Business Networking Blog 6th August

Chairman’s Blog Tuesday 6th August 2013

Still struck by holiday absences and apologies for absence for business reasons from Nigel Kirby and Nozzy, we mustered 10, the same number as last week.

It would be wrong to say the highlight of the morning was the scrambled egg but for those who value these things it was a great start.

Brian Painter delivered the Education Slot emphasising the importance of 1 2 1’s as a method of getting to know each other and our businesses more intimately and finding out those small nuggets of information that lead to referrals.

This was after Nige Kirby was declared the winner of the performance league by a healthy margin, well done Nige.

Now to the 60 seconds round. Adam Hotson was adjudicating in relation to the Oscar, he was also pitching for self-assessment returns for the self employed whilst Rosemary Cleave asked whether our bicycles were covered. I don’t even put my car in the garage…it’s the Essex way. She did of course expand upon the theme and clarify that she was talking about insurance cover and that we should be checking our home cover on this point. Jim Henshaw and Stuart Oldham both struck a similar theme in relation to their respective businesses…they were looking for everything. Jim went on to emphasise how the large increase in claims against insurance institutions was substantially up, but that this was very much a “big” institution problem. Stuart was drawing our attention to the Skills for Economic Growth Grant which was useful information that most of us were probably unaware of.

Jason Nortey was fighting a battles against clutter in the car. He was probably inspired by walking past my car on the way in to the meeting.

Brian Painter is always able to make us squirm, this week was no exception when describing needle phobia. It was left to Scott to speak of the more salacious end of the internet market talking about the “Piccadilly Whip” which turned out to be the name of a chain of 17 ice cream vans. That must be worth a Google.

It was the 10 minute slot that spread to 20 and was very well presented by Rosemary Cleave. She showcased not only RMK Insurance Brokers but also her own photographic business. Both were well presented and interesting and brought out a series of questions at the end of her presentation. She also set herself up for a referral from EBF for proper mug shots of our members in September,UGH!!.

Although I am anticipating a much bigger turn out next week and hopefully new member inductions please remember that you win points (substantial points) by bringing a visitor and bonus points if they join. If you have invited a guest over the last few weeks who has either not turned up or only turned up once but has not indicated an unwillingness to go forward, chase them up, otherwise if everybody could try and approach one more person this week before the next meeting, which I look forward to, if no other reason than the quality of the scrambled egg.

I look forward to seeing you all then.