Does it take 16 pages to show the true scale of your company?

Apparently meeting fees have gone up by £2 and there's a 16 page 'discussion' about it.
Within this thread there are a few people that cannot justify the increase - simply put, they can't afford an extra £2 per meeting.

The impression these 'companies' give off are - on one hand they have a bedroom business barely scraping by and on the other hand the meetings are producing zero income for them.
Do these 2 go hand in hand?
Is it the business or the person that's at fault?
This makes me think about what kind of stability the company has and, if I did business with them, will they be around in a week, a month, a year?

Either way, if you cannot accomodate the reality of this small price increase, should you really be in business?

 

Good point Lee, if I was asked about the increase I would ahve said no, but then again I wouldn't want my fuel price to go up or the cost of parking etc etc. it's gone up and like all expenditure within business I have to a) assess ROI b) work the price increase into my general business expenses. Skipping a coffee from a well know change will easily give me the increase.  

Well said.

As Gordon said, do I like the increase? No. Can I understand it? Probably, not having looked at the figures myself I can't say, but I'm sure there's a very good financial reason (like the venues putting the costs up). Will I still go to as many meetings? Of course, they're valuable to me and my business, an extra £2 a time won't stop me.

Feeling patriotic today?

Funnily enough I was going to do a reply post about it again this morning.  Personally I don't care how much it does/doesn't go up as long as I am getting a ROI which isn't necessarily financial.  I agree though if a company cannot afford the £2 per meeting increase either they need to look at increasing their marketing budget or utilising it elsewhere.

Probably getting in early for St George's Day tomorrow.

Hi all, as a newbie to 4 networking and networking in general, here's my humble input...
I have yet to visit my first brekkie meet (will be shortly), but for me, there's no difference whether it's £10 0r £12. I'll be atending with an open mind and if it works and I can build my business and make new contacts then great. If it doesn't, I won't be going again. (I'm sure it will though!)

Personally, for me to sit on the phone and get 3 qualified appts for my business would probably take a whole morning, if I'm lucky. So to have a good quantity of people in a room that are receptive to hearing from other businesses about their products & services must be a good thing. I would imagine that the success or otherwise of any local group  largely relies on the 'expand or die' theory, in that no regular attendee wants to necessarily see the same old faces again and again, and that the life blood of any group is the abitilty to draw in new members to keep it fresh and dynamic. So will an extra £2 alienate newbies attending? I don't think it will.   

If 4 networking works -  it works and is money well spent. If it doesn't, newbies won't return. I don't think an extra £2 makes any difference. It certainly won't for me.

Paul  

 

I am fairly new to 4N having only joined last month and I have been really interested in this discussion and the previous 16 pages.  I am impressed at the level of support for the increase, which must demonstrate what a good "product" 4N is to so many members.  I have not yet been to a breakfast meeting so cannot comment on the value to my business. 

My service is about improving my clients' cashflow through good credit management, but the other side of the cash equation is all about keeping control of costs.  Businesses which carefully consider the value of a product when the price increases are more likely to survive than those which accept without question.

Of course any business can afford an additional £2 but successful businesses would always look at a 20% increase in a service or goods and decide if it is justified.  In this case the overwhelming answer appears to be "yes".

^ ^ ^ WLS (What Lee Said).
My energy bills have gone up. I'm paying a lot more for diesel. And now, oh no, 4N breakfasts have gone up.
So bloody what? 
I either absorb these increases and make less profit or look at ways of generating more sales and / or reducing other costs*.
Isn't that what all businesses are supposed to do?
* In the FY just ended my profit increased by more than my turnover. Hmm, this concept seems to work.

As someone who now spends about £7.50 a day on ciggarettes (which were around £4 a pack 8 years ago) I couldn't really complain about a £2 breakfast increase. I think everyone complaining just needs to get over it, it's just £2!

Lee I was going to post a very similar post, so can I just say 'DITTO!'

£11,000  of last months turnover was linked directly to 4N, Is a £2 increase worth it? you decide!

Headshot...