On the Front Foot

A lot has been written and said about success in life, but most commentators agree that success is more often than not down to preparation and planning. A few years ago I was lucky enough to meet Clive Fairweather, who was second in command of the SAS at the time of the Iranian embassy siege. Clive said that 90 per cent of the SAS’ time was spent training and preparing for missions whilst only 10 per cent was spent actually carrying out what they trained for.

Planning and preparation is also key for your Trade Association. Last year was the first SELECT Awards event managed by SELECT’s new Membership and Communications teamand Canongate, the publishers of CABLEtalk. Lots of planning work went on behind the scenes to make sure the event went off successfully (thankfully it did). However, the biggest bonus was the record numbers of firms who entered the awards and the enthusiasm shown by those Members who did enter.

That’s why we will be spending a great deal of our time over the coming weeks engaging with Members to encourage them to enter the 2015 Awards. Contact with Members is vital if we want the event to succeed. It’s also a great chance for Members to tell their customers and peers in the industry how well their business is performing and that performance will undoubtedly come down to how well they have planned and prepared.

It’s not too late to enter. Please got to SELECTawards.co.uk and enter today!

On the theme of planning and preparation, we are now in the final stages of developing our new website. By the end of August we will have a newly designed and updated site, which is aimed at meeting visitor needs. Our target audience is wide and varied and includes Members, potential Members and customers. We have spent a great deal of time preparing the new site so that it meets the needs of all of these users.

I am sure that you will see and experience a real difference when the site is launched. As well as planning for the new website, we have also been planning ahead to look at ways in which we can further develop the site in the future to assist Members. Work (and planning!) continues on these developments.

New services for Members are also part and parcel of what a trade association like SELECT does for its Members. We are pleased to announce a new scheme which has just gone live. In conjunction with Pike & Bambridge they are offering Members access to a vehicle brokerage scheme which aims to take the pain and hassle away when you are looking to buy or lease a new van or car.

The company already work with a number of blue chip organisations, including the Law Society and they are committed to offering a great service to SELECT Members. A number of Members have already used their service with very positive results and we hope that by preparing a good scheme for Members you will continue to see the benefits of your SELECT Membership.

So, start planning today and put your entry forward for the 2015 SELECT Awards.

Summer 2015.