Living up to our reputation for enjoying the social side to business networking, SMBA are holding an informal wine tasting and ‘getting to know you’ event on Thursday 10th November, kindly hosted at Holt Business Solutions. Our members will be bringing along guests who they think would benefit from an introduction to someone else within the group, so even if you’re not sure that SMBA membership is for you, please come along and say hello anyway. Bottles will be opened at 4pm, with glasses being cleared away for 8pm.
Click here for location

Many congratulations to Anthony Connor, who completed his first Ironman Triathlon in Barcelona last weekend in an awe-inspiring 13 hours and 53 minutes. Proof that determination and belief will help you achieve just about anything in life!

This week we’re all thinking about one of our newest members, Anthony Connor, who will be the final bit of training into the next few days before he goes off to Barcelona next weekend to take part in his first Ironman event. Which consists of…
2.4 mile sea swim…
112 mile cycle ride…
26.2 mile run…
…all to be completed in less than 17 hours. Those of us who heard his inspiration slot the other week are probably all still reeling from the sheer tenacity that Anthony possesses, because two years ago he suffered a massive stroke. His first challenge was simply to learn to walk again. But his determination was such that a 5k race was his next goal, then a 10k run, and he kept on working at his fitness until this endurance event. So whilst many of us have done our bit for charity in recent years, we’re all supporting him in his fundraising efforts because he’s challenged himself in the last two years in ways that we could probably never dream of.
His fundraising page on Justgiving is here http://www.justgiving.com/anthonyconnor1 – so let’s do something worthwhile this week!

This week, Mike Donovan treated us to an insight of what helps motivate him in business, especially the success he’s created with Network M. It comes from W. Clement Stone’s book which explains that sales is, essentially, applied common sense.

Right from the beginning – when meeting with potential customers for the first time – you should have a plan to help with your presentation. For Mike, he created the RASP approach – Reliability, After Sales Service, Specification and Price. This all helps to maintain a focus – and all you have to do is close the deal!