“If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far, go with others”

The business seminar before lunch was hosted by Sam Talby – FRP Advisory.  All I can say is fabulous – titled “Perception and the last resort”.  Sam described the pitfalls that can occur as a result of mis-perception of key business facts – the examples from a professional services firm, a hire company and a manufacturer clearly demonstrated what can go wrong.   Can be seen as the perils of intuition – that gut feeling can often be wrong and that a bit of time and research can be the best path

The saying goes that “Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity and cash is reality” and this was true in the business examples that Sam talked about

Conversely with the help of experts, like Sam, who can add a third dimension and drill down into the business then businesses can be saved and made profitable and healthy again.  Sam also talked about the importance of doing some research before getting into a business relationship – a simple check on the Bankruptcy Register, using Experian or 192 can give you a whole lot more information than a look at LinkedIn or a website!

The final part of Sam’s seminar was a quiz – again about perception and reality.

The questions were

1.  Who has the biggest reserve of US dollars?  Russia, USA, Ukraine or China

2. Special Brew was created for whom?  Bjorn Borg, Winston Churchill, Henry Ford, Adolf Hitler

3.  In Ian Fleming’s original Bond book how much whisky and vodka did James Bond drink? I’ll give you the answer to this one!   35 martinis (19 vodka and 16 gin) and over 100 whisky drinks!

The winner was Andy King of LP Wealth Management – and the prize

During the networking lunch there was a tremndous amout of conversation, energy and enthusiasm brought by……

Also a BIG thank you to Mark Leveridge for a super 10 minutes on what networking can do for you and your business – and the positive impact that it has had for Mark.  I wish I’d recorded this!  I do have a couple of photo’s of Mark who ended his talk with a fabulous trick!

A quick reminder….

The Jessie May Trust – Caring at Work.  Could your business raise £1,000 to help sponsor a Jessie May Nurse? Jessie May Nurses use their incredible skills to enrich children’s short lives and provide high quality care for the whole family. It’s vitally important that, when a child does eventually die, their family has lots of positive memories to look back on. Caring at Work is a new initiative enabling local business to support local families. In return for your commitment to raise £1,000 to help sponsor a Jessie May Nurse we’ll support your business every step of the way and promote your involvement with us through the local press, radio and TV…

Preview for the next event 9/7/14 is here – the members invitation will be sent out by the end of the week!  With the seminar before lunch – “Missing a Trick: Is software really helping your business?”

This seminar explores how your business can avoid the traps of software that doesn’t do what it should and how manual processes can be automated. By defining your own processes and understanding how some simple software development, often using the tools that you already have, you can make a very significant and cost effective difference. You may be very surprised at what you discover.