Another lively meeting this morning, albeit by ‘Zoom’ when we all much rather be sitting at a table in ‘The Dukes’ with a hearty breakfast!

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