Timothy Campbell is an entrepreneurial businessman who first became known by the British public after being crowned the winner of the hit BBC series The Apprentice and going on to become the first Project Director of the Health & Beauty division within Sir Alan Sugar’s company, Amstrad PLC.  Prior to working for Sir Alan, Tim had a very successful career with London Underground and progressed from a Graduate Trainee to a Senior Marketing Project Manager before applying for the high profile business programme.  When he left Amstrad after two years to launch his own business, Sir Alan’s message to Tim was testament to his ability and potential:

“He has been a great asset to the company and I wish him the best of luck for the future. He was the right choice and I will be there to offer any help and guidance should he need it.”

Tim has gone on to found his own entrepreneurial social enterprise Bright Ideas Trust, a charitable organisation which encourages young budding entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds to start business ventures, by giving them greater access to start-up finance, real business mentors and professional services advisors.  Bright Ideas Trust has already generated successful start-ups, much excitement and interest from Corporates and innovative young entrepreneurs alike, not to mention receiving Government backing and praise from senior MPs across all political parties including our Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the leader of the opposition David Cameron.

Tim is well respected within the business community and has had the pleasure of speaking to several audiences across the country including Ernst & Young, Deutsche Bank, Accenture, Citibank, Department for Work & Pensions, NHS, Conservative Party, The Arts Council, Octopus Investments, NSPCC, J P Morgan, Learning & Skills Council and Morgan Stanley just to name a few.  He has shown a talent and ability to actualise his ideas and plans and coupled with his positive outlook on life and what can be achieved by taking a ‘no excuses’ stance his inspirational messages are always well received and sought after.

Tim is fortunate enough to be asked to comment on a variety of topical matters and regularly appears on BBC television and in broadsheet newspapers including most recently the Financial Times.  He is the face of the British Library’s campaign to promote their services and has been described as ‘the human face of business’ by one broadsheet newspaper.

Tim has spent much time within various communities and institutions, promoting an entrepreneurial culture and motivating others, particularly the younger generation, to pursue their dreams.  He is a Cabinet Office Social Enterprise Ambassador and a Child Ambassador for London and was appointed by Beverley Hughes, the Children’s Minister, to focus on the particular problems of the capital’s young people.  Tim is also a great supporter of the Jack Petchey Foundation, the ACLT, as well as the NSPCC and Connexions and has received a number of awards including recently being named as one of the Young Guns by Growing Business and fittest entrepreneur by Men’s Fitness!

Tim continues to follow his passions and believes that anything is possible with the right support and the right people.

Apart from being a great and genuine guy, Rob is a professional speaker, speaking to audiences all over the world. A committed Christian and philanthropist, Rob has a life vision to give away £1m to Christian causes. Rob now makes regular TV and radio appearances and has written over 40 publications on business relationships and reputations. These include the best-selling book of How to Build Your Reputation.

Related Links:

www.rob-brown.com

Ian also has another life as worship leader and semi-professional musician and was in a signed rock band for 8 years before launching a solo career and debut album that was critically acclaimed (it is brilliant, our favourite is Contraflow).

For the last year or so Lou, his wife, some friends and Ian bought an extreme watersports business in Devon and so now his weekends are set up for life surfing and wakeboarding!

Related links :

www.ianfinch.net

www.finchleymusic.com

www.mandogroup.com

www.pointbreaks.com

twitter:  @ianfinch | @mandogroup | @finchleymusic | @pointbreaks

Imagine businesses that make a healthy profit whilst taking care of their staff, ensuring security of employment as well as having a positive effect in their local communities. Imagine a church that engages with the whole of it’s membership, encouraging and empowering members to bring the kingdom principles and thinking into all areas of their lives and society

”There was a time when the church was very powerful… In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it transformed the morale of society.” Martin Luther King. April 1963

“What creates wealth? How do we create a better life?”

“Principle purpose of a company is not to make a profit full stop. It is to do and make things better and more abundantly…” paraphrase from Charles Handy

Join us to rediscover God’s order for Church, Business and society and then imagine with us the transformation and redemption we can bring by being as God intended exactly where are are, doing what we are called to do.

In the current financial climate, now is the time, more than ever that we need to understand how to do business God’s way. His intentions for business go far beyond that of just making a profit but actually offers a wisdom in business that brings benefits to all areas of the community and profit along the way. Is this possible? God says it is and we will show where and how this is true.

If you are a business owner, leader or just feel passionately that your work is where you are most equipped and where your gifting comes through then you need to come to CityGate.

CityGate will help you to fully grasp the importance of what you are doing, right where you are and how that fit’s in to what everyone else is doing right where they are. This is the plan of God.

Are you involved in church leadership or voluntary work? Does your church do too much? Does your church do too little? Have you ever wondered what the ecclesiastical church should be doing?

Come to CityGate to find out what we should (and should not) be doing in our churches according to God’s order of things for His Church and Christ and His followers instructions.

At CityGate, you will be given fundamental theological teaching, mixed with your own experiences and considerations to better equip you in your church to understand the real role God has given.

This teaching will transform the way you think about the church and also your thoughts about what other God ordained domains of society should be doing. CityGate will help church leaders to re-understand their role in speaking with authority and wisdom into those other domains in order to fully engage those who operate in them in a way that bring God’s Kingdom right where they are rather than trying to do everything through the ecclesiastical church movement.

“You can demonstrate all the values of the kingdom in a business, in a classroom or in any domain of society.” Landa Cope

The verb yada, has the meaning “to know” but written in the participle form meaning “knowing”: a present action. In Hebrew yada means to know in the context of ACTION as well as Understanding.

• business & Economics – 7pm Friday 10th to 3:30pm sunday 12th september
• church – Tuesday 14th to thursday 16th september 9am to 5pm daily

You can book by clicking this link.

(If you are an en-thuse:PREMIUM subscriber, make sure you a log in before registering.)

Spent some great time talking with Ian Finch, the MD of Mando Group. What a top guy Ian is, a really genuine “geezer” who is a brilliant business guy. Ian has already posted on the blog and will be speaking at the en-thuse:2010 conference this year, so this video is just the icing on the cake!

In this episode, I talk to Ian about his 13 years in the business. Ian talks about how he balances business with being a new dad, giving and tithing as well as how they have engaged their staff in giving with their new Charity, the Mando Group Foundation. Ian also talks about the value of confrontation as well as their new awesomeness campaign (yes you read that right!)

Here’s the scenario:

I want to use your company services and have made a verbal commitment to do so assuming that we agree on price (something that we have pretty much done). The sale is going well from both points of view. I am excited to be using you and you are excited to have me as a customer.

Good so far. In fact, you could say it is going great so far.

We have questions go back and forth, but they are getting answered well, at least from my point of view.

You then try and close the sale – and ask if I am prepared to sign the contract.

I say “Yes, send it over”.

So now, the sale is going really well from your point of view also.

Terms of the contract

Then I start to ask you about the terms of the contract, and that’s where things start to take a bit of a nose dive as I quickly see all the benefit of me signing this contract is for you, and none of it is for me.

Here’s how the rest of the scenario unfolds:

I am a few months away from needing your services. Consequently, whilst I am sure of what services I need now, there could be a few amendments later down the line – I might change exactly which service I use.

You inform me that once I sign the contract, I am obligated to pay 100% of the fee for each service that I sign up for. If I want to change, I still have to pay for the service that I don’t use.

Mmmm. No flexibility from my point of view. I can understand from your point of view why you have this in your contract, it does make sense for you. it just doesn’t make sense for me (yet).

So I start to question some more. Not only do I have to pay 100% for each service that I sign up for, but I have to start paying as soon as the contract is signed.

Mmmm. Not great for my cash flow. Great for yours though. This is another win for you, the supplier, but not a win for me.

The Key Question in the customer’s mind

So, I ask the key question in all of this: what is the benefit to me for signing this contract now?

It is the key question. Yes I want to work with you. I have my mind up on that. So the “what’s in it for me if I sign now” question now becomes my key question.

Your answers:

You get an account manager and technical help when you sign.

Great, but you know and I know that if I call you (the sales guy) and ask a question – you will answer it. And if you don’t know – your technical people will answer it. You still want me as a customer. You are not going to cut me off until I sign the contract. That would be suicide. So this is not a valid reason.

The time slot that you want is all booked in.

If I don’t book them now, will I loose my slot? Is that why I need to sign the contract? Again, no. I find out that if someone else comes along and wants my slot – you’ll call me first. If I don’t sign the contracts at that point, you’ll offer it to the new guys.

So again – no risk to me for not signing the contract.

You run out of answers for me.

The benefit for me?

In fact, the benefit for me is not to sign the contract: I still get the time slots I need (at least first refusal) at the price agreed. I have flexibility if I want to change services, I still get the service I need to go forward from you and cash flow is much better for me. So I don’t sign. At least not yet. I will sign when it suits me, not you (even though I like you).

In case you haven’t guessed already, this made up scenario happened to me a few weeks ago. I want to use the services of a company – but I didn’t want to sign the contract at that point.

The problem was – signing the contract was a win-lose scenario. Not signing the contract is also a win-lose scenario but the other way around. Our contracts should be win-win.

Takeaways

1. Ask yourself – what’s the point in my customer signing this contract now? What are the benefits for them?
2. What are the benefits for you are your company if they sign?
3. Is there at least some sort of balance between the answers to these two questions? If not, what can you do to change that?
4. Also look at the is terms and conditions (also know as serious constraints) on you and your customers. Is there balance here too?
5. Have you made it really clear what the benefits of signing now are?
6. Is it your contract so good that they will happily sign a second time and a third? Or does it put them off?

I know that I will be looking at ours now!

Extra Takeaway: Thinking differently

What I did here was challenge the norm. The norm in that industry is to sign the contract as asked. Everyone does it. It is what is expected. So my extra takeaway for you here is: challenge the boundaries that are in place. Just because that is the way everyone else does it – doesn’t mean that you should do it that way. There could be a better way if you challenge a little.

What’s your experience with sales contracts (others and your own)?

en-thuse has been set-up and is run by business people for Christians in the Marketplace. Our vision is to change the world of business by journeying with Christians in discovering their en-thuse (God Inspired Passion) and resourcing you through the web, social networking and our annual conference to understand the great call of God to the Marketplace.

En-thuse vision statement

I am really excited to introduce en-thuse:PREMIUM to you – it takes what we are doing to a whole new level of accessibility and connection. Here’s what’s included in en-thuse:PREMIUM:

Entry to the conference.

As you continue to subscribe to en-thuse:PREMIUM, you build up credits that can be used against the conference fee. If you have subscribed for 12 months – you will have built up 12 credits which could get you access to the 2011 conference (or at the very least a reduced rate).

Full Length Videos

You will have noticed on the en-thuse site that we have been adding video interviews with Christian Entrepreneurs. These videos are usually 5 minutes long and are great! I love hearing people’s stories and business lessons that they have learned along the way. The 5 minute videos are are small snippets – often the interviews last for 30-60 minutes. We can’t put all of those gems into 5 minutes, so en-thuse:PREMIUM subscribers will be able to watch the unabridged full-length interview with the Christian entrepreneurs and business folk. The subscription fee allows us to pay for the system that we need to do this. The videos will be a great resource, and we hope to post around 1 per month in our current timetable.

Extra Resources

We will also add on to our website from time-to-time some extra resources for our en-thuse:PREMIUM subscribers. We do like to make what we do accessible to all, but there are some things that we will restrict from the en-thuse site without some form of login. en-thuse:PREMIUM users will be able to view all of the content without restriction. Resources could include PDF papers, podcasts and all manner of digital data.

Directory Listing

Our en-thuse:PREMIUM subscribers will also be listed in the en-thuse.com directory (coming soon) where you can promote you business, website, blog and digital wares to our en-thuse visitors. I really believe that some great contacts and work could come out of this feature alone!

How to Join

en-thuse:PREMIUM is a paid monthly subscription service that is easy to join. Simply click the button below and to start the process. Payment is automatically made each month through Google Checkout so you payment information is incredibly secure. There are no extra charges and no minimum contracts. You can cancel your subscription at any time.

How Much?

it is £22 per month (which includes the VAT – so £18.72 + vat). However, there is a special “Early Bird” discount – see below!

New Beginnings

Please bear with us in the early days. We may not get everything right – but it will be a great journey that is for sure.  Most entrepreneurs are “early adopters” so why not journey with us now, even when everything is still a little raw? It makes it much more interesting!

When you subscribe – enter the discount code: earlybird and you’ll only pay £18 per month (£15.32 + vat). This offer is valid for all you early adopters that sign up by the end of August 2010.

Sign Up

Remember that you can use your en-thuse:PREMIUM subscription to build credits to offset against your conference fee in November. The earlier you sign up – the more credits you’ll have in November. Of course, get access to full-length video and extra resources. We’ll also add your information to our directory as it is developed over the next few weeks.

To join with us on this great adventure – just click the subscribe button below:

Thanks

I just want to say a personal note of thanks to all of you that have chosen to journey with us this way. It makes what we do easier and more effective. It is an honour to connect with you and I look forward to meeting you at the en-thuse conference if not before.

At the end of each year, I will upload a financial summary of where money was spent, but given that this is the first year for en-thuse, we don’t have actual figures yet – but we do have plans and principles.

Current Budget

The main expense this year will be the conference, especially as we using the BT Convention centre. Apparently tea & coffee can also cost quite a bit when you use the obligatory in-house catering company! The administration costs will also be substantial as there are a number of people paid to make en-thuse happen.

As things stand – the budget this year is around £30,000. When we get figures in, I’ll gladly post them on the web.

To raise this money we will look for the bulk of it will come from conference fees (including en-thuse:PREMIUM). There will be some money to come in from sponsorship (I hope) and other bits and bobs.

Also, a number of the speakers and people involved in en-thuse have given their services for free or at a substantially reduced rate. I cannot thank these guys enough for their amazing generosity.

Our Aim

I would love for en-thuse to run an annual conference that has a growing and thriving customer base. At the Convention Centre they have a fantastic hall that I sat in and easily saw us filling it with en-thusees in the next few years (it is a little too large at the moment).

This year though, I would like for en-thuse to cover its costs.

Our Profits

We are talking about whether or not we set up en-thuse as a foundation. This is more for the accountants than me – but my plan is simple. Any profits that en-thuse makes will be used in the following way:

1. Re-invested back into en-thuse to fulfil it’s vision.
2. En-thuse Angel Investment fund for UK based Christian Businesses, which could also include mentoring & coaching programmes.
3. Invested into Micro-Finance projects throughout the developing world with Christian Organisations that promote both the Kingdom as well as help people establish their own businesses.
4. Given to charities throughout the world that meet with the values and vision of en-thuse.

I can assure you that en-thuse is a not out to make a profit just to fill my pockets! Profits made will be invested to build God’s kingdom in the business arena.

Any Questions?

We really are happy to answer questions that you have about what we plan on doing with the money that you invest into en-thuse. Our policy is openness and accountability! So fire them over.

This will be Saturday 4th September 2010 in Basildon (East of London just outside M25) and is hosted by Paul Edwards, the visionary behind this movement.

Paul believes God wants His church to be supported by Christian businesses, so the one-day conference is about getting people to have a vision for success and to want to use a proportion of the profit to support the work of God.

For more details please contact Paul Edwards at:
Datastore Computing Ltd
Tel: 08704 326808 / 01268 414243
Mobile: 07768 901944
Email: paul.edwards@go-dcl.co.uk
Website: www.go-dcl.co.uk <http://www.go-dcl.co.uk>