ABC Network NEWS

ABC Quiz Night

While most Americans were cellebrating their indpendance, the ABC Network were battling it out for the title Quiz Nite Winners in Rainham. The event managed to raise over £200 for a really worthwhile local charity the 'First Step Drop-In Centre' in Rochester. Dave Carter the founder came with his wife to participate. Despite all our efforst, we were not able to topple the Medway Safety team that took the title for another time.

Visitors

We welcome two new visitors to our breakfast meeting:
Michael Church of Halling Hire - Personal Taxi service inc. Airport runs at very competetive rates at ONLY £40 to Gatwick - Now an active member and current ABC Chairman of the group.

F-Keys IT Training Company - offering IT Training on Microsoft Office products at their business premises on Medway City Estate

The group had two lively discussions about 'how to handle requests for discounts, from family and friends' and 'how to offer professional services, whilst operating in low rate areas of Kent'. Valuable suggestions of voucher referral schemes and 'price breakdowns' were some fo the useful tips that came out of the contributors.

ABC Marketing Leads

Dear Wedding Professionals reading this article: you are personally invited to attend the next meeting of the ABC Wedding Network (see events page for dates).

ABC Weddings exists to bring together quality wedding service suppliers of all kinds with the specific aim of growing all our businesses through mutual support, referrals and through joint promotion.

Brides from across the area will get to hear about your services in three main ways:-

Firstly, through other network members who will be actively promoting you to their existing clients.
Secondly, via our website www.abcwedding.co.uk where brides can access a range of information and search for the suppliers they need for a perfect wedding day. Currently receiving hundreds of visits.
Thirdly, through a couple of members who run local Wedding Fairs e.g. 'The Wedding Experience' and 'Kent Bride', who have kindly put a postcard in every Bride's visitor pack at their recent events and past visitors mailouts.

A Fourth element of lead generation that will be of interest to the group and potentially to most members, is via shared leads via Thomson Directories (more info for those interested).

email us at info@abcwedding.co.uk for more information and a membership application form (we will require three references at some stage).

ABC Wedding Group formation

ABC Wedding www.abcwedding.co.uk has now been formed as an optional networking opportunity for ABC members and open to NEW members to join under the ABC banner. Many previous ABC visitors have expressed an interest in joining the club on the strength of monthly evening meetings, many who often find they are working evenings and aren't therefore in a position to come to our breakfast meetings, have now another forum for their services. Existing members are be able to come to the evening events (normally the third Thursday of the month at 7:30pm) Similarly, the new members (that are more interested in the evening wedding related networking) could also come to breakfast meetings as they are able.

Businesses with additional Wedding Services:

Art 4 Business (Wedding invitations, Corporate Design and Image)
Accounting (Personal & Business)
Wedding Decoration (Business & Home)
Carpets & Floor Covering for all occasions Carpet Hire - Red Carpet Hire .biz (rental of Wedding Red Carpets)
Car Hire (Wedding Cars inc. Rolls Royce)
Car Wedding Valeting (Wedding Cars, plus Vans & Commercial vehicles to your door)
Chocolate Fountain - Wedding treat - Belgium melted chocolate fondue machine
Corporate Clothing - Stag/Hen Night T-Shirts personalised (Business, Clubs & Schools)
Disco Wedding and Corporate functions (Maidstone and Kent area)
Disco Wedding and Corporate functions (Medway and Kent area)
IT - Wedding /Stag/Hen Night Websites, Web Design, Hosting, Email IT
Computer Supply, Repair & Service
Health & Safety Consultants & Training Provider
Hotel & Wedding Receptions inc. Registrar
Magician and Corporate Magic - Weddings and Children entertainment during speeches
Marques for Hire (Large and small weddings catered for)
Photographer (Specialising Weddings and Portraits)
Public Relations & Promotions (get your wedding in the Press)
Solicitors (Personal, Conveyancing & Commercial)
Sunrise Garden Club (Wedding flowers, reception and home decoration)
Toastmaster (making any wedding day special)
Venue Function Organiser - Wedding and Corporate events organised and managed
Videographer (Wedding Videos and DVD's)
Virtual Assistant (freelance PA - Personal Assistant) Wedding assistance where required.
Wine & Champagne

Monthly Open Meetings

Fire Risk Assesment

A very exciting presentation by our local Fire Brigade Representative, about the importance of Risk Assesment and 'how to minimise risks to business'. If you missed it first time round, you can see their new presentation each year.

Business and Taxation

How can Tax be fun?
Well we did not think it could be either, but Scot Bowie of Navis Agere, Rochester - Business Consultants managed to do it. Whilst he took us back to basics of the five main areas of tax:- Income, Expenses, Profit / Loss, Tax and Capital - he went on to explain how 'potentially anything could be tax deductable - depending on how you look at it and of course the business you are in'.

Rather than rushing of on your usual holiday, one should stand back and consider the possibilities of business that could assist in your companies expansion, whilst helping you have a well deserved break. A percentage could well be tax deductable.

Scot offers consultancy to business in the form of a seminars e.g. Tea, Toast & Tax for anyone interested.

Euro Market - how to broaden your horizons

An excellent presentation / talk from Valerie Pondaven – Consultant, Marketing Centre for Europe for Business Link. Not only did she communicate what opportunities there are for British companies in Europe, but she gave sound advice on cultural etiquette when dealing with French companies for example.

Valerie has offered to chaparone a meeting between your company and your prospect in France, offering advice and translation where needed.

New Budget Implications

Our experienced Accountant member from Walderslade Accounting shared about the new 2004 Budget from the Chancellor.

With helpful advice to help business of all sizes steer their way through the new legislation and budget implications

Weekly Presentations

Public Speaking

We have been having a series of short public speaking sessions with our members, where a member presents for 5 minutes on a given business subject. This has proved to be very useful for all concerned, as it helps to keep one alert and always prepared to address the unexpected. Whilst non of us are professional speakers, the presentations to date have been of a high standard and sometimes quiet humerous. Why not come along to the next breakfast meeting and be entertained and hopefully encouraged.

Anti-Spam Email Tools

Are you a sitting target? Do you feel like spam is aimed at you? One option is to use Outlook or Outlook Express, default Spam tools. However, these only generalise the emails, they don't catch the regular offenders who change the email address slightly e.g. 1234@spam.com to 12345@spam.com

If Outlook hasn't got 'Preview Pane' turned off, then one can inadvertantly view the sometimes horrible details of an email that can be offensive. If one tries to 'Opt Out' of receiving an email in the future, this often comunicates a different message than that intended, e.g. 'I am a valid email address, try sending some more rubbish to me'.

By using tools like MailWasher Pro, one can Bounce them email (as if you never received it - 'return to sender'), Blacklist (identifies this sender as a spammer) and then it Deletes the offensive email all in one selection. By using a wildcard the offending email address e.g. *@spam.com which means anything from that domain name will be added to a blacklist and stop further spam from that organisation. You can protect your valid email addresses, by importing your address book into a Friends list and hence, find your valid emails quicker. For more information go to: http://www.timemakersystems.co.uk

Active Business Creation - 'Better Business...it's as easy as ABC '