21st January 2009 - Business in Berkshire News

As the new US President Obama is signed in the dollar to sterling rate tumbles to an all time low! $1.40 to the £1! No good to anyone who buys stuff in the USA and sells it in the UK. But it's OK, President Obama's step mum will be invited along to Mary's breakfast when she gets back from seeing her boy and we'll get it sorted!

I'll be at Mary's Keller breakfast in the morning, lucky enough to get myself booked in before the cut off. Mary's breakfasts have become so popular that to ensure everyone gets their minute and we don't over run, Mary has set a limit of 40 people per month. With a waiting list for tomorrow, you'd better get yourself booked in early for next month's breakfast.

Mary had to run the Berkshire JAM event without me last week because I bruised a few ribs last week when I slipped on the ice! First event went down well and we'll have news of the next event coming to your email on Monday.

Get along to Olu's event on the 3rd February. Carla Delany, Maidenhead Advisor's business editor will be helping local businesses by telling us "How to get the media interested in what you are doing and what it wants from you". I'll be adding some wee waffle about engaging with t'Internet!

Continuing this networking theme I seem to have got into today, I've been tuning in to Linked In. Sunday evening I had 33 contacts and noticed I could send a message to people asking them to connect. So I went and had a look at the contacts of my contacts and sent those I KNEW a message saying let's connect. Keeping with the rhythm I sent 44 messages Sunday evening, starting at around 8pm. By midnight 10 people had come back connecting us up. That's 25% of business people working Sunday night, keeping tuned into their respective worlds! How email has changed our lives, we're always working. I wonder if this will be the same in a few months when the sun is shining!!

If you are not already networking online then I suggest you check out LinkedIn and give it a spin! We've created a BinB group so you can add comment and use it for dialoguing with other BinB/LinkedIn folk. It's free at the basic level to join in and that will do for most folk.

Check out the stories in this week's newsletter and go find yourself some business nuggets!

If you want your news front and centre for the world to see then you need a BinB or BLG web space. With over 1,000,000 visitors in 2008 our micro sites attracted a lot of attention and generated many business leads for those who joined in. Starting at only £99 + VAT per year, that's the price of a night out with a couple of friends. Stay in and treat yourself to something that could help drive your business forward in 2009.