Cognates

18/07/2025

A Quick Update for Cognates Members!

We've had a couple of great meetings this week – lovely to see those of you who weren’t away enjoying the sunshine! 🌞
We’ve sent a full update out to all members directly, but here’s a quick overview of some of the key changes and news:

🧩 Groups Merging
From August, our Tuesday and Thursday Cognates groups will officially combine into one – meeting on Thursdays only. This change is designed to create a stronger, more connected network and offer even more collaboration opportunities.

We’ll miss Karen and Debbie, who can’t make Thursdays, but they remain honorary members (and of course, always welcome when they can pop back in!).

A big thank you to both for all your contributions and energy.🙏

A warm Cognates welcome this week to:
• Anthony Clark – Coach, Team Mentor & Speaker
• Hayley Masom – Photographer

Fantastic to have you with us!

🎬 Shoutout to James, Tom, and Nick D for sharing video updates this week - a great way to stay visible when you're out of office.
➡️Final Tuesday Meeting - 29th July

This will be our last Tuesday session before we move to Thursdays only. Hope to see lots of you there – and Thursday folks, you’re invited too!

➡️ Education Slots – Get Yours Booked In!
We’re planning ahead, so if you’d like to run a slot, share some insight, or showcase what you do – get in touch with Sarah. And let us know any holiday dates so we can plan around them.

Thanks as always to every single member – for the energy, referrals, collaboration, and positivity. We’re proud of the community we’re building together.

See you all in a couple of weeks!😉
Next meetings are :
👉Tuesday 29th July👉Thursday 31st July👉Thursday 14th August 👉Thursday 28th August

Visitors welcome too!

________________________________________

16/07/2025

We had a fantastic networking meeting yesterday!

It was inspiring to hear from Lizzie from Bright Hope Charity, one of our valued charity seat members. She shared some powerful case studies and gave us a real insight into the work Bright Hope is doing right now. Thank you, Lizzie!🙏

Join the Thursday Group tomorrow for more great conversations and connections!

We’re delighted to welcome guest speaker Hayley Masom, from Captcha Photography who will be sharing inspirational ideas to get your message and brand across your networks.

Don’t miss the opportunity to network with like-minded professionals on line.
See you there! 👇
https://www.cognates.network/about-us

Cognates are teams of local business owners or professionals working collectively with the ethos

07/07/2025

As part of our growing Cognates networking group, we’re holding a Visitors Day on Thursday 11th September, on line, 10.00am - 11.30am. A brilliant opportunity for others to come and see how we support one another in business through trusted connections, referrals and how we share tips and business advice in a comfortable environment.

We're looking to meet professionals who could benefit from joining a high-energy, committed group.

Have a think about who you know in the following professions:
👉Painter & Decorator
👉Plumber
👉Builder
👉Roofer
👉Financial Advisor
👉Insurance Broker
👉HR Professional
👉Therapist (any specialism)
👉Florist / Flower Arranger

If you know someone in your network - please reach out. We'd love them to come along and enjoy a positive, business-focused morning with like-minded people.

Drop us a message if you know anyone who is interested and we can send them the link...... or tag someone who might like to join us! Please share!
https://www.cognates.network/

01/07/2025

👀👀This morning’s Cognates networking group was a fantastic session, revisiting the vision boards we set back in January.

👉It was great to check in on how everyone’s business goals are progressing and to reflect on the power of these when we habitually stick to the plans we have put in place.

We also shared different ways to break down goals into 'actionable tasks' – digitally with the likes of setting ‘tasks’ in our phone and perhaps using something like 'Trello'…..how the smallest habits can keep us accountable and moving forward. It makes you realise that there’s real value in sharing methods and learning from each other’s experiences.

👉Looking ahead, our Thursday group meets again on 3rd July, where we’ll continue the vision board theme. We're also excited to have Laura Mackie, Non-Exec Director at Bright Hope, delivering the education slot.
See you there!

30/05/2025

We loved hearing from Suzie Jacobs last week about her brilliant VA business and how she helps business owners reclaim their time by taking care of the admin and “stuff” we all put off (but desperately need done!).

Next week, we’re excited to hear from Nick Wallbank from KangarooUK to talk about everything websites!

He’ll be showing us just how easy it can be to manage your own site - without constantly relying on your web provider for every little change and how easy it is to navigate and make changes around your own site. Maybe a few light bulb moments!💡

If you know a business owner who could benefit from hearing this and getting some real insight into smarter website management, invite them along to one of our Cognates Online Networking meetings next Tuesday or Thursday!

⬇️Just send them the link to join - the more, the merrier!

Tuesday - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82665101599
Thursday - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86194268910

05/05/2025

Happy Bank Holiday Monday everyone!

Hope you have had a good weekend.😀

So, who's joining us this week to network?

Sharon is looking forward to seeing you and this week and Shiraz Patel is taking the education slot which we are all looking forward to.

See you Tuesday or Thursday and those who would like to join us as a visitor please register here.⬇️
https://www.cognates.network/groups

04/04/2025

Reminder – No Online Meetings on the 8th and 10th April! We are meeting on the 11th instead! IN PERSON!😉

Just a quick heads-up to pop in your diaries:

🗓️ Friday 11th April – In-Person Meeting

➡️Bright Hope HQ, Swannington at 10.00am. LE67 8QT

Join us for a face-to-face catch-up, networking, a short talk from our Chair, and of course… some great snacks for breakfast!

👉 Don’t forget to book: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/bright-hope-in-north-west-leicestershire if you haven't already.

🖥️ Online meetings will resume on 22nd and 24th April – we look forward to seeing you back then! We originally were going to do a ‘members only’ meeting but due to the amount of new members and guests we have been having recently, we are going to keep them open to all. We will check in your vision boards and business goals set in January at a later date. 😉

If you have any visitors for upcoming sessions, please let Sarah or Sharon know so we can follow up with them.

See you soon! 😊

31/03/2025

👉Just a reminder for all Cognates members and any guests!

You're invited to the upcoming Bright Hope Business Breakfast – a chance to connect, collaborate, and enjoy breakfast in great company. It will make a lovely change for those of us who can make it, to see ach other face to face instead of on-line!

🗓 Friday 11th April 2025
🕙 10:00 AM
📍 Bright Hope House, Swannington, LE67 8QT

We’ll be joined by Laura Mackie, Chair of Trustees, who will be giving a short presentation during the morning.
Please book your FREE ticket in advance so we can cater accordingly: 👉 https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/bright-hope-in-north-west-leicestershire

🚗 Note: There are 25 parking spaces available, so if you can double up with someone, that would be much appreciated!
Looking forward to seeing you there and sharing a great morning of networking and conversation. 😉
Please share!

10/06/2024

Hey all, hope all is well with you. Following on from our 'Accountancy Tips' Presentations on 4th and 6th June 2024 to both online Cognates groups, thought we would just post to the Cognates Group our Contact Details.....just in case you or anyone else you know, thinks they may need some accountancy help.

24/04/2024

I like to sometimes look at my caseload and identify some patterns in the lending market.

Based on this I am really keen to help the following client at the moment:

- Trading business - maybe going between 5-10 years

- Purchased their own commercial premises (or a much larger residential property) pre COVID when things were going well

- Since lockdown, it has been a lot tougher and now they need to either refinance their commercial unit or raise some money to get back on top of cash flow

- Despite this, there is an excellent business underneath it all and great future prospects as well as a lot of confidence from the business owner about the next 2/3 years.

With a client like this there are potentially several options
1) Refinance the existing assets to raise more finance
2) An unsecured business loan
3) Raise funds against future receipts such as invoices or card payments

If you know anyone in this kind of position then please put them in touch for a free chat :)

[email protected]

JB Commercial Finance sources Funding Solutions for business development and commercial property. Refinancing, Bridging Finance, Commercial Mortgages.

15/04/2024

Stop making excuses & book Japan! 🌸🏯🗾

I can curate the most incredible itinerary for you & in this week’s episode of The Travel Podcast listen now as Holly shares their insights to get you truly in the mood.

Check out our latest podcast episode 👇

https://player.captivate.fm/episode/ddf97601-8803-461a-ae93-367db87dc57e

28/02/2024

We had a great meeting yesterday with the 'Education slot' being taken by our visitor, the prospective parliamentary candidate for North West Leicestershire.

Thanks for joining us Craig! Great to see you and hear about the story of Stealth in Coalville and your recent involvement in politics.

If anyone would like more information about our online networking group, send us a message! We'd love to see you.