10 reasons for Business Networking by @andycoote

I started 3 weeks ago to write my own list of ten reasons to go networking. Number one on my list was for every £10 you spend locally puts £25 back into the local economy, but if you go to Tesco, only £14 does because they have centralised systems etc. Then I found that fellow Business Scene Regional Leader, Andy Coote had already wrote a great article (and it had 9 more reasons than the one that I come up with…)

So here is Andy’s article, reproduced with permission

10 Personal Reasons for Networking

So, if networking is not about simply passing referrals, and I believe it is about much more, why network? I’ve put together an incomplete and personal list of 10 reasons.

1. To put your business ‘out there’

Just by being in a meeting with others, you are reminded that the myth of building a better mousetrap and the world beating a path to you door is not just wrong, it is dangerously wrong. A business that is not shared, will never thrive.

2. To test out your marketing messages in a safe environment

Marketing messages are very subjective. You can develop a whole campaign and have it fall flat on its face very easily. Your network will care enough to tell you if you message need improving before you spend too much money on distributing it.

3. To find suppliers and services

We all need services. What could be better than to get to know the supplier before buying the service and to have feedback from other users as to the good and bad aspects of it?

4. To learn about other businesses and be able to advocate them

When you are in conversation with someone and a problem comes up, you may be in a position to help two people – the person you are speaking to and also the supplier of the product or service you can advocate to them. A third person always benefits from this – you. Your reputation grows – with both people – so long as you understand both the problem and solution well enough to match them.

5. To help others succeed

and, yes, to hope they help you, too. Network groups offer many opportunities to provide help and advice. But do give it without strings. Only genuine help works to your advantage.

6. To avoid the loneliness of the home business person

Most of my business happens on the phone and by e-mail. I need to meet other people face to face just to recall how that feels and to get some social interaction. As more businesses are run by individuals who work in isolation, this will be a greater need.

7. To build confidence in your presentation skills

Many networks offer you a slot to present who you are and what you do. Take the opportunity to learn in relative safety. For some people, even the 90 second introduction that most networks tend to offer can be a tough thing to do. The ability to present your business well is likely to be a core skill when you are working for yourself – so use the opportunity to refine it.

8. To have a local presence

The internet has killed distance for many and it is easy to do business anywhere in the world – except, sometimes, for your own local area. Getting known locally may have beneficial effects – not least a reduction in travelling costs.

9. To feel part of a community

and be able to take action, too. Community is not dead but it isn’t a default either. A feeling of belonging and shared purpose is important for many of us. Recently, my breakfast group took part in a team-based charity event and we all learned much more about each other as a result.

10. Watching others develop and grow

One of the upsides of working in corporate life was the opportunity to watch someone join the company and begin to develop skills and expertise. The Network can provide a similar experience as people take their first steps in their own business.

Oh yes – and occasionally, I do get a direct business referral, as well!

You can read the rest of Andy’s excellent article here

Thanks Andy for allowing me to repost here.

May 7th is Business Scene Day, we have an event in the East Midlands, and Event in Essex and an Event in Devon and Cornwall, drop in a see one of us

Sarah

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The Essex Girls Guide to the #Swine Flu

Diarhhea (haven’t a clue how to spell) kills 5 million a year, every year.

Young, old, you name it, it doesn’t discriminate.

Image via Wikipedia

Avian Flu, pandemic allegedly, killed 200.

Why doesn’t having the trots get the same respect as flu? how many have to die from the squits before we have brown ribbon days? You have more chance of kicking the bucket from this than some holiday maker sneezing and oinking at the same time.

Whatever happened to CJD?  the one that people who had eaten beef would get? Millions were going to die from that, millions. That brave John Gummer was ridiculed for giving his daughter a hamburger, he had the courage of his convictions and no one listened. Actual deaths from CJD 200 a year rather than the millions predicted. Then it appears it’s nothing to do with cows at all…

Whilst I think about it, 600 men a year die from zipping their todger in their trousers, I don’t hear any outcry about that either and no one wants to ban trousers do they?  ‘Health and Safety‘ have completely bypassed this one!

More die each year from ingesting cutlery than from avian / pandemic flu strains, so lets ban knives and forks instead… Why do people get hysterical over the Flu?

Any discerning Essex girl should be getting her face mask in pink, just in case but otherwise carrying on as normal.

Sarah

PS I expect the MPs think we have forgot all about their plasma Tvs and other inflated expenses.

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Only in Essex part 2…

Part one was potty with pot holes… part two, well I wouldn’t have believed it but it was the BBC…

Radio staff at BBC Essex were changing a wheel and had to have a paramedic on hand. Seriously, no joke.

Here’s an excerpt from the Telegraph, who have wrote an excellent article about it.

Producers had to fill out a risk assessment before the two BBC Radio Essex presenters each took off a wheel for a feature on a programme about learning new skills.

BBC managers decided that medical staff had to be present in case the pair suffered any mishap while dealing with “unfamiliar equipment”.

St John Ambulance then agreed to send along a paramedic and a first-aider to supervise the wheel change in the BBC’s studio car park in Chelmsford, Essex.

Caroline Lake, who runs Caroline’s Cars in Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, was invited on to the show to help the presenters change wheels thanks to her experience running maintenance courses for women.

Miss Lake said the male and female presenter were just about to start when the producer turned up.

She said: “The producer then arrived and said, ‘Great. It looks like we’re ready to go. We’ve just got to wait for the paramedics.

“I looked at her and laughed, thinking she was joking. But just at that moment an ambulance arrived with two female staff.

“It pulled up less than a metre from our car and they took up position alongside it.

“I was unable to believe what I was seeing and I told them, ‘You must be having a laugh’

“The producer then told me how BBC health and safety rules meant she had to fill in forms and have the staff in attendance.

Well, it keeps people in a job doesn’t it.

Now you know why our TV licences’ cost so much… nothing to do with Jonathon Ross’s salary, it’s all health and safety.

Sarah

It’s big, purple and at Lakeside…

Yes “Partyman” has arrived at Lakeside and has been open a little over a month.

For those of you that don’t know, PartyMan is the parents saviour in the holidays. It arrived in Basildon last year, the centre piece of the indoor play world being a large red canvas volcano it’s brilliant. All around the play centre were sofa’s and tub chairs and the kids loved it.

Well, we stopped going. I understand the cost to set up the centre was a huge amount of money (I did hear £250k) but after a few months every where you looked was a machine to extract money from you. So, instead of it being a tenner to get in (2 kids) and a fiver on crisps and sweets, it was 30 quid and the kids left as high as a kite on candy floss and covered in tattoos.

So, we stopped going and on occasion went to Tumbletown instead – no machines and just as comfortable sofas.

I heard they had opened a new one in Lakeside so we went to check it out.

Ok, it’s not as big as Basildon and is laid out differently. You still have to queue to get in, and the prices are the same.

I like it better. Was it the shop and drop that convinced me? where you can leave your little darlings for just £6 an hour with  a creche worker and return hours later all shopped out? was it the machines hidden instead of being out to grab every pound coin your child could lay their hands on? who knows, but I like it more than PartyMan in Basildon.

When I took the girls, they had their man in stilts wandering about and the kids following like the pied piper. There was free face painting, and the lady who does it is superb. She is really patient even if the kids are not.

They even have Slush Puppies. Blue ones.

The girls loved it and I managed to read a book whilst they had great fun (The Navigator by Clive Cussler if you must know). We are all slush puppied out and they girls were quiet on the drive home for a change.

Well done Jimbo and the gang, we’ll be back.

Sarah

Only in Essex… part one

Parish councils that don’t fill in the pot holes in the road.  Apparently you drive slower when you know they are coming… it’s a natural traffic calming measure.

If you are a cyclist I hope you avoid Navestock totally…

Although responsibility to fix roads falls to Essex County Council, members of the parish council have decided not to pass on details of road repairs needed for a whole year.

Potholes along the village’s numerous small country lanes are a recurring problem say motorists and residents.

Source : Total Essex

If I recall correctly, Navestock has a pretty church and a lovely village. Right now, it’s on my avoid list.

If I get any damage to my vehicle, or whiplash caused through driving on such unsafe roads I won’t hesitate to call a “no win- no fee” ambulance chaser to sue the parish council. God forbid there was an accident, or even a death. Would they face a corporate manslaughter charge?

Even the Romans had roads without pot holes…

Sarah

Business Networking in May

Images by Barry Slemmings via Flickr

Easter, cat’s teeth and a dog’s boll**k

Easter at chez Arrow was interesting this year. Good Friday as always is quiet and reflective. We visited my 74 year old Grandmother and spent some time with her. It was the ideal opporunity for her to rearrange our plans for the family dinner on Easter Sunday.

Nan decided to tell us she needed to be back at her house by 6pm Sunday evening as her son was coming over. The family dinner tends to start at 4pm and at 6pm we are just starting dessert… now nan had decided to change the schedule. She also decided for the first time she was coming to church with us on Easter Sunday

Ok, I did bitch, moan and whine about the change in the plans, but then I resolved to go to the early Easter church service and then we could fit everything and everyone in.

Easter Sunday came, and Kev went and collected nan, we dressed the girls and drove to Wickford. I dropped Kev, Nan and the little ones at the church and then went to collect Jessica from her dad’s house.

When we arrived at the church the bells where being rung by the little ones and… by nan

The Easter service is a celebratory service and Kev and Nan were caught unawares – Kev took the duty of seeing that nan had the correct hymns to sing and I tackled the girls climbing over the pews.

The service was good, joyful and a lovely explanation for the children about Easter Sunday.  It was lovely until nan decided she was bored and rang the bells midservice… Kev kept a straight face admirably.

The service finished on  a high with Sunshine bags and a creme or caramel egg.

We came home and Kev set up the table for 14 and I began the job of peeling the spuds. Jessica came and washed up… No I didn’t faint, and then she helped me with the food. It was nice that she was helping and in years to come we will be at her house for Easter dinner…

It was all cooked by 2pm and starving, Angie, Mum and the rest of our guests arrived and we quickly served up all the food – roast lamb, pork and chicken. Dinner and conversation was good, the company the best. Dinner with all your family (and friends) is one of life’s pleasures, a fond memory to look back on.

I went and washed up the dinner plates and then served dessert, fresh strawberries and cream, rocky road cheesecake and home made bread pudding (well mum works for Hovis, she has to do something with the leftover bread ). The bread pudding was superb along with the strawberries.

Nan went to sit of the sofa, and knowing Angie liked animals she started to tell her about how her cat had no teeth…. the cat had had them removed by the vet said nan very gummily (having left her own teeth indoors as she wouldn’t be needing them). Then she produced the cat’s teeth from her coat pocket and started to show them to Angie… I nearly died. Why was nan carrying the cat’s teeth around with her???

Before I could work out any reason, Angie started telling her animal story…. she took one her dogs to the vet, to have him neutered and come home with one of the dog’s boll**ks in a jar of formaldehyde.

You could almost hear my chin hit the table. No, fortunately she didn’t have it with her…

How did your Easter go?

Sarah

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It’s because I am a woman

with no independent income says Jacqui Smith about the ‘fuss’ over her expenses.

Image by wallyg via Flickr

I can assure her it’s nothing to do with her gender, more to do with her morals, has she never heard of Caesar? How he would not marry his mistress as Casesar’s wife needed to be beyond reproach. It’s about morals and ethics.

JS has yet to legislate for that in PSHE classes when teachers inform kids of their rights. Let me tell you about the people and some of their rights, one that you have yet to legislate away unlike our liberty… we have the right to vote you out of office.

Is it ethical to kit out your second home and claim allowances for a room at your sisters? no, it’s not. Nothing to do with being a woman or independent wealth. When the people in your constituency (those feeling foolish to have voted for you) are facing repossession and cannot take their kids for a treat, but you claim a treat in the guise of a porno for your hubby that they as taxpayers have to pay for… can you see why people are getting upset? no, well you had better fall on your sword then. I suspect that like many in Government you have no sense of decency or honour.

The fact that you are not the only MP to do this suggests the system needs reform, and the only way you are going to recover is by spending your own salary on buying plugs and pornos.

MPs need to understand they are elected by the people and they will be defeated  people at the next election. They need to reform the system so the taxpayer isn’t ripped off. They may think the taxpayer gets value for money, but all the time there is the perception that they are being ripped off, taken advantage of, then the taxpayer will not be happy.

Slash the expenses culture, stop pretending there is a class difference – MPs must have the same allowances as businesses, if HMRC wont allow the cost of a plug or a porno in their tax return, it shouldn’t be allowed for MPs. If they want to be treated like business people, then lets do that.

There is no reward for failure in the real world.

Sarah

PS of course carry on in the same vein and your greed will bankrupt the country.

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Meet the Easter Bunny and other things to do in Easter Holidays

8th April, meet the Easter Bunny at Danbury park, thinking of taking the girls to this, the park and the fresh air is always a good combination for activities. Booking is essential – 01245 222350

Image via Wikipedia

9th, 10th 16th and 17th April, watch a sheep shearing at Old Macdonalds farm near Brentwood. The farm has afternoon savers tickets and a family ticket includes three kids. The also have an easter egg hunt where the eggs that you find can be exchanged for chocolate eggs.

If you are in or near Braintree, Essex then a visit to the craft weekend from 10th to 14th April at Blake House Craft Centre. They are having an egg hunt, egg painting, balloon race, face painting as well as a charity raffle.

As mentioned in a comment on another post, Audley End House could also be worth a trip. Audley End in Saffron Warden is looked after by English Heritage. They have traditional game playing, another Easter egg hunt for children and when the kids have had enough of that you can take them for a tour of the house, although parts of it are not open on ‘event’ days. I visited here with my eldest daughter and the Jacobean era house is beautiful. The  ’servant’ wing  was of great interest to her, and she also plaited some dough and baked bread there. All round, a great value day. Please note, if you are true Essex girl you wil not be allowed to enter the main house in your stilletoes – trust me, it’s worth wearing flats for the day!

Sarah

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Our favourite Essex songbird is back :) in May

Jazmine Ava the Essex based singer is performing on another couple of music nights in Colchester, Essex with launch live. Jazmine sings a great combination, it’s hard to describe (for me anyway) so go to her site and have a listen I was very annoyed when I missed out on tickets in February.

There is a fantastic candlenight songwriters evening going on Friday 1st May, with Jazmine headlining with full band including sax – and 3 other brilliantly talented artists from Essex.  Tickets on sale at just £5.  1 May, 7.30pm, Candlenight @ River Lodge 20-22 Middleborough,
Colchester, CO1 1QX (did you see that, twitter speak in my blog, lol)

If you’re a fan of Fleetwood Mac, Jazmine reckons she has booked the worlds greatest tribute to perform at The Charter Hall, Colchester (seats 1000 people) – she will be supporting.

It will be great if you can help us get Jazmine’s music out there or maybe you might want to come yourself? Tickets only £5-10 depending on where you go.

Just go to: http://www.launchlive.co.uk for all ticket bookings and any more information you need.

Enjoy!

Sarah

Things to do for grown ups in May

I was reading through some stuff that I had wrote about and realised I hadn’t blogged about any business related events for a while.

Why in May? after the Easter holidays, after the bank holiday -  a good time to get things done

First up, book out the 7th of May in your diary for an early evening of business networking in Chelmsford, Essex. We have Richard White as our speaker and he is excellent, well worth 2 hours of your May evening. This event is paid for by our sponsors, so it’s free for you to attend. We have a photographer who will take a digital photo of you for just a fiver – very handy if you need a professional photo, 999 Marketing expert Asif Mitha will be exhibiting, along with Kev and Arrow Light Haulage and many others.

If you cannot come and network with us, what about going to Richards event on May 11th? I shall be at that one, he is planning on talking about getting free PR etc, something that is very useful when trading in tougher times!

You can book through this link

Any more must attend busiess events in May? Let me know and I shall add them, or add them in a comment

Thanks

Sarah

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