Now that wasn’t a bad meeting was it? Pretty good I would say. Brian Painter our resident hypnotherapist was in charge of the meeting whilst our usual chairman Aidan Squire was elsewhere on this occasion. Now let me see. We had 19 members and one guest.
To kick things off, Scott informed us of this week’s winners of the Performance League. Paul Booth our accountant was the outright winner. No changes there. And hot on its tail (not Paul’s) was the Education Slot delivered by Brian Painter with a number of ways of increasing the membership of our group. Brian was ably assisted by Scott Griffiths and Paul Booth, who each described a number of other means of attracting new members to the group.
As always, our individual presentations during the 60 second round were a pretty mixed bag, mostly very good. We were all reminded of the respective services that we offer and in particular the type of work we were looking for.
Whilst everyone deserves a quick mention, it’s not possible to do so. However, there were several notable ones. Cathy Neat of the Willow Centre, a venue for hiring meeting rooms, advised us that everybody’s business cards were now on display in her reception area. Scott Griffiths our web guy made the point that it was important that we all took advantage of a free business listing with Google because that can only be good for our respective businesses. Richard Read of Prestige Holidays & Travel drew our attention to a couple of brilliant breaks in New Zealand and Costa Rica over the Christmas period. They were both remarkable value.
All the 60 seconds were delivered with an agreeable mix of clear speaking, humour, repartee and on occasions wit. But it was Sarina Armond of Upminster Kitchens & Bedrooms who won the Oscar for her performance. Serena shared the news that not only could her company provide superb quality kitchen and bedroom furniture, she can also supply Siemens apps to enable the busy home owner to see what is in the fridge whilst out shopping and even get the dishwasher to start and stop remotely.
Our 10 minute presentation was delivered by Howard Bullock our financial adviser. It was all about pensions and why on earth do we want one. Well of course we all need a pension and Howard explained very clearly why that is the case. Howard described the various types of pension that were available and how best to go about getting the one most suited to our individual requirements. A number of questions were raised following his presentation all of which Howard dealt with confidently and clearly.
The business referral round went very well as usual with plenty of good business being passed between the respective members of the group. The subsequent Referral Reality Check which reviews the previous week’s referrals demonstrated quite clearly that the system was working very well indeed.
Once again, we had an excellent meeting. The business flowed in the right direction and we all had a good time. The breakfast wasn’t bad either. It always is. Not bad that is.
As always, happy networking to you all.
This blog post was guest-written by our member Nick Cooke from Nick Cooke & Associates.
Great 10 minutes from Howard, and a good meeting too.
Excellent meeting today and very professional 10 presentation by Howard Bullock about pensions, well done to Sarina on winning the oscar and to Stuart Smallcombe who is very nearly 7th in performance league, great to see our guest and hope to see her again.
what a dashing photo that is of Howard, well done on your 10 mins presentation, always very professional and confusing, sorry interesting… lively fun meeting and look forward to next week.
Thanks Dean.The trick is to make it look as though you know what you are talking about!
Yet another excellent meeting folks, with £53k of business done in the last week!! So it’s not all frollicking about but the serious stuff gets done as well.
Great 10mts from Howard (he had his picture photo shopped, nowhere near as good looking in real life) very professional session on pensions. My wife and I use Howard for financial advice on investments and pensions and these are doing very nicely.
Great to see a visitor, Ruta Gabalis there this morning and, hopefully she will return having been suitably impressed by what networking can offer to any new start up.
Well done Serena on the Oscar award. xx
PS: The New Zealand and Coata Rica tours were for 2018, it was the European short break offers that were as an alternative to spending Christmas at home.
Thank you Richard!
At least Richard got a blog mention this week 😉
Great to be back again, great meeting and 10 minutes. See you all next week bright eyed and bushey tailed.
Well done to Sarina and that you to Dean for returning my badge in good time!
What a great blog, well done Nick! very enjoyable meeting today, my apologies for leaving early, I got an emergency callout>
I hope my “thank you” for moneys got mentioned as I text Terry and asked him to do so in my absence, if not, thankyou Brian, and Richard for the moneys 😊, great to have a visitor, hope you return soon Ruta, well done to Paul, & Serena, and of course Brian for filling in for Aiden.
My sincere apologies to Howard for leaving as his started his presentation, it was one I really wanted to see!
Nice one guys see you all next week!
I do not believe it, I really do not. I gave my name, my business, what I do and the referrals I’m looking for, a call for action and I did not get a mention regarding the 60 second round. What has a chap got to do to get a mention? This is the first time this year I’ve been omitted:come back Jill and Aiden, I feel this is a conspiracy. Well done, Nick, for a good blog considering you’re a construction engineer. Howard, a really insightful information about pensions, a veritable minefield for us plebs. However,you can stop preening yourself in the glow of a Pilgrim endorsement. That photo!! Must have been taken 20 years ago! Where are the jowls? Where is the double chin? Where is the thinning hair? And that shirt and tie, I recognise it, I gave it to Oxfam when I slimmed down at least two decades ago. What a grand meeting. I’m looking for a volunteer to scribe next week’s blog. Howard? It is said that the revenge is best delivered cold, go for it boy, blast away!
Sorry I had to dash off early everyone, especially sorry to have missed Howard’s 10 minutes (sorry Howard!!)
Nicely structured blog Nick and well done Howard for volunteering for next week’s blog. Great 10 minutes Howard. See you next week.