MY COMPLAINT LETTER FOR BREAKFAST AMMOUNT INCREASE

Unfortunately Faith, not all of us can eat the continental option, I have Coeliac's so cant eat anything with gluten which also means I cant have the bacon butty option either.

I also love not having to cook, clearing up and washing up

Lee the extra £ 2.00 does not allow 4N Area Leaders to profit a little bit more in the short term they are accountable to 4N for this money.

This is not extra money in Area Leaders pockets, it is if anything extra on the bottom line for 4Networking
 

So is this all a storm in a (slightly more expensive) teacup?

In two months time our only issue will be the teams having to carry a bag of change to each meeting.

Hi John,

Slightly different then, it was my understanding that the AL pocketed the difference between breakfast and monies collected.

Lee

 What ever?

Hi Lee, that is incorrect - the AL keeps the excess on breakfast meetings on behalf of 4N & gets no benefit from the takings at a breakfast, only a small commission on memberships. The extra £2 will not affect Al's at all apart from having to carry around a bag of change.

My understanding is that the increase is in response to pressure on the costs of breakfasts from the venues. As breakfast costs have risen the usually tiny margin 4N makes per breakfast has shrunk. In some locations it is not possible to launch new meetings as there would be zero or a negative margin for 4N. An example, we were negotiating with a few venues for the new Abergavenny meeting. One kindly offered to reduce their normal breakfast cost for us from £15 to £12!

I love all this confusion, it really does demonstrate my point around the bad structure and hyper-inflated (stealth taxed) breakfast – Surely nobody can dispute the confusion*

*If you feel you want to, please read the last 8 pages of comments.

Just simplify it, Breakfast cost goes to the venue £10

Membership is divided out into sections:

1. 4N running costs

2. 4N website costs

3. Group and Area Leader costs

4. Other (the bits that I have missed but you should itemise properly)

These way new members can be given the BENAFITS of each element, and the rest of us do not get confused over the variable costs.  -  Then this sad, sad confused situation disappears.

Oh ffs........

 WSS @0-0@

Here's my simple take on it:
4N works for me, I'm still going to go to meetings if I'm asked for £12 at the door instead of £10 as I see the value in being there, where it goes I don't care.

The problem Richard is that not all venues charge less than £10 for the breakfast so an increase was needed to help groups be more flexible with locations, as a location can make or break a group IMHO. Down in my neck of the woods, getting breaky in any pub for £10 is quite difficult let alone at 8am for 20+ people so the £2 increase could be improved breakfasts or locations.

Like others, I don't carry change and so will need to remember now, but a £2 increase in 6 years is bloody good going IMHO as prices of food have risen dramatically in that time.

4N will be making very very little from the actual breakasts (main income is from the memberships, obviously) as they need to pay VAT on top of the breakfast. So in reality 4N are really paying <£8 a head for breakfast which a lot of venues can't keep doing due to the increases in VAT, minimum wage and food costs. Something has to give and unfortunately, it's the paying members that absorb the cost.

I heard rumours of the increase a while a go, but it didn't phase me as every other cost has gone up so it wasn't an unexpected rise, and I was thinking it might break at the same point as the evening network cost (£15) for marketing POV and for ease of use.

Any price increase is a kick in the teeth but unfortunately 4N, and the venues need to make money to survive... They are businesses like yourself and increased costs mean less profits and there is only so long a business can run on lower profits.

I go to 3 different networking events, and they all charge more than 4N (£12, £15, £20) so 4N is cheaper for what you get, and 2 of the other meetings, only put on a buffet and not a proper meal.

4N is great value for what you get, but it's down to individual cases, work out the numbers on what you are likely to see in an increased cost and then look at ways to improve your cashflow to combat the rise e.g. put your prices up, work an hour extra a day etc.

From Richards early post..

"Paying for the service and subsequent prices rises are necessary of course (no issue there). But do it to the membership not the cash on the door"

I don't think Richard is talking about the price going up just where it should be charged.

Richard, there was nothing confusing in what I said at all. Frankly I'm with Karen and the poster earlier who suggested using Spellchecker before posting. And as 4N is a company, how it allocates cost is none of our business.

Roger: I think the "where it should be charged" is fairest done at a meeting-by-meeting level.

Otherwise 4N would have to run the odds on the average number of meetings people attended and also go through the logistical hassle of sorting out relatively small amounts owed to different venues and getting the payment to them within an acceptable time frame. Not easy - most work best with settling up on the day and I wouldn't want to be the one explaining how a payment had got missed (either due to a slip up at 4N or a mis-allocation at the venue between meetings).

We're talking a price rise about the same as a small cup of coffee at Starbucks or less than a heavyweight Sunday newspaper.

In the scheme of things, if £2 extra per meeting affects your margins that much then there's something more fundamentally wrong in my view.