About Me

Newark Business Club is tomorrow. I’ve been a member since 2005 and have regularly attended. I generally speak to the same people, collect business cards of the people on my table, drink coffee and then go to work. But not this year! This year I am going to do more with those business cards, I am going to talk to new people, and more importantly, I am going to follow up!

Bold intentions! Yes, I know. But, I need to get more bespoke development work to keep my business going, I want to sell apps and I also want to find other business ideas that software could improve.

I won’t be on my own, I will be using Candid CRM. It will be it’s first outing. I will be scanning as many business cards as possible and creating actions to follow up.

Tomorrow will also be my first visit to Success Networking in Retford. My friend and ex-software developer, Rob Purle is hosting, so I will be supporting him as well as looking to meet new business owners. I am not sure what to expect and am taking my friend from Academy Office Furniture with me.

Yep, that’s me! And this is what both of my business coaches tell me. Not just once, but many times! My job is to create software for small businesses, so I spend most of my day staring at a screen. This is what I have done since I first started programming in the early 80’s, and it is where I feel comfortable.

I have to force myself to meet, and talk to people! Listening to other business owners, I am not on my own. I am a member of Newark, Grantham and Lincoln’s business club. I was a BNI & 4Networking member for many years and I also attend other networking events.

The key word here is attend! I am present, but not making the most of the event! I talk to familiar faces before the meeting, I talk to the people round my table, at the break I hide, and then I leave! Once the meeting is over, I don’t interact with the new people I’ve met or even the people I’ve known for years! I know. You know. And both my coaches know, that this is not how to network, build a business, or find new opportunities!

One of my goals for 2026 is to change this, and I am going to use Candid CRM to help me. Each networking event I am going to find 3 people (minimum) and:

• Get their contact details (scan business card)
• Create an action for the same day to email them to ask for one2one.
• Complete the action that same day.

This is a big change for me. The one2ones are not to sell bespoke software systems to these people. It is to share problems, ideas, and solutions, and to look for opportunities. Opportunities not just for me, but for them and other people I have met eg. referrals.

First networking meeting is on Friday, Newark Business Club, lets see how I get on.

I’m sat on the bed with my wife in a Brighton hotel room, sipping fresh takeaway coffee before heading out for a family breakfast. This blog was supposed to be started boxing day, but I was unsure where to start. I am also daunted by the challenge of consistently writing every day!

Each year I set a goal, last year was to create a framework that enabled me to create apps very quickly. I thought I could enable small businesses to have apps to help them for a very low fee. The problem I didn’t see was that business owners don’t know that an app could solve a problem they have. I can see instantly where an app could help in day to day processes, but none app people cannot. Lesson learnt!

This year I am going to do something quite alien to me! I am going to use one of my own apps daily. You may think this is obvious, but I create apps for other people, other businesses, once complete, I hardly look at them again.

The app I have decided to use is Candid CRM which I began writing in October 2025. Most of my big customers have a CRM, either an off-the-shelf, or one that I have created for them.

So my challenge for 2026 is to use my CRM every day to meet people and find opportunities. Those opportunities could be for my software business, a new business or a joint venture. I will use this blog to document my progress, problems, solutions and the tools that help me along the way