Engineering 60sec Pitch III - Thinking Laterally

Here you will find more networking ideas for an engineering business elevator pitch.

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." ~Victor Borge

Good morning my name is [insert name], I’m a structural engineer and we are [insert company name].

I thought that we all needed a bit of cheering up this morning. So here is a joke.

Ye Olde Networking [Social & Business]

Being a business owner or perhaps the person who has been made responsible for business development, then you would have probably come across the word, ‘networking’. You can’t help but think of carpeted conference suites and buffet breakfasts when you mention it… but today I have something slightly different for you. 

The Giving Gremlins [Business Post]

Don't despair. My weekly post is in the pipe line, It has just been held up in lieu of a few other interesting developments...

In the meantime, perhaps you'll take a look at a blog post which I wrote for a business networking group.

The Giving Gremlins. Let me know what you think.





Engine[er]

6 Golden Rules for Structural Engineering Start-Ups

We are rare beasts. Why aren't structural engineers as common as architects?

Firstly, the law of supply and demand suggests that since engineers spend less time on construction projects than architects, and that we need several architects to keep us busy, then logically there will be less of us out there to fulfil what the market needs.

It makes perfect sense to me. How about you?

Therefore if we follow this line of thought, perhaps we can draw some further conclusions.

Firstly. To win enough work to keep ourselves and/or our employees busy earning money for the business, we must try to be on as many architects, contractors and developers short lists as possible. This will give us more project opportunities.

Great. How's this done? Lucky for us, some golden rules do apply.

When I left my last employer and set out on my own, I was not intending to move to a different area, I wanted to live and work in Hertfordshire. The difficulties began when I took the decision to remain outside of my previous employers client base. This was tough, but i am still managing to do it. In fact I recently refused some work, passing it on to a fellow engineer because I felt it to be unethical to accept it. It is especially tough for us first time business owners who have not yet nurtured a network of business colleagues in our geographical areas.

Very tough indeed.

I've been self sufficient [8 months], built my client base up from zero, and I have enough work to keep myself busy, and 2 part-time subcontractors.

How did I do all this?

The very short answer is - lots of hard work raising my profile. The longer answer follows on from here.

Even though I am still very busy building an exciting new client base, I am also managing subcontractors, gazing into my crystal ball, predicting where the next few weeks of work will come from, and somewhere in between - I personally complete enough work to keep my business running healthily.

With that in mind, I am happy to share with you 6 Golden Rules to help you get started becoming a self sufficient structural engineering entrepreneur. Please bear with me here, as I am assuming that you are ethical, and do not intend to directly OR indirectly subvert work from a previous employer.

So here goes.

1. The amount of work out there is FINITE. No matter which way you look at it, if you are not doing work for a particular architect/contractor/developer, then someone else is. THEREFORE, if you are winning that work, then your competitors are not. You have to be absolutely clear on that fact. I hope you are now beginning to understand who you need to compete with to remain in business. DO YOUR HOMEWORK ON THEM! You know who they are.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Try not to undercut your competition. Out perform them, make yourself available and provide a great service.

2. Market research. Yes, horrendous isn't it? We spend 10-15 years at university and in consultancies, building up the necessary knowledge and confidence to strike out on our own... and just as we do, we then have to assume the identity of a flouncy creative marketing type, just to pull in some work. How embarrassing.

NOTE: you could employ a marketer here, if you have the savings available. But trust me, only you will understand your business aspirations and technical strengths. The marketing strategy you employ should be centred around YOU, and not just what you are capable of delivering.

Ask yourself searching questions about what kinds of work you will be comfortable with. Do it now before it's too late, and for Gods sake - write down your conclusions. Sorry to disillusion you at such an early stage, but we are a technical resource. We are not special in anyway... but you as a person... well let's just say there's only one of you.

TOP TIP: Cold call potential clients. Prepare for the conversation with 10 questions, and grow a thick skin. Write everything down. I said that already didn't I?

3. Your third realisation must be that by simply setting up a stall called 'structural engineer for sale' will not get you any meaningful work by itself. An effective strategy would be to get a notepad, and fill it full of your access passwords to freely available online classified websites, social networks, and professional profiles. It is seriously important in this age to get your net presence as pervasive as possible. MAKE EACH AND EVERY PROFILE ENTRY CONSISTENT. This will help the search engines identify you.

Be a tart, be you. Find me at @AvatarEngineers. I'm a tart.

4. Architects are well know for being fussy and only referring to their clients responsible professionals. Quite right too. This means that you must be a fully paid up member of the institution WITH insurance. If you cannot afford to buy yourself professional indemnity insurance then forget engineering [full-stop]. We may personally enjoy taking on a risk or two in our line of work [educated risk obviously], but if you were to fall foul to a heavy claim, and subsequently found to be negligent, then you could be saying good bye to your car, or your house as a result [or both!]. Not to mention your career and possibly your freedom. PII will not save you against the latter 2 unpalatable but rare outcomes.

5. Be natural and consistent. This has been touched upon previously. What this does for you is any potential business referrers will see you as predictable, reliable and a safe bet as a result. Being natural is just about being you, enjoying your work and not stressing too much. You should also be striving for this 'feel' with your marketing voice. The up and coming generation are a social networking generation. If you fancy working for and with them on cool projects in the foreseeable future, then get an online mojo and flaunt it.

One of the best compliments I have ever had was from an architect friend of mine. We met up just after I had started up my company. She had read my blog and commented that my whole online persona was identical to my real life persona. She congratulated me on a job well done. We all should strive to deliver our personal message as best as we can.

6. Network. Yes yes and yes! Tart yourself about a bit. Learn from other business people, ask questions. BE INQUISITIVE. Early on I managed to find a great networking group local to me who are doing fantastic business with one another. It is a great way to raise your profile, and be known as a team player. Life's a team sport, sign up and stake your claim.

In this post I have avoided talking about the lists of essential engineering skills which you will need to master in order to survive as an engineer in the real world, but you will already own these - because you are thinking about setting up on your own, aren't you.

We all have a responsibility as engineers to raise our profiles, even if we do not yet have the fantastic honour of working for ourselves. Our engineering community is a small one, and the faster we get noticed as creative, industrious, and reliable professionals - the easier it will be for us, and all of our fledgling engineering entrepreneurs.

I am constantly telling everyone how great we are. More often than not though, I have been informed that I do not fit the 'template' for a typical structural engineer.

This is disappointing. But the way I see it is, the more people who I meet that have those preconceptions about us structural engineers - the better. You see I can help change that particular mindset, one client at a time. With everyone's help that is.

Could you do the same? If so, contact me.


Engine[er]

Location:The Peahen, St Albans, Hertfordshire

Dipping in your Toes [the journey begins here]

Good morning. Last post I spoke of marketing [in 60seconds] for an Engineer.

Well, to that end I have recently been frequenting a newfangled [networking] get together in St Albans, my home town. A completely dressed down and informal way to meet local business owners, and a rare opportunity to chat about marketing, SEO and social media with the experts - without being the subject of a sales pitch.

I managed to glean many golden nuggets of information from the afternoons socialising [special thanks to a kindred snowboarder Gabriel Homer]

The group call themselves An Afternoon in the Pub. I warmly suggest that if you are in the area of Hertfordshire when one of their meets is scheduled, come over and have a chat with them.

So, without further ado... please follow this [link] to my guest post for them.

As usual, let me know what you think and watch out for my Friday blog post later!!




Engine[er]

Engineering a Personal Brand [in 60seconds]

Never has it been so important to present yourself to your employers, colleagues and clients as somebody special and worth investing time in.


The final quarter of last year saw another dip in national construction output and with the prediction being that the economy is expected to move sideways for the first quarter of this year - it spells tough market conditions and limited project availability for most of us. [Double Dip Recession?]

If you are a graduate looking for your next placmement, a self-employed freelancer or an Engineering business owner seeking to increase both the quality and and quantity of your client base - you have lots of work to do, and it starts with Personal Branding.

Q. Why is it important to market yourself as an Engineer?
A. Simple, most of us engineering types are initailly thought of as 'safety first', non-practical, nerdy and introverted. Differentiating yourself from the crowd, and making use of rare opportunities to show off your unique personality and skills are key. Be the exception.
"First impressions are the most lasting, and they both open and close doors."


Q. How do we even begin to market ourselves?
A. The first stage is to understand what it is that you are working with. Ask your friends, family, colleagues and clients to be frank with you. Have them tell you what it is that you impress upon them, their lives or their businesses. You may not fall in love with their initial comments, but take heart from those willing to take the time to help you out. As it is obvious that they are interested in continuing a relationship with you.
"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things" - Winston Churchill.

Q. When do we begin to market ourselves?
A. Now. Take the positives from what you already learned about your personality or 'personal
brand' and amplify those sentiments using a 60 second pitch [elevator pitch], and online tools - such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and blogging etc. Practice and apply consistently your key personal selling points, and this will in time begin to form the pillar of why your clients decide to do business with you, rather than than your competitors. Give them a reason to come back rather than relying upon selling cheaper or quicker design. Every Engineer can provide that at some point in their careers.
"When networking, nothing is more essential than having a prepared 60 second pitch"


This has been [60 seconds].


Engine[er]

A very special club

Time to update you of my experiences with the ubiquitous networking group - the BNI. Givers Gain!

I have been enjoying watching others describe and present their businesses in the mornings. I also have found the time to research and present my own 60 second pitch, several times so far. I have my good mornings and my bad ones. I do however feel a lot better about the public speaking now though. Really happy about that.

My observations to date are that if you follow the rules, take on-board the training and listen to the advice given by the longer standing members and your mentor - then you won't go far wrong. After a few weeks or perhaps months, you should start to receive positive referrals from other members - as they begin to understand more about what it is that you do... and who you are.

The 'who you are' is a very important part of that equation. It is essential that you take time to communicate effectively with your network buddies. Why? My opinion is that the 'who' in the equation is the first thing which is called into question - especially when you begin to introduce the other members into your circle of friends and family.

In truth, an almost unanswerable question hangs over the act of 'selling' the services of other members to your friends and family; and this is never properly addressed. This 'not so minor' linchpin to being a successful referrer could well be causing some confusion for some new members. So how exactly do we resolve this rather important issue? Let me share with you my experience and the conclusions which I have drawn from them [please note! I am a beginner in the affairs of the BNI and do not believe that the more experienced members will suffer from the same confusion as someone like myself]:

The BNI approach [not a unified approach from what I have seen]
The advice given to me was this - trust is an important factor when you begin referring out your networking colleagues, without so much as a "hey" or "how you doing". It would appear on the face of it, the current system means that you may need to recommend others services before you feel 100% comfortable. Therefore you must blindly have faith that the BNI system works, and that everyone in the chapter are true to their words. Business men and women of substance.

My Interpretation  [from experience and joining several dots]
I do not believe that this is how the BNI wishes you to proceed AND most importantly, I do not believe that this is how things are carried out [in the most part]. The reason being is that quite simply this behaviour would not be sustainable. Word would quickly get out that anyone who is a member of the BNI gives poor referrals - and this creates severe problems for everyone involved.

Now, just because I don't think that it happens, it doesn't mean that it doesn't happen! My eyes are cast towards the newer members of chapters. How do we know when we are not crossing that blurry line by referring our BNI colleagues without fully understanding them? It is a serious business when a friend or family member asks you to refer to them a trusted service provider.

Another quite interesting connotation here is this; if you had invested a lot of time and energy into a network group, you wouldn't want new members throwing scrappy introductions your way or indeed, giving referrals to those of us who may have been so unavoidably busy, that they cannot respond in a timely fashion - thus shaking confidence. This kind of behaviour, if left to run rampant and unchecked could very well rock the foundations of a quality networking team. Bad news for every person involved.

So again, I must ask a question for you. What can be done? Well, luck has smiled sweetly upon you, I am an Engineer with a crazy bag of tricks. One of my favourite tricks is ideas generation. Try these on for size;

Problem: new members are to hit the ground running and produce results as if they were a seasoned BNIer. This possibly leads on to poor quality leads, and potentially shake the confidence of those outside of the networking group. It's like an invisible rot.
Answer: remove certain networking responsibilities from newbies, until they have been properly trained or even until they have given their 4 minute launchpad presentation. I found the Member Success Training incredibly helpful, but even after that, I would have been grateful for a few weeks of respite. Just so that I could sign up for some more training and chase some essential 1-2-1 meetings with certain members of my chapter; before I began giving referrals. [if the truth be told... I couldn't wait to get started actually ;-)]
Likely Effect: this could slow the transition from newbie to productive member of the group. During the transition, it could also become painfully obvious that some new members may not up to the challenge and will probably drop-out rather than pass-out.
Answer: ask new applicants to only pay the start-up fee and training fees up front. Then pay the yearly membership once they have passed onto member status. This keeps the member quality high and creates a feeling of ascension to something special...

Now, the above suggestions may result in a slower take up of applicants ascending to full membership - but it does demonstrate quite a reassuring set of standards to those outside and inside of the BNI fold. I suspect that you may see more guests willing to take a punt at the membership if they felt that they had only a modest deposit to make, and in turn they gathered up a few new connections and a chance at becoming a member of a very special club.

Finally I would like to add that new members may wish to partake in a very mindful strategy of only referring those who they have managed to have 1-2-1 conversations with OR keep the referrals very small to begin with. My advice is to choose a few smaller, less expensive service providers, and go to town on them until you have found your confidence.

Happy to be part of the BNI.


Engine[er]

BNI The Givers Gain

Huge post today. "givers gain" this is the motto of the Business Network International group, the BNI.

I have flirted with joining a breakfast networking group before, and was fortunate enough to be invited as a guest to BNI Chariots (St Albans) on two occasions before I decided that my aversion to early morning meetings was to be finally trumped by my natural curiosity... trust me that's a BIG amount of curiosity-full-ness.

First things first, I accepted the 2nd invite and then decided to turn up without any preparation apart from a 60sec elevator speech tucked away in my notebook, and a quick delegate search to reveal who I'd like to be introduced to. Apart from that I wanted to experience this event raw. Grrrrr.

My hosting member was very welcoming, as quickly as I could store in my memory some new names i was pushed towards a member who was deemed to have an overlapping field of interest to my business. He did, he was a building repair specialist. Nice chat [cap doffing].

Once the majority of the delegates had arrived the rather pricey buffet brekkie was unveiled (£10). I have to say this as even though the fry up buffet was absolutely lovely... the price was more expensive than dining at my favourite Sunday morning haunt - which is THE BEST FRY UP EVER! Carluccios, St Albans.

With a plate full of delicious early morning nosh I was ushered into the meeting area and given a predetermined seat at a table. A chance to very quickly network with my neighbours whilst eating and before the main event got underway. Very civilised.

A large portion of almost ceremonially announced BNI stats and figures were then presented to the congregation, before each and every delegate was asked to in-turn, to stand up and pitch their businesses. Included were their hopes for the week ahead and a sprinkling of commentary describing their past weeks trials and tribulations - all in a rather stingy 60 second window. Having said that, the system works! You can get really creative in 60 secs, as some of the more entertaining members proved. Lots of laughter ensued and then it was the turn of the invited guests [me included] to introduce ourselves to the networkers. Unfortunately for me though, I decided at the very last moment to go with an unprepared pitch, and shook uncontrollably during it's entirety. Like a flappy bird i was. I got a laugh though, which was welcomed by my fragile ego. Cheers guys!

Next up was the opportunity for the members to personally announce and hand over their weeks worth of gathered referrals, to each of their network team members. It was great to see such a gratifying response from everyone as the referrals were gifted to their intended recipients. As a bonus, anyone who was able to muster up atleast 3 referrals during the week was subject to congratulations from the entire congregation by way of a round of applause... and 5 or more got a standing ovation! Very very American, was what I thought! Almost a kind of 'we are in it together' attitude. Made me smile. Not a criticism at all.

After this we were asked to listen to a special 10 min weekly pitch by one of the longer standing members about their business. Congratulations to them. A nerve wrecking chance to pitch yourself to the others, expertly taken.

After another round of BNI stats, figures and philosophies, the guests were asked to leave to endure the sales pitch which was aimed at filling the guests in with as much info about the process of joining as possible, in a very small amount of time. I had already written a few pages of questions during the meeting to entertain the members given the task of pitching to us. They must have loved me.

OK, so far you have heard about the mechanics of the meetings from a guests point of view. I spent the next week researching the BNI and seeing if it integrated well with my business plan AND PHILOSOPHY. Matching up my needs with those of the networking group, I found a common interest.

I wanted more customers and a higher local profile. They wanted another member to add to their sales team who would work just as hard for their members as they would do for their very own business. That's me. Fairs fair.

During my experience, and for your interest, I managed to note the following points for anyone thinking about joining or visiting as a guest;

1. Do you 'guest it' for a week or two? YES! This is a no brainer. Do it. If you get invited, look into it further and treat it like a cool morning chatting to more local business people like youself. THIS IS NOT A WASTE OF YOURS OR ANYONE'S TIME.
2. There is an underlying religious connotation to the whole proceedings. Speak to the individual members and this feeling evaporates. Speak to the guys and girls doing the membership organisation and the feeling returns. GET OVER IT. We have been trained by our parents to resist this kind of recruitment drive from a very early age, and we will have the immediate feeling of repulsion to it. Please bear in mind that this is an American founded system. With the very best intentions, they are all over these kinds of groups... It's in their genes. Not us Brits though. Treat this like a business deal. You invest your time, you get the reward, and so do your sales buddies. If you like the thought of socialising too - then that's cool aswell. Don't fall into the trap of mistrust.
3. You reap what you sow. Or to put in in the words if BNI, "givers gain". Again this has a very religious flavour to it. The only reason this works is through the commitment of it's members to one another. End. If you are not prepared to work for others as hard as you would work for yourself , then don't get involved. It makes a mockery of the system. Jog on.
4. To learn is to grow. You will learn a huge amount.. Presentation skills, networking, marketing, relationships... the list goes on. This is worth the initial investment alone.

You may be getting the idea from my post here today that I am sold on the idea of the BNI, and you would be wrong for thinking that. I am sold on the IDEAL. Now let's see if it matches up to real life.

Engine[er]


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:The Peahen, St Albans