BNI Chichester Festival

Garry Wilberforce (Membership Coordinator)

How BNI has helped my business grow

My name is Garry Wilberforce and I set up my catering consultancy business in March of this year, before this I had been employed as a General Manager or Chef within various styles of establishment from local pubs to 4 Star Hotels. I have over 25 years experience managing challenging catering and hospitality outlets and feel very confident when giving advice and assistance to businesses. However running my own business is all new to me.

Luckily I decided from the offset to get some business advice. Through a referral from Matthew Sedgley I contacted Tony Hedger (A & T Business Associates) who assisted me with getting my dream up and running, giving me invaluable advice and practical help.

Alongside the consultancy he gave me, he also recommended that I joined the Festival chapter of BNI.

I must admit that I was a little sceptical as I had never been involved with networking before, but to my surprise not only have I  received numerous referrals for work from the group, but more importantly from my perspective as a new business the members have been an invaluable source of good and often free practical advice.

Due to the fact that you not only get to know the members but really form a relationship with them and over the course of time, and begin to understand what they do and what impact their business can have on yours, especially after their 10 minute presentations I feel that I have a good insight into what it is they do.

My first task was to promote my fledgling business so used the services of Tim Mulkern (Chase Design & Communication) who initially assisted with the “Branding” of my company, designing, business cards and a logo, then with the assistance of Johnny Morgan (Word-stuff Copy Writing) he then set about designing a promotional brochure. The content of which, set out the services which I offer. The content of this was then used by Clive Loseby (Access by Design) to create my website. I have used a number of other members services such as

Alex Mclean (A & D Autos) who not only maintains my car but most of my family’s too.

Matthew Sedgley (IFS Independent Financial Solutions) who consolidated my 4 pensions, which I had, which were not performing into one pension pot which will now give me a respectable return on my investment.

Luke Mead (LMS Computer Services) who fixed my computer system and updated it with this latest software which I needed after a catastrophic failure

Christina Bassadone (Task Angels) who with her “Angels”, organized a fantastic of a charity event which I assisted with the catering for.

Jonathan Rowden (Rowdens Chartered Accountants) who took the time to talk to me about my concerns with my accountancy procedures not only gave me some invaluable advice and I have now decided to change company as he has a real understanding of both my needs and the needs of my business.

Jo Andrews (Wannop Staffurth & Bray Solicitors) who gave my bereaved relative advice on how to deal with the legal aspects of the incident

And last but not least the newest member of the Chapter Simon Hempsell (The Photography Practice) who is the only company who I haven’t yet used, however I will be using his services in the very near future to update and personalise my website.

So as you can see not only have I gained a number of business referrals from the members I have also been able to use their respective products and services to really drive my business forward and to provide a much more professional service myself.