excuse me, but what do you do exactly?

Here's a summary of some of the types of work I undertake with a few examples of clients, the types of goals agreed with clients and the sorts of results achieved:

1:1 development work
NESTA Pioneers, University of the Arts Investment Panel applicants, Various individual artists

Aims of work:

• Identifying how business needs and individual motivations, skills and drivers match up.
  
• Providing assistance in developing a plan of action to grow the business.
• Providing specific sales & marketing assistance as required

Types of results:

• Enabling entrepreneurs to channel their current skill set into their business development plan. Alongside this are decisions about the outsourcing of some areas of work.

• The visible results of this process include a change in the way entrepreneurs talk about their business growth – they commonly become more enthusiastic about the areas that previously they glossed over and are usually much better at explaining how their business will develop over the next 1-5 years and the steps they will be taking to make it happen.

Business Plan preparation or coaching
Lighthouse (Brighton), University of the Arts Investment Panel applicants, NESTA Pioneers

Aims of work:

• Writing a business plan with an organisation.
• Coaching a CEO or senior member of staff through the process of writing a business plan.

Types of Results:

• Succinct business plans with clear financials that connect current activities to future goals with a clear assessment of the markers of success, the risks for the organisation/products & services and means of mitigating these risks.
• Skills transfer to staff involved in developing the business plan.
• Involvement of whole organisation in business planning process with the goal of buy-in across the whole team.

Organisational Analysis & Development
Proboscis, Home, ETA

Aims of work:

• Analysis of key skills, ways of working, motivations.
• Highlighting of gaps in provision or process of organisation and agreement of steps to take to fill these.

Types of results:

• Increased familiarity with & regular use of organisational analysis tools – both standard ones and those devised specifically for creative industries & arts organisations.
• Greater focus on key aims of an organisation.
• Better processes within an organisation.
• Greater self-sufficiency in development analysis and planning.

Business Development
Richard Woodall Ltd, The Celtic Bakers

Aims of work:

• Identification of key sales growth areas
• Clarification of organisational structure to support sales growth
Identification of appropriate marketing methods

Types of results:

• Increased sales with key clients
  
• Identification of new clients & success in selling to them
  
• Improved client relationships – more feedback on products/services
• Ideas for new products/services
Improved marketing materials

In another post i'll detail out the work I do in the following areas:

• Researching & analysing supply chains
• Devising & Implementing supply chain development initiatives
• Speaking engagements & workshop provision
• Benchmarking