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TOP tips on business success was the focus at the latest meeting of the Business Forum Mid Devon (BFMD) last week.
Over 50 industry leaders from Mid Devon were booked to come along to the event at the Tiverton Hotel to exchange views on how to thrive in a challenging market.
The Forum exists to promote businesses in the area through seminars and networking and was launched at the Tiverton Town Hall in July last year. Both the leader of the council, Peter Hare-Scott and chief executive Kevin Finan are on the Executive Committee.

Chairman of the BFMD, Jim Enright, said  “Last week’s meeting was a departure from the usual format, as we were keen to get tips from those attending on how they feel businesses can best succeed. We scribed over 50 tips and these will shortly be available on our website for all to see.
“I feel we gained some valuable insights into how best to push business in the area forward.”
The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday July, 12 and will feature two presentations on the theme of retaining and improving staff. Gravitas Recruitment will be presenting on “People are your best assets” and will focus on issues of recruitment and retention of staff.  This will be followed by At Best Ltd with their seminar entitled “Improve performance through understanding people’s different behaviour”.
To book a place at the next free event or to find out more visit www.bfmd.co.uk

Artist Graham James and his son John are opening a new gallery in Budleigh Salterton soon. This shoot was one of a number of  photographic assignments I have been asked to do for a new lifestyle magazine, EX, which is being launched in the next few weeks.

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At the recent meeting of the Business Forum Mid Devon (BFMD) at Tiverton Hotel, members of the audience were asked for their top tips when it came to making a business successful.

Top Tips for Businesses

• Do what you say you are going to do – Follow through on promises and threats

Keep a “To-Do” list and prioritise. Help others but don`t take on their problems

• Keep accurate records – so you know where your money is

• Recognise that the best ideas come from your customers e.g. Tiverton Hotel – breakfast to take away

• Turn ‘ow’ into a ‘wow’ – Try and turn a negative into a positive, if something goes wrong do everything you can to put it right

• Be proactive not reactive – Do something don’t just complain

• Control the cash – this is where most small businesses fail.  Monitor it well and take action immediately a shortfall looks likely

• Have a proper business plan, properly thought out

• Protect your electronic data – use cloud computing or backup important data

• Don’t be afraid to ask for help – look for business advice in good time

• Don’t oversell – it just annoys customers: Listen to customers and give them the service they want

• ‘Do not fix your eyes on detail otherwise victory will allude you’ – emails can be a great distraction

• Understand customer expectations

• Marketing – never stop marketing especially in the lean times

• Identify your market; Understand your USP; target your market; understand the competition; network locally; exceed customer expectations

• Check things, even if you think they don’t need checking. This is not a luxury

• Recognise that business will benefit from partnerships

• Recruit the right people – you can always afford the best

• Consider a young apprentice – and appreciate the hidden benefits
  • Their experience of social media is second to none
  • Having to explain to them what everyone does, and how the business works provides a good opportunity for reflection

• Look after your employees

• Get to know your staff – manage, train and incentivize them – communicate with them – communications internally very important

• Delegate – small businesses might find this difficult

• Don’t put all your eggs in one basket e.g. an overly expensive website

• Think about how would you like people to remember you

• Have board meetings every two months – even if it is mutual sharing between small businesses. different businesses and different sectors -– Chatham House rules allows people to discuss anything that challenges them

• Clarity of ideas and goals (direction) and communicate it (particularly to staff)

• Have post-it notes by the side of your bed – for those middle of the night ideas

• Learn to tweet – even if you don’t think it’s for you, you need to know what your customers are saying about you!! – Stay engaged with the new media

• Recognise where the next generation of customers is coming from

• Relationships help with selling, with marketing, with retention

• Be careful of the information you put on Facebook (particularly important if you want another job – some recruiters might be looking at Facebook to see what you get up to in your spare time)

• Be visual – be your business

• Have a positive attitude to change e.g. social media etc.

• Identify, keep and monitor performance indicators for your business and compare with other people – benchmark the best

• Develop a network of like-minded businesses e.g. South Devon co-operative  – open books with each other, allow others to scrutinize your business

• Reputational management – e.g. monitoring on-line traffic

• Telephone your own office now and again to see what sort of response you get

• Look after yourselves – For owners of small businesses this is particularly important – Take enough exercise

• The time to negotiate an overdraft with your bank is when you don’t need it – Do it in advance

• People respect what you inspect not what you expect

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With my friends from WBW this morning at the County Show. The firm sponsored many of the sheep categories and were on hand to give out rosettes to the winners!!

Metis Media provides PR services for this leading Devon law firm which has bases in Exeter, Newton Abbot and Torquay.

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Our hound Partridge, having fun on the beach today. Just venturing into the lovely world of pet photography, see my fledgling website here. Early days, but more cute pets to come. Please drop me a line if you would like to have your four-legged friend photographed.

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The first show homes at Devon’s new town of Cranbrook were on view this Saturday.
At 6am the doors opened and hundreds of people flooded in to have a look and possibly reserve a home, which are scheduled to be built by September.
Taylor Wimpey, Bovis Homes and Persimmon all had their houses open for prospective buyers to view.
Paul Sadler who arrived at 6am to view homes. Mr Sadler and works at the Environment Agency, said: “I am really keen on these houses as they fit in my desire to live a sustainable lifestyle.”

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Good news last week as my photographic colleague Matt Austin and I, have secured the contract as the official photographers for Devon CCC.

Watch this space for news on the Devon County Cricket Club. They are building a brand new site for cricket fans, click here to see the site which is under development. We are going to be supplying all the pictures, including team shots and all the individual portraits, plus of course action over the season. The team is sponsored by Specsavers and Ashfords Solicitors

Looking forward to it!

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Had the privilege to shoot a fantastic girl recently who has succeeded in male-dominated world to be  a pilot with one of the UK’s most progressive airlines, Flybe. Check out the great article in the Mail Online today about newly qualified pilot Kate Moran, who is one of only a handful of female pilots in the country.

A SOUTH Devon law firm got an unusual visitor this week in the shape of a giant sheep.

Barbara, the mascot for the Rowcroft Hospice Sleep Walk, visited WBW solicitors’ Newton Abbot premises on Queen Street to thank the team for sponsoring the event, now  in it’s second year.

WBW are the sole sponsor of ‘The WBW Warm Up Walk’ on Sunday June 2, with the Sleep Walk, taking place on Saturday, July 21.

As well as sponsoring the warm-up, 16 Ladies from WBW are taking part and a team from WBW will be volunteering to help out on the night offering support and refreshments to entrants.

WBW Partner Catherine Causey said: “It was nice to meet Barbara this week and we are all really looking forward, both to the warm-up event and Sleep Walk. We are proud to be the sponsors of this event which raises much-needed funds for the Hospice and helps so many people.”

Walkers can choose to finish at five, totter ten miles or flourish at fifteen and all walkers start and finish at the Riviera Centre, Torquay.

Join Barbara the Sheep and the WBW team at the Riviera Centre on Sunday, June 2 for a warm up and a nice four mile gentle stroll to Meadfoot Beach for refreshments, then back to the Riviera Centre.

To find out more and to sign up visit http://rowcroftsleepwalk.org.uk. For information about WBW visit www.wbw.co.uk