I've been listening more than usual lately, and one story keeps repeating itself, told by different business owners, in different words, but with the same shape underneath.
Time is tighter than it used to be. Every dollar has to work harder. And somehow, despite that, the events calendar across the Hastings has never been fuller. There's a breakfast, a launch, a networking hour, or a webinar competing for the same evening most weeks of the year, and on top of all of it, businesses are being asked to donate to something almost constantly. A raffle prize here, a sponsorship there, a fundraiser on top of the one from last month.
Put those things together and I think we've landed on a genuine problem. Business owners want to connect, learn, and support each other, that hasn't changed. What's changed is how much it costs them to do it, in time, in money they don't have as much of to spare, and in how often they're asked to give before they've even had a chance to catch their breath.
The trade-off nobody asked for
Talk to enough local business owners and you'll hear the same calculation running in the background of every invitation and every ask that lands in their inbox. Is this worth closing early for? Worth the babysitter, the fuel, the ticket price, the prize I'm being asked to donate on top of it? Worth being away from the tools, the trades job, the shop floor for two hours on a Tuesday?
Most of the time, the honest answer is "I'm not sure yet," and a maybe becomes a no as the date edges closer. Not because the event wasn't good, or the cause wasn't worthy. Because nobody has time or spare capacity anymore to gamble on finding out.
That's the environment I'm planning in at Business Port Macquarie. And it's exactly why I've become more deliberate, not less, about what goes on our calendar.
Two kinds of events, one purpose
When I sit down to plan BPM's offers, I sort everything into one of two buckets, and I hold each one to a different standard.
Events built to teach you something. These are the ticketed, paid sessions, the educational events, the boardroom lunches, the sessions with a guest presenter who knows something you need to know. The bar for these is simple but non-negotiable to me: if I'm asking a member for their money and their afternoon, they need to walk out with something they can actually use. Not inspiration for its own sake. Something they can put into practice the next morning. If a session doesn't clear that bar, it doesn't belong on the calendar, regardless of how good the guest speaker sounds on paper.
Events built to give you a room. These are the free ones. Coffee Connections on the first Wednesday of the month. Business After 5. No pitch, no agenda beyond the coffee or the drink in your hand and the person standing next to you, and no ask attached. These exist because recognition, support, and good ideas have always come from being in the same room as someone who understands what you're dealing with, and that used to happen for free, just by running a business in a small enough town. It doesn't happen automatically anymore. So I build the room on purpose, and I make sure it costs nothing, in money or in goodwill, to walk into.
Why the free events matter as much as the paid ones
It would be easy to assume the free events are the lesser offering, filler between the events that really matter. I don't see it that way, and I don't think our members do either.
Half the best conversations I hear about at BPM happen in the fifteen minutes before an event officially starts, or over a coffee that has nothing to do with an agenda at all. Someone finds a supplier. Someone gets a referral. Someone realises the problem they've been carrying alone for six months is a problem three other people in the room solved last year and would happily talk through.
I can't budget for that kind of value, but I can build the conditions for it to happen. That's what the free side of our calendar is for. It's there so that doing business in this region doesn't have to mean doing it alone, even when money and time are both stretched thin and the asks keep coming from every direction.
What this means for you
If your calendar is full and getting fuller, and your answer to the last three requests for a donation was already no, I'm not asking you to make room for everything. I'm asking you to trust that when something from BPM lands in your inbox, I've already asked the question you don't have time to ask yourself: is this worth it, and am I asking you for anything you can't spare?
If it's a paid event, I've held it to the standard of teaching you something real. If it's free, it's there so you have somewhere to turn up and not be on your own with whatever you're working through this week, with nothing expected of you when you walk in.
That's the deal I'm trying to hold up on my end, event after event, in a region where everyone's time, money, and goodwill are being pulled in more directions than ever.
'You don't have to do business alone'. That's not just a slogan for me. It's the actual point of showing up.
Come along to our next Coffee Connections or Business After 5, or get in touch about upcoming educational events, at businesspmq.com.au/events
Kylie