Business, brides and weekend shenanegins

Posted on Monday 20 April 2009 at 09:03 - Post Comment

Business

T has been working her socks off these past couple of weeks on getting Atmosphere fully off the ground.  A while ago, to help get things moving, she joined a local networking group - part of the BNI network, which stands for Business Networking International.  The idea is that each group or 'chapter' (yeah - I know it all sounds very weird, but bear with me) has one, and only one, of a certain profession within it.  You know, one solicitor, one accountant, one real estate agent, one mortgage broker, one electrician etc etc etc.  And of course, one event planner!   So anyway, T joins, and each week goes along to an early morning breakfast meeting where everyone has a good old chat, learns more about each others business, and ultimately they refer each custom to each other.  So far T's got business cards, design ideas, printing, terms of business, and an accountant from it.  She's also got a few Xmas parties to organise too - which is great news!  It is the perfect way for a new business to get some direction and has done wonders for both her confidence and her business acumen.  I have been along to a couple of meetings a) to check T wasn't getting involved in some oddness, and b) as they have a space for a recruitment consultant.  I decided not to follow it up, but could really see the value in it for T, and she has got well into it.  Good on her!

Brides

Yesterday was the first bridal show of the 'off' season, and the first that T has been involved in.  She's been pretty nervous as it was the first headlong dive into the wedding world that www.atmosphereplanning.com would be taking.  In preparing for the show, she has been flat out in getting posters, competition entries, and cards printed, in getting flowers organised, along with myriad other things.  The day before it T was really on edge - but needn't have worried as yesterday ended a complete success!  Not only did over 150 brides to be enter her competition to win $800 off having their wedding planned, but a couple of businesses are looking to take her on to manage their wedding events.  How freakin' cool is that?  I can't tell you how proud I am of her - having been there from the start and seen all the time, effort and worry that's gone into it.  To see it all in action on Sunday was simply brilliant, and testament to just how great it's going to be.  GO TON!

Shenanegins of the surfing variety

So there's me, the wife doing other things and me with effectively a weekend to kill.  What better way to do it than to try my hand at surfing?!  One of the friends we have made through T's aforementioned BNI group invited me to 'hang ten' (or whatever) on their Saturday surfing trip.  We went to Sumner and the surf was pretty big.  We slung on the wet suits, and headed out into the water.  At each stage I'm expecting a 'so, here's the basics' mini-tutorial but it seemed that this was to be very much a 'you'll get the hang of it soon enough' sort of thing.  I have to say that I thought it would be a piece of piss.  I mean, how hard can standing on  plank be?  Well, pretty hard it turns out.  Even lying on the thing is like wrestling a croc covered in lube!  I never even tried standing on it!  After a while I got the hang of simply laying on it and paddling to catch the waves.  That was all pretty straightforward.  It was the paddling back out to get the next wave that truly killed me - jeez you need some muscles where I simply don't have any.  There were 70 year olds out there paddling further and faster than me - and making it look oh-so-easy.  Even worse was getting stuck in a nasty rip, and being unable to get out of it!  I paddled for about 40 minutes solid before it let me go, and that was with help from John who stayed with me throughout.  I tell ya, I think I'll take a few baby steps before playing with the big boys again.  I sure will give it another go though, watching some of those guys carve it up was pretty amazing, and I think I may have yet another thing to spend too much money on.

Time to get fit

So there's me, over 30, a bit porky, and I've got it into my head that this might be a good idea: www.coasttocoast.co.nz   It'll cost a fair whack (like over $5k apparently!) and the training is pretty full on.  but how cool would it be to tell my kids when I'm old, fat and bald, 'hey son, I did that'.  Hmmm... maybe the bank of mum and dad can help me out....... :-)

OK

Posted by Littletoe on Monday 20 April 2009 at 08:58 - Link

So the image of the croc covered in lube is something I'll not be able to forget! Yes, you GO TON! I met the guy that heads the BNI thing up here, he held my hand for far too long and looked like a character out of the Simpsons with his big goofy grin, I can see why you were worried Wiz! I don't know what its like down there, but its costs almost a thousand here to get in here.Secret handshakes aside, I was a little dubious about how many people 'drop out' of the membership. The Chamber of Commerce on the other hand has provided me with great networking opportunities, have you got one close by? A guy was telling me that Christchurch is notoriously difficult to break into. But sounds like you're both doing extremely well (cheesey thumbs up from Welly!)