The Concept
Imaging just being able to talk informally with other business people about credit control, or sales techniques or which bank or mobile ‘phone is best without feeling you are either needing to sell or being pressurised to buy.
Running your own business can be lonely and difficult. Its really useful to be able to spend an hour or so with other business people with no referrals or desperation to gain new business.
With a meeting just once a month, and the option to stay for simple light lunch and a chat it is clearly just the medicine our members want.
The Members
Members tend to be professional service providers, sole traders or small businesses who enjoy interacting with other people in the same position. And because we’re not there to directly sell to each other, there are no rules about having "only one of those" in this group.
Meetings
So, how do our meetings work? Once a month we gather round a large table, we all introduce each other - often with a short anecdote about what’s happened since we last met, and this is followed by an informal talk by one of the members on a topic that they think will be of interest to us all – anything from health and well-being to property consultancy to accountancy tips and Facebook for your business.
Sometime we dispense with the talk and just hold an open forum to discuss business issues we have.
The meeting is no more than a hour, and those that want to, then stay for a spot of lunch.
It is as simple as that, and it works – we’ve been going since 2001! As a net result members inevitably become friends and often help each other out if asked. Oh and yes some do business between them too! But the real benefit is the openness of discussion and the exchange of ideas, enthusiasm and helpfulness.
The Bottom Line
This forum is not a business, it’s not there to make money for the organisers, it’s not a franchise, it just run by members for members. There is a small annual fee to cover meeting costs, with excess being used to subsidise a great Christmas lunch!