Building contractor
“In the last nine years I’ve been a member, I’ve turned over more than £1.8 million of work that I only got because of being a member of BNI...”
Tracy Averies of Tracy Averies & co Building Works Ltd - Building contractor
If you know a ‘lady builder’ in the Thames Valley it almost certainly is Tracy Averies who specialises in renovation and extensions and her business, Tracy Averies & Co Building works Ltd, turned over £1.8 million thanks to BNI referrals. Tracy explains how BNI works for her as a builder.
“I joined the Reading Central Chapter about nine years ago. I’d never heard of BNI and went along to the Basingstoke Chapter launch after being invited by a friend of mine who was in one of the caring professions. She thought I’d benefit from it, so I went along and I agreed and jumped up and down, came back to Reading and found that BNI Central had a vacancy open to builders, so I joined it immediately.
“To be honest, I’d been building at that stage - I’ve been building for 15 years, I was about seven/eight years in then - and I felt that I wanted to be in building for the long gain and that meant that me getting more professional, getting more of an advisor accountant instead of just someone who’s just reactive and does your books. I wanted somebody to hold my hand through that registration, through HR, through getting all my contracts in place with staff. Getting all the things in place that needed to do to make myself a professional outfit to last the course. I wanted to be in building for the next 30 years really at that point. I knew I had to get more professional, more organised and BNI has helped me to do most of those things so far.
“Some of the people within the Chapter I’m using – well across Chapters I use lots of different people across Chapters. Some members have come and gone and I still use them even though they’ve gone, because BNI doesn’t suit everybody. There’s a painter and decorator I still use. But there’s also other painter and decorators I do use in BNI, because I use three or four of most of the trades because now we’re bigger, a one-man band can’t supply all my needs.
"BNI has helped me find the right people to grow my business.
“In the last nine years I’ve been a member, I’ve turned over more than £1.8 million of work that I only got because of being a member of BNI. I record everything and that’s a direct result of being a member of BNI. Consistently it is about 30% of my work over the lifetime of my membership so far.
“I genuinely think that the people that are successful in BNI are not really in it to get business. You look beyond that and look to the bigger picture that life is about giving and receiving and the more you give the
more you get back. In BNI, after you’ve been a member five years plus I think, that you suddenly realise, well it’s not about what you get; it’s about how much you can help other people. I believe there’s a point that you reach in your membership of BNI and then it all becomes sort of exponential.
Real Member Stories: Builder
“BNI has helped me find the right people to grow my business”
“I know I counted my first million because of BNI, and I shall probably continue because I have a spreadsheet – you do get to a point where you don’t even think about what’s coming in, it just comes in without studying it too much. Your way of thinking becomes much more about what you can find for other people and how you can help.
“I’m quite a strong believer in the training we get and I try and attend quite a lot of training and I can give to the group, to the people that haven’t got time to go to training. There is also a ‘Green Club’ for the highest achieving members and I got a fantastic referral worth over £100k because of being in the Green Club. In the second month of being in the Green Club I got that referral and, so I’m a big advocate of it. Work hard to get your traffic lights right, use the training and advice: You’re working with the people who are the top referrers in Berkshire and Wiltshire and they’re all switched on.
“To builders thinking about becoming part of BNI, I’d say the most important things that not everybody gets when they’re first a member, is that it’s not about what you get out of it. The people that get a lot out are the people that give a lot. Not necessarily giving up their time, but really think about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. Yes, most people who join BNI are trying to grow their businesses, but it’s more than that, it’s helping other people along the way. Because when you’re seen to be helping other people, you’ll be the one that people turn to and want to give their business to. Because they see you are the nurturing type and that you’ll look after their best customers well.”
Contact Tracy Averies
Call: 0776 333 8163 | Email: tracy@tabuildingservices.co.uk | Visit: www.tabuildingservices.co.uk
Tagged as: Trade & Property
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