JFP Strategic Planning regularly take part and sponsor a monthly networking event named TWIS (Third Wednesday in Slough ). It is a vibrant organisation with around 70 – 80 people attending, all of whom are owners of or involved with SMEs.   Last week, one of the sponsors was David Coulton, who was also a co-founder of TWIS. He told us the story of how three years ago he bought a company named The Archive Centre (www.thearchivecentre.com) which had at that time been trading for nine years. As the name suggests, the company is involved in paper and document archiving with clients’ boxes ranging from 10 through to the thousands.   Since acquiring the company, the boxes in store have doubled. On acquisition, David looked at what had been spent on marketing and decided it would be more effective and cheaper to network. David now attends two to three networking events each week – and the main reason why turnover has increased is the extra business that has been generated from the contacts made at these events.   Networking is not for every company – but do you think you could do more ?– if so your turnover could increase like The Archive Centre.   And:   a) Anyone wanting to be put on the TWIS database, should contact Roger Bibby on roger.bibby@avocet-investments.com and     b) Anyone needing help to make their company more effective through planning and implementation should contact JFP on 01344 872 230

Those who own and run their own businesses differ considerably from managers in large organisations. This is JFP’s “light-hearted” attempt to identify 15 of these differences. [More]