TYNEDALE’S entrepreneurs are invited to talk business over bacon, bangers and beans in a series of breakfast meetings that could improve their performance in the year ahead.

Hexham’s County Hotel hosts the first meeting of the new year for Tynedale Business Network (TBN) today, and chairman James Ibbotson is hoping for a good turnout.

“Yes, we do networking, but we put more of a focus on business development and this first session of 2017 will be about getting our members to sit down and look at what their goals are for the year and work out how they are going to achieve them,” James said.

One of the most valuable reasons for attending a TBN breakfast meeting is the accountability it affords, James added.

“A lot of people set their goals for the year ahead and then don’t really look at them again.

“But, say you want more traffic coming through your website or to achieve a bigger following on social media – there’s no point setting those goals if you’re not going to do anything to achieve them.

“We’ll be talking about specific ways of realising your goals, and in April and May time, we will revisit them.

“One of the things I personally like about the group is there is so much experience around the table – people who have run business for perhaps 30, 40 or 50 years who have been there and got the t shirt, who can suggest what is and what isn’t achievable.”

At present, TBN has a core membership of around a dozen businessmen and women, but James said there is an option to just attend as a one-off and they are looking to grow the membership.

“This is the first one of the year and on February 10 we have got the BID (Business Improvement District) committee coming down.”

James believes his own business, Visual Punch, which has been creating online video content for businesses for the last four years, has been helped by belonging to TBN.

“I think the network group is really good for personal development. Everyone there is so nice and friendly and really cares about businesses in our towns. Everyone wants to see each other do well.”

Meetings run between 7.25am and 9am and non-members pay £10, which covers their breakfast, or you can pay £50 to become a member for the whole year.