Fundraising
Q.What's this 'Creating Community' all about?
A.In short... Basically if you want to rasie money for your favourite school, charity, sporting or social club, then every time you or one of your fellow members of that school, charity or sporting club order something through Big Time Wine, enter your special code, you then raise a percentage of the price you paid for your Big Time Wine goods that goes directly back to your chosen school, charity, sporting or social group via a quarterly cheque.
Q.Come again?
A.Look ... say you buy $100 bucks worth of wine from Big Time Wine. You enter a code that says you are part of 'Joe Blow's Footy Club' at the checkout whilst completing your order, two things then happen.
One - we send your wines out to you as per normal. They arrive on your door step in a couple of days.
Two - it is automatically noted, through the code you entered, that up to 10% of your purchase is returned to 'Joe Blow's Footy Club'. so not only are you getting the wine that you ordered, but now your chosen group 9being Joe Blow's Footy Club) is also getting up to $10 because of you.
Q.$10 isn't very much!
A.Well it might not even be $10! Depending on what deal we make with your school, charity, sporting club or group, it may only be $5.
...But then again it might be $20!
You see, we'll be offering 'double back deals' and getting suppliers on board who may offer more for a special time period or similar.
Q.$20 still isn't very much...
A.You're kidding aren't you? Say your chosen group (whose code you entered) has 100 members for example. And say that 50 of those members ordered something off Big Time Wine every month. Say they spent on average $100, and say that the return your chosen group has in place is 10% - or $10 for every $100 spent.
So, this means that your chosen group ('Joe Blow's Footy Club) gets about $500 a month to do with as it wishes. Times that by 3, and this means that every quarter 'Joe Blow's Footy Club' gets $1500 from Big Time Wine. Not bad I reckon... it sure is a lot of sausage sizzles and cake stalls!
Q.That's pretty impressive when you put it like that. There must be a catch, or a limit?
A.Nope. That's what makes this whole thing so attractive to the community. The beauty of this is that if you were a school for example, trying to raise money for a new shed or something, if you get all your parents to buy at Big Time Wine, you could probably buy that shed in a quarter of the time. You also get this money from Big Time Wine aside or on top of all your usual fundraising activity that you normally do. Like Fete's, Cake Stalls, fun runs etc
It is the fundraiser that never sleeps or never stops making money for your group!
There's no limit on how much you can earn either. The more your group buys the more your group gets back. It really is that simple.
Q.So how do we get involved?
A.The first thing is to contact us at Big Time Wine and let us know your name, the name of your group you would like to get involved, and the contact name and position of the person we need to speak with (e.g. school principal; fundraising manager; club president etc). We can take it from there. Would only take a few days before it was all up and running. (You can do all of this in the question box on the left of this page). We'll make an appointment with you or the designated person involved, come out and see you and get it all happening.
Q.That's easy enough and all well and good, but how do we really make it work for us?
A.The best way is to let your members/participants know about it via email, newsletter or something similar. You will be provided with a specific code for your group only, so that every time one of your members orders from us, they enter the code and your group (e.g. Joe Blow's Footy Club) gets the money allocated to them.
You can control this from your end, or alternatively give us a list of your members and we can send out information to them for you.
The trick is to get the information to everyone and continually make the information accessible. Keep promoting it in other words. Your group's own website etc would help. If you don't have a website for your group, we can set up a special log in section just for your group on Big Time Wine. That's right - we'll even provide our website to give you a website!
Q.Wow - that's pretty good... our own website home at no cost. Has to be a catch!
A.No catch. We are quite happy to give your group a home. If you go to the front page you will see that the 'Be The Ball Golf Tour' group has their own sign-in gateway. They simply click on the logo, enter their log in details, and they get to see all of their results, news, info regarding their golf club and the competitions they run in-house. No one else can see what is going on - in essence it is their own site. Oh yeah - they also raise money to go towards their yearly tour every time they choose to buy something on the way out.
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BTW Frequently Asked Questions
We try and give some answers to questions you might have. If you can't find a question or answer that satisfies your request, please contact Tosh directly using this email link:
ASK TOSH
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DELIVERY...
Q.How much is your delivery fee?
A. Delivery is FREE! We don't add delivery fees or freight charges (except in rare cases such as large format or difficult to transport products such as 6 litre bottles - and you will be informed of an additional freight charge for these).
Therefore, when you are looking at our prices you should always take into consideration the delivery/freight charges other companies will apply to your purchase - at checkout point usually. No nasty checkout surprises from us!
We don't like to add fees etc. YOU are our most important asset and we like to be up front with you. So, if you think our prices are a little more than you'd like - remember this INCLUDES FREE DELIVERY TO YOUR DOORSTEP ANYWHERE IN AUSTRALIA!!!
OUR PACKAGING POLICY
Q.How long does delivery take?
A.How long is a piece of string? If you are in a major city or relatively easy suburb/town to get to, delivery shouldn't take longer than a few days.
If however, you live out the back of whoop-whoop and delivery infrastructure isn't as well set up as other areas, delivery can take up to 10 working days. Generally speaking though, this is rare.
PRODUCT & PRICING...
Q.What do I do if I want something but it isn't on your website?
A.Easy - simply drop us a line via the CONTACT tab at the top of this page (click BTW Inquiries on the drop down list) and we will do everything we can to get exactly what it is you are after. You can also use the question box in the left hand column of this page - easy!
Q.What if I can get one of your products from a competitor at a better price?
A.Tell us! Look, our most important people here at Big Time Wine are our customers. You - in other words! If you can get something from someone else cheaper than you can from us - but would really like to give us your business - then provided we can secure supply of what it is you are after, we will match the quote (some conditions apply - the main one being we don't want to lose money on the deal either!). However, in saying that, for good, strong repeat customers of Big Time Wine (Big Time Winers in other words!), we will even take a bullet (being a poor deal for us) for you at times if we think you are a fair dinkum friend of Big Time Wine. Don't worry - we'll know! We know all of our customers. And they know us... although some of them don't publicly admit it!
OWN BRANDS & CLEANSKIN...
Q. I notice you have some products that I have never heard of. Fred is one such wine. How do I know what I am getting?
A. Fred is a product that is our brand. In short a Tosh brand. He is mine. We are lucky to have someone of the calibre of Brian McGuigan either making or overseeing the production of wines made specifically for us. Where else could you get a 100% Hunter Valley Shiraz for just $10 a bottle? Seriously... most Hunter Valley shiraz is way above that point. And you don't have to worry about quality. Our brand, our pride on the line. Fred is our best selling red wine by a mile and is simply magnificent value for money for a quaffing, everyday, non pretentious wine. The reason we can keep the price so low is because you aren't being asked to pay for any additional 'hidden' charges such as marketing, advertising, packaging and other such costs associated with many more commercial brands.
Q.Will you be producing any other such brands?
A. Yep,sure will. We have a beautifully aged Chardonnay at present - Spring Mountain - made by Brian's daughter Lisa. Just for us. And you! Chardonnay i one of the few white wine varieties that age well under the right conditions. Spring Mountain fits into this category and should realistically be $12-$15 a bottle.
We also have about 6 new wines on the way... including one which we will be a huge hit over next summer!
Q. What about cleanskins?
A. Glad you asked. We have been searching high and low for quality cleanskins. The thing with cleanskins is you have to really sort the wheat from the chaff quality wise. There are some dodgy ones out there! We've managed to nail down a few which will be available for sale very shortly. Great quality at great prices.
As an aside, I hear people say cleanskins are just wines without the label. That is true of course. But when you hear that you can apply that to every wine brand out there - they are just cleanskins WITH labels. Generally you'll also get all the costs as well (in the price) - label design, application, advertising, marketing etc etc cleanskins essentially cut out all of these additional costs.
MIXED DOZENS & WINE CLUBS...
Q. Do you do hand selected mixed dozens?
A. Yes we do. Generally you will find these under our 'Cool Combo' link on the Home page. We aren't like some wine companies in that we don't have a paying membership wine club. These sort of companies tend to hit you up for a membership fee and/or lock you into an annual buying commitment. You get wine each month. A lot of the time the wines start off great in quality but can tend to dip over time. Especially if they are all from one region all the time. I was a member of many wine clubs over the years... so I know!
We prefer to continually offer great mixed dozens, from all regions, and don't rely on locking you into any formal agreements. We know our Big Time Winers will support us and let us know what they like and don't like.
WINE EVENT ATTENDANCE...
Q. I live in a regional centre and would like to have a wine event once or twice a year. If I organised it, would you be able to supply the wines and/or guest speakers etc?
A. Of course! One of our specialties is helping organise and run such events. This year alone we already have 40+ wine events locked away in Sydney. We can help out with anything like this - just ask Tosh.
Q. I am not interested in organising wine events myself, but would like the opportunity to attend any events in my area. How do I go about this?
A. Simply keep an eye out for details of upcoming events on Big Time Wine. We will beginning our own programme of wine tasting & wine meal events in the near future. These will mainly be held in Sydney's Darling Harbour precinct. Our retail partner - City Cellars- has a lot to do with these.
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Fundraising (cont...)
Q.So do we have to have a site with you on Big Time Wine?
A.Not at all. Some groups, school, clubs etc already have their own site. Therefore they don't need us. The offer is there for those smaller groups who may be a little too small, or not have enough organization/funds/knowledge to set up their own. No catch - it doesn't worry us either way - but obviously the offer is there.
Q.I notice that the 'Be The Ball Tour' on the front page of Big Time Wine is for a golf group. They must be pretty big?
A.No way - they only have about 20 members. They're a social club too! We cater to big and small - Creating Community again! In saying that they have raised a stack that goes towards their yearly trip away. They did this just buying as they needed wine, beer, ciders etc through Big Time Wine. No pressure from us. They don't buy they don't get anything back. They buy though!
They also run a weekly tipping competition through the portal logo. Use their space as a noticeboard to members etc for whatever they talk about. It also keeps a history of their social golf club. That's important to them - that in years to come their little golf club has it all recorded here on Big Time Wine, and they can access it any time they like. Very convenient.
Q.So I guess you must post their information on the site for them?
A.Yeah we do. It has to be that way. It's pretty simple though. The designated manager/president/communicator just emails through what they would like posted on their special part of Big Time Wine. We post it for them.
This works for them in that they get all the info they want posted for their members, who in turn visit the site, click on the logo and log in whenever they feel like it.
And it works for us in that it keeps the site 'clean'. That is no material is placed on the site that we feel may be inappropriate. We are amount Creating Community - not lowering it.
Q.With the fundraising again - we must need special licensing or something? Or you must need it?
A.No, not at our end. We just trade as we normally do under the laws and regulations required of Big Time Wine. Provided your members are over the age of 18 there shouldn't be any other issues really.
Q.Say we wanted to do a wine, or beer tasting or something like that throughout the year to raise even more funds - could we do it and would we need special licensing then?
A.We could do it - no problems. We are quite happy to help organise and run tasting events or supporting events to your other fundraisers. We would use our wide network of suppliers to help out here if we needed to as well.
Licensing would become an issue if you wanted to run this wine tasting event somewhere that isn't licensed. But you also need to remember that special licenses can be applied for, for one off events. These don't cost a lot, and we can transfer/use our license to help you make it happen, for the event. We would need to work it all out prior to the event, but we are more than happy to do this.
Q.What if we had members that were part of two or more fundraising entities (e.g a school and a sporting club).Can they put two codes in the designated box when they are checking out of Big Time Wine with their purchase, and halve the return between the two?
A.Ah-hah! No - you can only pick one entity that the fundraising money will go to. Hard decision I know, but that's the way it works. Who means more to you? Maybe you could have the fundraising return go to one entity one purchase and the other entity the second purchase. And on and on ...
Q.What if someone gives the special code for their group out to someone else? Or someone guesses it when they are ordering?
A.No problems from our end. Your designated group/entity gets the fundraising money back still.
Q.So how do you decide how much my group/entity gets back every time one of us buy something from Big Time Wine?
A.That's decided when we sit down and quickly wrap everything up with your delegated person. Put it this way - you will be getting something for nothing no matter what it is. And each time we reach an agreement we can review it yearly. This way if you are ordering more as a group we'll give even more back!
Q.Does this include the delivery cost? Say I buy a $100 case of wine and the delivery fee is the $10 flat rate. It costs me $110 all up. And say my group gets 10% back every time one us orders, this would mean we get $11 back - right?
A.No. You would get $10 back for the $100 purchase. The freight component is regulated differently legally and taxation wise. It stays the flat $10 (or current rate) and is exempt from the fundraising rebate calculations. Goods only in other words.
Q.And when would we get that fundraising money back?
A.This will be worked out when we initially set up everything between your group and Big Time Wine. General rule of thumb though is every 3 months.
Q.Mate - this sounds sensational! Thanks for answering those questions. Right now I'm on my bike and off to hook up my kids school, footy and netball clubs, my social gold club and my wife's local charity. You guys are sorry you ever did this!
A.No we won't! The beauty of this whole thing is that it really is 'Creating Community'. We are helping those who help themselves get those much needed funds for whatever it is in their community - small or large - that they need.
And the basic premise is that if you don;t order anything you don't get anything. But if you do, as a community, you'll get heaps. But either way - there's no pressure. No contracts. No 100 page agreements filled with a million clauses and sub-clauses. Just us working together ... Creating Community.
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