility, having business
forums outside of the regular meetings, etc.
Other
suggestions...Testimonial week, don't be allowed to sit down
until the meeting starts, have a different agenda each week (one
week for business development, one week highlights a speaker,
etc).
There is always room for
improvement. But one comment rang true...Something about
this group has allowed it to last.
"I have a
business problem I need help with" - Jim Crossman
How do I know which yellow
pages to advertise in?
Greg Stewart and Fastframe
has dropped display ads and instead are putting that money into
advertising on the internet yellow pages. It is really
inexpensive.
Dave Spiess also stopped his
ads in the yellow pages. He never saw a return on his
investment. He only got shoppers calling. Sandro
Menasci had the same experience.