Finalist reception - Wiltshire Business of the Year
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-12-13 07:28:10 - Graham Ellis
Last night, we attended a cocktail party thrown for the finalists in the "Wiltshire Business of the Year" competition because ... well, because we're finalists. I understand that there was a record entry this year - the first year we have entered - and that our category which is "Small Business of the year" was the biggest. That figures ... there's a lot of small businesses from Highworth in the North of the county to Mere in the South. So it's quite a feather in our cap to have got this far.
Mark Suddamore, the Managing Director of the newspaper organising the event, made a presentation, and plaques were awarded to all the finalists. As far as I'm personally concerned, entering the competition was an excellent tool through which we could look at the business and say to ourselves "Have we thought of all aspects" and "how do we stand up as others in business see us". So in some ways, the taking place was more important that the achievement of a place in the final, or the certificate. Having said that, it's certainly something that will help with our "street cred".
The event was held at the deVere Hotel in West Swindon (note to organisers - a bit of rush for those of us working up to 5 p.m. from out of town!) and well attended. And the networking opportunity was most welcome. Not necessarily to sell hotel rooms or places on courses (from a marketing viewpoint, such an event doesn't bring potential Open Source trainees together in great numbers!) but rather to look, to listen to others, stories, views, and to learn from them. I came away with the view, re-inforced, to remember both the large AND the small customer. This week, I'm training a medium sided organisation and two very large ones and I'm delighted to be doing so. Next week, I have a minnow. And they're equally important. I confess to being grateful to one of our fellow finalists who were busy assuring me that repeat business is the key in [[names trade]] ... and that means that you provide good service to 'chain' stores and only lip service to the independents. I'm glad we're not in their line - that's not an approach I would wish to take. And, come to think of it I suspect they were up for small business of the year too!