Filtered Results by Category: proNet Announcements

proNet gets a full page feature in the latest August/September issue of Bradford’s Here and Now Magazine which is published by proNet member MAD Publications.

Using photographs of a real proNet Bradford meeting in progress to illustrate, the founders of proNet Business Networking Jaimie Dobson and Vicky Endogan talk about how and why proNet was founded, what members get out of the meetings and what visitors may expect to see if they attend a meeting.

The article finishes off with forthcoming meeting dates in Bradford.

Jaimie Dobson, proNet co-founder explains further;

Taking out an advitorial in the Here and Now Magazine was a ‘no brainer’ really. The magazine is genuinely readable and one that is likely to be picked up more than once given it offers great content and layout. This coupled with a wide circulation of the publication across the city including selected Morrisons and Sainsbury stores across town, ensures that proNet will get great coverage and improved awareness.

You can order your own regular copy of the Here and Now Magazine or enquire about advertising opportunities for your own business in the publication by contacting Angela Riches of MAD Publications on 01274 420091

If you don’t have a copy of the current issue you can read proNet’s article plus others in the online version embedded in the page below.

proNet brings its unique business networking format to the town of Halifax in West Yorkshire on Wednesday 15th September, with the launch of a fortnightly breakfast networking meeting at the Mereside Visitor Centre on the Shibden Hall Estate.

If you’re a Halifax based business business and are familiar with the concept of networking as a business support and lead generation technique, but have been put off other breakfast networking groups by their stuffy culture or unfocused format; then you’ll find proNet’s meetings a refreshing change.

Conversely, if you’re looking to explore breakfast networking meetings in Halifax for the first time as a new way to market your business, then proNet’s Halifax meeting offers you an ideal platform to begin.

With proNet there’s:

• No pressure to attend every meeting
• No targets to bring referrals or visitors
• No expensive membership fees
• No weekly commitment

Instead proNet offers;

• Affordable membership with no long term commitment
• Exclusivity of your business type in the group
• Fortnightly meetings
• Useful and informative speakers at every meeting (no sales pitches)
• The chance to raise your business profile and make new contacts
• The chance to visit other proNet networking meetings across West Yorkshire as often as you wish
• A unique Business Clinic at every meeting

If the launch of our Bradford and Spen Valley meetings was anything to go by, we’re expecting the opening meeting of our Halifax group to be very popular with upwards of 40-50 business people in attendance.

A great networking opportunity!

If you’d like to learn how proNet meetings can work for your business, then we invite you to book a place at our launch meeting on the 15th September.

• Date: Wednesday 15th September 2010
• Time: 7.30am – 9.30am
• Location: Mereside Visitor Centre, Shibden Hall Estate, Halifax
• Cost: £10 cash, payable on the door which includes breakfast

Our keynote speaker for the Knowledge Transfer slot is Philip Gwynne* from The Naked Marketing Company who will be giving us a 20 minute presentation entitled:

3 Things You Can Do in 3 Days to Improve Your Bottom Line

To book your place, email us on halifax@joinpronet.com More information including directions to the venue may be found on our Halifax Group page on this website.

*Philip Gwynne is a multi award-winning marketing and communications specialist specialising in designing and delivering business growth. He runs The NAKED Marketing Company, which specialises in helping businesses acquire more customers, make more sales and enjoy more profit. His clients are mainly small and medium sized businesses, but he’s also worked with some of the UK’s leading high street names and brands.

proNet Spen Valley member Danny Matharu from Hillrich Marketing is running the second of his Kirklees Business Conferences at the Galpharm Stadium in Huddersfield on September 30th and proNet is taking a stand.

Quoting from Danny’s Kirklees Business Conference website;

Now in our second year, Kirklees Business Conference consists of a FREE full day programme of business specific seminars, an exhibition involving close to 60 businesses, a clinic where you can cure your business ailments along with unlimited networking for all involved.

The whole ethos of KBC is to offer a greater support mechanism to Kirklees businesses.

proNet will be taking an exhibition stand at this year’s conference and invites everyone to stop by, say hello and be entered into a free prize draw to win 6 months free membership of proNet.

The whole day including the exhibition, speaking events and business clinic is free at Danny’s event (how does he do it?) so why not book your attendance place now.

Take a look at pics from last year’s event (of which the one above is an example) on Danny’s Flickr Stream.

By way of an update, new members that have joined us recently include, at our Bradford Group;

• Jon Huby from lettings and property management company Let’s Go Professional
• Julian Thornhill of Thornhill Financial Services
• John Davies, Painter and Decorator

And at our Spen Valley Group;

• Danny Matharu from events marketing company Hillrich Ltd
• Beverley Shutak from Siddalls Colour Printers in Cleckheaton
• Paul Ferris from Mirfield based Yorkshire Telecom
• Robert Cannon, a wills and probate professional from Allguard Legal Services

Welcome to you all and we hope you find your membership with proNet to be enjoyable, productive and above all else, profitable.

Attend a Meeting

If you would like to meet these people or any other member of proNet, you are welcome to attend as a guest at one of our forthcoming business networking breakfasts.

If you’re interested in attending our Bradford Group, more details about the group and how you can book your place may be found by clicking on this link.

Similarly, if it’s the Spen Valley Group that interests you, more details and booking information may be found by clicking here.

You are of course, welcome to attend both groups if you like to network with the new members above as well as other meeting visitors and established members.

A £10 cash meeting fee, payable on the door, is asked of all visitors to proNet’s meetings.

The Dubrovnik Hotel in Bradford is the new venue for proNet’s Bradford group which meets fortnightly on a Thursday morning.

The launch meeting this morning got off to a great start with plenty of new faces including Sarah Godfrey from Jet Cleaning Services and Julian Thornhill from  Thornhill Financial Services. Also attending was Steve Donnison, a full-time MBA student from Bradford Business School, who sent us the following Tweet after the meeting which summed up the consesus of opinion from all those that attended;

…this morning was refreshing and worthwhile. Thank-you for the warm welcome.

Hypnotherapist, renowned motivational speaker and chair of the Bradford meetings, Gary Blonder; gave an excellent presentation in our Knowledge Transfer section on the psychology of networking.

Everyone came away armed with some great tips for their next networking experience.

Meeting Pics

Visiting photographer Roger V Moody from proNet’s Spen Valley Group took great some shots of the meeting which may be seen on proNet’s Flickr Stream

Were you there, can you spot yourself?

If you’re interested in attending the next Bradford meeting please visit the Group’s page on this site for future dates and instructions on how to book your place.

The Dubrovnik Hotel is the new venue for proNet’s meetings in Bradford and they kick off with an open day event on Thursday 1st July 2010.

So if you’ve ever wondered what proNet’s breakfast networking meetings are like or perhaps you’re already a seasoned early morning networker but are looking for an alternative networking format, then proNet Bradford’s open day on Thursday 1st July is an ideal opportunity for you to test the water and discover the benefits of a proNet meeting for yourself.

The meeting starts at 7.30am with open networking and closes at 9.30am. Attending visitors are asked to pay a meeting fee of £10 cash on the door as they arrive. This includes a full breakfast.

Our keynote speaker for the morning’s Knowledge Transfer Slot is renowned hypnotherapist and an exciting new talent in the world of motivational speaking, Gary Blonder.

Gary also chairs our Bradford meetings that meet on a fortnightly basis at the Dubrovnik Hotel and will be giving a presentation entitled “The Psychology of Networking” in which he will be sharing some of his proven techniques for maximising the returns on your business networking activities.

Gary’s presentation style is very entertaining whilst being highly informative, so this opportunity to see him speak isn’t one to be missed if you take your business networking activities seriously.

Book Your Place

We’re limited on space for this meeting so pre-booking is essential. To book a place, simply drop Gary and email at info@garyblonder.co.uk or give him a call on 07837 970745

More details about our meetings at the Dubrovnik Hotel including joining instructions, may be found here.

One or two members, keen to develop our groups, have asked me about which categories of business providers are we looking for at each group?

proNet limits membership to just one business type or ‘category’ for any particular group.

This idea isn’t a new idea in the world of business networking groups we do admit, but it’s a popular concept that our members wanted to adopted as it allows a representative from a particular business sector to network at our meetings without having to worry about their competitors’ stealing their thunder.

One Category, One Group

So for example, the IFA at our Spen Valley meetings has exclusivity of his business type within the group. No other IFA is allowed to join that group. This gives him a competitive advantage over his competitors, particularly when the building blocks of trust and familiarity associated with business networking groups like proNet’s, are thrown into the mix.

It works well in small networking groups.

Category List

The category vacancies at any one of proNet’s groups varies from time to time as members come and go, however for now, you may download a list of available categories that are vacant at both our Spen Valley and Bradford groups by clicking this link [PDF document that opens in a new browser window]

Who Do You Know?

Do you know anyone in these categories? There’s a place waiting for them at our next business networking meeting.

One of the great things about operating an independant business networking organisation like proNet is that we don’t have to answer to a larger brand or company.

So when it comes to listening to what our members want, what they feel isn’t working and what they feel is; then we’re ideally placed to make the appropriate changes for the benefit of our everyone without having to cow-tow to a tiered management structure.

After all, proNet is a networking group, run by its members for the benefit of its members.

Rolling Out the Changes

So having taken on board your requests we’re now in a position to roll out some positve changes on how proNet operates. Part of our evolution if you like.

Success Slips

Whilst business is being passed around the table at proNet’s meetings, it’s not visibly apparent to other members and visitors at our group meetings. Making sure transactions are more visible to people would illustrate more clearly, the benefits of joining proNet and emphasise the value of being a proNet member.

Therefore it has been decided to introduce a referral or lead slip passing type of system into our meeting formats. This will be called the “Success Exchange” and will use formal slips of paper, called “Success Slips” to demonstrate the passing of business and ideas between members. proNet’s ethos is not to put pressure on our members to perform and as such, members will not be targeted or pressurised to bring leads or referrals in case you are worrying.

Visitor Hosts

The voluntary position of Visitor Host will be appointed within each group. The person working in this role will be tasked with making sure visitors to our meetings are made to feel welcome. They will also be responsible for following up by telephone, visitors to each meeting in order to ascertain feedback and their thoughts on re-attending or joining as a member.

Single Category

The number of business types allowed within each group will be reduced from two down to one. This gives each business type exclusivity within a group and further promotes a sense of ‘belonging’ amongst our members.

Nomadic Membership

A member that is based at one group, may continue to attend meetings at other proNet groups for a £10 on the door fee. Such attendance must be pre booked through this website or by email to membership@joinpronet.com However the business type of the visiting member to a group must not conflict with that of an existing member’s of the group they intend to visit.

Member Offers

Members will be asked if they want to provide a special or exclusive offer to other members of proNet. This could be in the form of a discount on services or a free consultation etc. Such offers will be presented to new members in the form of an “offer sheet” enclosed with their acceptance letter and will be announced within the AOB section of proNet’s meetings on a regular basis.

Membership Fees

It is felt that the current membership scheme and costs are a barrier to many people joining proNet in that the perception is that our tiered (ad-hoc, 3 month, 6 month and 12 month) membership levels are too complicated are too “expensive” in the eyes of many. In reality, proNet’s membership costs are highly competitive against other breakfast networking groups, particularly as they include the cost of the meetings; however be that as it may, the perception is what it is and it is proving to be a barrier to new member recruitment.

Therefore, to make it easier and more affordable for new members to join a proNet group, a revised, simplistic and more affordable membership scheme will be introduced. This will take the form of a simple, flat £30 per calendar month membership fee.

No other fees will be payable as this will include the member’s breakfast. This is to be paid by Standing Order. Guests may continue to visit up to two times with a £10 on the door cash fee before they need to make a decision.

Furthermore, as the membership fee will be paid monthly, a person’s membership commitment will be on a rolling monthly basis. Therefore, if a member no longer wishes to attend proNet meetings then they can simply cancel their membership without penalty by giving one month’s notice. At which point their business category will be opened up to their competitors.

Omitting this need to commit to a long term membership is deemed to be an attractive concept to new members.

This new membership charging scheme takes place with immediate effect and applies to all new applications and membership renewals.

Evolve

proNet will continue to revise how it runs its meetings and is always open to suggestion as it evolves. It is hoped that these modifications will help enhance our meetings even further and stimulate new member recruitment.

Did you know that Google offers a free local business listing service which works a bit like a business directory but is linked to their maps feature?

Here’s How It Works

In Google, try a search for “networking groups in west yorkshire“.

Up comes a list of search results that point you through to what Google perceives to be, relevant web pages to that search term.

At the top of these listings is proNet’s entry on the Local Business Center. You can see it’s associated with a map to our address in Bradford.

Try it with another keyword search, say “florists in Leeds”; to understand further how Google Local Listings work. Get your business placed on a Google Map is easy, all you need to do is sign-up for a free Google Account and then once you’ve done that, sign-in at their Local Business Center page and follow the process to create your own free business listing.

As an example, here’s a link to proNet’s Local Business Center listing.

This is Where You Come In

Here’s where you can help us.

On our listings page, if you scroll down the page, near the bottom you’ll see a number of reviews. Help us give credibility to this listing by offering a positive review of our meetings for all the world to see on the page.

You do this by simply clicking the “Write a review” link on the right hand side of the page column. You’ll be prompted to login with your Google account details, but otherwise it’s that easy and quick.

Many thanks in advance.

Each proNet business networking group has it’s own commercial photographer as a member.

In the Bradford group we have John Steel of John Steel Photography and in the Spen Valley Group; Roger V Moody of Roger Moody Photography.

John lives in Brighouse but runs his business from Bradford and Roger lives and works in Cleckheaton.

Both photographers are very creative and produce some sterling work for their clients. We’re really lucky to have them as members as they are great asset to their respective groups.Both John and Roger regularly take pictures at our networking events which we have duly upload to our Flickr account for all to see.

It’s a great way for potential visitors to get a flavour of our meetings.