The Rural Meeting Place will be hosting a number of events falling into 3 categories, Networking, Directors' Lunches and Social events.
NETWORKING.
Designed with business in mind, RMP network events allow members to meet other business people in their area, allowing them to sell their products to a wider business audience, as well as sourcing good quality products and services for their own operation.
The network events will all have a relevant speaker or working lunch format as well as presentations from all guests and members.
FORTHCOMING MEETINGS FOR 2008.
October 15th Ludlow in Ludlow. Are you breaking the Law?& 29th
November 12th & 26th
December 10th & 17th
PAST MEETINGS.
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 28th
2008 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
