December 8th 2010.
A very legal focus for todays meeting where we discussed the franchised solicitor as opposed to the large practice solicitor.
November 24th 2010.
The members at todays meeting discussed a variety of topics centering around the small business owner.
November 10th 2010.
At todays meeting the discussion centred around payingyour bills in a timely fashion and expecting the same in return from clients.
October 27th 2010.
Yet another lively discussion was held with regard to the benefits of SEO as opposed to ensuring that your website has up to date relevant, regularly changing information.
October 13th 2010.
A lunchtime of pure networking and sharing contacts and ideas. Look forward to feedback from the contacts and invitations that were shared.
September 29th 2010.
Setting systems in Place before a Marketing Campaign was the topic for discusson at this meeting and attendees went away will thoughts on their marketing strategies.
September 15th 2010
Marketing on a Shoestring was discussed and many ideas were shared and plans formulated for Marketing activity.
September 1st 2010.
During this meeting we discussed aims and aspirations on the run up to Christmas and discussed what was working well for different businesses and how Franchise restrictions hold some businesses back on their marketing and particularly on their use of Social Media.
August 2010.
During August of this year we decided to take a holiday and return to Networking on September 1st.
July 7th 2010.
Richard from UKTI attended lunch and made us aware of how they can help businesses look for work abroad, develop overseas working and help make contacts abroad for those who are thinking about it.
June 23rd 2010.
Budget Update with Whittingham Riddell. Thanks to Ed Williams we had a next day update from the Budget on factors that could affect Business. Very interesting with a discussion taking place afterwards.
28th April 2010.
An energising session discussing Selling in a Rural Community and how it differs from selling in the Towns and Cities. The group deduced that the key was built on relationship building and buying from people you know ant trust with less emphasis based on price. Trust was key to the buying process, with the benefits being a longer business relationship coming out of thiss process.
14th April 2010.
A session of general networking and looking at future goals followed a Networking Master Class. Those in attendance spoke of their plans for the next 3, 6, 9 & 12 months and shared thoughts and ideas with each other.
31st March 2010.
Mark Parry and Nigel Crockford of TSG gave us some very valuable information on Internet and Data security, whatever the size of your business. With so much information and questions fielded from the table that we only touched on the complexity of the subject. We will cover this again next year.
17th March 2010.
A lively debate was held on the merits of Twitter opposed to LinkedIn for the promotion of different business sectors. The members in attendance gave advice to each other as to their experiences.
3rd March 2010.
Open networking abounded and business talk flew back and forth across the table with one of the key topics of discussion being about the fit between Sales & Marketing (a Workshop will be built around this shortly)
3rd February 2010.
We had a very interesting talk by Sarah Bowen of Young Enterprise, where she explained what the programme is about in both primary and Senior schools. She also explained how it helps to Continuous Professional Development. To contact Sarah e-mail sarah.bowen@yewm.org.uk
23rd December 2009.
Christmas Social @ The Parkway in Ludlow. A very convivial 3 course lunch was enjoyed by members with a healthy discussion about business and networks.
9th December 2009
. Selling to Rural Business was this weeks' topic for discussion with talks centering on the relationship building side of selling being so important in a rural environment.
25th November 2009.
Discussions centred around personal safety for the sole/remote worker after which those in attendance talked about the core of their business and gave some interesting facts about their specialism that were intriguing.
11th November 2009.
After the first Rural Meeting Place Networking Masterclass a meeting was held where all of those in attendance concentrated on the content of their 60second presentation and concluded that 60 seconds was in fact a long time when they thought about it!
28th October 2009.
A lively discussion was held on networking as a way of gaining business.
14th October 2009.
Discussions were held around Autumn and Christmas planning as well as the period between Christmas and New year. For the professional businesses it was felt that things stayed as normal on the run up to Christmas but the period between holidays would a good opportunity to gather information and make direct contact with staff on duty to obtain contact details of the key people in a business.
October 7th 2009.
Held at The Ramada Hotel Bewdley we welcomed many guests and had a working Lunch around the theme of 'Are we coming out of the recession?'Businesses told of how things were looking up, that pricing was an issue as other people were looking to get an executive package at bargain basement prices but that all in attendance were holding their own, which was great news to hear.
September 30th 2009.
A lively debate was held around the question 'Who inspires you most and why?'
September 2nd 2009
Open networking with lively discussions about the best way for Accountants to promote themselves in an arena that will capture a more discerning audience as well as many other topics of business interest.
August 19th 2009.
A very good meeting where we discussed the business pain that members were feeling and how it could be addressed. Points of discussion were collecting payments and specific areas of marketing business as well as how to get out of a low paying category of clients for a more affluent clientele.
August 5th 2009.
Tapas and cocktails made the members think about celebrating their business and how they could do this cost effectively. Ideas were passed around about reasons to celebrate, new offices, product launch, new partnerships etc that would warrant getting old and new clients together to celebrate these moves and then to up sell products and skills to this audience.
July 22nd 2009.
A busy meeting with new members attending with a lively debate.We also found out some interesting facts about competition balloon racing.
July 8th 2009.
A very good discussion was held with David Henderson of Alliance CO2 who talked to the group about offsetting your Carbon Footprint by way of planting trees in an environmentally friendly way.
June 24th 2009.
Working lunch format discussing a variety of business issues pertinent to those in attendance.
June 10th 2009.
A working lunch where an indepth discussion was held with regard to the business needs of those attending.
May 27th 2009.
Peter Simmons of Border Contract Vehicles updated the group on the Shropshire Environmental Alliance meeting that he attended on our behalf. The outcome of the meeting was that 4 questions of an environmental nature were prepared for candidates in the local elections to respond to.A discussion was held around this and then networking prevailed.
May 13th 2009.
Promoting your business cost effectively was the topic for discussion. Subjects discussed were e-mail marketing and radio advertising.
April 29th 2009
.A general business discussion was held along with intensive networking and an Update on the Budget and how it affects your business.
April 15th 2009
. Re:Think Grant and Evans Easy Space. An introduction on the easy in easy out office space at Ludlow's Eco Park followed by a very interesting talk on the grant for business called Re:Think
April 1st 2009.
Ricky Price of RP Computer Solutions gave us information on backing up computer data and virus prevention. A very interesting session.
March 18th 2009.
A discussion was held on offsetting your Carbon footprint. Some facts and myths were explored by the group.
March 4th 2009.
Jill Barcroft from County Training spoke about the Courses available for Business and discussed funding options. There was a very lively Q&A session afterwards with an opportunity for all attendees to promote themselves for 2 minutes.
February 18th 2009.
Improving your presentation was the topic fordiscussion and a handout of 25 top tips was given out to members. Tips were also exchanged on drawing prospects into the purchasing chain and on setting the timeline for this to happen.
February 4th 2009.
Cancelled due to inclement weather conditions.
January 21st 2009
. Another information rich meeting with introductions to new members and leads exchanged.
January 7th 2009.
An information packed lunch was held with contacts and ideas being exchanged between those in attendance.Attendees discussed their aspirations for the year and how they were going to achieve them.
December 17th 2008. A fun Christmas get together was held at The Parkway in Ludlow with a lot of Business discussed at the same time.
December 10th 2008. Jacqui Casey from Shropshire Council attended the meeting to update members on the procurement procedures for the Unitary Authority. She also confirmed that the 'rules' were similar for all Authorities and that all contracts over £30,000.00 were detailed on their website. Members took advantage of the situation to ask about contact details for their own particular field of interest. Contracts of under £30,000.00 had less strings attached with the threshold of £15,000.00 also having 'looser' rules and provided that their was a papertrail to back up selection criteria departments could use whichever supplier they felt happier with. Payment terms for Councils is now 10 days which is kinder to SME's.November 26th 2008. A lively discussion was held covering a wide variety of business issues, in particular the new VAT changes that take place on 1st December. Thanks to Richard Heath of DRE & Co who up dated the group.
November12th 2008. A discussion took place with regard to the English language and the effects it has on business, covering the receipt of CV's with poor spelling, typos on websites and much more.
October 15th 2008. Are you breaking the Law? Held at The Parkway Restaurant we were interviewed by the local paper about the Effects of the Credit Crunch, ready for next weeks publication. Afterwards, the discussion was about the information that you need to display on your Business stationery, either paper or electronic and many in attendance were surprised by the amount of information required under the Companies Act of 1985 and updated in 2007. Thanks to Whittingham Riddell for some excellent handouts that they prepared in readiness for the meeting. Following on the discussion concentrated on the benefits of Blogs for business and how they can be used to make you an Expert in your field and also to raise Company awareness over a longer period of time. A topic that will be re-visited under marketing in the near future.
September 17th 2008. A working Lunch.
September 3rd 2008. John Dee of BLWM outlined their services, spoke about becoming eligible for the suppliers register and answered a great many questions from around the table.
July 23rd 2008. Johnny Themans of Icon Business Solutions gave a very informative presentation on the 3 vital steps to business success.
July 9th 2008. A very useful presentation from Lisa Blair of Lanyon Bowdler Solicitors on Minimising the Risk of Bad Debt. Those present went away with handouts and indepth information on how to tighten up your Terms and Conditions to ensure that you can recover any payments outstanding from clients.
June 25th 2008 A very informative discussion on the benefits of Chamber membership as well as further Hints and Tips on dealing with Non Payers.
June 11th 2008 Walking away from clients whether they are existing or potential, was the main topic for discussion. Emphasis was made about the fact that as business owners we are in control of who we work with and on what terms.
May 28th2008 The meeting saw an intense discussion on how members present could help each other achieve their goals. Marketing was a strong need and how sending information to the local press could achieve some of the marketing goals was also discussed at length.
May 14th 2008 an informal discussion on Business.
April 30th Directors Lunch 2008.A very successful Lunch was held at The Crown at Hopton Wafers with special guest Peter Pawsey of Advantage West Midlands, The Rural Regeneration Zone and Business Link West Mercia. Peter gave those who attended an overview of his stance in the various roles he undertakes and then took questions from the table as well as contributing to Business requests for information and Business Development.
April 16th 2008. Business Continuity. Presented by Paul Silver of PJS Services Ltd left members thinking about how they could protect business information without spending a fortune. Regular back up of computer information. Taking care how much unprotected information is on their Blackberry or Laptop. Have they backed up the numbers on their mobile phone? How easy is it for someone to walk into your premises and access information
January 23rd 2008. A group discussion was held on setting Goals and Objectives for the coming year and how they could be adapted to changing economic climates. At the end of the meeting the Members started a wish list of whom they wanted to meet. We shall be working on the list over the next few weeks ready for the Directors Lunch.
January 9th 2008. BBC Radio Shropshire attended to ask members their opinion on the future of Small shops on the High Street ready for their evening programme. We later discussed SWOT analyses and how they can tie in with your Business Plan.
November 28th 2007. Social networks and how they can if not monitored eat into staff time.
November 14th 2007. How to get paid within a reasonable time frame was the main discussion with a secondary debate on Skills needed in business. The key skill being telephone answering by all staff, whatever their position.
October 31st 2007.In depth discussions were held about specific member projects and how other members could provide help and contact to make them grow.
October 17th 2007.Getting the most from an Exhibition. Give guests a reason to visit your stand with either a draw or giveaways.Keep ahead of the times and be innovative with your display using the latest in print and graphics as well as Audio Visual products will give you an edge on the standard literature and handouts. Look at your body language, open your stance to receive approach from browsers. It was generally felt that if a stand had a powerpoint or such graphical display at least people could view your business if you were busy interacting with another guest.
3rd October 2007.Topic for discussion being Getting more Business. We focused on getting more sales from existing clients and using the 80/20 rule. Asking for referalls and even diluting this by using a set referall scheme to encourage existing clients to pass on more business were both ideas that Members were keen to adopt.
19th September 2007. 7 Secrets of Effective Networking with Trevor Price of NRG. A good discussion was held of how we could attract the Managers of large Companies who would not necessarily come to meetings. The overall response was that it is surprising who we know that could be of use to other members. Please come along to the next meeting to put some of these Secrets into action.
5th September 2007. Advertising was discussed by the group. We covered newspapers, magazines, radio and web advertising. It was decided that we need to monitor all advertisements to ensure that we use the right publications for our business. A really useful tip that emerged was the need to put a specific name on an advertisement for responses rather than a code to enable you to keep details and monitor your advertising spend against returns.
August 22nd 2007. Held at Sign-rite in Leominster. After a tour of the impressive new work shop Clancy led the discussion on 'Signage and your business' Some very interesting ideas were discussed and it was decided that the main thing about signage is that when you are branding your business it is essential to stop and think how your logo will come across on future signage
8th August 2007. Credit Control.An interesting discussion was held about Credit Control. Some Companies like to do this themselves but others outsource to external Companies.It was generally agreed that it is worth taking the time to get to know the person who will be paying you whether it is the owner/manager or the credit controller. Hence getting a relationship with the client.If you are going to state 30 days on your invoice take the trouble to state what the 30 days is from. Is it from invoice date, the end of the month? If you are not specific the person making the payment has room to manoevre when passing your invoice.In your letter of engagement state your payment terms and abide by them.40% of insolvency is brought about by non-payment of debt.
July Dates 2007. PR do you do it yourself or outsource?
Ray Hatley previously of the Times and Daily Telegraph spurred members on with hints and tips of how to do a press release.
As a company do you have a disaster statement? Every Company needs one that will allow them an hour to check facts and come back to the press with a statement. Each person working for the Company should have a copy of this.
Don't send the same press release to two nationals at the same time as the chances are that neither will print.
Never talk to a journalist straightaway always ask to call him/her back after a short thinking time so that you can put across all the facts that you want covering.
After an interview always send the journalist a copy of your words so that it can be cut and pasted into the storyline.
11th July 2007.
Cold Calling took the table at the meeting and a very interesting discussion was had by those attending. Many businesses are doing cold calling in one form or another to promote their product or service.
Members answered the questions:-
How do you get past the 'Gatekeeper'?
When should we cold call or when should we outsource?
Is cold calling right for my business?
Top Tips from around the table included:-
Use the call as research and investigation, it will change the way you feel and sound in the call (David Willett,Auditel Ltd)
Before picking up the phone,think through any objections that you may need to overcome, as well as planning what you are going to say (Jane,Working Solutions)
Find information that you can use to make the call specific to your product or service and useful to the prospective client (Carole, The Rural Meeting Place)
After the success of this Round Table meeting we will be alternating between speakers and discussion meetings.
27th June 2007. Sign-rite, Leominster Business Park. Speaker Clancy Wilson of Sign-rite . Clancy will be talking about signing your business. Cancelled due to weather conditions.
13th June 2007. Ludlow Football Club. Speaker Paul Silver of PJS Ltd on the business implications of the new smoking ban that comes into effect on July 1st.
6th June 2007. Ludlow Football Club. Speaker Andy Corbett, PerfectArc on www.shrop.biz