Manningham Business Network

Well the year is off and running wth the successful completion of our first Open to the Public MBN meeting for the year! Thank you everyone who came along today and especially thank you for perservering with our new electronic ticketing system for registrations. The new system makes life significantly easier for the Committee to organise and communicate with the Manningham City Council, so it is an essential tool that we will hopefully refine with experience, but we acknowledge it wasnt all smooth sailing, so thanks again for your patience.

The morning itself was a great start to the year, with an adequate presentation from myself, then a step up with our Guest speaker, Alan Moxon of New Logic, and finally a truly excellent presentation from our Keynote speaker, Sandi Givens from Shattering Glass Ceilings, on “Critical presentation skills that create success:How to promote yourself and your business with confidence, ease and charisma!”.

Sandi’s presentation contained an absolute wealth of knowledge on how to improve your presentation and public speaking skills with practical, real life tips to use. Presented with genuine knowledge and conviction, her session was an invaluable educational opportunity that I personally found extremely compelling, valuable and one of the best to date.

If you were unucky enough to have missed out on our breakfast I strongly recommend that you take the time to review Sandi’s website at http://www.sandigivens.com.au/ and learn more.

Next month’s Keynote speaker will be Ricky Nowak of Ricky NowakLeadership on “Get more from your small business”, so stay tuned for more as we get closer to March.

The MBN group would also like to congratulate member Paul Loupetis on the birth of his new baby girl Tia! As the first babe of the family, Paul has some adjusting to do, but we wish him and his family all the best.

Thanks again everyone for their contribution today and see you next month!

As another year draws to a close the Manningham Business Network celebrates another highly successful year and we would like to thank everyone who attended our Open Meetings throughout the year. With a growth in attendees of over 50% for the monthly event, as well as a strong take up of new Members, lifting the membership base of the group by approximately 40% on last year’s numbers, we are extremely pleased with the obviously strong interest the local business community has in establishing long lasting relationships with likeminded business people.

This year saw continued growth despite the unfortunate disruptions caused by the recent fire at the Manningham City Council Offices, and the continued assistance from the Council throughout this period and the rest of the year has enabled the MBN to maintain a high quality offering and is a testament to the invaluable support provided the group from Manningham City Council. We would like to thank the Council once again for their solid support and look forward to another great year in 2010.

Special thanks are also due to the MBN’s primary sponsor, the Doncaster East Branch of the Bendigo Bank, who joined the MBN supporter base in mid-2009.

Lastly a strong thank you to all the individuals and Members who attended our functions throughout the year and provided a purpose to our thriving network.

Thanks everyone for another great meeting. Good to see some of our new members, Alisha & Lorel for their first Members’ meeting, always a pleasure to have new faces and to get fresh ideas in the group.

Today saw us cover a lot of topics, including an update from myself and our VP, Gary, on the Council, speakers and upcoming events. Unfortunately it looks as though the Gala evening wll be have to be postponed until next year due to time constaints, though we are looking at early next year for a dedicated Networking function to kick us off asap. We are also keen to organise a ‘Members Day’ Open meeting spot where we try something a bit different and have a small panel of Members speak on various topics of interest at one of the Open Meetings early next year. So Members please get your ideas/nominations in and watch this spot!

The Members Christmas function has been booked for Sunday the 6th of December and confirmation of responsibilities, times and venue will all be emailed to the group soon. If last year was anything to go by it should be a fantastic afternoon.

Review of the Membership rules has been flagged and will be presented at the next Members meeting for official vote. If people have any pre-meeting contributions, please let the Committee know as soon as possible.

A brief round of Christmas marketing ideas was shared between all with some interesting initiatives and thoughts on the whole process, thank you everyone for their input.

Thanks again and I will see you all again next month!

Post pending, sorry for the delay

Thanks to all our members who made it along to this meeting, it was once again an extremely valuable session. We discussed in great detail each member’s business and what they perceieved as their unique offering and what types of input they could have as part of our soon to be released Membership benefit program.

The morning gave each of us a very valuable range of feedback on how outsiders saw what we did and how that contrasts with our own ideas for our work. Often it is very easy to get lost in the wilderness as small business operators, sometimes we lack the internal feedback larger businesses have about what we do, and I think everyone found these alternative viewpoints extremely useful.

Similarly we have been able to take the feedback of our mebers in developing the new member’s benefit program in order to be more relvant, allow greater participation regardless of business background, and provide a  more targeted offering that we believe willbe a true attractor for those considering membership within the group.

Thanks again and we hope to see more of you all in the future!

Hi all,

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has INCREASED the official interest rate by 0.25% or 25 basis points, a key sign the Australian economy is starting to gain momentum.

The bad news is that all lenders will be reviewing their current interest rates and passing on the increase shortly. ANZ have moved today the full 0.25%.

Please do not hesitate to contact me for any further information – treasurer@mbiznetwork.org.au or ploupetis@odysseyfinancial.com.au

READ THE EXPLANATION FROM GLENN STEVENS – RBA GOVERNOR…….

 http://www.rba.gov.au/MediaReleases/2009/mr-09-23.html

Sorry for this slightly late post, but it has been a busy week. Last Tuesday saw us back in the Manningham City Council’s offices, this time up in Room 2 rather than the Council Chambers (and instead of the Doncaster Senior Centre), which was very nice. Open, bright and well laid out. Looks like we may be in that room permanently, which would be fine judging by the feedback from those who attended.

Thanks again go to our main speaker who this week was Brenda Thompson from Networking World. Brenda’s presentation ‘It’s not about ‘working the room’ was an amazingly valuable session that really covered off some great ideas about how you should be thinking differently about your business networking. Brenda advised that we become far more effective at making the right sort of contacts, without necessarily having to do any of those really cliché habits that you dont really enjoy doing anyway. If you missed the session, go to Brenda’s website to learn more, it will be worth your time – http://www.networkingworld.net.au/

A big thanks also to Gary Hegedus for his mini presentation on “Promoting your business through digital media”, a great summary of the basic do’s and don’ts of marketing digitally.

And lastly, thanks also to Russell McInnes from gardiner mcinnes real estate on some fantastic tips on what to ask a potential agent when picking who to use when selling your property. A great number of seriousl good tips, stuff I doubt most agents would be happy you asking them, but details Russell and Vicki are happy to share.

Our next meeting is on the 13th of October, check out the home page for details and register now!

Thanks again to you all and I look forward to seeing you next at the next meeting.

Just a quick reminder in case you missed the flyer, the Council Newsletter or the website! We are back in the Manningham City Council offices for tomorrow’s meeting! Hopefully no one ends up at the wong venue, but please make sure you note the change.

See you bright and early!

Thank you to our members for coming to the meeting this morning, was a very constructive session. It is great to see the group growing, if things keep going the way they have we soon wont fit comfotably in the cafe. At the moment it can already be a bit of a struggle to hear one another, so it may not be long untilwe have outgrown our venue.

We welcomed the three new members to our group and did a bit of a round table on innovative ideas for marketing. Thanks for everyones ideas on internet search engine optimisation, industry and retail expos and ‘industry’ newspapers and newsletters.

As a reminder to the members who came along (and those who didnt quite make it), dont forget to submit your ideas for the member benefits program, or if you are interested in participating in the group banners being printed, let Gary know asap.

Next month’s member session will be concentrating on ‘What do others want from my business?’ so be prepared to share you ideas on what you think of the offerings from other members and what your think they may like about your business. Sure to be an extremely constructive brainstorming session. Results wil be used in the Member Benefits Program if participant desire.

Thanks again all and I look forward to seeing you all at the next Open meeting on Tuesday the 8th of September.

Next month we have Brenda Thompson form Networking World speaking at our breakfast. She is a wealth of knowledge with connecting  small business and shouldn’t be missed. I will be giving a short presentation on the latest ways to leverage your business using digital media. Although our Gala night has been postponed this year (due to the fire at Manningham Council) we are now planning our Speed Networking night, I will post the date the moment it is confirmed.