Come to the Red Lion Hotel in Hythe for this meeting of Counterpoint Networking’s new ‘Networkers Anonymous’. This has been put together ‘by popular demand’ by those people who can’t bear to wait 4 weeks in between Counterpoint Networking Meetings!

It will be even more informal than our main events. The idea is that you don’t need to book, just turn up on the night and pay £5 cash to partake of the sandwich buffet. If you don’t want to eat you don’t have to pay the money! We have the use of the room at the back as usual and we will confirm numbers for the buffet on the night.

This really was invented as a result of a discussion at our last meeting about meeting more regularly. It doesn’t form part of the membership (hence the £5) but it should be good for those members who can’t make the main meeting but who would like to catch up with everyone sooner than a whole month away. Obviously visitors are welcome as always, the more the merrier.

There will be no presentations, just chat and good old networking and relationship building.

Date: Tue 31 August

Timing: 6-9pm

Food is optional (£5 cash on the night).

Come to the Red Lion Hotel in Hythe for this meeting of Counterpoint Networking’s new ‘Networkers Anonymous’. This has been put together ‘by popular demand’ by those people who can’t bear to wait 4 weeks in between Counterpoint Networking Meetings!

It will be even more informal than our main events. The idea is that you don’t need to book, just turn up on the night and pay £5 cash to partake of the sandwich buffet. If you don’t want to eat you don’t have to pay the money! We have the use of the room at the back as usual and we will confirm numbers for the buffet on the night.

This really was invented as a result of a discussion at our last meeting about meeting more regularly. It doesn’t form part of the membership (hence the £5) but it should be good for those members who can’t make the main meeting but who would like to catch up with everyone sooner than a whole month away. Obviously visitors are welcome as always, the more the merrier.

There will be no presentations, just chat and good old networking and relationship building.

Date: Tue 27 July

Timing: 6-9pm

Food is optional (£5 cash on the night).

Come to the Red Lion Hotel in Hythe for this meeting of Counterpoint Networking’s new ‘Networkers Anonymous’. This has been put together ‘by popular demand’ by those people who can’t bear to wait 4 weeks in between Counterpoint Networking Meetings!

It will be even more informal than our main events. The idea is that you don’t need to book, just turn up on the night and pay £5 cash to partake of the sandwich buffet. If you don’t want to eat you don’t have to pay the money! We have the use of the room at the back as usual and we will confirm numbers for the buffet on the night.

This really was invented as a result of a discussion at our last meeting about meeting more regularly. It doesn’t form part of the membership (hence the £5) but it should be good for those members who can’t make the main meeting but who would like to catch up with everyone sooner than a whole month away. Obviously visitors are welcome as always, the more the merrier.

There will be no presentations, just chat and good old networking and relationship building.

Date: Tue 29 June

Timing: 6-9pm

Food is optional (£5 cash on the night).

This time at our local business networking group we have the privilege to have a fascinating talk from one of our members.

In May 2009 Alan Noake had the unique opportunity to pay a short visit to the Aspinall Foundation’s reserve in the Republic of The Congo. Alan will share some stories of his experiences of touring this fascinating country in particular the tour of the Gorilla orphanage.

There will also of course be time to network with fellow local businesspeople at the Port Lympne Mansion and hear from Amos about Overses Projects at Port Lympne.

Timing: 6-9pm

Food will be supplied.

To book please follow this link

Come to the Red Lion Hotel in Hythe for this meeting of Counterpoint Networking’s new ‘Networkers Anonymous’. This has been put together ‘by popular demand’ by those people who can’t bear to wait 4 weeks in between Counterpoint Networking Meetings!

It will be even more informal than our main events. The idea is that you don’t need to book, just turn up on the night and pay £5 cash to partake of the sandwich buffet. If you don’t want to eat you don’t have to pay the money! We have the use of the room at the back as usual and we will confirm numbers for the buffet on the night.

This really was invented as a result of a discussion at our last meeting about meeting more regularly. It doesn’t form part of the membership (hence the £5) but it should be good for those members who can’t make the main meeting but who would like to catch up with everyone sooner than a whole month away. Obviously visitors are welcome as always, the more the merrier.

There will be no presentations, just chat and good old networking and relationship building.

Date: Tue 25 May

Timing: 6-9pm

Food is optional (£5 cash on the night).

Counterpoint Networking, Hythe, Kent, feature on fellow local small business “The World’s Most Expensive Link” blog. Company owner and newest member of Counterpoint Networking Alan Noake (of The ICELAB, Deal, Kent) challenged site participants to take the World’s Most Expensive Link banner around the UK to gain greater publicity. Here we are next to the seaside on quite a grey day!! See the blog here.

Come to Port Lympne Wild Animal Park for this meeting of Counterpoint Networking in conjunction with Aspinall Business Club and feed the De Brazza’s monkeys and other primates. The first 20 people to register their attendance are invited to hand feed the Colobus or De Brazza monkeys inside their enclosure.

We will meet for coffee or tea at 8.30am and then wander down to the monkey enclosure to see the lucky twenty feed.

Afterwards we will return to the mansion and network.

Timing: 8.30 – 10.30 am

Breakfast will be supplied

To avoid disappointment and meet the monkeys please book here

Join us at the Red Lion, Hythe for our informal networking meeting. These happen every other month when the Port Lympne Wild Animal Park meetings occur in the morning to make the meetings more accessible to members.

There will be food (which is always delicious!) so come along, buy yourself and drink and meet some fellow businesspeople!

To avoid disappointment and please book here. There is no meeting charge for Counterpoint Networking members, and a fee of £10 for non-members.

As a special treat at this meeting we have the opportunity to play Cashflow 101.

What can playing Cashflow 101 with Financial Fun Clubs do for me?

• Improve Negotiation Skills
• Sharper Decision Making
• Improve Character Assessment Skills
• Better Ability to Evaluate Deals
• Great Situation Evaluation
• Recognise Skills in Yourself and Others
• Understand Better Your Best Ways of Working
• Build Empowering Relationships
• Improve Communication Skills

You will experience getting out of the RAT RACE by playing Robert Kiyosaki’s famous CASHFLOW GAME with NIKI DUFFY. You will practice getting into the fast wealth lane and just by playing this game, you will have an instant awakening – be prepared to change your mind-set around money forever

Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow 101 board game is at the centre of the clubs and creates an interesting way to learn and have fun, connecting with different people and interacting with many ways to build passive income that are designed to mirror possibilities in life.

It’s a great way to “try on” the effects of financial situations – whether the situation is positive or negative, the experience is bound to be rich!

Last night’s rearranged venue for our June meeting was, as usual, great (and thanks to the Red Lion for taking us on at the last minute). And even better that with the lovely warm weather we’re having at the moment we were able to sit out in the garden.

So, the networking was a bit loud as we all sat round a big table and shouted! At one stage I had to get a few of us to do a musical chairs impression and all move down one so that Chris from Copy-Link in Folkestone could get to the opposite end of the table to talk to Jane of ABC Simple as… and Julie from Hestia Property Services!

Simon, my husband, was kept very busy shooing away a persistent seagull from our lovely buffet. Just realised that we should have taken some photos to put on here – we always forget! You’ll just have to imagine a lovely summer’s evening in Hythe.

Much of the evening was taken up with a spirited discussion about online marketing for small businesses, particularly about Twitter and how to use it. Alan from The Icelab and I were kept very busy sharing our knowledge and Chris from The Eye Centre was off to try out Tweetdeck (and get ready for his open day in Hythe on Saturday) and Sheila from Mini Bills was thinking about starting a blog! Jaci from Estate Legacy Services is looking forward to making some changes to her website this weekend too, as one of the people on my online marketing coaching programme. Hayley and Jodie from Foreman and Jones have a new website that we are helping them to put together and Hayley tweeted later to say that she is working on it today – so watch this space!

We were all pleased to meet Maggie who is looking after business development at the lovely Boys Hall in Ashford. We are talking about having a future meeting there. We held one there when we first started and some of us remember having a lovely tour round the Jacobean property. Gordon our very own toastmaster and Graham from Coffee Break Massage who also has a business playing the harp at events were both pleased to do some networking with Maggie as she was telling us that they have held 40 weddings there this year and obviously both of them are potential suppliers (Graham with his harp business, not the massages for weddings – although I can see that he may also have a market there!).

We had a late entry in the form of Trevor from the Microwave Service Company in Sellindge, which started up another conversation about online marketing as some of Trevor’s business happens online. So we were the last to leave following an interesting conversation about what keywords would be useful for Trevor to optimise his site for – what do people search for online when their microwave has broken? Answers on a postcard please!

I think that’s a mention for everyone, but I’m sure you’ll let me know if not! It’s 7am the next morning as I write this and I’ve already had a couple of messages saying what a great night it was last night, so I think we all agree it was a good turnout and lots of fun.

Our next meeting is being hosted by the South Kent Gateway in Folkestone.

Photo Credit MASH DnART

We are members of the BNI that is held on Fridays at the Mercure Hythe Imperial, the BNI Imperial Chapter (that’s what they call the groups). Well, I say ‘we’, but that’s the royal ‘we’ as Simon, my husband and business partner, is the member and forever complaining that I agreed to substitute for him occasionally as part of the ‘deal’ but that never seems to happen!

I always think BNI is a bit like marmite: you either love it or you hate it, and there are many people who have heard about it, but never tried it because they have decided that they don’t like it already!

In our experience it can be a great way of networking your business locally, and as a result, gaining business but it can be so much more than that depending on your chapter.  The BNI Imperial is a particularly friendly chapter (or so our visitors tell us!) and I think that really makes a difference when you are expected to attend every week at an unearthly hour, as well as to recommend those people to others.

So, what I would say if you’ve never tried it is don’t write it off before you have.  Find a local group and contact one of the members to see if you can attend as a visitor (it will only cost you your breakfast).  The chapters have exclusive business categories so you need to check that you will not be ‘clashing’ with an existing member, but if you would be then just find another chapter – there are so many around you won’t have to travel far.

It was International Networking Week in February and a BNI member from London performed a song about his experiences with BNI, which is on YouTube so I’ve embedded it here for your entertainment (it’s a bit late, so apologies if you’ve already seen it)!