Business Networking in Brentwood – 25th Sept

Chairman’s Business Networking Blog, Thursday 25th September 2014.

16 members present and 3 guests; Chris Atkins of Print Solutions, Marcus Brown a previous member cleaning contractors and Toyin Ayandare a Property Investment Manager.

Congratulations to Kim for brining 2 of the 3 guests, both of whom made the right noises at the end of the meeting and hopefully will be attending next week with a view to joining.

Brian Painter stood in for the holidaying David Plumley as Education Officer and introduced Howard Bullock for the Ed Slot. Resplendent in the shorts that the absence of summer is now turning into one of his hallmarks, I can report that he had a subdued shirt on…this time. His subject was generally to do with the conduct of our businesses and to always look to the end result when dealing with our customer/client and not to get bogged down in the detail the process when dealing with the client. Good examples and well delivered.

The 60 second round had Alan Shaw reflecting on Howards Ed Slot. His client will often want to know how many flats he can get on a site and it is often some time down the road after the planning process has been started that there is any clear indication. Alan will do Tower Blocks to Extensions!! He was less whimsical this week but with Nick Cooke being absent he had no competition.

Richard Reed was at his “specials offer” best and regaled us with well priced cruises that he would put together with appropriate flights etc.

Janice Bentley-Pearson was offering guidance for taking on apprentices to help grow your business. Terry Maylin was looking for ideal clients, for example accountants, who can place more than one piece of business your way and can introduce other clients. Howard Bullock warned that with pensions, the amount you invest or the level of interest can often be less important than ensuring compliance. Paul Booth demonstrated why he was a man not to invite to a dinner party with his small talk about tax etc. This week the award of the Oscar was made by the double act of Kevin Radford and somebody else sitting next to him…oh yes, Mr Bullock again. Kevin Radford has previously confessed to having a recent birthday that had slightly depressed him. He was cheered up by the fact that his wife did not regard him as a “stud muffin” but a “fine wine”. For some reason this seemed to reassure him… It was probably this slightly introverted mood that led him to take pity on our resident accountant, who is such a wow at dinner parties, and awarded him the Oscar.

Can I think of anything else of note? The highlight was probably Allan Moller who is looking for lighting shops; shouldn’t be difficult particularly with the night’s drawing in Allan.

This was a meeting where technology was going to prevail. Tina was prevented from attending this week by business commitments but was looking to present her 10 minute slot via the television with the help of Scott Griffiths and the internet.

Apparently Tina and Scott were willing but recent work on the car park at the Golf Club rendered the internet unusable, so instead we had a Q & A. As always the Q & A proved interesting, informative and a nice contrast to the usual 10 minute presentation.

Well done everybody.

As to referrals, there were 11 and to date this month, £35,000 has been passed in business recorded. These figures are average but reflective of the September absences through holidays.

We were all saddened by the announcement of the news of Michael Adelizzi’s illness. We wish him well on what we hope is a speedy road to recovery. Michael is still available for referrals which you should continue announcing to the meeting, even in his absence, until he returns to occupy his seat. Howard is going to do something amazing with his shorts an acknowledgement of Michael being temporally absent from our upcoming meetings. If you wanted to put the details of your bare legged (rather than bare faced) suggestions Howard, please use the comments to this Blog.

This week we had several absences through illness or holiday. Let’s see if we can have a bigger turn out next week but well done with the visitors, keep it up.