17 local businesses were represented at the meeting this morning’s meeting, which (after breakfast) began with a 5 minute talk by Matt Willson of WillsonWebDesign. This covered a couple of scams to look out for, relating to Domain Names (the web address and / or email address) that you probably own.

There’s a postal scam which involves a quasi-official looking letter from “US Domains” (or similar), which says your domain is coming up for renewal – just sign here and send payment. Your domain will actually be up for renewal – but they’re trying to get you to transfer the management of the domain to them, and to charge you a lot for the privilege. All you actually need to do is go to the website of the company from which you bought your domain & renew it with them – at a fraction of the price.

There’s an email one that say something along the lines of “someone has come to us, trying to register your trademark as a domain in [list of countries].  We are giving you first opportunity to secure these domains, to protect your trademark.  Their trying to get you to pay inflated prices for domain in Poland, Thailand and other countries, where in reality you’re unlikely to ever do business.  Just ignore this one.

The Andy Gordon of the Aylesbury Leaftlet Delivery Company took us through his background and what his company offers (which is, unsurprisingly, leaflet delivery in and around Aylesbury).  He gave us examples of the types of company that have successfully used leaflet drops, and why, and what makes the Leaflet Delivery Company a good choice for your marketing budget.

Finishing with referrals, of which there were 8 this morning, we left at 8.30am before the traffic wardens ascended from the bowels of the earth to inflict their wrath on the unsuspecting inhabitants of Leighton Buzzard.