Points programme - Getting involved in a larger way

So who might be more interested in getting involved in a larger way, to get really large rewards

It might be those who have time, such as a mother with school aged children who can see she could use some of the spare time she has while the children are at school, instead of looking for a part time job.

It could be a couple who see this could make an exciting hobby, utilizing their spare time to help others and accumulate an enormous reward themselves.

It could be those who have difficulty raising sufficient funds by other means and see that just a few hours a week could allow them to build the deposit that they require, or to put in more effort and use it to buy their home completely.

It could be a person who has just retired and looking for an interesting and rewarding thing to do. 

It could be a student or some other person who has some time on their hands and can see that this could be used to get them to a position, where in the near future, building a new home of their own, will be far easier with a fat deposit.

It could be you, if you sat down and worked out just how you could recruit members in your area, and how many you could sign up.

Discretionary grants can be used to recover costs in many cases where you want to put on a whole series of events, allowing you to utilize some points to cover your costs so achieve far more.

The roles of consultants and researchers are not explained here but are covered in an article on what they do and how they are appointed in the articles section. Some off these are also members and qualify for points under the points programme, but the extent and arrangement of this is not covered here but dealt with in their commissioning contract.

So how do you go about recruiting other members

If you are able, try to have something to show them, and remember that very many people don't have access to the internet, so are unable to read what you can here, or where they have, there may be just far too much information for them to absorb. Instead they will need someone to show or explain to them just what the club is about. Producing information to create a show book can very easily be done just by copying sections of pages from this web site to a word processing page, formatting it a little and printing it out. You may also find our simpler site aimed at first level interest from those who have read press articles of interest it is at www.self-build.org.uk  You will find in stationary shops, many show books and pockets that can be used to build a really posh show book to suit exactly what you want. Don't over do it you can cut down on the amount contained in the main section of this web site and don't need anything from the other sections unless you feel it would help you. 

You may find a ring binder containing sections from other pages, articles, case studies and page cut from self build magazines, and even a few handouts from package companies involved in self build, would give you back up information to answer questions, but the largest impact this may have is in giving you more confidence that you are fully prepared. It can of course be built over time, so you don't have to do everything before you get started, and if you did , you may just not get started at all.

Next you need people to show the information too. You probably know 50 or more if you make a list of all those who you feel may find it interesting. You are not looking to join up all of these, in many cases they may not be able to become involved, although many of them will see its a really good idea, however they are likely to be able to tell you of a whole range of other people who you should be showing this to, so the list of contacts becomes longer. As you discovers how excited people find this even if its not the right time for them, you will loose any nerves you have and look forward to the opportunity to share your enthusiasm. 

Its a good idea to have something to leave with them, perhaps a bulleted list of benefits and contact information, so that should they think about it further and realize that it could be for them, they can get in touch and also so they can tell others and call you to tell you who is interested. You may find that a simple offer to give them a bottle of wine for each lead they give you, that turns into a new member, will provide the motivation to tell people and to remember to call you with the contact information.

When your list starts to thin out, next you need to start finding more people to talk to, but go slowly, don't promote so widely that you just can't get around to see people who show an interest. Cards in shop windows just mentioning the club, what it does and your phone number for more details will produce a steady stream of interest, stick out 20 or 30 cards in shop windows and you may have a job to cope with the interest it generates, but you can always increase the number slowly over time. Look to see what groups meet in your area and need a speaker, this could vary from the Women's Institute to the Young Conservatives, to putting on a coffee morning to help schools raise funds. Remember always that you are not selling, just telling others of the exciting opportunity the club can open up for them, and remember to give out lots of contact sheets or cards, so people who are not themselves directly interested can tell their friends to talk to you. You will also find quite a few people will say that its not for them, but then go away and think about it further to realize that it could be. Don't worry about overlapping, it may be that you have spoken to them before, and at the time they just thought about it, and have been thinking it through but not got back in touch. 

Occasionally an evening on the phone just calling all those you have spoken to before is worthwhile, but don't try to persuade, you want them to enjoy your calls as a friend, not dread the next call from you, just check how they are, and if they have thought of anyone else who might be interested. 

Every new member you sign up, will become another point of contact to get to more people. Most won't want to become involved in the points scheme and perhaps offering a bottle of wine for every person that they put you in touch with and who joins up will produce a steady stream of leads to keep you busy. Similarly announcing where you work, or in any clubs or groups you belong to that anyone who wishes to join and join you in a celebration with some nice wine and a pleasant evening together could easily produce up to 10 new members. What you do at this level is entirely up to you, only if you want to go for larger promotions, we do ask you to talk to us first, not that we want to hold you back, but we don't want you to stir up a vast amount of interest and then not be able to cope with it, leaving people frustrated or with a poor image of the club. As we have to travel to an area rather than like you already being there, our approach is to promote in a small area at a time, put on presentations in hotels etc to allow as many people, as possible to hear of the club, we can't do what you can in following up contacts and seeing lots of people individually who just might be interested, and this gives some of you the opportunity to be jointly involved in local campaigns and while we do the large presentations you can follow up after and see others who are interested, but not yet at the point where they wish to join up. In some cases these could be organized by but in most cases it will involve members working together on a point sharing arrangement. You may find it helpful to have an experienced presenter/member who could just attend and undertake the presentation for you.

Affiliates are not members in their own right but affiliated with a member, so no membership cost are involved by them at that stage, and they can earn points to cover membership costs as well as large grants. Usually this will involve a point sharing arrangement, perhaps the affiliate and the member getting half the points each. You will see from this that it gives you the capability to get organizing, start with one affiliate to see how you get on with motivating and supporting them and then get a few more. You can see before long you could be expanding to the point where you can have a range of events on, run larger promotions, undertake door to door leaflet drops and more, realizing that a half of what a lot can achieve, if managed and motivated, can be much more than you can generate on your own. We suggest you start by undertaking things yourself, as you will find it very difficult to appreciate what is being achieved or missed by others, if you have no direct experience yourself. Information on the affiliate scheme can be found by clicking here.

What restrictions are there imposed by us.

Very few, you have to be honest, truthful and not mislead people who join. Never try to pressurize anyone in to joining, allow those who are not interested to have the right to choose not to become involved. Like all clubs we want to keep as many of our member as happy as we can, don't want to give false hopes that cannot be achieved, and encourage members to become as involved as they wish.

We do ask that amongst the information that you produce is an exact copy of the current membership rules and conditions and that you make sure that you try to leave a copy with all new members you sign up.

We do ask that you don't set about large campaigns without either first getting quite a bit of experience at seeing potential members, so you know just what you can cope with or by first arranging it with us so if the demand outstrips your ability to cope, we can put on events in the area so people can at least get to hear what its all about.

We are careful never to treat you as an employee or an agent working on behalf of the club, but as a member. The points programme is only open to members  who of course are also governed by our normal member rules and conditions, and to affiliates working with members. You likewise should never look on this as income as this would make it subject to tax, the points exchanges are done as non repayable grants, and come from the international support company outside the UK.

How do we know who to reward the points to.

On the membership application form you use, you add an additional line under the membership signature and date, and this should contain  the line 'introduced by member, and your member reference'. If you wish to share the points between members or between a member and an affiliate then see the details on how to do this under the affiliates page.

What about the future

At the moment the Bpoints program is unique to the Self Build Homes Club, but other clubs are looking at becoming involved. Property Club International, and the Property Pension Club should be offering the chance to earn more Bpoints soon. The Holiday Property Club is also still looking at it. This of course means that you will have other groups of people interested, and even some you see now who don't want to join the SBHC you may have identified other interests and be able to go back to them later.

How many members could you find.

There is no known limit to the market, other than as a parentage of the population that could qualify for funding. 

The uptake so far is small in comparison to the number it could apply to, this is because we have concentrated on the service as opposed to marketing it. 

So what can we compare it with. One of the lesser known holiday schemes that people buy points to go on self catering holidays in overseas property, but you still have to pay annual maintenance costs, flights and some other costs, require people to spend around £7,000 to have enough points to go on holiday alternate years and more to go more often. They have around 35,000 members. We believe membership of our club is far more attractive than this and would be relevant to a larger percentage of the population.

So why is there membership so much more than ours. Well they have a franchise arrangement where people put on presentations across the UK and sell their points. You would have to buy a franchise in this case.

What about the size of other organizations with membership fees, the National Trust, English Heritage, bird and wildlife charities.... well they all have very large memberships.

If we take another situation, an individual was given the challenge over a 6 months period of recruiting extras for an agency representing TV extras, a registration fee was payable to register, with no guarantee of any work coming up. Working on this a couple of days a week putting on presentations in different places around the UK.  He recruited in 6 months around 3000 people. We asked him how many people he thought he could recruit if he were to promote the club and he thought that with the higher cost on club membership it would probably be about half the number, so he estimated that if he was to put in 2 or 3 days a week he would recruit around 3,000 in a year. He further looked at the points and grades and estimated that he would probably get an average of 25 points on each, and that this represented  75,000 points a year. With 9,500 points getting a £200,000 grant,  his estimate would give him approaching £1.6 million a year. Of course this is not all for nothing, he would have some expense in hiring rooms, in advertising and in duplicating forms etc. We think he has over estimated what he could achieve, however even if 3 times over, its still a very sizable potential. Next year he is going to put in some time so we may be able to update this with some actual results. We have no objection to anyone making as much as they like.

This does not answer the question to the number of potential members there are or how many you could recruit. 

It is impossible to say, each individual will have different abilities, and put differing levels of time and resources into it.

Like any business idea it should be looked at sensibly and the number of events, promotions or interest estimated and from this the conversion factor estimated, which will allow some idea as to the number of each type of member that would be recruited each week or month.  

Like any exciting new venture, it tends to be those that get in early and see the potential, and then put in the effort that get the large rewards. Most members will not be interested so it will most likely be a small number that make a lot and quite a few that get pleasant rewards, a house paid for or more.

Some are clearly going to do very well, thank you. The question remaining is, will it be you?

See also in the media section, the statistics page.

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Self Build Homes Club is an international club and trading title of Self Build Homes Club llc. Local services
 to serve members are commissioned for the club by New Atlantis International Services Corporation.
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