We have found great satisfaction building BoB Clubs over this challenging time, because we can point to many cases now where the clubs have been part of saving good companies in the community during the Covid-19 crisis.
Business network on the surface is a traditional process, where a community of business leaders is formed to discuss opportunities, share ideas, and help grow and support each other over a nice breakfast in an uplifting environment. Most the membership value deeply the lasting connections formed – meeting each other face to face and getting creative, while their honing skills with like-minded peers.
Community and culture is the core of everything we do. However, it would not work if the business leaders involved failed to find success and good value in the early hours of the morning every two weeks.
Keeping clubs on track with business is key, but a BoB Clubs needs to always be a friendly, engaging and an uplifting community too.
When the lock-down started, there was little understanding of the length of shutdown, or what it would entail as nothing like this had ever happened before. According to our advisory points; there appeared to be only one clear path in front of us and that was to close the club doors for the ‘short period’ we will be in lockdown, and reopen when the world returned to normal.
We even communicated that path in an official message to help settle some confusion however, we absolutely did not believe that was the case. We believed to shut down a country and an economy (both nationally and locally) was not a small task and it would not return to normal for a long time, possibly ‘original normal’ would never happen again.
So like all good businesses we needed to adapt to the new environment and marketplace.
It was a Friday night when we ‘decided/had to’ to lock-down the network. We were fully aware on Tuesday morning we had a club meeting in Birmingham Central and we did not want to disappoint our membership. So we missed sleep over the next 72 hours to research all possible alternatives to physical meetings, test them for their robustness in various scenarios and practiced hard to present in a new online world. There was no room for tiredness; and we refused to lose energy or confidence in the goal.
We decided to be brave pioneers and hit the ground running.
It sounds like a very short time to get it working; it was but by Tuesday we were ready and were as far as we are aware the first national physical networking community in the UK to switch service from physical meetings to an ONLINE platform.
We opened our first ONLINE Zoom Business over Breakfast on Tuesday 17th March (some clubs trialled Cisco Webex too)
To support our members in the new environment, we also created a plan changing some key parts of clubbing system. Our plan was to be a clear resource to the membership in a difficult time. Build services, train people where we could, and remove some of the financial burdens, or delay them where possible. Where we could we needed mechanisms that supported, advised, and connected the members and make us part of the solution and not the struggle. We believe looking back we achieved our aims. What we did:
- We immediately made the ONLINE meetings entirely FREE of charge. All overheads would be absorbed by the network during lockdown for visitors and members.
- Our memberships to the club would be secured only by a lock-down fee to assist cash-flow and to help new members get started. We want to get everyone connected and through this together without additional worry.
- Membership countdowns were frozen so upon renewal everyone retains 12 months membership until the end of lock-down, so we all leave with full memberships and face the new world equally together.
Again, this was the culture of community
In addition to the above Patrick O’Gorman and myself ran daily Zoom training sessions at 5pm every working day for about 6 weeks. This assisted the members in the transition, hone their skills and confidence up and made sure they were ready. It was also to ensure that our presenting skills were top notch – so it was also our personal training. In developing our zoom presentation, we learnt very quickly that the energy of a meeting was contained entirely in the screen of the presenter; rather than a room energy (of a normal club) and the club feeds off the energy presented directly. Essentially the club becomes more like a TV show style than a club room. Once this was understood and the timings were right, we were ready.
That Tuesday we were nervous (extremely nervous), but ready and it was a massive success. New members joined that day, feedback was good, and the club membership supported in an unbelievable way and we are thoroughly grateful.
That is community; it is good business culture and that is why I love what I do. I think we are now seeing a massively successful period of growth off the back of that work, despite the present environment – The members are now all skilled at zoom, and being already carefully selected, clever and experienced business leaders – they know that the success of their club means the success of each active member and in turn their own business success is highly intertwined. If we as a community do well, we all grow together. Is that not how it should be?
What have we learnt from the new world
Many businesses are fighting hard; harder than ever. Most businesses have excellent products, services and people involved. However, the part that most businesses struggle with is finding connections, customers and marketplaces.
The businesses that are struggling the most are those that originally went largely into furlough (that is an observation to a commentary). Maybe they knew they would find it hard. However similar businesses that stayed out in the market have taken greater market share. Coupled with the fact the marketplace will have inevitably shrunk that is probably a tough pill to swallow.
This new environment: yes, is harder than we have known for years, but the dynamic above has not changed and more than ever people need to connect and network. There has never been a better or more needed time to form confident lasting connections.
Most have made the best of what the world have thrown at them, some have been fighting and it has felt like attacking a brick wall but have continued to do so. Great credit to them and I have confidence that people like that will eventually find a way over that wall, or through it, but that is always easier with the help of other people who want to create the same path and walk side by side.
How we will continue to change as a network
Physical networking has not gone away, people are beginning to tire from the relentlessness of lock-down and the lack of being able to see an end and want to return WHEN it is safe. When it is safe will be different for each person according to their situation. Many are still shielding themselves, family and friends. Many people lack confidence and the information out there is still confusing. So, there may not be a right answer. . . but we plan on return. It will be different, and we will adjust to the new environment to keep our members, safe, happy and growing together.
Planned changes to enhance the service.
October or sooner (assuming there is not second wave) we will return to physical networking
Seamless networking – Every club member (where we have the resource) will have the option to attend in person (with the benefit of a fine breakfast) or attend via the video conference system. The rooms will be set up and ready to cope with all the technical challenges this may throw up. Both the online and physical attending members and visitors will get an equal and seamless experience and opportunity to connect with each other and create business.
We are Covid-19 Reporting compliant – We now have systems in place that allow us to report to the venues who attended and to check them in correctly and quickly as they arrive.
The Venues and Safety – We are training all our coordinators and making sure the venues are ready to host a SAFE environment so that people are relaxed, comfortable and the environment works for business networking.
We do not know what the future holds; we have no crystal balls and we know there are difficult times ahead for businesses. What we do know is that good business is done when people get together, trust and support each other.
We want to continue to assist with that.
If anybody wants to take a look at their local club, and has products that may benefit from a local business community and marketplace we would love to hear from you.
Richard Frazer
Regional Director