the 10pound breakky fee, may have to rise... We've been holding it off, holding it back but more and more venues are upping the price and the 18p increase of the vat rise edges this on. The administration of dealling with the 1 or 2 quid rise would be a nightmare. For the record, there would be no 4Networking without a small profit on each cover, ie; this revenue is essential to company growth and coffers. This could be a 20 pager, feedback, suggestions pls.

1. Make it £12 then - I doubt it'll bother too many people and just make sure the area leaders remember to bring a bag of pound coins with them...
   
2. Let people pay on-line when they book and give the area leaders business credit cards.
   
   (then if you really wanted you could charge differenet amounts for different venues based on what the venue charges for breakfast plus £3.)

Agree with this - finding venues to accommodate is getting harder and harder without compromising on quality. The London groups especially must find this hard

Not sure about the fiddlyness of pound coins though - if it starts getting into £12 instead of £10 - there might have to be some sort of online function or the area leader might have to become a change bank (urgh)

I think people will swallow the rise (if you excuse the pun!) by £1 or £2. Definitely think using cards is an idea, if the cost isn't prohibitive.

I'm not getting along to many at the moment but £12 sounds fair given that everything is rising, along with VAT
Really think online / card payment is the way forward though.

I didn't think it was a brekky fee, but a meeting fee - hence 4N charges above the venue costs... not a problem where value is provided, but we need to ensure payment online to make life easier for all... Agree it would help London Venues and enable groups to pay more for brekkie if they want to improve the quality... or go for a location that's currently unable due to budget. Setting up streamline is not expensive (I have one) and payment online is easy once the website accommodates it... If we want to be seen as the forward thinking networking organisers, maybe it's the obvious next step. Would question profit being needed for MD coffers/growth, other networking groups keep their profits locally and use if to organise social events/websites etc...

Whilst I am not overjoyed at this, I understand the need to increase given that everything else is too - and £12.00 is not going to break the bank. Regarding the payment by card - great idea but what happens with no-shows? (I am sure this has already been discussed so my apologies for repeating it if it has)

£12 is fairly typical now (4N is my cheapest breakfast meeting).

I think paying online is a different issue.

Don't see why the venue can't provide a float of £1 coins

Is it really that hard for someone involved in running the group to have £1 coins, or for those attending to have pound coins? Its not rocket science.

Run a meeting Shamus and then say the above?

Simple = best - the more simple something is, the easier it is to manage. The easier something is to manage, the better it is

etc

I would make it £25 (minimum) plus VAT.

If people can't make a £25 benefit out of each Network meeting, they are not trying very hard. We are talking businesses here. What business meeting is not worth £25?

That would also have the side benefit of increasing 4N profit levels by (probably) 1000%. You know how many breakfasts a week you run, Brad, multiply that by an extra £10 profit, now THAT's the way to run the business.

Give them all an extra slice of black pudding and a free book for every 10 breakfasts, and everyone wins!

Seriously, you pay £10 for a breakfast at Little Chef, with NO networking. If the networking is worth anything then CHARGE something for it. £10 is a joke amount. Actually, £25 is a joke amount if people get benefit.

Add value, charge more.

Like David Cameron says, we are all in this together.

I used to have a market stall and the fact that I knew I needed £1 coins was enough for me to get the £1 coins. Don't think it needs me to run a meeting to be able to tick the common sense box. Surely those who do run meetings are smart enough to do such a simple thing?

I think £12 is perfectly fine but paying on-line would be much easier.

I agree with the majority of the above.

A little change is not going to make a difference.

As AL, I would be happy to have coins there AND having an option to pay online would be a great option for everyone.

I quite like the idea of a variable fee as different areas are probably going to be paying more for the actual breakfasts.

VAT rise is going to hit everyone.

Ruth

I agree that £12 is OK especially in light of the VAT rise... I also think thought that paying online would be the way forward - especially as then people would be more likely to turn up!