Hi there,

 

Thanks to the 10 who rugged up and attended our meeting last night at Gannets.    Rod Heaps' talk about Gannet Adventures was interesting and witty.  His key advice is ' do your planning to get ahead - it doesn't matter how you plan, as long as you stick to it.  Network, advertise and approach the media  to get your name out there.'  Thanks Rod for your time and this great advice.

 

Thanks also to Jo for making Gannets available.

 

6 weeks out from now is around the 8 August.  We are still trialling premises and have been offered the Haumoana Fire Station for our next meeting.  We will confirm everything closer to the time.

 

We have gained two new members.  Martin runs a building business and is currently working on new homes in a subdivision.    Sue runs an admin and secretarial service from home. Grateful if Sue could please forward us Martin's contact details so we can add them to our contact list.

 

Justin has kindly agreed to tidy up the contact list, load it on his website and ask Andy and Margot to do the same.  Thanks Justin - both Tania and I haven't had the time to do this.

 

We need a back-up person to help with meetings and other arrangements when Tania and I are flat out.  With two littlies, we can't always get to meetings on time - especially if a small boy decides to scream his head off teething! (oh joy!).  Ideally this super back-up will run meeting when we can't.  We also still need someone to keep distributing mail to the non-email members.  Make our day and help us out......

 

This is available from the Napier Council's Economic Development Unit - Keith White ph 834 4194 keith@napier.govt.nz  Here, you can confidential advice and feedback on your new ideas.They have a good free book called Foundations for Growth, which is published by the Trade and Enterprise Board.  This includes lots of info and contacts who can help you grow your business e.g Intellectual Property Office, free downloadable surveys to use etc.. 

 

We are leaving this up to members to make the advertising decision about.  Essentially it is $65, will feature the date 2007/08 and list the BBN districts on the front cover.  For further info, you can contact Tania or myself.

 

www.ezicoupons.co.nz advertise on the back of Countdown's Napier and Hastings dockets.  You can advertise for free via this website. One of our members did this, hasn't had any new work from it but was pleased to get their business name out there.  There is a proven timelag between advertising and then gaining new business. It's all about marketing ....

 

I'm interested in developing a newsletter for my writing business.  This will be available freely to anyone you wants to gain an edge with their communication and marketing.  It will include tips on how to improve business communication (e.g how to write a presentation) and answer questions about writing/spelling/grammar.  Before I make any more plans, I'd like to know how people prefer to receive information....

 

Do you prefer to receive newsletters hardcopy or via email?  Grateful for you feedback and thanks for your time.  I'm happy to add you to the distribution list if you would like this free tool.

 

 

 

Best wishes for a good and warmer week.  Happy networking..