• Lunch break for #bhub the common theme http://tweetphoto.com/12081437 #

• @ianmckendrick and @starradiomark lovely pic! http://tweetphoto.com/8447122 #
• @ianmckendrick and @starradiomark doing first screen test @cooks barn – look out for them giving you information to help your business #

Inspired Evening

Well what can I say, another amazing evening on Wednesday 16th December 2009 arranged by Ann Hawkins .  There were nearly 200 people there from the Cambridgeshire and surrounding areas to meet with other like-minded business people.  Ann Hawkins invited business people to come together to support each other in business.  This really is something special.  It isn’t about “selling” to other businesses, it is about helping each other, giving each other ideas and making it work for everyone.  Well done Ann!

Crispy Chris

Chris Eadon from Cook’s Barn cooked an amazing Burmese curry for all the attendees of the above Christmas Event, which we know went down really well as alot of people came back for thirds, not just seconds!  If you would like to try some of Chris’ Burmese food please contact him at chris@cooksbarn.com

Christmas Party

Well Friday night (11.12.09) saw us hosting the Band Deja Gruve for a Christmas Party, the first one we have held at Cook’s Barn (www.cooksbarn.com) it was a fantastic evening and we have already been asked when we are going to hold more – in fact some people have even asked if we can do it once a month!   Thank you to everyone who helped make it so good and thank you to www.krispywaves.com for coming up with the great idea and thank you to everyone who came and supported us.

Breakfast TV this morning had a young man (14) saying how him and his friends use Twitter – they use it when they are watching TV to make comments on it.  I thought this was really interesting.  I did think that Twitter would be just a fad but it really IS changing the way we do business.

Social Networking Expert

Ian McKendrick www.ianmckendrick.com is an expert on social networking and has been talking about it all this year – it has taken me a while to catch up and I have to say that I am still a little unsure about it all, but I do believe it is very exciting and that it will change the way we do business for the better.  It is a much more open arena now and you have to offer a good service so that people can talk about you.

Success in Business

Alot of business books I have read over the years say find what you love doing, then go do it.  It seems to me that this fits in with social networking because it is so open you have to love what you do because people can tell if you don’t and then they won’t want to do business with you anyway – it really is a win/win situation – fantastic isn’t it.

That week went quick!

Well another busy week and another Friday Night!  A very exciting week with CrispyChris www.crispychris.com cooking some fabulous Burmese food for everyone at www.cooksbarn.com at the event organised by Ann Hawkins at www.theinspiredgroup.com it really was great. 

Are you busy too?

It seems strange that the messages from the media are that the country is still in a recession and yet this year has been better for us than last year and at the moment we are bursting with work – so bursting that I am a little stressed in trying to make sure we get it all done before Christmas!  It makes me wonder how you are all feeling about this supposed recession at the moment? If you have the time I would really love to hear from you…

Inspired Event Wednesday 18th November 2009

What can I say, last night was amazing – thank you Ann Hawkins www.theinspiredgroup.com for getting together some amazing people.  Andy Gibney the speaker for the evening was really fantastic and very passionate about what he has done and is doing,  it was great to watch him, he had me on the edge of my seat to see what he would get up to next so if you get chance to see him I would advise you to take it up. Everyone who comes to these evenings  is so friendly, it really feels like a group of friends getting together, not like most networking events that I have been to which scare me to death.  Thank you all for coming last night and making it such a lovely evening.

Crispy Chris the Burma Boy

Well I think Chris excelled himself last night.  I have to say that I was (inwardly) concerned about how he would cook the wonderful Burmese food with all the intricacies for nearly 60 people but he did it amazingly (it was worth the 2 days it took him to prepare) and he was genuinely surprised when so many people came up to him afterwards and thanked him and told him the food was fantastic.  Last night Chris and myself took business cards and names and phone numbers of people who are interested in tasting Burmese food more often.  We both know that people are so busy these days that we don’t want to bombard them with emails to try and persuade them to do things, so we have decided that the only people that will be told about the Burmese evenings will be the people who want to ie those people who have given us their details.  If you attended last night and didn’t give us your details but would like to be involved please email myself roz@stonetime.co.uk or Chris at chris@cooksbarn.com we would love to add you to our list.  If you didn’t attend last night but would like to hear more about it please email us as well.

Welcome to my blog.  I am co-owner of Cook’s Barn and Stonetime with my husband Chris.  Stonetime is our company that has looked after us and our 3 staff and 2 sub-contractors for the last 6 years.  See our website www.stonetime.co.uk We really love it because of all the interesting people we meet and talk to on a day to day basis who we help get what they are looking for like granite worktops, marble vanity tops, natural stone and wooden flooring, oak furniture by Pinetum (www.pinetum.co.uk) range cookers by Lacanche (www.lacanche.co.uk) and also stoves by Parkray (www.parkray.co.uk)

Cook’s Barn, as well as being a showroom for Stonetime is also a lovely meeting place.  We host events organised by Ann Hawkins’  see her website www.theinspiredgroup.com which we love too because of all the special people we meet.  This is where owners of small local businesses come to meet and support (not sell to) each other.  We started these in April this year and they have been a huge success.  Please contact Ann if you wish to attend the next one on the 18th November 2009.

Chris and myself are in business because we want to offer people a good service and give them what we would actually like to receive in terms of service and product.  A question we all ask ourselves here at Stonetime and Cook’s Barn is “would we be happy with that” – it has worked really well for us and it means that everyone here can be proud of what they do.

In September we hosted an Inspired Event for Ann Hawkins of The Inspired Group.