Business Networking Blog

Peronel has been the Director of Marketing for a UK manufacturing company with turnover of £5m, Director of Sales and Marketing at London Interior Design practice (taking the staffing levels from 3 to 15 in as many months) and 30 years freelance. Practical university of life has shaped and formed her understanding that if you have a great idea, or service or product, and do not talk about it, (market it) its only the best in your eyes. And having the “why of commitment” makes the marketing much more effective.
She enjoys presenting information simply and in a creative way to allow great connection with the facts and involvement in the understanding. She researches and collects information about brain friendly learning, clean language, NLP and holding the space to enable a rapport with individual and audience alike.
She works with artists, micro and small businesses to encourage the thinking-big strategy and longevity of business life.

Peter Cooper will be our guest speaker at Hampden House,  Monument Park, Chalgrove on Thursday March 28th. A bestselling author, an award winning speaker and can help you and your business flourish in challenging times with frank, sometimes hard hitting and definitely thought provoking insights to business: he knows the highs and lows from creating a multimillion pound corporation to the lows of losing his own business and starting again from scratch…

In his talk he will share a five step process that can significantly change any business – plus the key lesson he has learned.

A Past President and Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association, Peter has spoken in several countries and to over half a million people worldwide since 1999 and has a Business Development Practice in Worcestershire, specialising in the development of high growth micro and SME Businesses.

“I have found this part of my life to have been the most profound and in many ways it is one of the key reasons why people hire me – because I speak from real world, real life experiences i.e. no glib theories…. My purpose is to use my knowledge and experience to provide help to all those business people who really want to move on with their business life, not make the mistakes I made and enjoy the experience”.- ©Peter A Roper 2013

“Peter A Roper was voted London Speaker of the year 2012 a fantastic achievement, to be recognised by your peer group to be at the top of your game – Derek Arden President PSA 2012”

February’s Late Breakfast event at The Spread Eagle Hotel in THAME attracted it’s largest ever attendance of 28 ! All the more interesting as numbers usually dip during school holidays.
A great presentation from email marketing guru George Anderson ,plenty of interesting forthcoming events promoted by guests and new faces to network with all contributed to an excellent meeting.
Next event here is on Thursday March 21st .

Along with a great team of sponsors ( including us ) JENNINGS ( a home for your business as well as our home for The Late Breakfast in Chalgrove ) are once again running the Southern Oxfordshire New Business Competition. It’s open to any new business (less than 2 years old) operating in the south of Oxfordshire.
Top of the prize podium is a FREE furnished office for a year in a Jennings Business Centre, worth around £6000, along with a cutting edge business advice package. There are some excellent Runners’ Up prizes too, including free Virtual Offices, help and advice from PR & website gurus and more!
For all the info and to download the entry form go to www.sonbc.co.uk . If you’d like to talk to them about your entry, call 01865-893200 or email hello@jennings.co.uk . The closing date is 28th February 2013.

Sometimes you know when something good is about to happen… We’ve mentioned to a few people that Lisa Cherry is lined up to speak at the Late Breakfast this month & they all buzzed with excitement!
Lisa will be speaking about: Why Light Bulbs Are Key To Your Business Success .
There’s alot to say about Lisa & her journey to reach this point, so here’s the summary :
After what Lisa describes as more than 20 years’ experience of personal recovery from a turbulent childhood with spells living in Care, and totally fed up with her job at the time, she turned her life around in February 2010 and the epic journey began that has led to Lisa Cherry Ltd. The marketing, content management, Authorpreneurialism, social media fetish and relationship building has been a BA Hons degree all of its own!
Lisa now works as an author (she’s working on her second book) and runs Writers’ workshops, is a youth coach for young people in care, a mentor to others for writing skills, loves brownies and is a mother of two teenagers while running her own business all at the same time.
She’ll explain the journey of understanding yourself so you can understand your business ….and relish the learning and the growing on offer if you’ll accept it.

It’s going to be a good one!

www.lisacherry.co.uk

The proposed dates in 2013 for each location can be found at the end of the narrative on the left hand side of each venue page.

David Sanger founded Rollover in 1991 & grew the company into the UK’s largest Hot Dog company by 2006, supplying 79 of the top 90 football stadia, 9 of the top 10 theme parks, cinema chains, and many other business sectors including retailers such as Sainsbury’s & Asda.By August 2006, when David sold his company to Piper Private Equity, the company had grown to sales of £10m & EBIT of £1.7m p.a. Or to put it another way…. 47 Rollover Hot Dogs were being eaten every minute of every day.

David has received many business awards including the Institute of Directors’ Entrepreneurial Director of the Year in 2003; the CBI’s Award for the Innovative Company of the Year in 2004; the Lloyds TSB Award for Outstanding Management 2003 & 2005; & the BDO Stoy Hayward Business Growth Award in 2005.

He now acts as a non executive director for a number of companies in different sectors. He also founded ScentAir UK in 2008 & this has quickly grown to become the UK’s largest provider of air scenting systems to businesses, including many of the best known companies & brands on the High Street.

Abingdon – November 2nd – ROD MACRAE
Rod is a communications specialist with video production and PR businesses.
He will be talking about his client work managing maverick explorers and City Institutions, sending journalists to the North Pole and down to the depths of the ocean…and how he became an accidental author,publisher and the value of creating good stories people can engage with – and how experience can be packaged into new ways of marketing your skills and business expertise.
www.macraecommunication.co.uk

Didcot – November 14th – JACKIE FITZGERALD

Have you forgotten why you gave up the rat race and went into business for yourself? Have you ever felt like packing it all in and getting a job?  Does it get to Sunday evening and you’re dreading Monday morning?   If so you’re not alone.  Many business owners start out full of enthusiasm and excitement but end up feeling miserable, demotivated, stressed, exhausted and skint.  The fact is you probably still love what you do, but that joy is lost in the day to day grind of running a business.  The good news is that you can get that loving feeling back; it hasn’t gone forever.  Jackie is a business adviser who specialises in getting family owned and owner managed businesses moving again and in this interactive presentation she will give you some practical strategies for rekindling the passion you once had.

Thame – November 22nd – OWEN HUGHES

“Having been privileged enough to travel to Rwanda to help coach rugby there and to coach kids teams in the UK, I am become acutely aware that in sport, as in business, good communications is essential in any winning team or business. But how do you communicate when you are with a group of children who have never seen a white man, let alone a rugby ball? Communication is all about understanding who you are talking to and asking the right questions. Find out how the lessons learnt on a patch of waste land in Eastern Africa help me and our clients develop their brands and business.”

 For the last ten years across three continents Rona has been motivating businesses and individuals to get out of their comfort zone and reach their potential. Once an unexceptional, middle-aged single parent she became a round-the-world yachtswoman by competing in the BT Global Challenge Round the World Yacht Race (the toughest yacht race in the world), 2 days later she embarked on the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island (one of the world’s toughest trails) encountering bears and cougars. Rona helped organise and took part in the Nordkapp Expedition, dog-sledding in the Arctic Circle 600k to the northernmost tip of Europe, a trail thought to be impossible. Rona’s compelling and memorable stories will captivate her audience and help them to overcome the fear of failure and see challenges and change as opportunities.

 Just do it – become the best you can be!

 This motivational presentation sets out the obstacles and challenges as well as the triumphs that Rona has experienced on her journey through life which shows the audience that if she can do it so can they. Rona tells how she has achieved her goals using stories from her childhood, her marriage, how she entered into a life of adventure, her diverse adventures and what she has accomplished.

 It covers how to achieve your goals by thinking outside of the box? being flexible? taking action; being able to do what needs to be done to get you where you want to be? how to turn dreams into goals; having fun along the way? success comes in many different guises? the goal has to be big enough? the qualities required to succeed. It covers how you need your own support team and concludes with an inspirational poem so that the audience understands it is up to them. Rona’s talks are illustrated with images and video clips taken on her adventures.

Are you too busy to find new clients? Does your marketing need an SOS to help you find the clients you need?

Chantal Cornelius from Appletree will talk about how to keep your business and your marketing on track this year. She will show you how to plan your marketing, to fit around your schedule, and keep bringing in new business, even while you’re busy looking after your clients.

Many small businesses get caught on a ‘feast and famine’ rollercoaster. They do lots of marketing and generate new work. Then they become so busy doing that work that they don’t have time to do any more marketing. Suddenly the work dries up, so they start marketing again. The work comes in, leaving them too busy again to carry on with the marketing.

If you recognise this cycle and want to get off, book your place at this meeting now