The Changing Face of Business in Kent

Earlier this year the Kent Institute of Directors got a new Chairman in the face of Emma Liddiard who, like many business owners and managers in Kent wears two hats … at least.  By day, Emma is Managing Director of Heart FM (Kent), part of the Global Radio media business, which includes Classic FM, Capital and LBC; and by night, instead of just attending the many lively IoD events and functions across Kent, she chairs and heads responsibility for them.

When I spoke to Emma last week, her drive and passion for both hats was evident from the start.

Emma’s 17 years in the media have developed an enviable portfolio of experience and business contacts through Kent, the South East and beyond.

“As the MD of Heart Kent I have enjoyed growing my network of business colleagues throughout many businesses and organisations across the county. I lead by example, encouraging strong relationships both internally and externally whilst mentoring and coaching on a daily basis.”

 

Emma puts much of her success and responsibility for a £6 million turnover down to the strength of understanding of local and national corporate matters that she builds through networking – as well as the skill and enthusiasm of a great team.

Much of this corporate interaction was effected rubbing shoulders (and, indeed sharing a glass or two) with fellow members of the IoD. Now, she is Chairman of IoD Kent, which is one of the most active regions with over 1,500 members.

"Since becoming a member of the IoD, I have discovered many, many advantages of being part of this network and feel passionate about sharing these with more people in Kent. I am introducing many new people to the IoD and having a wonderful time doing it – it is a misunderstood and under rated organisation as far as I am concerned and Kent does it so well.”

I was keen to know just why nearly half of the membership was made up of Chairmen, CEOs and Managing Directors and Emma was equally keen to explain. Many enjoy the ‘national’ membership benefits including their fabulous Pall Mall address that’s available to members when in town, meeting and greeting clients and colleagues in central comfort.

Some of the smaller businesses (because 40% of members employ 25 or fewer staff) access the panel of business experts for advice and guidance on management, employment and financial matters.

But for the vast majority it’s the opportunity to meet and mix with like minded people at on or many of the 70 plus events hosted by IoD Kent each year.

As well as business forums covering subjects such as Finance, Charities and International Business there are many social gatherings which have recently included: the Built Kent Environment event; the AMM at Chatham Historic Dockyard; committee meetings; and the amazing Rochester Cathedral Event with the London Welsh Male Voice Choir.

 

I think that instead of the Institute of Directors perhaps IoD could stand for Ideas on Demand because there seems to me so many opportunities available for business owners and Directors to listen to and adopt fresh approaches to lead, manage and market their businesses.

And, of course, that’s one of the key benefits attributed to intime PROFIT. Whether a delegate at intime SEMINARS or a client using our One-to-One business development partnerships, there’s no shortage of fresh ideas to revitalise stale marketing activity, drive sales and build longer term profitability from relations with existing clients and prospects

 

Emma was particularly interested in intime PROFIT’s third service which turns ideas into action – intime

MARKETING. It’s one thing going away with lists of exciting new strategies in your notebook or tablet

and another to actually turn the thoughts into deeds, putting them to work for your business. It may be

that you don’t have time and it may be that you don’t have or have access to the marketing resources

needed to action them.

 

But this no longer matters. Intime PROFIT’s marketing services help turn your marketing strategy into a workable plan; detailing the action and budgets needed to deliver each element; then the exciting bit … we make it happen. With intime MARKETING, whatever size your business, you now have an instant Marketing Department with full on line and print design resources, copywriting, web design, mailing and e-mail management just one call away.

 

Thank you Emma, very much for your time and your interest and yes, the IoD may seem out of reach to many but it’s not - we recommend it to anyone who’s serious about business in Kent.

 

Call, mail, view and start making a difference today:

 

To find out more about intime PROFIT:

our One-to-One,

our Seminars and

our Marketing support services –

 

write to intime@intimeprofit.com or

call us on 08456 437 497.

www.intimeprofit.com

 

 

 

Back to School on September 12th

What a summer it’s been – the sun shone and temperatures soared in England; economies rallied in Europe; bad light stopped play with just 21 runs left to make; Kate & Wills had a baby; China’s under water, California’s on fire and Syria’s under siege. Phew what a scorcher!

 

 So now it’s back to normal, back to work and back to school as intime PROFIT’s Dramatic Business Growth Seminars begin again on 12^th September.

 

It has been a long summer and feels like a lifetime since we last gathered around our host’s boardroom table to listen to and share techniques and experiences to help our businesses grow.

Around the table on September 12th there will be some who have been to several intime Seminars and others who’ll be there for the first time. This doesn’t matter – in fact it’s a bonus as it refreshes the discussions and revitalises our opportunities to network with like-minded local business owners.

 

If you haven’t already received one of these (below), there’ll be one in your in tray very soon. This is your invitation to reserve one of just ten seats at the next intime PROFIT Seminar…

 

… What’s more, there are three (just 3) FREE places available at each Seminar and this is your invitation to secure one of those.

 

The Seminars are led by David Mack, though it is the delegates’ participation that really adds value to the debate as we share insight, experience and methodology that WILL help our businesses grow. As well as David, we hear from three keynote speakers. Matters Financial are introduced by Tim Levey of Reeves; Legal affairs are covered by sector specialists from Whitehead Monckton; and Sales & Marketing skills are presented by a Partner of intime PROFIT.

 

In this coming Seminar we will be looking at Sales. Not just how you can increase sales but how to increase the profitability, frequency and gross value of those sales. Many businesses think that once a new customer or client is ‘written up’ – that’s it, job done, move on to the next. By developing a fuller professional relationship with your customers (and prospects – don’t forget a prospect is simply a client in waiting) the value and reward from that relationship grows too.

 

For this to work we help you to improve your communication skills and introduce a suite of different methods of delivering the messages you’ll learn to write. We will show you how to turn your features into benefits and how to highlight and articulate those benefits to best effect.

 

Change is a great contributor to success.

Henry Ford said: “if you always do what you’ve always done – you get the results you’ve always got.”

If you are working in your business and it is not growing at the rate you feel it should and you are not enjoying the profits and financial benefits you feel you ought – then something has to change.

 

This is the ideal opportunity to take just a little time out from working IN your business to join others who will help you to work ON it.

The boardroom at Reeves in Chatham Maritime will be full of great ideas on 12^th September. Come along and take some of those ideas away with you. They will inspire you and help you to introduce even a few changes that really will make the difference to your business.

 

 

Ask yourself three questions:

 
Do I own or am I responsible for running a business in Kent?
Does the success of that business reflect in the quality of my life and livelihood?
Do I want to improve the quality of my life?

If the answer is YES to even one of those questions, then join us and a small group of others who’ve also said yes (particularly to the third one) and start changing your fortunes from 12^th September.

 

 

Call, mail, view and start making a difference today:

 

To find out more about intime PROFIT:

our One-to-One,

our Seminars and

our Marketing support services –

write to intime@intimeprofit.com or

call us on 08456 437 497.

www.intimeprofit.com

 

 

 

Give me stout hearts with ‘Perfect Pitch’

Kentish business has proved many times that when a few stout hearted entrepreneurial men and women get together to share views and support development ideals - success thrives.

Kent is a veritable warren of networking groups who gather at often unearthly hours of the morning to meet and exchange current business concerns. To mix metaphors – they level opportunistic playing fields to create a common song sheet from which they all can sing.

And no better a song sheet could there possibly be than that supported by the IoD in collaboration with Clive Emson and Rochester Cathedral (applauded by intime PROFIT) to present the London Welsh Male Voice Choir in concert at Rochester Cathedral on Saturday 29^th June (conceptually pictured below).

Based on themes originating in Welsh Valleys, rehearsed tirelessly in London, ‘Working Man’ and ‘Stout Hearted Men’ are just two of LWMVC’s rousing harmonies to be enjoyed in Rochester’s iconic cathedral on the banks of the Medway from 19.00 on 29^th.

Where The Medway was said to have been the dividing / deciding factor between Men (and Women) of Kent and Kentish Man (and Maiden), it was also the crucial conduit to create, support and drive trade in the region.

‘Stout Hearted Men’ is one of the choral components of the operetta The New Moon, a collaboration of the music of Sigmund Romberg and the lyrics of Oscar Hammerstein II.

This begs the question – can nothing succeed without help, support, collaboration, advice – a corporate shoulder to cry on or understanding pat on the back?

Well, Gilbert had Sullivan and Benjamin Britten had the voice of his beloved Peter Pears.

If you have a great day at the office, is there somebody back at home who truly understands the passion and emotion of your business. Conversely, if you are on a negative spiral, who do you turn to for support and guidance?

In Kent, there is a resource to which business owners and managers can turn. It’s one that understands the draining emotions of business management and offers guidance to and through the components of business growth. That’s what the businesses of Kent with whom we already work seem to think.

 

Sharing thoughts at the intime PROFIT Seminar

These business owners have sought and found solace in talking with an intime PROFIT Partner through a series of One-to-One meetings; they may have joined like minded people at our Business Growth Seminars; or perhaps they use our Marketing support services.

Seminars offer a friendly environment at which just 15 or so people can either sit back and listen to the speakers and other delegates, or participate as much as they want – opening up to problems, sharing ideas, discussing the pro’s and con’s of this approach or that.

There is no single solution. If there were, we’d all have bought that book and be millionaires … this time next year Rodney ! Whether you take the Del Boy approach or that of Simon Sinek, there’s always something of value to learn.

 

But of course, the whole moral of this story is that it’s not one or the other that is right or wrong, but the collaborative efforts of a room full of stout hearted business minds as, last month for instance, they consider the wisdom of Simon Sinek’s ‘Start with a WHY’.

This relatively simple business philosophy became a pivotal moment for last month’s attendees. Here’s a snippet of what Simon’s WHY is all about. Take a look and you’ll understand why pens were scribbling and light bulbs were metaphorically sparking across the Whitehead Monckton Boardroom:

This was part of a presentation on creating an Elevator Pitch, a succinct introduction to you, the business owner / manager as you are given a 60 second platform to win corporate hearts and minds.

It’s a powerful tool, particularly if you frequent or are about to enter the world of Kentish Networking.

Intime PROFIT Seminars offer the opportunity to network, but also equips you with the tools, techniques and confidence to network profitably. The structure and formality of a textbook Elevator Pitch may be right for some and perhaps right for others – just not in an Elevator.

 

Simon Sinek’s pivotal WHY helps us to understand WHY it is customers and clients do business with us. In understanding this and discussing the strengths and weaknesses in the context of our own businesses, we truly get to understand our own WHY, our own corporate raisons d’êtres.

Seminar exercises then help delegates to communicate this, verbally, casually, formally, in writing, in an advert, a website, an e-mail and even a tweet.

Like Romberg and Hammerstein; Gilbert and Sullivan; Britten and Pears – intime PROFIT and you collaborate, draft and rehearse our corporate songs until we too find ‘perfect pitch’.

For your chance to tune up to a ‘perfect pitch’ and discover more tools, techniques, ideas and skills to help grow your own business – join us at the next intime PROFIT Seminar on Thursday 11^th July in this month’s host Boardroom at Duncan Lawrie in Wrotham. If you are joining us for the first time remember, your first Seminar is FREE.

PLEASE NOTE: you can not just turn up. Please call / e-mail to request your place. Places are limited and if you secure an invitation but find subsequently you can’t attend, please do call so that your invitation may be taken up by someone else.

To secure your invitation to intime PROFIT’s Dramatic Business Growth Seminar at:

Duncan Lawrie (pictured left),

Wrotham, Kent

From: 10.00 to 17.00 (includes lunch),

On: 11^th July 2013,

Please call 08456 437 497

Or e-mail intime@intimeprofit.com

To find out more about intime PROFIT:

our One-to-One,

our Seminars and

our Marketing support services –

write to intime@intimeprofit.com or

call us on 08456 437 497.

www.intimeprofit.com

 

 

 

Are you entitled to a FREE Seminar Day?

This is a quick addition to our normal blog stories to remind you about this month’s Dramatic Business Growth Seminar.

We’re holding your place at

Montague House for your

FREE Seminar Day on 9^th May.

Regular attendees have all had the benefit of their free Seminar Day and return regularly to enjoy more pearls of business growth wisdom.

What form does the day take?

This is an interactive Seminar for 10 to 15 people of like minded owners and managers of diverse businesses across Kent. We gather monthly in a host’s boardroom for a 10.00 o’clock start and are away by 5.00. We network over coffee, lunch and tea to share as well as listen to thought provoking experiences.

What’s the agenda?

This varies month on month with each day stimulating fresh thought and energy. The seminar leader runs the day’s informative, practical and pragmatic agenda, delivering and developing sometimes familiar but overlooked though more often fresh and inspired ideas, techniques and processes to grow a profitable business. The day is punctuated by practical interaction and professional keynote contributions on business law and finance. Remember, YOUR first Seminar is FREE (unconditionally).

What’s the point?

Well the bottom line is ultimately down to you and how much you want or need to grow your business and unlock the hidden profitability within it. If you want to generate and convert increasing numbers of enquiries and to turn more of these to profitable business sales and / or relations, then the intime PROFIT Dramatic Business Growth Seminars will equip you with the tools, the plan and the passion to go back to your desk and make it happen.

To confirm your FREE place please

call 08456 437 497

or mail intime@intimeprofit.com.

www.intimeprofit.com

Budgets – empty promises or realistic goals.

It’s not even a month (at the time of writing) since the Chancellor gave the country his Budget on 20^th March 2013 and already – much to his silent joy no doubt – it has been overshadowed by no less than the death of Margaret Thatcher and the petulant threats of thermo nuclear war.

Those of you who enjoy the odd ale or two are ‘regularly’ reminded of ‘The Chancellor’s Penny’ as that rather eccentric one penny change is dropped into the charity pot on the bar. Was this swelling of bar-top charity donation the covert intention of a secretly altruistic Chancellor or just the cynical by-product of straw-clutch planning?

So, this is the oblivion in which GB Limited’s budget planning was so gratefully lost, but how different really is it from our own business budgets and objective planning.

OK, we don’t have excuses such as these to blot from our minds the actions needed to deliver ‘the plan’. We might find the need to tidy the office; have lunch with Barry; or spend an afternoon fiddling with our profile on LinkedIn to ignore business strategy. Heaven forefend the opportunity to divert from our daily needs now afforded by the death of capital opportunity, entrepreneurial resolve and true 20^th Century leadership - MTRIP. 

Writing realistic Budgets in business need not be daunting. Just as planning the resolve and employing the techniques to deliver it is not something that you have to do alone - so often the case in a small or medium sized enterprise.

Reeves (Kent’s award winning accountants) gave a superb analysis of the Chancellor’s Budget and its affects on business, private finance and corporate planning at their Breakfast Seminar the morning after Osborne’s speech. So popular is this annual post-budget event, that finding a venue to address and entertain 300 plus good Kentish folk has become quite a challenge, even for such stalwart advocates of business, tax and wealth as Reeves.

Tim Levey (Partner and ‘Bean Multiplier’ – according to LinkedIn) and Clive Relf (Tax & Development Partner Reeves) at the Reeves Budget Breakfast  2013.

This year’s breakfast was held at Maidstone Studios – big venue, big audience, big subject - and quite a change from the Studio’s normal ‘Catch the Red Box’ Celebrity Panel Game:

Reeves is a Partner Service of intime PROFIT. Tim Levey of Reeves is a regular attendee of and speaker at intime PROFIT Seminars. On 11^th April his subject was The Budget and matters relating to Tax and its essential effects on small businesses and their owner / managers. As usual, Tim’s presentation (delivery and content) was entertaining and well received. It provoked thought and generated a lively question and answer session to the benefit of us all.

Ears were well and truly pricked and one or two of us checked “…yes it was 11^th April not 1^st…” when, on the subject of Company Cars and low emission g/km tax breaks, the Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid (below) was introduced as the tax busting car of choice. Its CO2 emissions of just 71 g/km beat the Lexus CT200h (87) and the Audi A3 (166) by far. As Porsche strap-line this global cooling run-around … it offers ‘Thrilling Contradictions’.

For more information on The Budget, Tax and Porsches – contact Tim directly @ tim.levey@reeves.co.

www.reeves.co

As if by chance, the theme of this month’s intime PROFIT Dramatic Business Growth Seminar was ‘Planning for Growth’. As well as the essential big picture budgeting and planning, as ever, the Seminar was realistic. As with each of these monthly Seminars, it remembers that we are all busy people and the business planning text book is sometimes more practically used to stop the table from rocking or stem the chilling draft from the broken window.

Intime PROFIT clients, delegates, attendees, successes need healthy sugar cubes soaked in PRAGMATISM to help the corporate medicine of BUDGETING and PLANNING to go down. Personally, I have attended many seminars in vast halls with buckets full of ‘the right way’ thrown over me and my fellow couple of hundred delegates, then left with little other than a furrowed brow. It’s just noise.

With intime, the Seminars are bite-sized gatherings of 12 to 15 business owners and managers, enjoying relevant, digestible and deliverable ideas, thoughts and techniques to help plan and deliver achievable goals.

You know the old adage – I’m too busy working IN my business to make time to work ON it.

Well, with intime PROFIT this is time well spent that offers real, achievable opportunities. If you haven’t been to an intime Seminar before, you’re in luck – your first Seminar is FREE.

Let’s leave you with a story you may know – but it’s worth reminding you (as always):

I was walking through the woods when I came across a woodsman sawing at the trunk of a tree. “How do” I said, “Aw do” the woodsman returned.

I sat, poured a cup from my flask as the day was warm and I’d travelled far. The water was refreshing and I offered some to the hard working chap as he sawed forth and back at the tree. “Here, take a cup, rest a while” said I.

The woodsman shook his head, the sweat flying from his reddened brow. “Can’t stop” said he “too busy.” I sat, drank, then broke a crust of bread from the loaf I carried in my bag. “Here, take some bread to fuel you” I said. “Can’t stop” said he “this ‘as to come down today.” I tarried, he sawed, yet there was little or no impression on the tree. “Why don’t you stop, take drink and food whilst I sharpen that saw for you. It won’t take long and you’ll be able to cut down that tree and many more besides long before this day is done?”

“How can I possibly afford to stop, not even for a moment, even to let you help sharpen my saw - are you blind? Can’t you see? I’m too busy cutting down this tree!”

If you want help to budget; to plan with achievable pragmatism; or to sharpen your business saw:

To find out more about intime PROFIT:

our One-to-One,

our Seminars and

our Marketing support services –

write to intime@intimeprofit.com or

call us on 08456 437 497.

www.intimeprofit.com

The front line in business development – quite literally, for some

As we warmed ourselves by the log fire in the boardroom during a breakout session at last month’s business development seminar, we had another chance to find out more about each other’s businesses.

Paul shared the virtues of his print business; Gemma explained why she had taken the leap of faith to set up a recruitment business specialising in automotive trade positions; Mark subtly checked to see if we had each made a will; and Steve Wisbey told us more about his fascinating business, industry and world.

Steve runs NIC Instruments Limited in Folkestone - www.nicltd.co.uk - and has been amongst the regulars attending intime PROFIT’s seminars over the past several months.

NIC manufactures and sells EOD and IEDD equipment – that’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Improvised Explosive Device Disposal equipment … bomb disposal gear to you and me.

Protecting the lives of the brave folk on the front line in Afghanistan and throughout the diverse war zones and terror cells that litter the world with IEDs is a noble business to grow. But it is still a business, a business with prospects and products that benefit from technique to efficiently converge.

Steve’s goals include increased sales and he said of the last seminar: “…another very good session with focus on the tasks that need to be done to increase sales.”

Tony Huggins, QA Manager at NIC (who attends with Steve) simply said: “Effective, Efficient, Manageable” which is just what the seminar delivery intends.

Like all research, a background search for this article was done in Wiki-land where Bomb Disposal was described as “the process by which hazardous explosive devices are rendered safe”. The word ‘hazardous’ is particularly evocative in this sense.

However fascinating a product, industry, audience – sales still boil down to the need to generate enquiries; work those prospects through an effective CRM; convert them to optimal value sales; retain and nurture the clients generated to maximise lifetime values … building sales, profits and generating sustainable business growth.

Steve has applied a lot of what he has gleaned and is already seeing a difference, generating additional sales by employing the techniques each seminar develops. By working his database with innovative e-mails and mailings, such as lumpy mail (a recent seminar topic), he has honed his USPs, refined the proposition, made his product and service ethic noticed, captured attention and stimulated action.

It is so wrong to pre-judge. Either by pre-judging a fellow delegate at a business seminar, or pre-judging a prospect on your database opportunities are missed. Take nobody for granted because you just don’t know where your next referral or joint marketing opportunity is going to come from.

The bottom line with intime PROFIT’s Dramatic Business Growth Programme is quite literally – you have to be in it to win it … whatever your business, service, or product.

To find out more about intime PROFIT:

our One-to-One,

our Seminars and

our Marketing support services –

write to intime@intimeprofit.com or

call us on 08456 437 497.

www.intimeprofit.com

Taking the stress out of business growth.

It can be really quite stressful driving a small to medium sized business on your own. Even when things are going well, we manage to find something to worry about. Worry causes tension, tension causes stress, stress can lead to poor decision making – and poor decision making can trigger the problems which, in their own turn cause … you guessed it, STRESS.

One of the attendees at the intime PROFIT Dramatic Business Growth Seminars is a flourishing company called Restoring Health run by Deborah and Wayne Mc Nair. Because they are busy people, they take it in turns to attend the monthly one day Seminars and share the fresh ideas for business development when they have (make) time.

Restoring Health knows all about stress and the negative effect it can have on our minds as well as our bodies - they are a Sports, Remedial and Body Massage Therapy business. They provide stress remedies as well as advising on preventative approaches through well-being plans, posture awareness and diet.

“Restoring Health has been pioneered by my husband and I,” said Deborah Mc Nair, “and we are passionate to be a part of the physical, emotional and spiritual restoration in people’s lives.”

Intime PROFIT’s own stress-buster is to share innovation and methodology for business development. Through One-to-One development meetings and / or monthly Seminars, business owners and managers learn many and often relatively simple (once you know how) methods to increase enquiries; turn more of them into clients; and to increase the value of those clients – all leading to increased profits.

Deborah has been delighted with the thought provoking content and practical ideas, some of which they have already put into practice. She says of the Seminars that they have: “…stimulated creative thinking in problem solving and anchored a strategy in action planning…”.

Wayne also “gets it” – which can only be achieved by attending.

When asked his thoughts on the first Seminar he attended, Wayne said: “An eye opener – small things can change – but will have a major impact on how to grow the business”.

It’s so true. Change doesn’t have to be scary; it can be introduced in small steps. And the differences can be enormous.

Wayne would probably say the same about posture. Consider how you sit at your desk. Try to be aware of your posture. Stop hunching over the keyboard. Try moving it a little higher. Sit back / upright. A small investment in a new screen and perhaps writing and reading at 120% instead of 100% - these are all little things but improve the desk-side positioning, relaxing the shoulders in the process.

A little effort. Small changes. Big results.

Whether you are keeping ahead of stress through a therapeutic massage or stimulating business growth seminar, you really do have an awful lot to gain.

Taking a day away from working IN your business, to work ON your business isn’t asking a lot – particularly as your first Seminar is FREE. See what another of our attendees has to say on the video – it’s on our new website – just click here: http://www.intimeprofit.com/seminars.php.

Remember – your first Seminar is FREE.

 

To find out more about intime PROFIT:

our One-to-One,

our Seminars and

our Marketing support services –

write to intime@intimeprofit.com or

call us on 08456 437 497.

www.intimeprofit.com