Bringing Businesses Together
Bringing Businesses Together
Durham Business Group is a non-profit organisation founded in 1981 – originally as “Durham Small Business Club” – to support businesses in County Durham.
Today, the core values that define what we do remain unchanged, focused on the same aim as nearly 40 years ago: to support and champion businesses in our region, from our base at Portland House in Durham.
Durham Business Club – these days welcoming businesses small and large – is our friendly membership organisation, with a programme of regular breakfast and evening networking events.
We also run The Executive Group, a premium level of membership that hosts informal lunchtime events for larger companies in the region.
Finally, we provide office services to clients in the North East and beyond – from office space to rent to registered office addresses, mail redirection, telephone answering and more – under the banner of Durham Office Services.
Our day-to-day operations are overseen by our CEO, Alison Gittins, supported by an excellent team of staff and an elected board of directors.
The values that make Durham Business Group different
It’s only right that people often ask us “Why would I want to become a member of Durham Business Club?”, “Why would I choose to use your virtual office services?”, or “What can you offer that others don’t?”
After all, those are the kinds of questions that our members and client businesses answer all the time, as they themselves seek to win over new customers.
Whilst there’s no shortage of other respected business organisations in the region – and other companies offering meeting room hire or telephone answering, too – we just focus on being the best we can at what we do, informed by our mantra that “None of us is as smart as all of us”, and by the core values, below, that have always defined us.
Sales pitches and referrals have their place in business networking, but they’re certainly not for everyone.
Our Durham Business Club events are deliberately informal, friendly and relaxed – and that warmth in the way we conduct ourselves, and encourage our members to act, underpins our Durham Office Services, too.
Maybe you lack confidence in networking. Perhaps you need help with an aspect of your company’s work. Or maybe our virtual office services can help take some of the pressure off your business.
Whatever you need, it’s our job to always do our best to help, or point you in the direction of a Durham Business Club Member who can.
Our Durham Office Services clients trust us, when we answer the phone on their behalf, to be a friendly and professional voice for their brand.
Our members trust us to always be on their side, and to champion what they do.
And, in turn, we promote trust, nurtured over time, as the foundation on which we believe all great business relationships are built.
Strong and productive relationships happen off the back of all those other things we’ve mentioned: being friendly and approachable; being supportive; helping each other; and building trust.
We’ve spent over 35 years doing all those things, and encouraging our members and clients to embrace them too – and we’ve seen just how well it works.
Whether it’s holding our monthly Club meetings at fantastic member venues across the region, connecting business people who can help each other, or organising joint events with other organisations in the North East, we always have an eye on the opportunities that come from working together.
It really is the case that “None of us is as smart as all of us”.
Our History
Founded in 1981 as the Durham Small Business Club, Durham Business Group was created to bring local businesses together to share knowledge, support one another and strengthen the regional economy. Established on independent, member-led principles by Tom Moffat, the organisation has grown and evolved over the decades into a respected not-for-profit business network, reinvesting into services, events and support for its members. While our structure and services have developed over time, our core ethos remains unchanged: to be a trusted, business-led organisation dedicated to helping businesses across the North East connect, grow and succeed.
Our Team
Durham Business Group is run by a small team based at Portland House in Durham, just outside the city centre and close to the A1.
Everyone plays an essential part in the successful running of the Group, and we all have one thing in common – a real passion for helping businesses succeed, whether those are our North East-based members of Durham Business Club or The Executive Group, or our Durham Office Services clients in the region and beyond.
Our Directors
Durham Business Group currently has seven non-executive directors who oversee the focus and direction of the organisation, and help provide the expertise needed to run the business successfully.
Directors are elected for a three-year term, and a third of the board retire each year at the AGM. If they’re particularly good we try and twist their arms to stand again for re-election! Between AGMs, individuals may be co-opted on to the board to provide additional expertise, but they are required to stand for election at the next AGM should their presence be needed longer term.
