Wednesday 4 November 2009

Without Prejudice on doing a Phoenix

Sorry, I've been a bit slack in updating my blog - not to worry, I am being told off for not doing it! - and rightfully so. Mange-2, sandwich, pen and paper is what makes this possible - soon I'll be modern and connect my Blackberry to the internet and email :-)

The really good news is that Mac Million has been busy throughout September and October. So busy that we for the whole year were down by 55% on the same period in 2008, whereas in October we we are up by 126% - that is a great result and a fantastic turn around. As a small business owner I always seem to battle with whether one should draw a line through the debts and "close" the company through a so called phoenix and start again with no debts.
It amazes me how easy this is to do, however recently both my landlord and Revenue and Customs have given me (more) time to pay off the company's debts; it is a very tough plan, but it has to work! To underscore the issue, one of my fellow BNI members told me this morning how he is about to loose nearly £20,000 to a client doing a phoenix - just shows how important it is to take responsibility for debts created and take any action necessary to honour commitments or other small business will topple like a game of dominos. Sadly we in the UK now have developed a culture where it is OK and far too easy to declare your company bankrupt. This is not a good role model for future generations of business people.

Onwards and upwards. Every day doing Network Marketing is a new day for me. I am getting more leads than I can manage and doing my best to find referrals for my colleagues - both in August, September and October I was one of the top referrers in my Chapter. Not setting aside the continued "ownership" of the blue "Notable Networker" badge, I am also seeing the truth of the BNI slogan "givers gain" - this morning I got three referrals. One of which includes being asked to be the keynote speaker at the December Annual General Meeting of a specialist association. This will, I promise, be very boring as I am not one to provoke anyone at such a meeting ;-)

Beside this flush of work I still get time to find new ways of hurting myself through exercise. I've been doing fairly well with a big dose of circuit training and boxercise. However, being one for not liking football and having not played the game regularly since school some 30 years ago. It only seems naturally that I should join an weekly indoor 5 aside game (sometimes we've been three on each side). So far I've managed to walk away from each match with markings on my legs and elbow - I hate to admit it, but I am enjoying the pace of the game and people that allows me to be a true amateur. Even though it is made up of tough Kivi's I still managed to score 3 goals in the last game - but it was not something that could be called beautiful...

Last night I also managed to play a game of Squash - so back to burning carbs - if only we hadn't gone to Ciao Bella for afters.