SME Academy is a recognised training provider with the Leadership and Management Service (LMAS) which is funded by the Skills
Funding Agency (in England only) to support senior leaders to enhance their businessbuilding and leadership skills with the aim of fostering business growth.

Assuming you are eligible for the grant and would like to use our company for your leadership and management development – which can include training, coaching or mentoring – we can help you access it.

Successful businesses will be able to claim up to £1,000 on a match-funded basis towards the fees for our training, coaching or mentoring services.

Here is how is works:

Eligibility
Businesses must be able to demonstrate the potential for high or fast growth. This is defined as either:

• An existing private sector business that can be expected to increase turnover or employment by 20% or more for each of the next 3 years
• A new business (trading, but for less than 1 year) that can be expected to reach a turnover of £500,000 or more in three year’s time
• An existing Social Enterprise that can be expected to increase turnover oremployment by 10% or more for each of the next 3 years

The Government estimates that around 10% of all businesses can meet these criteria.

• The beneficiaries of the Service should be businesses/organisations employing between 2 and 249 full-time equivalent employees in the Greater London region (i.e.the 33 London boroughs). Businesses from outside the region will be referred to the appropriate regional contractor.
• For organisations employing less than 50 staff, only the owner, CEO or equivalent can access the funding. For organisations employing 50-249 staff, key directors/key managers who report directly to the most senior person and have strategic responsibility for the business are also eligible.

Ineligible

• Businesses/organisations that have previously been supported through LMAS since 1st April 2011
• Public Sector organisations (including Local Authority controlled schools)
• Individuals from outside the EU who have not lived in the EU for the last 3 years
• Businesses employing less than 2 or more than 250 people
• Businesses that cannot demonstrate high or fast growth potential

Grant funding
Successful applicants can claim up to a maximum of £1,000 from the LMAS. This must be fully matched £ for £. Organisations will not be able to reclaim VAT from the LMAS.

For example:

• If the training programme costs £1,000 + VAT, the client may claim back £500
• If the training programme costs £2,500 + VAT, the client may claim back £1,000

How it Works

• You complete an application form which sets out the measures the LMAS uses to assess high or fast growth potential. If this self-assessment suggests the employer is likely to be eligible, they will e-mail you with the contact details of our specialist adviser. The adviser will attempt to make contact within 5 working days. If we have made three unsuccessful attempts we will send an email asking the employer to contact us directly if still interested.
• The adviser will visit potentially eligible clients and, once eligibility is confirmed, help them to identify their development needs around leadership and management, which forms the basis of the Personal Development Plan (PDP). The adviser then suggestsproviders who can help meet the needs of the client. If the client has a particular training provider they wish to work with, this will always be one of the suggestions shown on the PDP, and the client’s choice of provider is final.
• Having agreed areas of interest the Adviser uses their expertise to suggest approaches and solutions designed to suit the client’s personal learning style, time and financial constraints, and any other relevant circumstances. The proposed solutions could include training consultancies, coaches, networking organisations, professional organisations and colleges. When a client has been visited and their eligibility confirmed, the chosen provider is copied into the email sent to the client.
• The applicant is sent an Agreement Letter confirming the course (or courses) and grant payment. Training must commence and claim paperwork be completed within 90 days of the date on the PDP, or by 15/03/2012, whichever is the earliest. LMAS cannot guarantee payment for any training started/paid for by the applicant before the Agreement Letter is sent.
• Having chosen training activities the client books and pays the chosen training provider in full.
• The client invoices the L&M Service with proof of payment and a completed template to request reimbursement of costs up to a maximum of £1000.

Eligible Training
Any leadership or management training recorded as a need on the PDP is eligible. This can include formal training (e.g. qualification based) or informal training (e.g. coaching or mentoring). Only the person named on the PDP can benefit from the grant funding. All
training/development should aim to optimise the contribution of the client’s staff to the growth of the business.

Ineligible Training

• Training that commences before the client has completed and signed a PDP with a LMAS advisers cannot be funded through the service.
• The Service cannot support mandatory or technical training (e.g. IT software training) or training with little or no leadership/management content.
• The Service cannot support marketing training of any sort (this includes Search Engine Optimisation/Management)
• The Service cannot support incidental costs e.g. accommodation, travel, exam fees, membership fees.
• The Service will not pay for training, coaching or mentoring activities unless they are identified on the PDP.

Training provision identified by the Adviser can be provided by a Skills Funding Agency quality assured provider, but the final choice of provider always rests with the employer. Should the client choose a non Skills Funding Agency accredited provider the Adviser can
undertake to obtain references, but the Service cannot accept liability if the quality of training delivered is unsatisfactory.

Here are the details:

‘The Naked Office’ is a prime time series for Virgin 1. ‘The Naked Office’ will see a radical and unique approach to both business and individual development. The series will follow companies from across the country as they are transformed by the expertise of our host. By focusing on improving internal relationships and achieving the aims, aspirations and ambitions of the company our expert will facilitate permanent and positive changes.  By formatting a bespoke model for change and by undertaking radical steps we will see increased positivity and productivity in the workplace. Through the help and expertise of our mentor, each company will be transformed in the most unexpected way – going to work naked!

Rather than it being rude to go nude, our expert will reveal whether shedding clothes and flashing the flesh is the ultimate office equaliser. By inviting staff to come to work naked, our expert demonstrates that the removal of physical barriers also removes emotional barriers and promotes a feeling of unity and solidarity between employees. The result, a more positive and productive place to work.

You can apply by going to:  office@shine.tv or call 0844 6780 157

For decades professional services firms have known about the power of running seminars and events to showcase their services. It can help to boost their profile, demonstrate their expert knowledge of their subject area and build relationships with both existing and prospective clients. You could also tap into this as a way of growing your business and boosting sales.

You could be forgiven for thinking, “That wouldn’t work for my business.” After all, it can seem like a big investment to organise the event, pay for the room and make sure you get the chance to mingle with everyone.

If your customers are dispersed around the country or even internationally, you might wonder whether they would be willing to travel to hear someone from your company speak at a seminar.

Running a tele-seminar or a webinar delivered via the internet could be the solution for you.

A tele-seminar is simply a seminar delivered by conference call. The speaker hosts the event and delegates dial in and enter a PIN code to access the call. Delegates can phone in from their office, home or wherever they are, so it can be much more convenient for them. The downside is that you lose the face to face contact and the ability to show people what you’re talking about. One way around this is to host the seminar as a webinar where the seminar is hosted on the internet and you can show presentations to your delegates. Another is to prepare seminar handouts which are emailed to delegates before the seminar so that they can work through it making the event quite interactive.

Tele-seminars and webinars offer you the chance to educate your customers and prospects about what you do, establish yourself as the expert in your field and promote your goods and services to a much wider audience than if you were to book individual sales meetings with them.

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Ask most successful small businesses how they get clients and customers, and the chances are they will tell you it’s through word of mouth and recommendation.

It’s said that ‘word of mouth marketing’ is the most powerful form of marketing if used correctly. The trouble is that it seems like a very passive activity. But it doesn’t have to be that way and I’ll show you how to take back control.

But first, what is it that makes word of mouth so effective? It’s because a third party is telling your prospective clients how good your company is. When you say it, they take it with a pinch of salt, but it’s a whole different ball game when someone else is singing your praises.

In reality a happy client or customer is going to be even more complimentary about what you do than you would be – unless you’ve got a horrendously large ego. The other advantage is that they can talk in your customers’ terms because well they ARE your customer.

You may already be convinced that having positive testimonials about what your company does is a good thing – but how do you get people to give them to you.

A simple solution is to ask for them.

If you’ve done a good job, your customers will be more than willing to give you a testimonial. In most cases they’re happy to do this because they know what it’s like when you’re searching for a supplier and don’t know who’s good and who’s not. They want to help other people to find someone good.

Here’s what you should do.

Firstly, start sending out feedback forms or customer surveys when you deal with customers. Ask them to rate your company and ask if they would be willing to write down some comments which you could use in your future marketing. Give them the option to do it as a named testimonial or anonymously.

Then if you’re on LinkedIn, ask clients to endorse you. If you don’t feel comfortable about this, endorse them first and they’ll probably reciprocate.

Email your best customers and say you’re putting together some new content for your website and you’d love to use them as a case study. Would they mind writing a few lines to say how your product or service has helped them? Remember to tell them you’ll include a link back to their website with the testimonial and this will increase the response rate.

Finally, there are two main reasons that people won’t give you a testimonial. 1. They weren’t impressed. If that’s the case better to find out now and have a chance to put things right. 2. They don’t know what to say. In this situation they imagine you’ll want a clever, eloquent letter and this seems like a lot of work so they put it off. Why not send them examples of what other people have written or even offer to have a quick chat and write down what they say so they don’t need to write it.

In my experience the only reason that businesses don’t have more customer testimonials is that they never asked for them, so don’t be coy.

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Small business coach Hannah McNamara from SME Academy (http://www.smeacademy.co.uk) in London talks about ways that you can increase sales amongst your existing customers and clients.

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Transcript

They say that it costs something like 10 times as much to sell to a new customer than to sell more to an existing customer. So why are so many people only focusing on new leads? Shouldn’t we be turning our attention to the best prospects of all – our customers?

When it comes to customers, when do you think is the right time to sell to them? When they’ve already got their wallets out! I’m serious. When they’re already in the frame of mind where they’re happy to buy from you, that’s the point at which you ask them to buy something else.

In the same way that when you buy a book from Amazon they’ll suggest some other books you might be interested in, you can suggest extra products and services to your customers.

In negotiations, this technique is referred to as ‘nibbling’. As soon as you’ve got their agreement on one thing, get their agreement on something else and then see how far you can go.

Of course this assumes that you’ve got something else to sell to your customers and when you do make them an offer, it does need to be relevant to what they’ve bought.

It happens in retail all the time, for example you buy a pair of shoes and the assistant will ask if you will need some polish or in-soles. You buy a new washing machine and you’re asked if you’d like to buy an extended warranty. There are some products and services which are clearly back-end products, in order words you’d only sell them once someone has bought something else from you, such as an extended warranty or a support contract or an advanced version of what you sell. This said, I do see some businesses trying to sell back-end products at the front end and it doesn’t always make sense.

So, think about the products and services you sell. Which are the front end products and which are the back-end products? Which items are usually bought together? Is there a pattern to how people buy from you?

Once you understand this, it becomes much easier to up-sell to your customers. Not just in person, but when you’re planning your marketing activities. Your website can suggest extra products when someone is in your shopping cart or say to them, I noticed you bought X – product Y goes very well with it, shall we add it to your order?

Ultimately, up-selling is the most profitable way to do business because the costs involved in marketing to existing customers decreases at the same time as their responsiveness goes up.

For more video tips and articles go to: www.smeacademy.co.uk

[END TRANSCRIPTION – 00:02:29]

Small business coach Hannah McNamara from SME Academy (http://www.smeacademy.co.uk) in London talks about ways that you can use freelancers to do specialist work for you or take on some of the burden of your every day work.

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Transcript

Time or more accurately lack of it comes up all the time (excuse the pun) when I’m working with clients one on one.

They have great ambitions for their business but don’t have the time to do what it takes to make it happen. They’re too caught up in the day-to-day running of the business to think ahead and plan for the future. It’s often seen as quicker, easier and cheaper to do everything yourself rather than have to take on staff or get external help.

If this sounds familiar, rest assured you’re certainly not alone and I’ve been through it too.

I know what it’s like to want to feel in control of everything. To think that no one can do things the same way you can. And it’s true. No one can do it exactly the same as you. They might mess up. They might even do it better than you.

The point is, if you’re stressing out about the amount of day-to-day work you have to do, you’re not able to work on the important job of building your business. And it’s only going to get worse.

A flexible and affordable solution is to use the services of freelancers. You might have thought about using a freelance graphic designer for example, but what about a freelance personal assistant or webmaster? They can take on the administrative and technical roles in your business when you need them, and then when you don’t, well they are doing work for their other clients and they’re not on your payroll.

One place where you can find an international network of freelancers is Elance – you can find it at www.elance.com. It works a bit like eBay because freelancers bid to do work for you. I’ve used elance to find virtual assistants and freelance PAs, researchers, transcription services, data entry, audio editing, graphic design, webmaster services and many other services. Because on the whole I use people around the world, we use US dollars. This works out well on the exchange rate and there’s no tax to pay. Many of the people are home workers with low overheads so they can provide great value.

You do need to use a bit of common sense when looking for help on a site like this and check people out thoroughly before handing over work to them, but I’ve found that the benefits you gain from starting to delegate certainly outweigh the feeling of complete overwhelm and stress when you try to do everything yourself.

For more video tips and articles go to: www.smeacademy.co.uk

[END TRANSCRIPTION – 00:02:43]

Hannah McNamara from SME Academy (http://www.smeacademy.co.uk) talks about ways that you can network your way into corporate contracts.

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Transcript

If you have attended a few networking events you might have noticed that they are mainly populated by independent coaches, consultants and small business owners. This is perfect if that’s the market you are hoping to promote your services to, but what if you want to build your network of contacts in the corporate world?

Let’s face it – most of the people you want to connect with are employees of a larger organisation. This is the case whether you are looking for senior executives, training managers or any other member of staff.

Employees think differently from self-employed people and business owners when it comes to networking. They have a job to do and probably don’t have enough time to do it, so networking is not high on their priority list unless they are thinking about making a career move.

These people have a corporate marketing department working hard to build the profile of the organisation, so unless they are working in the Sales or Business Development functions, they won’t be networking for leads in the same way that you might be.

They spend most days fielding incoming calls and sorting through sales letter and promotional emails from people and organisations trying to promote their businesses, so they’re not likely to think, “I could do with meeting some prospective suppliers – I’ll go to this networking event.”

So if they’re not approaching networking in the same way as you, how do you get in front of these people?

Most people working in large organisations don’t go to ‘networking events’ unless they are looking for a job. Networking happens at industry conferences, seminars and training courses. People are introduced to one another at awards dinners, press launches and social events.

If you are looking to network your way into larger organisations adjust your strategy. Start to think like them. Position yourself so that you are invited to the same events that they attend.

Work your existing contacts and ask for specific introductions to a particular person in an organisation – websites like LinkedIn are useful for finding out who knows who. Be clear about what you want them to say when they make the introduction. Seek out the people you know who work with larger organisations and get to know them. Find out more about what they do and see if you can help them first, before asking whether they might be willing to consider you when they are looking for what your company does.

Above all, understand that it can take time even when you’ve been introduced to the right person. You do need to network in a slightly different way and have a longer-term strategy in mind, but if you start with the end in mind and are clear about what you are setting out to achieve you’ll have a much greater level of success.

For more video tips and articles go to: www.smeacademy.co.uk

[END TRANSCRIPTION – 00:02:52]

SME Academy in London offers all three services which are explained below.

The terms small business coach or business mentor are often used interchangeably within the business world, but what do people really mean when they talk about small business coaching or business mentoring? And how are they different from executive coaching or life coaching?

Countless articles and text books tell you that mentors use coaching skills and that coaches can act as a mentor – not much help is it?

The reason for this is it is actually very difficult when you’re a business coach or mentor NOT to utilise both techniques because when you’re working with a client on building their business you often have to be a supporter or coach, an experienced guide or mentor and also to provide one on one training in business skills and soft skills such as leadership skills, communication skills or negotiation skills.

The best business coaches are able to help you to:

• think strategically and so can assist with business planning and strategy
• work out how to increase business through offering guidance on sales and marketing techniques
• be a better manager or leader by helping you with communication skills, dealing with difficult people, confidence and assertiveness
• manage your stress levels through more effective time management, delegation and giving you back a sense of work/life balance

However, not all business coaching organisations can offer this in one person and if you go to a specialist life coach they might be able to help you with the soft skills and life planning aspects but won’t be able to offer you guidance on building your business because they typically use what’s called a ‘non-directive’ approach, i.e. they won’t offer advice or suggestions but help you to draw the answers out from within yourself (assuming of course that at some level you DO know the answer!).

So as a potential user of small business coaching or business mentoring services how on earth do you find a suitable coach?

Ask around and be prepared to devote some time to talking to a few suitable business coaches. Don’t just ‘jump into bed’ with the first person you speak to (unless they meet all of your criteria) and have an initial discussion with them to work out if the two of you can work together.

At SME Academy we always offer a free initial consultation either by phone or in person to talk about your needs and then we recommend the person on our team who fits your requirements. On-going packages of coaching time are then arranged with you as required. You can view a sample of the standard packages available at www.smeacademy.co.uk/courses/business-coaching-mentoring/

To arrange a free no-obligation consultation please call Hannah McNamara at SME Academy on 020 7939 9910 or +44 20 7939 9910 or contact us via our contact page.

SME Academy is based in central London (SE1) close to London Bridge station and Borough station which is a short walk across the bridge from the City of London and Bank/Monument stations.

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Hannah McNamara from SME Academy (http://www.smeacademy.co.uk) explains how to take the time and effort out of small business marketing by automating and systemising marketing activities. This includes the use of autoresponders, YouTube and other techniques.

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Transcript

Most people I speak to admit that they can have a fairly inconsistent approach to marketing. It gets done when they have time or when sales are down and this creates a feast or famine situation – you’re either doing well or you’re scratching around for business.

So what can you do if you’re a small business without a dedicated Marketing team?

Well, the answer is to systemise your marketing and even your sales process. This isn’t as complicated as you might think. I’m guessing that you have certain sales and marketing activities which aren’t really unique. For example someone visits your website and is interested in getting more information so they send an email to the address on your ‘contact us’ page. Either you or one of your staff has to reply to the email attaching a brochure and then remember to follow up with them to find out whether they are likely to buy from you. If they do decide to buy then you’ll have to process the sale and if they don’t decide to buy on this occasion someone has to remember to contact them again at a later date.

This could all be automated.

The bottom line is that if you do any marketing activity more than once you can probably automate or part-automate it.

Many marketing software packages enable you to do any of the following:

• Capture people’s contact details and add them to your opt-in database
• Automatically send an email to them with the information that they have requested
• Follow up with them to see whether they have any questions
• Email them with your latest offers
• Send out a sequence of emails at set intervals telling them more about what you offer
• Suggest and up-sell additional items when customers are using your shopping cart
• Automatically unsubscribe and subscribe people
• Schedule seasonal Marketing messages weeks or months in advance
• And many, many more

We use a package called 1shoppingcart to automate our own marketing activities and it’s so much more cost effective than trying to do all of these activities manually. It gives us more time to spend with our clients.

If yours is a people-focused business and your customers and clients like to see who they’re dealing with, you could record a video to share your sales presentations or to share tips with them. YouTube is filled with informercials and demonstrations from lots and lots of businesses.

Automating your marketing can take some time planning, but it really is worth it if you can put in the time to do it now.

For more video tips and articles go to: www.smeacademy.co.uk

[END TRANSCRIPTION – 00:02:33]

Hannah McNamara from SME Academy (http://www.smeacademy.co.uk) gives an overview of how social networking tool and microblogging site Twitter can be used to network and build your business.

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We publish tips like this on a regular basis, so make sure you’re on our mailing list and you’ll be told when we add new video tips and articles to the site. You are automatically added to our mailing list when you download a copy of our FREE e-book ‘10 Ways to Sabotage Your Own Business: Are you making these mistakes?’ Claim your copy now here.

Transcript

The whole world’s a-Twitter or so it would seem. Every day there’s a news story in the paper about a celebrity who uses it or about how twitterers have spread the news about an event.

I’ll be honest. I didn’t really get it. It looked like the biggest waste of time ever when I first saw is and after all, did I really want to know what someone had for breakfast or read details of their latest bowel movement? That was until I actually tried Twitter.

Micro-blogging. That’s what it’s called. You update your profile throughout the day with the answer to a straightforward question, “What are you doing?” You can post details of what you’re up to, links to the articles you’ve written, or share links to funny stories or interesting news and put just about anything on there. But that’s not really the point. The real power of Twitter is in the networking. It gives you direct access to people who might not otherwise return your email or have a PA send you a standard response.

When I started out on Twitter I added a few people I knew and then looked at who they knew and I was actually quite surprised that a lot of the people I knew, knew each other. I could see who knew who and who chatted to who. It seemed more instant and more interactive than Facebook.

From what I can see, if you’re thinking about using Twitter for your business it’s a great way of building your network and chatting to other people who serve the same sort of market with a view to collaboration, joint marketing, cross-promotion or joint ventures. Don’t treat your Twitter ‘followers’ as newsletter subscribers. If you do, you’ll come across as spammy and self-centred. Instead get to know them, share stories, comment on their status and generally just get involved.

One way to do this is to keep any eye on what other people are posting on Twitter and when you spot something interesting that you’d like to share with other people ‘Retweet’ it. That means you put the letters RT, then the person’s username in front of the post that they’ve just written and everyone who follows you will see what you’ve retweeted and where it came from.

If you’re not already on Twitter, it’s worth getting yourself on there – even if it’s just so you have a profile listed and nobody else registers your name or company name.

There are lots of useful applications set up to help you manage your Twitter account and if you’re already on Facebook, you can set things up so that your Twitter updates feed into your Facebook status so you’re not creating more work for yourself.

Happy Tweeting!

For more video tips and articles go to: www.smeacademy.co.uk

[END TRANSCRIPTION – 00:02:39]