When BOB comes to town: Businesses of Beaminster uniting to grow
If you’re a business owner in Beaminster, listen up. For the past 2 years, our beautiful town has been through a rough time thanks to challenge like the cashpoint raid and ongoing road & services works. Coupled to changes in buying habits and economic uncertainty due to huge political happenings like Brexit, our local businesses have had to fight long and hard to keep their doors open, keep their products and services focussed and fresh, and keep delivering for the rest of us. That is why a fantastic new initiative has been born in the form of BOB: the Businesses of Beaminster group.
What is BOB?
BOB is an open group for any business in Beaminster to join. Not restricted to traders only, BOB was created out of a need to amplify existing initiatives to put Beaminster on the map as a place to visit and live. In November in 2019, a few local businesses got together at an informal gathering to get a feel as to whether there was any merit in starting a Beaminster business group of some sort. The result of the initial get-together was hugely positive, with a lot of enthusiasm for a community of businesses to:
- set Beaminster up as a hub of activity and to join forces with other initiatives to drive awareness even more. The need is to build Beaminster to become a better place to live and work, building even more opportunities for new and ongoing business initiatives in the area.
- enable clearer communication amongst local businesses and between the business community and other initiatives like the Beaminster Town Council, Discover Beaminster, Beaminster Festival, The Christmas Lights Committee, the Yarn Barton etc and to eliminate any duplication of efforts for us to build Beaminster as a united community.
- establish a platform to be able to share knowledge, work together and support each other – particular through rough times, and to extend the focus from just traders in the square, but to the wider community of small businesses & sole traders in the town.
Getting involved
Becoming part of BOB or attending any of their events is open to any business owner or manager to attend. At its implementation phase, a small steering committee has gotten together to identify new opportunities to get businesses together with an aim to helping them grow and expand. There is currently no membership fee required, and a series of events are being set up which will be advertised amongst the business community. Costs involved will be limited to events, for the moment, aimed at just covering any catering or administration costs involved with the event.
Next Event
The first event in the BOB schedule will be held on Monday 30 March, 5.30pm – 7pm at The Ollerod in Beaminster. Businesses are being invited to join the evening for a chance to meet with fellow businesses over a glass of wine, or a pint & some nibbles. BOB has also invited the team from Beaminster Festival to join the event where they will be discussing and exploring opportunities for Beaminster Businesses involvement, and to highlight the direction of the Festival for 2020 and the influence it holds for Beaminster Businesses.
The cost of the event is just £5 to cover 2 drinks per person and some nibbles.
This will also be a great opportunity for new attendees to share their ideas on how BOB can grow, new ideas for events and to just generally have a get together to mingle with others in the community.
If you’d like to attend the next BOB Event on 30 March, businesses are being invited to RSVP to businessesofbeaminster@gmail.com so that they can confirm catering numbers.
