Tracey is still top of the BoBs
ANETWORKING expert is celebrating 15 years in business. Tracy Heatley became the first licensee of Business over Breakfast (BoB) clubs in 2007 and opened her first networking club in Rawtenstall in February 2008.
Tracy said: “Our very first meeting was at Do-Dah’s in Rawtenstall and there we were, 14 years to the week, celebrating in the same location which is still owned the same person, Suzanne Winfield.”
Some of the same people were also present.
Over lockdown, Tracy had to complete a workbased project as part of her Business MBA with the University of Central Lancashire – so she chose to examine the way her own clubs were working - and realised that there was a better way.
She said: “I have the licence for Lancashire,
Greater Manchester and Cheshire, but rather than be directly responsible for setting up clubs in all of the areas, my work-based project revealed that I should be outsourcing.
“Now I am signing up people who will be selfemployed and responsible for introducing BoB Clubs into a specific area - the first two will be opening in Rochdale and Prestwich in the next few months.
“It is an ideal opportunity for people who love networking and want to run their own group using a template that works, while also having access to support and training.”
When Tracy first set up the Rawtenstall club, there was little social media, no Facebook or WhatsApp she signed up her first 15 members by getting them to fill in paper forms and sign cheques for membership. Thanks to Zoom, she was able to keep her clubs going throughout the pandemic, but nothing compares to meeting face-toface.
She said: “I couldn’t celebrate my 15 years in business because we were still in lockdown, but I could celebrate the anniversary of the Rossendale BoB Club.
“I felt really proud at DoDah’s; we had 22 people attend and GrowTraffic Director Rachel Weinhold was present via Zoom because she was snowed in.
“BoB Clubs are referralbased and our meetings are relaxed and have a friendly atmosphere.
“Through the pandemic we had to concentrate on maintaining the club but now we are growth focused and over the next few months I want to see the local club memberships increase up to 30 and oversee area co-ordinators opening 64 new clubs within my region.”
Tracy also runs her own marketing mentoring and networking training business Be Better with Tracy Heatley and for more information visit www.tracyheatley.com or www.bobclubs.com/nw or email tracy@tracyheatley.com