David Bird, Cognitive Hypnotherapist & Mindset Coach, talked to the LBBC – Leighton Buzzard Business Club – networking group about personal boundaries.

His presentation: “Setting Better Boundaries: How To Reduce Stress, Stay Sane, And Improve Your Relationships” included some of the following topics:

• What personal boundaries are – and why they’re so important
• Example of common boundaries – and the ones we miss
• Why the most compassionate people are the most boundaried
• 3 Steps To Setting Better Boundaries
• What we’re secretly trying to avoid when we don’t set boundaries

This was the first socially-distanced in-person networking meeting the LBBC has held at The Duke’s in Heath and Reach since the change in COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. It was great to see everyone back in 3D!

For more info on David Bird, Cognitve Hypnotherapist and Mindset Coach, visit his website.

Interested in joining us?

For more about the Leighton Buzzard Business Club and how you can get involved, visit the homepage.

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Christine Barham, our member whose business is to look after our health and well being generally, is always reminding us to ‘drink more water’. Her ten minute slot this week was to go into the detail of why that is so important. With 75% of our body composed of water, and 92% of our blood being water, it is critical to our health in all kinds of ways. That includes digestion, heart health, skin health etc. Another reminder that ‘we should drink more water’….

Steve Leverton was ‘in the chair’ for the five-minute ‘general interest/informative/topical session and had decided to research the history of ‘Mothering Sunday’ which was a good reminder for those that should be organising something this weekend of course. He shared that there was a local twist to this story, as when the original Christian festival of ‘Mothering Sunday’ had died out in the 1920’s a woman called Constance Penswick-Smith had formed a movement to reinvigorate it. By the time she had died in 1938 it was an established custom in every country of the British Empire. Constance was hailed as a vicar’s daughter from Coddington (Nr Nottingham) where there is a memorial to her. However, it transpires she was born in Dagnall, just South of Leighton Buzzard as her father was, at that time, the vicar of Dagnall. So a local girl that did so well and led an interesting life.

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How should you value a business?

We had an extremely informative talk by Steve Leverton, our in house business finance expert, on how a business could or should be valued.

As Steve explained, business could be valued in a number of ways and for a number of different purposes. For example, businesses can be valued by accountants, but that is not always useful in that a business would often need to be valued for the purpose of raising finance. In which case the valuation would be done by bankers with an entirely different mindset. Steve then introduced the concept of EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation). This strips out what a business can generate for the future.

However, there are many flaws to this calculation. This led Steve to give a practical example of how to achieve a practical solution to a real situation. He gave an example of a company where one (of two) directors wants to retire and wants to be bought out. He then went through the details of the turnover, profit and liabilities and came to a solution that was entirely unexpected but on a rational  basis was entirely reasonable. Finance is not easy and its always surprising how little interest in it is taken by business owners.

My Yoga Journey

Our second talk (5 minutes), which is generally of an educational nature was given by Philip Harrison. He described his own experience in following Yoga, now for a period of 3 years. Philip is now pushing on in years and recently qualified to claim his old age pension. He described his journey down this route and explained the benefits he enjoyed of the increased flexibility and strength from regular practice of the discipline. Benefits that will put him at the forefront as age advances to being able to touch his toes, cut his own toenails and be resilient from falls as he advances into his 70s and 80s – and beyond!

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Our ‘resident’ IFA, Steve Baker, gave a talk on how he had made some wise investments for a client for whom it was important to mitigate Inheritance Tax for their elderly relatives. This used the principles of ‘Business Property Relief’ and with an investment house called Blackfinch Group. Steve is very experienced at these specialist situations and has built up a good client base as a result. He is always worth talking to if anyone has an issue where they are unsure or confused about financial affairs but want to get to feel ‘competent and smart’ instead.

Steve Leverton shared the messages from a book from his business library, namely ‘Building a Story Brand’ by Donald Miller. This advocates creating marketing messages which follow the kind of script you’d expect from a film, where there is a character (i.e. the potential client), with a problem, who gets to meet a ‘Guide’ (you) who can help them with a plan, gives them a call to action and supports them in solving their problem themselves. So ‘you’ are not the hero in the story, it is always the client. So many businesses present themselves misguidedly as ‘hero’s’ who will transform your business (“We’re brilliant and we can double your leads” etc). This was a 5-minute summary but the principles in the book should help you write better website content and marketing messages, and also help with initial meetings with new clients.

As always with LBBC, we support each other, learn from each other and also have a bit of a laugh. Equally good topics lined up for next week’s talks

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This morning was our first meeting of 2021 and by ‘Zoom’. In fact, it was our ‘AGM’ so we had wide ranging discussions about the group and how we go forward in unusual times.

Since we have been holding meetings by Zoom (since the first lockdown) we have all valued each other’s ‘company’ and support. It is clearly a different experience from meeting for a hearty breakfast at ‘The Dukes’ but still we learn from each other and enjoy the comaraderie we have built up (some of us over several years).

Because we all value the face-to-face meetings, we decided in the first lockdown that we would not encourage new members to join – because we felt that it would be difficult for them to get the ‘vibe’ of the group by Zoom. This morning, in ‘Lockdown 3′, we reflected on the fact that there may be sole-trader businesses, in particular, in Leighton Buzzard who are struggling and may well value the contact and support that this group gives (even though we are not a traditional networking and business generation group). So new members are welcome and hopefully in time we will soon get to meet some over breakfast.

I think it is a testament to us all that although many networking groups have folded or been put on hold, we all commit to Wednesday mornings and go to our businesses better for it.

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We made the decision to press on with our Leighton Buzzard Business breakfast meeting using Zoom’s online meeting platform. It will work better with practice, of course.  But we managed to do it with the usual humour and we shared some good practices.

We also made an important decision.

We appreciate the value of our venue. Not least because The Leighton Buzzard Business Club has been going for over 20 years and we have been forced to relocate several times.

Sarah at The Dukes, Heath and Reach has been a partner for us for many years and sometimes joins our meetings. And the last thing we want is to have the business become a victim to the COVID-19 Coronavirus crisis.

We have therefore decided to continue our meetings online AND to continue to pay The Dukes for our [imaginary] breakfasts.

We will not all be able to do this on an open-ended basis. We also know that this in itself will not make a massive difference. But we hope that it will make enough of a difference. And wonder whether other groups who use the venue might feel able to do the same.

Maybe, collectively, that could be a lifeline.

As an old sage I knew in business used to say: “always think about the next man”.

Stay safe everyone. Looking forward to the next LBBC Zoom meeting next week! No pyjamas please…

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so Aircon was invented on a scale able and usable basis to help print in colour in new York in 1902.  then to print in colour the piece of paper needed to be printed on four times, and in varying humidity it would shrink or stretch slightly and mess up the colour print.  so a commercial application and then it spread to use in flour mills, textile factories and to stop razor blades rusting

in the 1920’s the potential was seen to make people more comfortable and it spread to theatres  and cinemas – at that time in the hotter parts of the USA many theatres and cinemas shut for the summer as it was simply too hot and aircon gave them an effective further two months of trading

but as ever there is an inconvenient truth – you can’t make heat disappear – only move it somewhere else and that is all aircon does.  so you can have cool underground trains but that gives you hot stations – and you can have cool shopping malls and centres but that pushes the heat into the car park

so good and bad with aircon

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a small  but vibrant group enjoyed the usual good quality breakfast at the Dukes followed by a 10 minute presentation from Keith Rawlings, who explained the principles of structural engineering in an accessible and easy to understand way – with some pretty pictures of a lovely house in nearby Buckinghamshire

Martin Addrison then gave a 5 minute presentation on crime and sentencing – of general public interest in light of the release of the “black cab rapist” – John Worboys which had recently been announced

the main reason for the meeting is of course business referrals – and there were about 5 passed between members of the group

and then we all left at 8.30 prompt to earn a living !

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In the same way that we all grumble now about the cost of ink for the printer we bought that was a wonderful deal in the shops – or about the cost of playstation games for our children when the original product was so cheap

You don’t really think it costs £25 to make and sell you that printer – they plan to make money out of you downstream as King did in 1903

He was the first – but  he won’t be the last – and respect to him  – you all recognised Gillette from that title didn’t you !

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