5 Minutes With

Chas Jordan

Chas Jordan, Founder of Fair Contracts Associates, has lived in Bromley for over 40 years with his wife and two children. Some four years ago, with the help of others, he set up the Bromley Business Network. We caught up with Chas to find out more on how he’s helping small businesses in the borough… Hi Chas – can you tell us more about the Bromley Business Network – and why you set it up?

I joined my first networking group around 15 years ago and took an 18-month break in 2016/17. When I resumed networking, I vowed never to join any group who charged joining or annual membership fees as there is no need for them. During late summer 2019 I was attending a group at Bromley Football Club, which was due to close, and was asked if I would set up a group to replace the one leaving. I didn’t want to go into it alone, but luckily David Spragg overheard the conversation and said he would help. Susan Wright and Helen Paul agreed to join the team and we registered Bromley Business Network Limited, the four of us are directors and equal shareholders. We operate on a not-for-profit basis and profits we do make are shared between member benefits and our nominated charities, such as the Diagrama Foundation.

What’s the structure of the meetings and do you have any great stories?

We have no restrictions; the belief is in collaboration not competition and it is great to see people in the same industries/professions working together on projects. It's a group who genuinely look out for each other’s wellbeing more than any other group I know, and I am really proud to be a part of it.

The format is a chat over coffee followed by a 45-second round, with attendees telling us who they are, what they do and what we can do for them. This is followed by a refill of drinks and then a personal presentation from one of our members. The presentation is about the person more than their business, because without knowing the person behind the business, how can you really trust them?

I love bringing people together, seeing them develop and working together – it’s a great feeling and payment enough for me. I like to help whoever, however, whenever and as quietly as I can; something I am immensely proud of is putting Bromley Football Club and Bromley Mencap together, which led to a number of the Mencap guys getting employed at the club.

What do you do in your day job Chas and who do you cater for?

My ‘day job’ is resolving disputes for people and organisations, I am a qualified Mediator and while I could mediate over personal issues or neighbour disputes etc, I choose to focus on commercial issues. This generally involves a contract of some kind, and I learned very early on that people do not read contracts, some suppliers often make contracts long and difficult to read for that reason. Sadly, a B2B transaction does not carry the same protection as a consumer transaction does; there is no cooling off period, so it is important to get it right the very first time and be fully aware of what you are signing up to - that's where I help.

If you were to give one piece of advice to a small business networking for the first time, what would it be?

Just be yourself and be true to yourself, because people will soon realise if you’re not. Wear your work clothes; don’t wear a three-piece-suit if you’re a tradesperson. Be comfortable, relax and treat your networking as a business meeting, because that is what it is.

What’s the future for BBN – any new developments in the pipeline?

We’ll continue offering hybrid meetings (we offered Zoom calls during lockdown and continued offering both online and in-person meetings in tandem) and we are introducing speakers on subjects our members want to hear about once or twice a year. But things that will not be introduced are membership or joining fees and lock outs - everybody is welcomed and included.