It was dark, it was wet, but in the land of Zoom 26 of us thought it was bright and cheerful and in this mood we kicked off our second meeting of the year.
The Performance League
Stuart Smallcombe is in the lead with over a 100 points after only one week.
Education Presentation
It was Stuart Smallcombe again with a theme of “ask your own customer”. His point was that we should not be afraid of asking our own customers for referrals. At least once a year catch up with them, make sure they are happy with you, see if there is anything else you can do for them; see if they can recommend you. This was a useful reminder that our own client/customer base should be a first step in the search for new business.
New Member Induction & Existing Member Renewal
Ben Golding and his close companion the purple pig have had their membership renewed.
The 60 Second Round
The new lockdown has created restrictions for several of us. John Freeman is only available at the moment for essential works, leaks and burst pipes etc. Alan Moller had had a quiet week doing only essential work which he characterized as “a lull”. Nick Cooke is still designing his steel beams but is not doing site visits. Simon Essex has a closed Greenhouse but an open Larder that will do deliveries. Sarah Bell feels as if she is in a game of snakes and ladders where the odds are more in favour of her finding a snake than reaching a ladder. Richard Read however is at the very far end of the restriction spectrum with cancellations more than aplenty. The only upside was that his 4-minute rant (yes somebody timed it) won him the Oscar. Who says length doesn’t matter.
Do not let me give you the impression that this was a round of gloom and doom. There were many uplifting moments. Toby Acton laid the foundations with a reminder that we should be striving for a work/life balance and that the emphasis if anything should be on a life/work balance. See it’s not all doom and gloom!
Vincent Goode tried to cheer us up by extolling the virtues of his “order of service” booklet for funerals and the preference, in these days of restrictive numbers, to produce tribute books.
Brian Painter, despite lockdown, can see clients face to face and indeed had 3 new ones this week.
Ben Golding was celebrating energetically Utility Warehouse’s current accolade of being the cheapest energy supplier, add in the free LED light bulbs, what’s not to be energetic about.
Stuart Smallcombe was also reminding us that he is a one-stop shop for any problems where you would otherwise be forced to go to different suppliers to sort out problems.
Matt Barry showed us high-end collaborations with Scott Griffiths and Scott Griffiths by contrast was looking more to the bottom end and the work he is doing with a toilet hire business. I will resist the temptation to “go there” but I don’t expect you to hold back in your comments.
Finally, spare a thought for Nathan Howson who was sporting a hat that made him instantly recognisable as Justin Timberlake without the moves.
Meeting Secretaries Report
By now it was 8.30am and Scott drew our attention to our backsliding in that many of us took well in excess of 60 seconds in the 60 Second Round . We will be introducing our own restrictions next week that will at least be the meetings equivalent to those imposed by Covid.
10-minute presentation by Mason Edwards
It was Mason Edwards turn to present his business. What makes him laugh is a loud fart in a quiet room….welcome to the club Mason. At a more serious level he split his time between explaining the nature of Covid enhanced cleaning and how he is redesigning his website to make it accessible to both customers and his staff. He demonstrated just what a professional set up he has got.
Referrals and Testimonials
Time constraints made this something of a whistle-stop tour but it demonstrated that there is business out there.
Congratulations Nathan/Jason on joining the “Queen” album cover with myself and Stuart, only 1 space left to fill!. I really enjoyed Stuart’s ed slot, reverse engineering of referrals, great idea. A most enjoyable meeting with the possibility of visitors in the not so distant future, fingers crossed!. Have a great weekend all!, cheers Alan
A lively meeting with a very useful presentation from Mason. I’ve had a cleaning frenzy, cleaning phones, keyboard, door handles and virtually any thing that didn’t move. Keep positive and test negative.
Fantastic meeting again. Interesting education slot from Stuart, certainly something to think about. Mason enlightened me on how often I need to wipe over my phones and keyboard with all those germs about!
It’s great to be in a group where everyone tries to remain so positive even when times are tough for many.
Another fun meeting, well done Mason a very polished 10 minutes.
Great 10 minutes Mason very professional-Thanks for the Ed slot Stuart very useful
Hope you are feeling more cheerful soon Richard😊
I’m good really Terry 🙂
great meeting and sorry I missed Stuart’s Ed slot.
What a lively bunch this morning plenty of banter great ed slot Stuart and great presentation Mason, well done John H for wining the Oscar. See you all next week and stay safe.
I think Ricardo won this week x
An Oscar worthy rant from Richard, the travel industry really has been kicked up the ar**, hope it picks up soon, because I don’t think we could take another 4 minute 60 seconds! Thank you all for a great start to the day 👍
As always, a great way to start the day. Excellent Ed slot by Stuart and superb 10 minutes by Mason. Keep safe and well folks and see you next week.
A very good Ed slot from Stuart ( I would not expect anything else ) and a very good , and as somebody has already said , polished performance from Mason.
I enjoyed listening back to the meeting it was if I was actually there.
Enjoyed Paul B’s Dalek impression.
Apologies for my not so short “rant” folks and I promise to be in a better mood next week. Excellent Ed Slot from Stuart and 10mt presentation from Mason and good meeting all round really.
Great meeting . Great 10 minutes Mason following on from that I have passed your details on to one of our multisite clients for the antibacterial fogging service. Great ED stot Stuart I total agree with you on this . 90% of new works come from our existing client referring us to other companies.
Great meeting all – an excellent 10-mins from Mason preceeded by a brilliant Ed slot from Stuart.
See you all on Thursday.