Like most businesses, the past six months have been some of the most challenging times for Durham Business Group – but there are plenty of positive stories to celebrate, too.
After almost 40 years of bringing businesses together to network in person, we’ve adapted to virtual events, using the Remo platform to recreate the friendly Durham Business Club vibe. These meetings have been well received, with over 300 people attending our virtual networking events so far.
Indeed, just like our members, we are forever evolving in these unusual times. Beyond 2020, it seems highly likely that we will continue to host virtual events in some form, even after the long-awaited return of our physical evening and breakfast networking.
Durham Office Services, set up in 2011 to support Durham Business Club, was well ahead in terms of its place in the virtual world, and was already supporting hundreds of clients from across the country with telephone answering and mailing services.
From our Portland House HQ, the team have continued to support clients at a time when they’ve needed us most. While our meeting room hire has understandably been quiet, other features of the Durham Office Services offer have proved timely at meeting businesses’ needs, and we’re delighted to have welcomed 60 new Office Services clients over the past six months.
People are resilient and creative – especially here in the North East – and many faced with furlough or redundancy have used this opportunity to set up their own businesses.
As a result, our registered office address and mailing packages have been especially popular. These enable clients to convey a professional image, with a prestigious DH1 address, while moving their business away from home.
We know that setting up a new enterprise can stretch anyone’s resources, let alone during COVID-19, so were pleased to come up with some offer packages to help those businesses get off the ground, and are proud to continue to support the business community.
Our values of sharing knowledge, support, trust and building relationships have been at the heart of what we do and why we do it since 1981 – and as we approach the 40th year of Durham Business Group, these have never been more true.
Alison Gittins
CEO, Durham Business Group
