USA Update

The Patriots, The Yankees, The Knicks (still undecided), The Rangers. Apparently is the only language they speak in New York... I'm gonna fit in just fine! There's actually loads more teams than the ones I listed, they're just my picks! The Patriots technically are not NY, they're New England but they seem to win a lot and i'd like to cheer for a team that win occasionally.

We've been playing the waiting game for 2 weeks now. Even with all the best preparation in the world, there can always be some piece of unforeseen durisdicton that can hold you back, In our case, it was our license to allow us to sell!! Due to us being a brand new start up company in the USA we had no proof of financial records and most importantly no CREDIT! In america i'm told it is worse to have no credit than bad credit. After getting half of the western world to help us (Appco staff from the UK, Australia and American's) we finally have found an Insurance company that will cover us despite us not having a history in the states. Happy days! The application went in yesterday and can take up to 7 days to process (but it has been approved!!). This means that our official first day in the field is imminent.

We have appointed an Administrator who starts working with us on the 18th October and initially she will work as a shared admin between the 3 owners on the ground. I'll print her name when i learn how to spell it but all you need to know for now is that she is lovely and has the best New York accent you've ever heard.

Meanwhile, i'm walking around the city like some kind of martian, people are completely incapable of placing my accent. For some reason females think it sounds English and males think it sounds Australian?

Will have some far more exciting news to update you all on in the next week. Keep an eye out for the video virtual tour of the office (to be uploaded in the next few days) and also for a new blog "The Directors blog".

Appco US will be on Twitter as of Friday as well. Technology knows no boundaries!!

Touchdown in NYC!!

We have arrived! On the 14th September Playfair officially touched down in America and will be trading as Playfair Enterprises inc. What a city New York is, millions of poeple everywhere and its exactly like it is in the movies. The new office is on West 23rd St. which is a stones throw from the corner of 5th avenue and Broadway - arguably the premier location in Manhattan. I've jsut signed a lease on an appartment on West 53rd Street which is a 2 minute walk from Time Square. First day trading is expected to be the 22nd September.

New Owner in Sydney!

How about this for fast.... 5 weeks after qualifying for Assistant Ownership, Anthony has saved nearly $10,000 and as of the 1st August, "Van-Eyk Marketing Solutions" is officially the newest marketing company to be developed within Australia. Cogratulations to Tony and all the Sydney team. The team have some massive goals, none the least to be the number 1 marketing company in Australia. A more thorough update on the mid year sales conventions will follow with photos in the next few days so watch this space.

New Assistant Owner in Sydney

If progression is what you're looking for..... Here's a story for you. Anthony Van-Eyk started with the company 2 years ago in Brisbane. A hugely successful sales person, he has now learned all the skills neccessary, and progressed through the companies internal business development program and this morning was announced as the latest Assistant Owner in the Sydney office. Even more exciting is that Anthony is due to incorporate his company on the 24th July and become the managing director of his own marketing company!! Well done Anthony and all the VMS crew. (Anthony running a morning meeting - right)

The Playfair Organisation Owners

Here's one so you can all put a face to the name. A picture taken from the 2010 annual cobra group convention. From left to right: Vince Edmunds (Promotion to Ownership), Will Lyon (Promoting Owner), Ben Lyon (Promoting owner x2), Chris Kiely (Promotion to ownership & Cobra champion), George Eleftheriadis (Promotion to Ownership). I think the lighting really made me look a bit shorter than I actually am. Ben and Vince displaying fantastically long necks. George looking... enthused and "wowed" by the occasion and Chris quite clearly checking out the trophy girls.

Ben, clearly happy about something. Maybe his shiny new pen with his

name engraved on it for winning the marketing companies sales achievement award.

Only 4 weeks until the midyear conventions in every state around Australia, and our national mid year convention in Auckland, New Zealand. Good luck to all those up for awards.

Sydney News!

Hello to everyone from Sydney!

First things first we would like to welcome 5 new people to the team in Pablo, Simon, Dimity, Nick and rochelle!
We have had another great week improving in the sales with the office on track to do 130 customers which is a massive
30% increase from last week!

We have had some great success stories coming through in the last couple of weeks with 2 of our newest team members Laura and Maria both making $1100 in their first full weeks andalso being promoted into a leadership position in the company ( Come on boys dont let the girls show us up) we also have Brad, Ben and Shaun pushing this week for leadership.
This week we have 2 of our top leaders Paul Nightingale and David Howarth running their own road trips and both teams are doing very well and learning a lot at the same time. On top of all this, we have a lucky group of 5 people who have been chosen to head up another road trip to Canberra next week (Our closest thing to the Nz weather).

We are also lucky enough to have some amazing competions and trips up for grabs at the moment with the IPAD competition running for 4 more weeks and also 2 very lucky people will get to spend 4 days at the Crown Plaza in Coolum on the Sunshine Coast (in a 5 star resort!)
for the mid year charties meeting!The office at the moment is growing from strength to strength with a great group of people, we currently have 20 IC's and 10 leaders and shall be looking to grow towards 30 in the next 2 weeks and take out the number spot within charities
Watch out for Playfair Sydney!

Anthony Van Eyk

New Zealand - Week 2 Wrap up

Ok well the weeks not over yet, but Friday is a great time to reflect on the week that has passed. For once in New Zealand's history, the other code of football has dominated the headlines. The all whites performance has been unbelievable to say the least. A team of relative "nobody's" led by Blackburn, and Christchurch local boy, Ryan Nelson being undefeated at the 2010 fifa world cup. The only problem is they still didn't qualify. Never the less, a fantastic achievement seeing as they are 78th in the Fifa rankings. Earning draws from their matches against Slovakia, Paraguay and current world champions Italy. They were even more unlucky when you consider they scored the same amount of goals as England who did qualify. Why does this feature in today's entry you may ask? Well I think the All Whites demonstrated what a focused, determined and hard working team can achieve with great "Leadership" and not worrying about rankings or preconceived ideas about how well they should or should not be able to do.

What have we achieved in Christchurch this week?.. Another hugely successful week for the Energy team who will almost certainly achieve another "PB" week on the south Island. Tyler Lonard hitting crew management another highlight and also being selected to attend the New Zealand premiers club in Auckland on Saturday (great work!). The Charities guys, after being in great position on wednesday night have left a bit of work to do to hit some goals this week. Mike Nicol's team is coming on nicely and this guy is certainly one to watch out for. Unfortunately due to poor lighting, no suitable photograph's were obtained from Wednesday's Christchurch Idol. Well done to Vince for really setting a blistering pace and paying tribute to "The Boss" himself, Bruce Springstein. "BORN..." Definite crowd favourite.

For everyone in our offices around the globe, please spare a thought for the team in Christchurch.... whilst looking at the weather report the other day i couldn't help but notice there was a difference of 25 degrees in the temperature between Brisbane and Christchurch! Half an hour down the road has received snow and getting out of bed in the morning is challenging at times. Good news is that the winter equinox has passed and we are on the home straight into summer. Good times!!

My "LEGEND" of the week, goes to Ryan Nelson, captain of the All Whites. Great leadership all the way through the Kiwi's world cup campaign. If only England had such a passionate leader at the moment who (quote NZ herald) "just wanted to make our country proud of us". Great work Ryan. You bloody Legend!

New Crew Manager!

Great start to the week in Christchurch! Tyler Lonard who has been with the company under a year, was elevated to a level of "Crew Manager" on monday. His team, "Lithium" is accounting for nearly 80% of our Energy sales on the south island at the moment and he has goals of opening his own marketing company within the next 3 months. Great work Tyler and all of the team. In other, more serious news, tonight we have "Christchurch idol" after work. This will surely be a night, not to be missed. International judges have been flown in especially. Photos will follow over the coming days.

New Zealand Week 1 wrap up

As week 1 comes to a close, now is as good a time as any to do a bit of a wrap up. Chris Kiely, who is one of our high flying new owners has relocated his business from Wellington to Christchurch, and has teamed up with Vince Edmunds. Chris is leading the Energy program, and Vince running a program for Unicef currently. With both of these guys in their first 6 months of running their own businesses my main role is to support and guide the boys through all the ups and downs of managing people and running a company. We set some big goals at the start of the week and at time of writing this, the Energy team was well on track to hit their sales goal and in fact, set a new personal best of 188 acquisitions. The Unicef guys have had a bit of a developing week this week and have some serious work to do to hit their target of 88 donors. The best news is that 8 people were given an opportunity to start with the NZ team, so that puts the location up to 30 ICS's in the location now! That officially means our smallest location has the highest headcount.... there's a challenge to the rest of the guys! Myself and Chris are taking a few of the team to the natural hot springs that i'm told are less than an hour north of Christchurch (photos to follow). I hope they are hot because its due to be freezing this weekend! All in all a great first week, additional bonus that should be noted: I went in to Les Mills (the Kiwi fitness first except better) on monday and pitched them on a deal and I scored a free months membership at no cost. Healthy mind = healthy results.

What's been happening?

Saturday, landed in New Zealand well prepared to get stuck into a good month of hard work in our offices in the colder part of the continent! First stop Auckland, for a little d-tour to watch England battle out the first game of the world cup against America. I was also aware that I had more at stake than the average Englishman. Why you might ask? In September this year Playfair will be expanding to America, destination New York... I'd never live it down.

I draw a lot of comparisons in my work life to following my football team. We have good seasons, we have bad seasons, we have great seasons, and occasionally we surprise ourselves and make it to the European final when no one gives us a chance! But at the end of the day the best thing for me is that its a team, 11 guys on a field with thousands of people sipporting them. Ok, at Playfair we don't have thousands of screaming fans behind us ("yet!") but we do have an awesome team who works cohesively as a unit and working together to achieve some big goals .

Typically, England dissappoint and the first game is a massive let down for the entire country (a 1-1 draw). I have however found a solution to Englands problem (see Image with my proposed stadium for all remaining England games). Not sure if Fifa will pass it but I know a few people.

Sunday, arrived in Christchurch. Big shock to the system was the sub zero temperature (yes -0) that greeted me. It was almost like walking into the cold room in the Thirsty Camel in Bondi, but not walking out again!

The next month is definitely the best preparation possible for winter in New York this year.

Will keep you posted on the latest from Christchurch.

Kia-Ora BRO!

First entry and hello!!

If you've found your way to our company Blog, the liklihood is that you have aleady been through our website and are loooking to find out a little bit more about us as a company. Alternatively, you may just be looking to keep up to date on all the recent activities happening at Playfair.

Whether you are brand new to the world of Sales & Marketing or you have a friend or family member involved with us, then we hope you enjoy our blog to give you an insight into our very active, social, vibrant and enthusiastic company.

We have people from all backgrounds and walks of life working with us from Students to travellers, from Sports people to musicians but generally you will find that the average age is between 20 and 40. However age isn't important it's your attitude that counts. We like to see people that have an open mind, positive approach and who enjoy a challenge and some healthy competition.

People are often very surprised but also inspired at the same time to note how young some of the most successful people in our business are, one of our managers is only 23 years old and manages over 60 people. The director himself is not even 25!

We are a group of motivated, ambitious and determined people.... Welcome to Playfair!