Networking in Surrey
Laurence Lowne
Male
Sutton, Surrey
United Kingdom
Profile Information:
- Business Name (the main name you trade under)
- Combyne Group
- Type of Business
- Telephony & Utility Expense Management, Pro Call Answering & NABO Networking
- Tell Us About Your Business
- Sutton based and work countrywide.
Our free utility and telephony audit has been the mainstay of our business for almost 15 years, and has deleivered thousands of pounds of savings to both the home and business users. Further we also provide the opportunity to create additional income streams on a part time basis, which can provide full time earnings with direct training and support.
Please pay a visit here to find out more: http://www.future-biz.co.uk - What Type Of Networking Events Are You Interested In?
- Breakfasts, Conferences, Evening, Lunch, Seminars, Workshops
- Which Local Towns Are You Likely To 'Network' In?
- Banstead, Caterham, Chertsey, Croydon, Dorking, Epsom, Ewell, Guildford, Ham, Kingston, Leatherhead, Richmond, Shepperton, Staines, Sunbury-on-Thames, Woking
- Business Website Address
- http://www.combyne.wordpress.com
- Contact me: Main email (you may prefer to enter using 'AT' instead of @ - eg keith AT freelancecopy.co.uk) plus your business phone number - and any other Website or Blog URL
- info@combyne.co.uk
www.go-fast.co.uk
www.family-income.co.uk
www.future-biz.co.uk
0844 826 1730 - Which online or offline business networking groups do you belong to? (Please type 'none' if you're new to networking)
- NABO Networking, Ecademy, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Networking in Surrey
- What's A Good Business Lead For You? (potential customers, and anyone else you would like to connect with)
- Home user looking to control their costs on electricity, gas, broadband, mobile phone, landline calls - all on a single bill, plus the exclusive CashBack card, which delivers additional 20 to 25% saving every month.
Also small business users on the same services plus non geographic numbers (0800, 0844, 0845, 0870 and 0871) - excellent savings on these plus new line installations too.
People looking to create additional income streams
One of my key search terms on Google is - Who has got my 0845 number? Lots of people order these, and find they can't repoint the number later due to the company ceasing to trade - I can trace these for a very small fee. Please drop me an email or message to find out more - also works for 0800, 0844, 0870, 0871 and 090 sequence numbers - How Did you Hear About Us?
- Referral
Keith Grover, NiS Founder
Our charging policy appears at the top of page one - just hit the Home tab!
The Events listings will always be free - because the web's all about free at 'entry' level. So anybody networking in Surrey (or organising events) can use it to plan their diary and find new networking opportunities.
Membership will be charged for, so we can continue to offer the listings, and provide a range of other resources to promote face-to-face networking in Surrey - we prefer to avoid corporate sponsorship.
So, the people you meet at the events are those you find on the site, where you can 'friend' them (makes following up a doddle!) and engage onine in the usual social networking way (for example arranging to meet at networking events for 1-2-1s). Members can post blogs, and their own events. We will be introducing other Member benefits, but we prefer to under-promise and over-deliver, so please watch this space...
The 100 places for the 3-month trial are pretty much taken now, and once the 3 months are up, Members will be asked to pay a quarterly sub (in advance, no commitment, no refunds). This will initially be offered at £15 per quarter (fiver a month) for Foundation Members who help us to build the community to critical mass, then once we have reached our quota (yet to be decided) it will be £20 a quarter to new Members.
Future thoughts include introducing a joining fee of £10 and also making Membership by invitation of an existing Member only, but of course, in order to do all of this we need to demonstrate added value to being a Member, or nobody will want to play!
Hope that's all clear and seems reasonable - all feedback (pro and con) gratefully received :0)
BRs
K
Mar 21, 2010
Keith Grover, NiS Founder
Absolutely right - it is (currently free to join) - in brackets, because it refers directly to the immediately adjacent panel which clearly spells out the cost of Membership:
"Please use our FREE listings to plan your networking diary - just click the Events tab...
Membership - at the introductory price of £15 per quarter - allows you to post your own networking events and blogs etc..."
Sorry if you missed that - and I do take your point that it should be beyond doubt, so I'll change the wording. I need to discontinue the 3-month free offer anyway, as we've hit the magic 100 Members in record time.
There's never been any intention to mislead, or disguise the fact that Membership is not free indefinitely. You're not committed to any Membership period and there's no joining fee - so it is currently 'free to join' in that sense, and the first three months are also free. Members can opt out at any time, and unless we demonstrate clear value in belonging, they may well all do so when we ask them to start paying. But hey, we'll take that chance because we're confident (and positive feedback confirms) that the site fulfils a need.
The software we use is free on condition we allow Ning to put their Google ads on, but otherwise there's currently no ads and no sponsorship, because I'd prefer to be independent. We did consider charging organisers to list each event, but that would defeat the object of the free listings section, because we wouldn't be drawing upon the whole range of events.
Our initial investment is therefore minimal - apart from our time. I'm currently working between ten and fifteen hours a week on developing the site, and funding it out of my other business activities, loving every minute - but once the site has momentum, and consequently increased value to Members, we'll be charging as advertised. If it doesn't work, we'll close it down.
Hope that seems fair - and thanks again for highlighting this.
BRs
K
Mar 21, 2010
Aernout Fabius
Arnie Fabius
Aug 3, 2010