Gaile Griffin Peers- ICSB Member from Spain

Marina Alta Business Club - Networking Club

Gaile’s specialist areas are in Change Management and Small Businesses. She has owned and run small businesses, been a General Company Manager, worked in local government and retail management, been an active member of many Business Clubs over the years, including, naturally, the British Chamber of Commerce. Gaile sat as a lay member on several Investors in People Panels, she ran businesses dedicated to the support and training of business managers and their staff, has been an online Business Mentor and, of course, has a Masters Degree in Business Administration (Liverpool) and is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute. After a 20 year love affair with the Marina Alta Area, in Spain, Gaile now lives here full time. Most of her career has been around helping others, so starting a business club was a way of combining all her business and altruistic interests under one umbrella. In her own words; “I am tired of watching, on the sidelines, as businesses with great ideas, enthusiastic owners (and dedicated staff) start and fade here, due to either a lack of a voice or a lack of support and I want to do something about it, in the best way I can, with the skills I have at my disposal”.

Primarily the Marina Alta Business Club is a Networking Club - Business networking is a long established method of raising a business's profile, whilst also being a cost effective means of bringing in new business from either direct or indirect leads. As the club grows and more and more members join, it will create opportunities for inter-business working in many areas of business operation. Collaboration with other like-minded or complementary businesses can reduce overheads and make big savings. Free Training, Tips and Ideas from the Speakers and fellow members at club evenings could spark new ideas to energise and increase business. Strategic alliances and competitor analysis can be made on a regular basis and in a supportive environment. The club welcomes representation from all local businesses and hopes to encourage closer networking between all the different nationalities who make up the region and who have brought their entrepreneurial skills to this very multi-cultural area of Spain. It is believed that there are more expatriates living and working on the Costa Blanca than anywhere else in Spain. Primary nationalities represented here (over and above the indigenous Spanish population) are the English, Dutch, German and French (EU) with a growing Moroccan and Chinese presence (non EU). Club meetings are conducted in English, but the club welcomes subsidiary groups that converse, communicate and advertise in other languages, providing they are prepared to participate in core business events, in English. Already, local Spanish businesses are using this as an opportunity to build their relationships with their expatriate colleagues. The club meets for Discussion and Business Networking, twice a month. For example February’s discussion topics are about how to encourage small businesses and their owners to be fully registered and in full compliance with Spanish laws. There are many “cash in hand” businesses here, with workers that are not qualified, insured, registered, paying taxes or paying Social Security, for Health Benefits. The issues of this Spanish “Black Economy” are a matter of grave concern in a country where local infrastructure support is based solely on the level of legitimate businesses and registered residents. Not only do the illegal businesses consume already thinly spread resources, but they also have unfair overhead advantages in pricing wars against their legally compliant competitors. There is a joke in Spain about expatriate businesses that needs to be rebuffed, if all businesses are going to grow in harmony, here, regardless of their core nationality - it goes “They leave their homes and get onto the aeroplane a milkman and a shop assistant, but get off the aircraft in Spain as a ‘qualified’ builder and hairdresser!”

As part of our desire to help businesses to market themselves effectively and inexpensively, we are in the process of giving each of our members a web page that we design to their specifications, using the information that they provide. If they have already got their own web site we can link to it, helping increase their web presence. If they have not got a web site, then this is a hassle-free way of making sure that all their contact details and business information are available on the internet 24/7 with a web address that can be added to their literature if they wish. Web pages are kept simple and easy to duplicate or add to, with the intention of making the technology accessible to any business. By giving each owner complete control over the content, it is hoped that they will utilise the advantages of a web presence for providing information to existing clients (as an extended part of their customer service proposition), as well as the obvious advantages of promoting their business to new customers.

Gaile can be contacted at manager@mabc.biz or Spain – (0034) 96 646 1913 / UK – (0044) 208 133 0123