Here is some general feedback on the website. There are lots of small usability errors too that i did not go into but on all devices there are issues around button placement and form field sizes etc. Let me know if you want me to give you feedback and screenshots on those too:

Feedback on general website experience:

1) Nice bright & friendly design which fts the personality of the community well.

2) Very personable because there is a lot of video that gives a clear impression of the personality of the community, led by Emma

3) The member testimonial videos really helped with this too. They are well done and talk about the right things that business owners are concerned about.

4) Sign up process was very quick as easy and the logged in account experience is very intuitive.

What could be improved:

Gaining new members:

1) Perhaps have an open question on the homepage where a potential member can select an area of business from a dropdown and then submit a business problem they have to the membership. That question then gets sent to the members that have experience in that area and they give a quick 5 min response.

It could be a good way to meet new members and get into the community as well as getting some immediate value.

2) I think that when people are considering joining a business community they usually have some specific needs/wants. How can you allow new potential members to quickly understand if the community can meet these needs?

– There could be a members directory so that you can see who the other members are and what their companies do and their specialisms are.

**After joining I found the members directory which is great but perhaps having it visible to non-members would help to attract new people? Or is privacy important and keeping some mystique about the value of joining until you actually join a purposeful decision?

Improving experience:

1) On the members directory it would be helpful to be able to filter by people’s job role or rather their specialism. As most people are small business owners perhaps job title is not helpful and company type is probably too broad so if people were to define their specialism/background then it would help community members to know how they can help each other.

2) After becoming a member I quickly noticed that other people have 10, 15 or 20 etc followers and I have none because I have just joined. How can I get to know people? Is it just through the events?

I think that the option to submit a business problem would work for community building as well as new member recruitment.

3) I think that it may be good to have some kind of gratitude mechanism – perhaps members can add a message of gratitude to other members profiles (and the directlry) when the member has been helpful for them – explain what they did and how it helped you. That way people will start to learn about the value that others can provide.