Naked Bond on the River Thames

Re: Racing on the Thames

Helen does it again! Champagne reception at the London Eye Millennium Pier followed by a Bond style speed-boat race ending with Mel offering to jump in naked - what a great evening!

My latest Blog on the BNI Elite website

Re: Racing on the Thames

23 April 2010

By Mads Nybo Jorgensen

If one ever was to fear a boring Friday evening, fear not; our very own special party-maker Helen Wakeman-Jones arranged the perfect night out including spades of sunshine, a quiet cruise down the river Thames followed by a bit of mellow jazz music with an open bar.

14 members + 2 Elite partners in crime met early for a champagne reception on the Millennium Pier, underneath the London Eye. The champagne was chilled to perfection and so was the pier security - which was desperate to find out who had given permission to serve alcohol on their watch? Before they could react and impound our glasses, we had drunk the apple juice and so the evidence magically disappeared.

The group were suitably kitted out with windcheaters and lifejackets supplied and dresses by the lovely people from the London Rib Voyages company. Strict instructions were added that not at any time was one to pull the cord, unless in the water and the self-inflation mechanism found not to be working i.e. you're drowning!

Two Ribs were summoned to carry the group enlarged by a few tourists. I happened to find myself next to Mel with our backs to the steering and loudspeaker. Followed on by our kick boxing champion Lisa and Stephanie, Linky and Elizabeth, Richard with wife Judy and Alan and Sarah. I am guessing that the rest of the group went in the other boat.

Once boarded, safety checked and signed the disclaimers we raced from the eye up to Canary Wharf. Only slowing down for the Wapping Water Rats station - otherwise known as the Thames law enforcers. Once passed those guys, the Bond music was turned on full blast and the race between the boats was on - check out http://tinyurl.com/37aluqv for a full description of the boats - I can testify that if at enough speed, they will jump the waves.

Check out the pictures here: http://tinyurl.com/3ynkckh

On the return Louise, our Whitechapel based River guide talked us through all of the see-worthy sights on the River and the Houses of Parliament including the legal smoking room. My favourite was Belfast and that it still has the capacity to bombard the M1 - if we didn't already know that? http://tinyurl.com/3amqsof and the glassy building covering the view to the monument is originally build by an Italian Window Cleaner - yep, Louise was a wealth and inspiration of knowledge.

We also learned was that the River Thames is the cleanest Big City River in the world. Mel did later in the evening offer to change this through a promise of walking into the Thames without wearing any clothes - I want to use this opportunity, even at the risk of upsetting certain parts of the Elite chapter, to decline Mel's offer which was given under serious duress.

Upon disembarking the Ribs, we walked to the nearby Archduke for a treat of pub-grub, Jazz and a generous amount of wine. I have to confess that I never got to listen to the Jazz, which I think was the same for most, just too many people to catch up with outside of the usual 60 second fried egg and bacon setting. This was another superb event arranged by Helen Wakeman-Jones - Thank you very much! Let us all go and get her some referrals!!!

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.

Taxing Times

I think that most small business owners will agree that the current times are some of the toughest times that we've experienced. I am splitting my time equally between dealing with creditors, debtors and marketing. It is difficult to decide what is the most important? It still takes me a good day to prepare and write a letter to a creditor, and often I just get a 2 line reply with either "Repeat of their previous request for info" or "yes, that will be ok" - however, it keeps the business alive.

One of the ways that I know that other businesses is having a hard time is by the high amount of sales calls and job applications that we receive on a daily basis. Actually, I think that I've become much nicer when I turn people down - maybe it is because I realize that it could be me or anyone that I know at the other end of that phone or email.

But I am really starting to like the marketing part, go out and meet new people, ask for introductions, think creatively about how you can help this person with Mac Million services whilst adding value to their business.

Tomorrow morning I am doing my 4 min introduction at my BNI Elite chapter. I've already received a fair bit of help from some of the more experienced members. So all I have to do, is to decide what is the most important services that we can offer that is tangible to the group members? In November I'll be doing a 10 min presentation for the same people - this I intend to be the big one - something that for better of worse won't be forgotten in the near future.

On a happier note, on Saturday it was by birthday and I received a lot of good wishes, cards and people were queuing up to celebrate it with me. Had a lovely breakfast with friends at Mange 2, followed by one hour of phone calls, an hour in the gym (hill programme on the treadmill - level 16 at 6.2 speed for 45 min.) and then I went to have dinner and a movie with a couple of very dear friends in West London. They intercepted me in Hammersmith and took me to their tailors; T.K. Max - I had an amazing lesson in designer clothes by a former fashion editor, and was kitted out to look the business. The dinner afterwards was fab too - always involves discussions on a high intellectual level - not sure I get all of it, but I like it and love it :-)

Niels Bohr gave me my quote of the week:
"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future."