Networking Chandler’s Ford started the New Year in a fresh new venue. We’re meeting at the White Horse in Otterbourne, a recently refurbished pub and restaurant located on Otterbourne High Street just a couple of minutes drive from the Chandler’s Ford North Junction (J12) of the M3. Same time, same warm welcome from our members – we’re looking forward to some great networking in the coming months.
Networking Chandler’s Ford is a business networking group based in… yes, Chandler’s Ford! We meet fortnightly for breakfast to generate business referrals, share experiences, and maybe even socialise a bit too! If you are looking for a friendly, effective inexpensive business networking group in Chandler’s Ford, Eastleigh, Southampton or adjacent parts of south Hampshire our networking group could be just what you want.
Networking Chandler’s Ford launched in 2010 with a core group of local business people. We’re always looking to recruit other businesses who believe that there is an opportunity for a group which is more friendly and less costly than some of the well known ‘formula’ networking groups, but more focussed on referrals than some of the social groups.
We offer exclusivity to our members, i.e. there is only one member for each type of business. In return members are expected to be committed to the group by turning up on a regular basis, by bringing prospective new members as visitors, and by actively seeking referrals for other members. Where we differ from other referral networks is that we do not apply pressure for every member to bring referrals every time we meet. In our experience of other more pressurized groups this just leads to poor quality referrals which simply waste everyones time.
Unlike other groups, we operate on a not for profit basis with minimal overheads and low joining fees.
If you’d like to get more business, meet new people and have a bit of fun, then come and take a look! You can read more about the practicalities of how we operate on our About Us page, you can find a list of our current members on the Members page, and if you would like to visit us to find out more about the kind of people we are, then please contact us.
We all know that quality leads from networking contacts are a great way to get business, but what do we need to do to get the most out of networking? Today members were asked to break into subgroups and discuss these questions:
We felt that a good group needed to include a diverse range of members so that we could make the most of any referral opportunities we came across. Members need to be reputable businesses with high standards so that we can refer to them with confidence. The format of the meetings should encourage strengthening relationships between members so that we can promote fellow members in the right way.
The meetings should be well structured so that the emphasis is on referrals, but also welcoming and with a fun atmosphere. There should be a good Chairman who can maintain the right feel to the meeting, and a strong emphasis on quality referrals. There should be systems in place so that the Chairman can focus on chairing not administering the meeting.
We felt that there should be a number of different formats for meetings so that we were not always following the same formula, with mini 1-to-1s being highlighted as something we ought to do more of.
Terry highlighted one of his current prospective leads, with the potential of reviewing pensions for around a hundred employees. Liz cited the case of a chip shop owner who made a massive saving on his energy bills, and told all the other chip shops in the area who then wanted the same deal!
Obtaining referrals was seen to be down to listening actively for opportunities to refer. Rather than actually directly promoting other members in a cold selling process, it was seen as spotting when the time was right to make reference to the services of a fellow group member. It was also seen as important to recognise how hard you should push the referral – should you just leave a member’s business card, or should you take the details and say ‘I’ll get X to call you’?
It is important that we get to know how each fellow member’s business runs and what their specific interests are, so that we can get them the best matched referrals. There was also some discussion of the ‘focus member’ format where we would concentrate on a particular member’s business for one meeting.
One member reported that all his potential customers were credit checked by Sarah Lowe, who has also taken on recovery of debt from a number of previous customers and is now setting credit limits for new customers. Denzil stated that in his industry it was an FSA requirement that payment must be provided before any insurance cover was provided. Rob said that for most new customers he asked for a deposit of about 25%, not just as security but as much to secure customer commitment to providing website content. Several members commented that referrals often tended to be proven good customers of the referrer.
Philip recounted how he had set up in private practice as long ago as 1992, having gained professional experience with several employers incuding a big name national firm. His business partner Chris Goodhead had joined the firm in 1998. They now have 13 staff in the firm and their policy has been to recruit trainee accountants at an early age and train them up to ensure that they are brought up to do things the ‘right way’.
Knight Goodhead is able to offer the full range of services which small and medium businesses might require including auditing, which many small accounting practices are not licenced to carry out. They not only take care of the statutory accounting needs of businesses, they also provide management accounts for some clients who use them as an outsourced finance director, and can advise business owners looking at acquisition or disposal of businesses.
They also have particular expertise in charity accounts, and make use of a specialist tax adviser working for them one day a week who has many years in depth experience in this important area.
Terry was already known to several members of the group having given them pension advice in the past few years. Whilst pensions really are one of Terry’s specialist areas, and he can be heard at every opportunity telling the young ‘uns to get a pension plan started now, or telling the old ‘uns to make sure we’ve got the right pension plan, he also covers all the aspects of investment and protection that we need to know about.
On the investment front he helps you decide what is the best vehicle for your precious savings to grow in, everything from cautious bonds to adventurous developing world equities, and he has a very thorough approach to assessing your risk profile as well as a good range of products to offer through the Financial Services network he works under. And talking of risk, he also urged us to think about insurance protection. Not just life assurance, but also critical illness cover so that if we are debilitated by some health issue, we can still maintain some semblance of our current lifestyle.
All important topics, and we could see how Terry’s years of experience and thorough approach could help us deal with things most of us would rather not think about.
Seb told us that he had grown up steeped in print and design as his Dad had been a typsetter in the days when this meant working with molten metal. Seb himself entered this profession as his first job. Sadly technology made them both redundant shortly after, but Seb’s passion for typography let him to become a graphic designer and print supplier in various companies, the latest of which is his own business Cream Print and Design, based in Bournemouth.
Cream not only supplies printed paper items of the highest quality, but also virtually any printed item from a pen to a wrapped van, with a particular specialisation in estate agents’ boards. Seb showed us a variety of printed items from new business cards for our resident accountant, through to wipe-clean bar menus for a lap dancing club, which excited rather more interest. Some of our members were also sporting embroidered workwear supplied by Cream Print and Design, and Seb’s special offer of the day was high quality printed Christmas cards for not much more than the price of plain ones in the shops.
Want to save money on all your domestic bills? These days Utility Warehouse is not just about saving money on your gas, electricity and phone bills. Thanks to a recently introduced discount card you can get cashback on household purchases from a whole range of High Street retailers. Top of the list are Marks and Spencer and Sainsburys, and not just food from Sainsbury either. You can even get cashback on your petrol purchases.
The way the cashback works is you get it credited to your UW gas/electric/phone bill. Liz showed us an example of her own bill with £35 credited to it last month – a bill that’s already cheaper than charges from the usual energy and phone companies.
There’s also a whole range of bundles offered on landline and mobile phones and internet, but which one is best for you really depends on your usage, so get Liz to take a look at your existing bills and recommend which one is best for you.
It’s not every bookkeeper who can say that they have swum the English Channel. Jenny decided that as we already knew about her bookkeeping services, she would tell us about her swimming achievements which included swimming the channel at the age of 15. These days she’s better known for the bright green No Nonsense carrier bag which you can hang on your gearstick or sit beside your desk to collect all your receipts ready to hand over to Jenny at the end of the month. She then enters them into a neat spreadsheet or your favourite accounts package ready for your accountant or the taxman.
There’s even a video showing you how to use the green carrier bag on the No Nonsense Business Support website . By giving your bagful of receipts to Jenny to do your bookwork, you get your evenings and weekends back.
By the way, the video is also a great example of how you can use video to bring a bit of warmth and personality to your website.
Our guest speaker at Launch Day was Roger Lamb of Action Coach. Roger is a business development coach who helps small business owners in and around Southampton, Eastleigh and Chandler’s Ford achieve accelerated business growth. Today Roger presented a ten minute overview of how business owners could make the most of networking opportunities to grow their businesses.
Working with examples from the audience of their expectations from networking, Roger illustrated that networking is not about attending with the objective of selling. If we all came to the meeting with the sole objective of selling our services, we would end up with a room full of sellers and no buyers! Networking should be about building up trusted relationships so that people have the confidence to refer you onwards to their own networks of trusted contacts, networks which may have a thousand people in them.
Building trusted networks requires repeated contact, such as you get in a networking group where you see people on a regular basis. It also requires generosity on your part to give advice and assistance and to give referrals on a regular basis as well as just taking them from others. It’s not about going for the quick, hard sell.
Everything Roger said was entirely in agreement with the objectives of Networking Chandler’s Ford’s founding members, and we were delighted when after the meeting he handed over a filled in membership form. We’re looking forward to hearing more of his words of wisdom at future meetings.
Twenty members and visitors attended Networking Chandler’s Ford’s launch on 14th September. There was a real buzz in the air as new contacts were made and business cards exchanged. Everyone had the opportunity of a one minute pitch to present their company and outline the kind of contacts they were looking for, and informal discussions carried on over breakfast and after the end of the meeting.
One visitor decided on the spot to join our group – well done Roger Lamb of Action Coach! At least three other visitors have taken up the offer to come back to one of our regular fortnightly meetings and have a look at a more typical members-only meeting.
