If what you are trying to do proves hard, never call it quits, have a rest instead!
James Njeru
Breakfast Networking with Business An opportunity to put your business in the spotlight to highlight it’s products/services and how these can help other businesses. You will make new contacts and generate business leads, whilst sharing ideas, and experiences with like-minded business people. Join us for a delicious full English breakfast and lots of networking.
8.00 am – 9.30 am
Dartford (Dartford Football Club) – Wednesday 17 April 2012
Tonbridge (Hadlow Manor) – Tuesday 24 April 2012
Greenhithe (Cote Restaurant, Bluewater) Wednesday 2 May 2012
Tunbridge Wells (Salomons Centre) Thursday 17 May 2012
Gillingham (Priestfield Stadium) Tuesday 29 May 2012
£12.50 + VAT (Kent Invicta Chamber Members) £17.50 + VAT (Non Members)
Networking events from Invicta Chamber of Commerce
“Standing still can be the fastest way of moving backwards” Edward De Bono
This can be very true in the world of business today, especially as change moves at a faster rate than ever before, particularly with social media, advanced technology etc.
SME’s especially need to embrace fresh ideas, opportunities and develop so that they can keep up with the larger players in the market or even stay afloat against their competitors. Here are some tips that may help:-
-
It can be frightening taking on new ideas and challenges but if you keep things in perspective, i.e it will take time to change things, and you don’t have to make major changes all at once, this can be a gradual thing. Set yourself a generous time limit for the changes you wish to make and stick to it.
-
Assess what you have done in the past and what has worked. This should give you a confidence in your ability to move forward and try new things.
-
Be aware of the possibility of failure, but think what is the worst that can happen if your new idea does fail. Will it have a large financial impact, will it affect how you run your business or will it just be minor changes that are affected. If only minor, what you have you got to lose by trying. Also bear in mind you will learn from any mistakes you make along the way.
-
Share your enthusiasm with colleagues, friends and other business owners. Get their input and opinion on your ideas. Include work colleagues in your plans and ask them directly for their input and ideas. If they are involved they are more likely to welcome any changes you make and they will feel included in your plans.
-
Trust your ‘gut instinct’ or ‘hunch’ but don’t forget to be realistic about things as well. If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. You have to feel confident and comfortable with any changes or new ideas to make it work.
-
Research your ideas or changes first, don’t jump in head first. The internet is a wonderful thing and can provide a mind of information on just about anything. Local community, business workshops, advice services, etc are all there to help. They want you to succeed.
-
If there are times when your belief starts to drift, talk to an expert, friend, colleague and discuss the issues. Listen carefully to what they say, and consider their perspective on things.
-
Do not make excuses for avoiding change like your “too busy”, “too difficult”, “doesn’t affect me”, “too much like hard work”. I reiterate the first sentence.
“Standing still can be the fastest way of moving backwards!”
Business planning or forecasting is essential to all businesses, whatever size, large or small. You need to plan for what you think might happen in the future, both short-term and longer-term. Making regular forecasts and comparing them to actual achievements will enable you to:
-
keep tight control over your business and understand what’s happening in your company
-
see what strategies are working and those that are not
-
clarify your goals and objectives and use them against your budget
Business planning is not a one-off paper exercise but should be part of your business strategy. They should be regularly reviewed and updated with your achievements. You can see how differently things turned out to what you forecast and expected and make the necessary adjustments accordingly.
Looking ahead is vital to achieving objectives for your business!
Here is some information which may be helpful for local businesses around Kent.
Kent Libraries are holding a series of free evenings to help local businesses find information.
Our libraries offer a wide range of resources to help businesses, and that all of it is free to Kent businesses. This year, we’re holding a series of evening events to publicise our services and give you the opportunity to talk to staff, and see the resources first hand.
Among the services the library can provide are:
Mailing Lists: Do you want to promote your business to new clients or identify new suppliers? We can provide customised mailing lists of UK or Irish companies, based upon your specific criteria. Request a list of companies in a particular area; narrow by turnover, number of employees or type of business. And it’s free.
Business Start-up: Access to COBRA (the Complete Online Business Reference Advisor) from your home computer. Extensive profiles on how to set up and run hundreds of different business, advice of laws, tax, qualification, personnel, training, ICT and on how to market your business.
Market Intelligence: A full collection of Key Note reports covering 250 market sectors.
Credit Checks and Financial Details: Company information from home through Kompass, giving you contact details and product information for companies worldwide. Or come into one of our larger libraries for the E-Business resource that gives extensive financial information, director’s reports and documents for over two million limited and non-limited UK businesses.
The next three business evenings are at the following venues:
Fleetdown Library
Swaleale Road
Dartford
DA2 6JZ
1 February 2012
19.00 – 21.00
Canterbury Library
35 Pound Lane
Canterbury
CT1 2BZ
22 February 2012
19.00 – 21.00
Allington Library
Castle Road
Allington
ME16 9PR
14 March 2012
19.00 – 21.00
You can find directions to each library (as well as parking) by following the links.
If you would like to attend, then please reply to this email telling us which day you wish to attend as well as how many will be coming. There’s no charge for these evenings, but numbers are limited by the size of the venues.
Thank you for taking the time to read this message.
If you require any further information, or have any enquiries about business (or anything else) Connect with Information www.kent.gov.uk/onlinelibrary
