Hi my vibrant Venusians, Happy October!

So… daylight saving has kicked in and the good news is Summer isn’t too far away – yay! The bad news is Xmas and 2020 is just around the corner. I went into a shop the other day to be confronted by Xmas decoration – I actually found it very, well, confronting and just a little disturbing!

2019 seems to have gone past a lot quicker than 2018 – how does that happen? I’ve just got back from a ten day holiday in the Whitsundays on the Great Barrier Reef, the days were bright, sunny and the water was warm. I love the feeling of the warm breeze and I’m looking forward to a stunning 2019/2020 summer – hear those weather gods?!?!

So what have I been up to since you heard from me?

I’m happy to report although my laptop is still being rather demanding I’ve been getting out and about to meetings and doing lots of POWER RAVE’s with members.
What is a Power RAVE you ask? A Power RAVE is all about helping you work out your networking plan and how Venus can help via facilitating introductions, ideas and the power of the Academy around your membership. I love doing these – it’s all about the possibility and opportunity that exists for our members, and it’s great to be able to be involved in that.

We’ve also done our first return to the Charities Commission which feels good, and incredibly grown up! To me it formalises and solidifies the charitable status side of the business. (Of course there are a myriad of forms to fill out and information they need so I’m also glad it’s a once a year job)

Loyalty Plan continues to be extremely popular with you all which is great. How did I know you’d be okay with paying less each year you’re in Venus?  Makes sense really, saying thank you for your continued commitment!

Payment plan is also proving popular, seems everyone is keen to manage their cashflow as well as be a member of Venus!

Venus Training Academy

Venus Business Essentials is now live and currently being run through by some of our members as BETA testers – so far so good!

Business Essentials is all about the basic foundations you need to have in place to run your business. We’ve put this together to help you, our members, with your business plans, sales plans, marketing plans and financial plans – what’s the saying ‘failing to plan is like planning to fail’ – none of that in Venus thanks!
This programme is great to take yourself through whether you are either starting a business or even if you’ve been running a business for a while. It’s amazing how sometimes we get so involved in our businesses we ‘can’t see the woods for the trees’. Our businesses are continually changing constantly so revision is a pretty good business development strategy!

Obviously as loyal Venus members you are going to get it cheaper than anyone else. We’ll be launching it early November to Venus members for $97.00 and to non Venus @ $147.00. Once it goes live I’ll email you all out a link.

Jen Myers, our Venus Academy Manager and I are working through getting all the workshops sorted for next year, we’re putting together a timetable of what is on when in order that you do some forward planning.

Remember Venus workshops are $195 for those on 6 month memberships and $162.50 to those on twelve month memberships. These same workshops sell outside of Venus for $325 per head. If you are keen to look any workshops or programmes and $ is an issue we can do payment plan, talk to your VRM and we can take it from there.

Our Growth Programme is also already proving popular, although we aren’t going to launch this until next year we’ve had a lot of interest. This programme is almost at the opposite end of Business Essentials as its focus is on businesses that want to scale up and become bigger, stronger and want to grow to the next level.
Through the Venus Academy you can grow yourself and your business and be as successful as you want to be. We have a wealth of knowledge available in the network so why not use it to help our members?

We then, of course, have our Business Management programme which has been run very successfully and will be run again next year, another invaluable programme on your journey as a businesswomen.

All the detail about what is on where can be found via the Eventbrite tag on the website, it will show you what is going on where. Payment plan options are available for workshops and programmes, we want to make it easy for you to do these.

If you’re keen on anything ‘Academy’ get in touch with your Regional Manager and she’ll get the ball rolling for you, alternatively contact either myself or Jen Myers, our Academy Manager.

We’ve also re-written Summer School for the 2019/2020 period – it is now four modules that will run through January and help you get yourself sorted to rock your next business year.

Remember, the best investment you can make is in yourself!

Venus Networking

So how are you getting on with your RAVES and Referrals? As you know we ran competitions for referrals – all those that give us a referral and the resulting guest joins will go into a draw to win a box of wine. Additionally, we’re ran one for RAVES and referrals – the more you did the more entries you get.

We’re currently totally up the results of these, some of you are truly amazing. The idea behind this was to reward those that are really supporting one another, as well as Venus itself. We should have the numbers finalised over the next week or two and I’ll announce our winners. I can see from the Guest Registrations though you’re working hard so thank you.

Loyalty and Payment plans are very definitely having a big impact on new members as well which is great, they are seeing Venus as a long term investment from day one.

Done your networking plan for the last part of 2019 and the first part of 2020? It’s under 90 sleeps until New Year’s eve! We’re here to help and to facilitate as much as we can, use us. Remember your VRM or I am always there to support you – if you haven’t done a POWER RAVE and/or a networking plan with either one of us drop us an email and get one sorted. No point in re-inventing the wheel!

For those of you who haven’t participated yet Zoom Power Hour and Member Success workshops continue to be popular – this is a great way to network from the comfort of your own home/computer with the wider network – because of that, we are going to be running more using Zoom as a delivery mechanism.
We are also looking at re-writing Collaborative Teams as a on line workshop for delivery via Zoom in 2020 – stay tuned.

Venus Virtual, our on-line networking option is going from strength to strength. It is also a good option for women in popular categories to get in to Venus if they can’t get in to a group. I’d encourage you to perhaps come along to one of the on line meetings as a guest – you’ll meet some pretty great businesseswomen you wouldn’t meet any other way.

Free Month

October-March is generally a very busy time in Venus. Lots of businesswomen wanting to get in to Venus before years end and then again first thing in the new year.
We want to grow the network for everyone’s benefit. Think about the women you do business with, the women you work alongside, how about inviting them along? The more of us that there are, the more we can support, encourage and motivate one another, step up and run amazing businesses. You and your business will benefit from the community as it grows, the more of us there are the more businesses we can work alongside with, collaborate with and can recommend us.

For each person you refer to Venus you get a one-month free membership when they’ve joined and paid their membership fee. Get them to register online or put them in touch with your Regional Manager.

Inspiring Business Women

Why be the best kept secret in business – we want the world to know you exist!

Inspiring Business Women is a way to promote yourself and your business to the wider network. We feature these each Wednesday on all our social media (FB regional and national pages. Instagram and Linked In), they get good attention from members and members of the public alike.
By filling one of these out you run the risk of being seen by potential clients or businesses that you could collaborate with.

Fill in the link and tell us all about you and your business!

Venus Foundation

Why are we doing all of this? The drive behind Venus is to build the Venus Foundation and help NZ businesswomen nationwide. This is our charitable purpose, our reason for being. The Venus Foundation will provide scholarships and interest free loans.

As a Venus member you are getting involved, supporting the Foundation and helping build a legacy for businesswomen in NZ – thank you.
We want to be the one-stop shop for businesswomen in NZ, the place they go for advice and support in setting up, running and growing their businesses, among a community of women like you, wonderful supportive like-minded businesswomen.

We want to be the organisation that helps businesswomen with their personal and professional development. We want to make our services and our training and development affordable for the majority. Simply we want to be the business that makes the difference for them.

How can you help? Whether you’ve been in Venus 5 minutes or 5 years you have something unique to contribute to this community – you. Your continued support of Venus as a member is exactly what we need to help us help whomever we can. The skillset, business and life experience each of us brings is what is important and what helps. If you know a woman who is running a business that she wants to grow and develop she needs to get involved in Venus.

Support us – tell everyone who will listen about our wonderful community, invite them to get involved. By doing that you’re not only helping Venus, you’re helping yourself.

Until next month my gorgeous gals!

Carolyn

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