Adrian Reed

Lots of new resources added to your Mesma app this month. All designed to make it easy to find what you need to build a quality first organisation; all in one place. #qualityimprovement ##furthereducation #apprenticeships

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"Enjoy the benefits of a company pension plan through Nest" "All employers must offer a workplace pension scheme by law" [in the UK] reference the .gov website, linked here >> https://lnkd.in/eGrjYNYr Nest, or the National Employment Savings Trust, is a government-backed workplace pension scheme that helps people save for retirement. It's free for employers to use, and it's easy to set up. Yes, there are certain low salary thresholds clearly outlined. You do not have to contribute if you earn these amounts or less: £520 a month / £120 a week / £480 over 4 weeks But, a NEST pension was listed as a perk in a job ad I was targeted with yesterday, and given a high ranking in that list. The potential employer either believes this is a perk or they failed to proofread assuming they even approved the campaign. Either way, they've just filtered out potential candidates with an eye for detail, surely that was not their intention. Salary bandings were not shared either, and the sketchy JD for the role could easily cover a junior or senior skillset. It would appear that chasing this 'exciting opportunity' would only fuel a data-mining exercise by the agency in question. I have added them to my ignore list, so I won't be troubled further. Meanwhile, the Red Flag will keep flying here...

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Most performance appraisal systems are designed to eliminate the most useful elements! Here's what to do about it - my latest on Steps To A Humanity Of Organisation 56. Solution Focused Performance Management – using difference, not removing it https://lnkd.in/ems36v-E

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Please find an interesting blog post below 👇, Recommended by Total Books Accountants, Bookkeepers & Tax advisers. Pilot Scheme Offers Funding to Support SMEs with AI Training The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has unveiled the £7.4 million scheme to subsidise the cost of AI skills training in the professional business services sector. Through the Flexible AI Upskilling Fund pilot programme, eligible business can apply for funding for up to 50% of the cost of AI skills training. This is training which supports employees to develop their technical skills and/or understanding of AI to be able to develop, deploy, or use AI in their role. https://bit.ly/44ZfTwS #TotalBooks #AItraining #AIskills #BookkeepersSupport #TaxAdvisersHelp #BusinessGrowth #FinancialAssistance #UKSmallBusinesses #UKBusinessNews

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Another compliance check letter from HMRC, another clanger of a response. It is the only way to describe it as an RDEC claim for a grant-subsidised project (values and names changed for confidentiality, but you will get the gist)..... "XXXXXX Ltd also received a grant for £100,000 using notified state aid, so if we remove this from the qualifying expenditure we are left with: £50,000 - £100,000 = -£50,000 This means there is no qualifying expenditure that can be claimed through the RDEC scheme." My client was incredulous and I was astounded. The correct answer is that under the 7-step RDEC process, no step subtracts the subsidised payment from the qualifying expenditure and beyond this CIRD89705 states "Under the RDEC scheme as with the large company scheme any subsidies received are not deducted from the qualifying R&D expenditure". We are currently applying for an SOLS review to get this one corrected as hopefully they see sense but hope this helps if anyone else sees something familiar, though thankfully this is a one-off for us.

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How proactive would you say you or your organisation is at encouraging and managing people's development? How many processes have single points of failure in them or how many people do you have in your business who, if they left to tomorrow, would leave an unfillable knowledge or experience hole? #resourcemanagement #development #skills #capability #operationalexcellence

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We wrote an article for the APMG website about the role of the PMO Manager. APMG is the examination body for the Essentials qualifications from the House of PMO so its good to raise the profile of key PMO roles like this. Take a look, hopefully it might prove useful :) https://lnkd.in/easPxQcf #pmo #lovepmo #pmomanager #pmocareer

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Do you feel pleasantly organised, or stressfully disorganised? I’ve been running Blake Consultants Ltd for 15 years (I know!!) and one of the biggest problems I see is that small service based businesses, and consultants, often face is disorganisation in managing opportunities and what they deliver to their clients!   There is no doubt that being disorganised in these two areas leads to missed opportunities, poor service delivery, and inefficiencies. Without a streamlined process and a system to support the process, client data, communications, and service details are often scattered across different tools such as: ~ Emails ~ Spreadsheets ~ Handwritten notes This makes it very difficult to keep track of potential client interactions, client interactions, previous client interactions, project statuses, and follow-ups. You might ask how does a CRM (I think of a CRM as a Contact Relationship Management system) solves this problem? Let me share how .... a CRM helps solve the problem of being disorganised by: ·      keeping all your information and data in one place one place giving you one single source of truth ·      automating tasks meaning you don’t drop the ball, you’re reminded to do what you need to do when you need to do it, so that you can focus on other things ·      providing a clear overview of your sales pipeline so you know what’s happening. And, you can give your opportunities the best chance possible of converting because you follow your tried and tested sales process ·      providing a clear overview of what you deliver – ensuring each and every client gets a great service which is tried and tested meaning they are happy, and become a raving fan 😊 Overall having a CRM, which does what it should(!) ensures that nothing falls through the cracks, deadlines are met, and clients receive a timely, personalised service! Ultimately leading to improved customer satisfaction, better retention, and more efficient operations. And, as revenue is increased and cost of sale and delivery is decreased the result is an increase in net profit! But most of all, all of the above means that you are a happier business owner who gets to do more of what you love! This is why I adore CRMs! Does your CRM give you all of the above and make you happier? If not, join me on Thursday at 12.30pm when we’ll be looking at all of the above and more. Let me know if you'd like to join us 😊 #CRM #Business #BusinessOwner #BusinessHelp Capsule

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In an embedded PSO, building a balanced scorecard for your PS consulting team is a vital step to underpin your PS strategy for success. I have often found that PS teams are stretched trying to support the business serve many objectives whilst they only seem to be valued and measured on their billable utilisation. The problem with this approach (maximise billable utilisation as sole KPI) is that it fails to recognise that time is needed to do many other high-value tasks that can’t always be covered in the 10% - 15% time that is left over once billable utilisation is covered off. I always advocate for a balanced scorecard approach that recognises that consultants are going to need, and be asked, to do things that aren’t directly billable to a client. And that’s a good thing. If this isn’t done, then PS can fail in its obligations to support the organisation, as a whole, be successful. ❌ If you never have time to support Sales because you are over-committed on delivery, then you will end up with low attach rate, poorly scoped pipeline and potentially lost product opportunities. ❌ If you don’t have time to enable partners, then you will have hard conversations about the impact this has on lead times for clients to start implementation work and onboarding. ❌ If your product team is putting out frequent releases but your team is too busy to work with the updated products in a lab before they need to implement with a client, you will have to deal with unplanned, costed non-billable work correcting things in the field. So it goes. This is not to say that billable utilisation is a low priority…it certainly isn’t. But neither is it the sole priority for a PS function...particularly in an ISV. If the finances for PS have been set up on the basis that all delivery headcount will do 80%+ billable utilisation…and the resultant revenue commitment is locked in…you have some work to do to help the business better understand what PS actually does…and probably some work to recover employee engagement levels too. How do you implement this? Well, it is important that you allocate the scorecards appropriately based on the individuals in the team. Not everyone gets the same scorecard. Your junior people should spend more time in the Delivery area, as they build up their experience. Your senior people should spend more of their time in the Sales and Development areas to best leverage their experience to grow and improve the business. But everyone spends time in each area. You make sensible choices so that, as a team, you cover off all of the demand. The image below is just illustrative, in terms of the details but I’ll stand behind the fact that you need to have valid strategies to support time spent across Sell, Develop, Deliver and Operations…and make this easy to track and manage in your PSA. 💭 Thoughts? 💬 Does anyone have something like this in place? 

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Its important when you are a VA that you focus on your clients specific pain points so they know exactly how you can help them. https://lnkd.in/eTBRuqKV

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I had to terminate a recertification audit today. It's not a decision I wanted to make. Today we were supporting our client with a recertification to ISO 9001, a relatively straightforward business, with evidence a plenty. 🕘 By 09:08 the audit had gone south and continued to do so throughout the remainder of the day. 🕛 By lunch time I had had to escalate the issue to the certification body with concerns about the security of our clients documents. 🕒 By mid afternoon I had to pull the plug after the auditor behaved inappropriately and shouted at the client and our consultant. We take professionalism very seriously and will not allow our staff or clients to be treated in an aggressive manner or where bullying tactics are used. We will report and effectively deal with the issue. Even if that means that we terminate the audit. I must add that the certification body have been very supportive today and dealt with all of the concerns we had. We have a plan and the clients certification will not be jeopardised. I was going to write this post with an undercurrent of humour, sarcasm and a meaningful message to finish but I couldn't bring myself to do it. It's not a laughing matter and this kind of behaviour has no place in the industry. We spend a lot of time reassuring our clients that audits are a place of learning and opportunity, to remember they have a voice and the right to ask questions. Like any other areas of business, speak up to when you're not comfortable. No one goes to work to be abused. #zerotolerance

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Easier to post than to personally message everyone. #timemanagement I am now no longer available - my next availability will be November 2024. 🗓️ #bookedandbusy #seeyouin2024 Improvement is a strategy, make me part of yours! 📈 Book me to start in November. 07891304037 #businessevelopment #growthmindset #Improvement #interim

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This week, I had the opportunity to deliver a session as part of our ILM course with Seán and JP. For my part I was focusing on a Performance Analysis Flow for a group of talented managers. One of the key objectives was to help shift their mindset towards identifying the root causes of poor performance, rather than just addressing the symptoms. A pivotal moment in the session was when we explored the concept of "performance punishments." It's crucial to ask ourselves whether poor performance is being rewarded or if high performance is being unintentionally punished. Interestingly, this question should only come about a third of the way through our analysis flow after we had already laid the groundwork with several other important considerations. The engagement from the group was fantastic. Not only were the right questions being asked, but the examples provided truly brought the concepts to life. It’s always rewarding to witness that moment of realisation when people see how simple shifts in analysis can lead to profound changes in performance management. For those of you involved in leadership or management, how often do you analyse whether your performance systems are rewarding the right behaviours? I’d love to hear your thoughts! #PerformanceAnalysis #ILM #LeadershipDevelopment #EducationAndTraining #EdTech

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Monday morning check-in So what does your week hold? Me? I've two courses this week. Firstly Project Fundamentals Qualification It's a great course which allows the time to not just teach the exam questions but also explore the subject of project management. Then three days of MSP A solid foundations into the frameworks required to manage successful programmes (a course which does what it says on the tin). What about you. What does your week hold? #BDSpm #Training #ProjectManagement #ProgrammeManagement #ProjectManagementTraining

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📣Exciting news, the UK Virtual Assistant Survey 2024 Results are ready and will be going on sale on Monday 7th October at 10am!!! The Society of Virtual Assistants' annual VA survey takes a snapshot of the UK VA industry and can help answer questions like: - How much can I charge? - What will I earn as a VA? - What are the most effective marketing strategies? - What services are most popular? - Where do I find clients? - How much should I pay my outsourcers? - Essential statistics for writing a virtual assistant business plan. Excitingly, there is now over a decade of historical data on the VA industry in the UK. It's a lot of work pulling it all together, but so worth it when you can see the trends and patterns going on in the wider industry. We hope you enjoy it - get your copy here when it goes live on Monday: https://lnkd.in/e4sfUV3B

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If you're considering leaving your PAYE role to become a freelancer (whether that be a business owner or consultant...), this post is for you. 💚 Here's a practical list of things you need in place (or at least consider): FOR SURES ↓ 🌱 Are you going to be a Sole Trader or a Limited Business? Do your research and make sure you select the right option for you and your business/craft. Start here: Hiscox Business Blog - https://lnkd.in/eiYqHfPW 💰 Get an accountant and keep on top your payments both in and out. As a freelance Consultant, I use SG Accounting. Even if you are registered as a sole trader - I highly recommend you hiring someone in the know - you don't want to be caught out! 💳 Get a business bank account and pleas do your research... there's often hidden fees which can catch you out. 📜 Get insurance. Check if you need a GDPR certificate. And whatever it is you do, make sure you have the right paperwork and certificates in place. (E.g. I have insurance, GDPR cert and the basic disclosure, up-to-date DBS check). 🖇 Do you need legal documentation? Contracts? NDA's. Where ChatGPT might come in useful, please always get your legal documentation checked by a professional. CONSIDERATIONS (but really are also FOR SURES) ↓ 🕸 Get a website. LinkedIn is great for networking. IG is great for visual content and... well is X even thing? What would happen if the platform went down? How will your customers know how to find you? (And on this note, make back-ups of any of your top performing content pieces - trust me). 😎 What's your branding? Who is your target audience? What's your tone of voice? What's your business values? What's the goal of your business? What is your USP... two books I can recommend to help you with this are: 📕 I am my brand by Kubi Springer 📕 Personal Branding for Dummies by Susan Chritton, PCC, CAPP, CCC ☕ Attend networking events that are inside and outside your industry. Go and listen to your clients pain points, see what your competitors are saying and even support events but offer to speak or host roundtables. And finally, please, please, please - 👐 ask for help. If you don't get it, if it feels too hard and if it just too expensive or complicated or <insert the headache here> ASK FOR HELP! There are resources out here, the government (IKR), Simply Business, Funding Circle UK, NatWest and The Prince's Trust - to name a few. You can even drop me a note. I can't promise that I will have all the answers, but I can certainly help you find a direction to go. Are you a business owner? What else would you add to this? About to start a business? Set out as a freelancer? What is your take away from this post? #shemeansbusiness #business #startup #career #businesshelp

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