Chairman’s blog Thursday 26th February 2026

Paul Booth educated us on making visitor invitations easy, and then followed an open Q&A session between members
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Spring is sprung ,the grass is ris, I wonder…. And so, it was on the morning after the warmest day of the year we congregated with visible enthusiasm. Daylight was emerging by 6:15 AM and there were two new members to swell our ranks.

Performance League

Scott Griffiths was a late casualty to the lurgi that had affected several of us during the week. Although figures were therefore not available, I was able to proudly boast that I’m currently leading…… no points, no pack drill! We will have to wait until next week for a more detailed breakdown of the current leaders.

Education Slot

Ben Golding was not with us either, but Paul Booth had already been briefed and was ready with the Ed Slot. His subject matter was the importance of inviting visitors and easy ways in which to do this. We’re all busy and often do not think about every opportunity there is to invite visitors, but they are essential to the maintenance of our number and more importantly the number of referrals that we receive. He had one or two suggestions that would help trigger the possibility of locating a suitable visitor.

  1. Amend the footers to your e-mail to make specific requests on behalf of a networking group that you are involved with. Change this specific request from time to time.
  2.  When you are attending clients or customers display something that shows that you are a member of EBF.

 

Reminders about attracting visitors are always timely.

Membership Matters

Terry Maylin almost overwhelmed us with information this week

Renewals, there are one or two in the pipeline, but the most recent renewal is Howard Bullock. He is signed up for another year but due to loss of staff and current recruitment problems he will be on sabbatical for at least the next couple of months. He will still be available for referrals but will simply not be attending meetings.

New members/induction, Silvia Nedeva was duly inducted as the occupier of our cleaner category and Steve Chilton attended as our newest recruit who will hopefully be inducted next week.

Without doubt three reasons to be cheerful.

60-Second Presentation Round

Sarah Smith won the Oscar last week. She had an open notebook at the ready

Matt Barry got this properly underway. This week he is looking for established businesses whose brand has become or is becoming dated through changes in the marketplace. Mike Skinner pointed out that now spring is here he is looking for activity centres holiday parks and others that are looking to the new season. Like Matt Barry he can help refresh their image.

Steve Chilton first meeting as a member contented himself with broadly setting out the corporate insurance products that his company offers.

Paul Corrigan is back after a couple of weeks absence. He is recovering from a nose job! This week he was looking for introductions to people who need assistance with air conditioning.

Clara Downton explained that it’s starting to get busy with spring being upon us and the estate agents reviewing their listings as hopefully the market starts to pick up.

Perhaps on a less cheerful note, Paul Dulieu acknowledged that he does talk about death quite a lot but in a reverential sort of a way by trying to show the deceased as ‘the person that he would want to be’.

Stuart Smallcombe had a less run-of-the-mill request. They are looking to acquire another business to fit into their expanding empire. We all know what he does, keep your is to the ground.

Toby Acton was once again drawing our attention to his motivational mapping services

Dave Roberts also acknowledge the incursion of spring as his jobs this week had included the fitting of garden lights as well as special offers on EV charging.

It was Blake Hammond however that emerged from Sarah’s notebook is the winner. Back from Morocco his AI project can include home fusion. He can link with a plumber or electrician with the assistance of AI to move you into the 21st century by controlling all sorts of things through your mobile phone even when you are thousands of miles away on holiday. Good application of his services linking with other members. Congratulations Blake a well deserved award.

Meeting Secretaries Report

Terry Maylin announced 16 new referrals and in excess of £10,000 worth of business recorded.

New Business Passed Between All Members
£ 0 +
Referral Opportunies Passed Between Members
0

Q&A session

No 10-minute presentation this week. It’s a long time since we’ve had a Q&A session and once again it was a very successful interchange between the members that quite clearly sparked referral opportunities, particularly between Toby Acton and Steve Chilton. It was a good demonstration of how everyone had paid attention during the 60 second round.

Referrals and testimonials

Given the good referral numbers and business recorded, this round was lively and as always, an effective culmination of our meeting.

Comments and Feedback

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Terry Maylin
56 minutes ago

Well done to those that managed to avoid the illnesses plaguing us at the minute and i wish those who are ill a speedy recovery. Well done all on a lively Q&A session, they are always so much better when not too frequent.

Mike Skinner
Mike Skinner
53 minutes ago

Good to be back and see everyone. As usual the struggle to get up at 5am soon gave way to the productive kick off to the morning and a nice jump into the day ahead.

Well done Paul on the Ed Slot and an interesting Q&A as always, and welcome to the two new members!

Paul Corrigan
Paul Corrigan
49 minutes ago

Not exactly a nose job lol, although I do need one 😂
Great, lively meeting and really good to be back

Catherine Foley
Catherine Foley
13 minutes ago

Despite a few regular faces being absent today, it was still a great reason for an early start. The Q&A was a lively alternative to the 10 minute presentation and a good chance to find out more about what fellow members can offer.

Sarah Smith
Sarah Smith
50 seconds ago

A very interesting Q&A session today, and two helpful ideas from Paul on how to increase EBF’s visibility to others and hopefully increase our visitor numbers 😊
We can all do a number of small things to contribute towards making EBF even better, and shouldn’t be afraid to share these ideas.

Other Recent Blog Posts

Our Chairman Aidan Squire summarises our 2025/2026 year as we celebrate the 13th Birthday of Essex Business Forum.
Toby Acton educated us on how we make people fall in love with us, and Matt Barry presented about his career as a designer in relation to his Creative Agency Blue Serif
Ben Golding educated us on how to invite visitors along to our weekly meetings. Paul Corrigan then talked about his Plumbing and Heating business, Solitaire Group.
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