Today it’s ‘Business’ for breakfast!
One of the most extraordinary developments in business over the last two or three years has been the phenomenal explosion of the ‘business breakfast’.
Strangely, it’s not actually a new or radical concept because the idea of the business breakfast has been around for quite a few years now. What has happened is that it has started to change and develop into something much more interesting.
So what exactly is a ‘breakfast business club’? In simple terms it is based on the idea of bringing together local business people to meet each other over a shared breakfast to briefly introduce themselves and their business offerings, chat, swap business cards and to get to know each other and what their respective businesses have to offer. The great thing about the business breakfast club is that it usually meets once a month between 7.30 and 9.30 so it does not really intrude into the business day. Also, attendees are encouraged to bring along ‘guests’ so that new and fresh faces join the meetings and maintain the momentum. The normal practice in most clubs is that one of attendees takes responsibility for chairing the meeting, booking the venue (usually a local hotel) and organising the breakfasts.
The main idea behind the business breakfast is that each club is local – in other words everyone attending lives in the area, town or village where the club is based – so the key advantage is getting to meet other local business people who probably have the same issues or challenges. The other main benefit of the local business club is fairly obvious, that if everyone uses localised business services rather than national companies the whole local community benefits. For these reasons Plumbers, Electricians, Hairdressers, Accountants, Car mechanics, Caterers, Babysitters and many other local businesses find the business breakfast club such a great concept.
Unfortunately though, over the last few years the business club has become a ‘victim’ of its undeniable success and changes started to happen that not everyone found palatable. Gradually, almost imperceptibly at first, the type of attendee started to change. Representatives of larger corporate companies started to attend who were not from the local area. These tended to be smart suited business salesmen who would give slick presentations, hand out glossy brochures and business cards and do everything to promote their own business. Instead of being part of the local community and willing to support that local community these hardnosed businessmen viewed the ‘business breakfast club’ as just another sales outlet for their own products and services. As soon as other large corporate spotted their competitors using this tactic they started to do the same and very soon the ‘business breakfast club’ became dominated by men in pin stripes trying to use the business club to get more sales and the locals then became disillusioned and started to drift away. It seemed that the business breakfast club was becoming more cutthroat and corporate and had lost its ‘raison d’être’.
It might therefore seem that the days of the business breakfast club were numbered. And indeed they might have been but for one or two individuals who could clearly see both the huge advantages of the breakfast business club but also the worrying trends that might lead to its eventual downfall. Such visionary individuals started to pose some interesting questions:
“What if we turn the business breakfast rules on its head and start a whole new approach?”
“What if we make sure that only small-medium sized businesses (known as SME’s) can become members rather than large corporates?”
“What if the fundamental reason for the club is based on fun and friendship rather than just promoting business?”
“What if all local businesses could start promoting each other’s businesses and not just their own based on mutual cooperation?”
“What if the business breakfast club became more of a social club, more relaxed, more informal?”
“What if the club became somewhere to meet, chat and share ideas – not just somewhere to tell everyone what a great business you have?”
This ‘new way’ of running a breakfast business club seemed to be welcomed by everyone who was becoming disillusioned with the old model and very soon the first ‘new style’ breakfast business clubs were formed.
Success was instant. In less than a year the radically new form of breakfast business club spread across the UK like proverbial wildfire as more and more local communities started up the new ‘fun and friendship’ based business clubs with a philosophy based on “How can I help YOU make YOUR business a success?” rather than “What can I sell YOU?”
Today the momentum has no sign of slowing down. Every week, all over the country new style business clubs are flourishing and the concept is poised to go global.
If you are thinking of starting your own business, or plan to one day, there really is no better way to get out there and start networking. The ‘old style’ breakfast business club was a great and innovative idea. The ‘new style’ club though has broken the mould, rewritten the rules, and is now set to take the world by storm.
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