This is a transcription of the June Video Newsletter.
Hi, I’m Hannah McNamara and welcome to our first Video Newsletter – which is a joint venture between SME Academy and HRM Coaching.
Now, over the course of the next few minutes I’m just going to take you through some of the things that have been happening with both companies – which, as you probably know, I’m involved with both of them.
SME Academy is helping small businesses to grow; it’s supporting entrepreneurs and business owners and HRM Coaching is more for people who are working in big companies, who want help with career development and Leadership and Management skills.
So the first thing I’m going to talk you through is what’s going on with SME Academy.
We’ve – over the last week – been updating and revamping our website, so please do go and have a look. It’s: www.smeacademy.co.uk.
And what we’ve been doing there is updating the site so it has got all the information about the courses we’ve got coming up over the next few months; so it’s going to take us through some of that.
We’ve got lots going on – and one of the big developments is that you can now go on there and request brochures.
So you can get a free brochure for every course that we’ve got listed on the website, you just need to go onto the page for each of the courses – just pop your details in and you can download it instantly.
And if you do want to have a look at some of the other courses that are there just pop your details on, hit ‘Add to Cart’ and it’s going to start stacking up all the brochures that you can get the details of.
Now, in those brochures what you’re going to find is:
- What the course is going to be about
- What’s going to be involved in it
- Who it’s suitable for
That sort of thing, as well as the prices.
So do have a look at the website – I think I’ve got some links just down there for you to have a look at. [Points to links under the video screen]
We’ve got all the course dates through the summer, as I say, and for all of them you can book online as well.
A number of our clients have been saying to us that they really wanted to book by credit card, so we have made that facility available for you now. So hopefully that’s going to make it a bit easier for those of you who want to just manage cash flow a bit.
The other thing that I just wanted to let you know is with all the courses that we’ve got on there it might be that you’ve got other people in the company who really need to have more than one of those courses – or you’ve got a couple of people that you might want to send on any one of the courses.
What I suggest you do is just get in touch with us because what we can do is work with you and help to build a programme around what that person is going to need or what that group of people need.
Because we do work with a lot of our clients and run in-house courses for them.
The next few courses we’ve got coming up are covering all sorts of topics, from:
- Business Strategy and Planning
- Sales
- Negotiation
And over the last few months we’ve been doing some really nice work with people on:
- Sales Techniques
- Negotiation Skills
You might have been to one of Patrick’s courses where he has been getting everybody involved in Negotiation Techniques and different things that you can do to close sales and win new business.
We also have the ‘How to Recession Proof Your Business’ seminars that some of you might have been on. We’re going to be running that one again in the next few months so do watch this space.
And we’ve also had a number of people going through the ‘Business Growth’ course with Patrick. And so over the course of a few months what we’re doing is going through – really looking in depth at the business:
- Where it’s going
- People on board with it
And what needs to be done to communicate any changes with people about the business; and just growing it, which is quite relevant for a lot of people right now – where it’s not so much growth that’s on their mind, it’s how to avoid either standing still or shrinking with all the talk of a recession.
The next few courses we’ve got – as I say, we’ve got ‘Business Strategy’ coming up, we’ve got ‘Leadership and Management’.
We’ve also got some new courses on ‘Sales and Marketing’ – separated out into a few different days; one is ‘Self Success’ and the other one is ‘Developing your Marketing Strategy’.
And both of those are taking into account the changes that happened this week in the law – as regards:
- Sales
- High Pressure Sales
- And some of the slightly borderline marketing techniques that people have been using.
So, do have a look. The link is down there – so you can just see what sort of courses are coming up.
Then on HRM Coaching – let me tell you what’s been going on there. We’ve actually been really busy just over the last few months, particularly after Bank Holidays.
And I think that’s when people have the time-out and think: Where am I going with my career? – We’ve had lots of interest in that over the last few months.
Career Coaching has been very popular, with people weighing up their options and thinking: If I am going to be facing redundancy, what will I do next?
Other people just thinking: How can I improve my prospects in my career? – And we’ve had an awful lot of people downloading our E-book:
‘How to Sabotage Your Own Career’
So if you haven’t had a look at that, go onto the HRM Coaching website (www.hrmcoaching.com). Take a look, you might find that there are some new tips in there for you – you might know it all already, but do have a look at that.
The other thing we’ve been doing on the Coaching side is helping people that are getting very stressed at work. With all the uncertainty around it it’s really taking its toll on people, whether they’re employed or whether they’re business owners.
So if you’re feeling under pressure or you know someone that’s suffering a bit with the stress get them to just give us a call and we can talk through what their options are and how we can help.
And the other thing that kind of adds onto that is we’ve had a lot of clients coming to us because they’ve got somebody who, in their business, is making life a bit difficult for other people at work.
And we’ve had some really good success stories over the past few weeks with people who, just who are making some really practical adjustments to the way they deal with people.
I’ve been able to nip what could develop into problem behaviour in the bud and also just improving their inter – ah, personal relationships with people.
So, I said it was just going to be a few minutes, there is a lot that I’ve told you about there. But as I say, lots of links down there that you can look at.
And if you have got anything that you want to have a chat with us about, whilst we’re busy we will still take the time to talk things through with you – particularly if you’re just weighing up options and not sure what it is that you want to develop on.
So give us a call (020 7939 9910) – either ring me, Hannah McNamara, or call Dominic who you might have met already. Dominic is new to the team and I’ll put his details down below as well!
So hopefully speak to you soon and we’ll be in touch soon, bye.
Testimonial for Patrick White’s course: Sales Success - the art of consultative selling
Hello, my name is Verity Barton and I’m a Business Psychologist and Trainer; and I’ve just been to the Business Link and SME Academy Presentation where Patrick White was giving us a presentation on:
The Art of Consultative Selling
Which I found out was extremely useful and I’ll be applying it to my business and I fully recommend it to everybody.
