Essex Business Forum was featured in the December edition of “The Small Business Owner” magazine.
The two page article asked the question “Can business networking improve your home life?”, and journalist Damien Swift who interviewed our director Scott Griffiths explains how meeting up with other business owners on a regular basis can be a huge boost to both your business productivity and work/life balance.
It the article Damien quotes Scott who comments on the philosophy of EBF and how this is different from other networking groups like BNI or 4Networking.
“We’ve tried to be different from a lot of these groups where there is a very rigid policy of – don’t turn up unless you’re actually bringing something that contributes – we dont want to be like that.
Obviously we encourage members to get involved but we try to make it fun, add a bit of humour. This way, the people that you meet can start to be considered as friends after a short time, rather than somebody you need to give business to.”
Damien continues and adds:
“Scott clearly believes in the benefits that his networking group offers. His refreshing ethos of doing business as an ancillary to networking and not vice cersa gives new members the chance to settle into the weekly routine without the pressure of feeling compelled to trade with other members.
He prefers the opinion that people are happy to work with people they know, like and trust and by sharing personal experiences about each others businesses , networkers will come across opportunities when the time is right.”
To read the article in full you’ll need to subscribe to the magazine which is free to do by visiting http://thesbomag.com. It is currently only available as a digital magazine for iPad users, but already has a large worldwide readership. Alternatively you can view the two pages of the article as images by clicking on the links below:
If you are a small business owner then the magazine is a sensible subscription and provides some really useful articles and advice.
I read this article in the magazine when the last issue downloaded. It’s really good – well done EBF!
I also read this magazine and highly recommend it to all small business owners. Sadly I am a member of another networking group and wish i’d joined EBF! Maybe when my renewal is up… keep up the good work!
An excellent article … really showing the different approach within Essex Business Forum. Could it be forwarded to the local press in some form?