SMBA Blog

Turn Your Lease Into Lolly

smba — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:06:50 +0000

Martyn Markland is inviting those businesses that lease premises in Manchester to a FREE seminar where they will be provided with strategies to unlock cash from their leased office space. It’s ideal for MDs, FDs, partners and practice managers.
To be held at the Virgin Money Lounge in Manchester on Thursday 17th May, starting at 11am, this is just a one hour session for those interested in injecting potentially tens of thousands of pounds into their cash flow. Places are limited – if you’re interested then simply e-mail info@tenantadvisorygroup.co.uk

Making The Most Of The Weekend!

smba — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:48:05 +0000

Achieving business goals is at the very centre of what our networking group is all about, but we’re a pretty determined bunch of people when it comes to what we do in our personal life too!

So we just want to say “good luck” to three of our members who will be spending this Sunday doing something a little more energetic than reading the papers.

Matt Townsend will be taking part in his first half marathon, pounding the roads around Chester for 13 miles to raise money for the Children’s Burns Foundation. Meanwhile, Suzanne Stolberg and Anthony Connor will be taking part in the Wilmslow Sprint Triathlon – it will be Suzanne’s first time and she’s aiming to just not be the last one back! For Anthony however it’ll be part of his training plan for next year’s big challenge – two Ironman competitions.

Maybe we need to have a closer look at what we’re serving for breakfast!

Matt’s ‘Just Giving’ page is at http://www.justgiving.com/MatthewTownsend-ClaireTreloar

Room To Rent!

smba — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:56:14 +0000

Finding the right business premises can be a minefield, especially if you are a smaller start-up business and just need office space without the scary commitment to the larger landlords and agents.

At the moment, two of our members have office space within their own successful business premises, which would be ideal solutions for many smaller companies. If you’re interested in being located in the heart of Altrincham then please contact Ian Stevenson for further details; if down the road in Sale would be more convenient then please speak to Martin Hood. Contact details for both can be found here.

Christmas At The Castle

smba — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:07:37 +0000

SMBA decided to go ‘on the road’ for our last meeting of 2011 – and off we went to the glorious Peckforton Castle in Tarporley to experience their wonderful hospitality for the morning. A much more civilised breakfast at 9.30am was followed by the chance for members to find out for themselves the sheer power and awesomeness of the falconry experience.

A perfect way to end a very successful year for all our members.

You can find out more about this incredible venue at
www.peckfortoncastle.co.uk

Cheers!

smba — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:41:04 +0000

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

Going the Distance

smba — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:46:44 +0000

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!

Iron Strength For Ironman Anthony!

smba — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:04:18 +0000

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!

Simple Idea, Great Results

smba — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 08:59:09 +0000

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!

Getting What You Pay For

smba — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:24:41 +0000

Andy Snowden used the Inspiration Slot to remind us all that it is often faster and more cost efficient to do a job properly the first time. Rushing, cutting corners or using inferior materials often result in expensive and time-consuming efforts to put the problem right afterwards. It doesn’t cost any more to do a proper job!

However, we’re reminded of the wise words of John Ruskin, who said:
“It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot – it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you have enough to pay for something better.”

When “No” Is What You Want To Hear!

smba — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:22:36 +0000

Last week, Tanya Simister gave us a new perspective on turning a negative comment into something positive during our weekly Inspiration Slot.
“Receiving a response of ‘No’ does not mean failure, in fact ‘No’ can be the most empowering word. It can mean that you’re busy and if you said ‘Yes’ then the service may not be up to your usual standard. People are often prepared to wait, if you are busy, as that can give an insight into your business and also the quality of your work.
When selling, people are searching for a response of ‘Yes’ but if you work out how many answers of ‘Yes’ you want, then turn it on its head and work out how many ‘No’ responses you expect to receive to achieve that desired number. Set your ‘No’ goal higher because this will increase your ‘Yes’ quota and thus your sales.
So never be afraid of failure as it can ultimately equal success – as Richard Fenton and Anita Waltz’s book “Go for No!” says “Yes is the destination, No is how you get there.”