Live in Leeds And Need Some Ideas For Your Business?

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48th day of the epic 100 posts in 100 days challenge

A professional web developer's musings

Are you struggling along with your business, meeting all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and fending them off with your bare hands?

Sounds like you could do with a a bit of support!

How do I suggest you get that support?

Well, I like going to networking events in and around Leeds and it's a good way of getting business. And if you do it enough you start to get to know people, and when you get to know people, human nature being what it is, they try and help you out, usually by giving you tips and suggestions. And that's great, you can learn from others and improve your business prospects.

But that's usually a by-product of the networking, something that happens incidentally.

So why not make it a core feature of a networking meeting? Brainstorming and giving mutual support.

In the meetings I went to it wasn't really catered for but there was no reason why it shouldn't be done. So that's why I started The Entrepreneurs' Mutual Support Network

It's been going 8 months now and has just over 100 members.

We meet once a month and the meeting format has evolved as we have gone along.

But what it has always included is the opportunity for someone to take the hot seat, describe what aspect of their business they want help with, and then all the other members brainstorm ideas for them. It's great.

It's amazing how ideas start to feed off each other, once they start flowing, when you hear other people's ideas it triggers off new ideas in you, and you can surprise yourself with your own creativity.

Not only that but when you hear lots of ideas being generated for another business owner, you are bound to hear ones that you could apply to your own business too.

Added to that we set goals to achieve in our businesses for the next meeting, which gives us that little extra momentum to achieve them, and we report back to the group, who hold us accountable.

And, of course, an added benefit is that by being there you are naturally increasing your network.

And it's free (at the moment).

So if you are in the Leeds area and you need ideas or mutual support why not pop along to The Entrepreneurs' Mutual Support Network and see what it has to offer?

A meeting of the The Entrepreneurs' Mutual Support Network in Leeds

A meeting of the entrepreneurs mutual support network in leeds.jpg

Social media, no time, I have work to do!

What work?

4 hours 35 minutes Client website: updating database queries, planning future developments
1 hour 23 minutes Updating blog posts, checking search engine rankings
1 hour 10 minutes Organising next meeting of the Entrepreneurs' Mutual Support Network in Leeds
19 minutes Social media, the usual Twitter, keeping up to date with developments in the industry, and seeing what's being tweeted
10 minutes Email

Total: 7 hours 35 minutes

An average day in the home office, though it was very sunny outside and I was tempted to sit in the back garden... but resisted.

Exercise: None :-(

Tomorrow: More work on clients' websites.

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Mike Nuttall

Author: Mike Nuttall

Mike has been web designing, programming and building web applications in Leeds for many years. He founded Onsitenow in 2009 and has been helping clients turn business ideas into on-line reality ever since. Mike can be followed on Twitter and has a profile on Google+.