Case Studies

A retail greengrocer, coffee bar, market outlet and delivered greengrocer’s business.

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A family run property Maintenance Company specialising in repairs, cleaning, grounds care and caretaking.

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Established in 1995 Pierce Hill Project Services are a multi-disciplinary professional construction consultancy providing project management, architectural and structural design, contract administration, building surveying and Principal Designer (CDM) services.

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Audiovisual company

The owner of an audiovisual cabling company puts the right principles in place to pass the business on within the family

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Hair and Beauty Salon

GOALS: To reverse the loss making trend and to grow the business to better profitability

BUSINESS IN PROFILE: This business is a hair and beauty salon located above a pharmacy just off a High...

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Cleaning Business In Kent

GOALS: Helping the business owner plan and manage growth

BUSINESS IN PROFILE: The business owner was really an "employee", working wholly "in" the business with no time to...

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Arts & Crafts Importer

GOALS: To improve the profitability levels of the Business, thus moving it from loss to...

BUSINESS PROFILE: An importer of arts and crafts products from China for sale into the education sector

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Building Refurbishment Company

GOALS: To solve their continual cashflow crisis which existed despite their books showing a profit, to create an exit strategy for two of the current owners while enabling younger family members...

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Clean Cut Gardening Services

GOALS: To grow the business significantly whilst reducing the hours worked to more acceptable levels.

BUSINESS IN PROFILE: A Domestic Gardening services business providing, mowing, hedge...

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Recruitment Business In Essex

GOALS: To free the business owner from the day to day running of his frenetic business in order to enable it to grow.

BUSINESS IN PROFILE: A recruitment consultant who started up on his own after...

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Property Maintenance Company in the South East

BUSINESS PROFILE: A family run property Maintenance Company specialising in repairs, cleaning, grounds care and caretaking.

GOALS:  To grow the business through diversification of the...

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Greengrocers in Kent

GOALS: To improve the profitability levels of the business to move it from loss making to profit making

BUSINESS IN PROFILE: A retail greengrocers, coffee bar, market outlet and delivered...

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Construction Company

GOALS: To increase profitability and reduce the hours worked by the business owner
BUSINESS IN PROFILE: A small construction company doing refurbishments and minor building works, with a strong...

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Supporting charities can boost your corporate responsibility

It is becoming more important to ensure that your business acts responsibly and you fully understand the impact it has on society, the environment and the economy.

Whilst you may already be doing something there are opportunities to allow you to stand out from your competition and working with Charities can ensure that you make a positive difference.

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What does 2023 hold for you?

All of a sudden it’s 2023 is just around the corner! Where did this year go?

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So you have got a plan; now what do you do with it?

Look through the articles in our blog section here and you’ll see that there is a common theme to a lot of them:

“Put a plan together, and then monitor progress against it regularly. If progress isn’t in line with the plan, you get early warning and time to solve the problem before it’s all too late.”

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Avoiding the pitfalls of recruitment

So, you’ve finally decided you need to recruit someone. You might be a one man band looking to hire your first employee, or you might already have staff but need to increase the size of the team because the business has outgrown its current staff resources. So, how do you go about it?

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Are you sailing close to the wind?

Getting your financial planning right is essential to achieve your business plans and here's how....

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Business Support Groups with KMGH - Making a Difference

Smart Support was involved with the Covid19 Response Task Force with the Kent and Medway Growth Hub right from the beginning. Our role was to help businesses through those exceptional times. Here is the story of one of the businesses we supported.

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What does 2022 hold for you?

All of a sudden it’s 2022! Where did last year go?

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Covid19 – how we helped make a difference!

Our journey supporting businesses with the Kent and Medway Growth Hub through the Covid 19 pandemic

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Covid Recovery Plan 2021

We are all too aware that 2020 was a very tough year for many business owners and that, although the vaccine is giving some light at the end of the tunnel, things are far from over.

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Coming out of Lockdown - Business Considerations

There is no doubt that Covid-19 has changed our world both today and for the foreseeable future. On so many levels we are facing situations and events we have never prepared for. The lockdown of large parts of society means we now have to look at how we conduct our lives in new ways.

More than that, as we prepare for our businesses to rise like phoenix from the ashes of lockdown, there are so many things to think about; where to start?

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Coming out of Lockdown - Business Considerations

More than that, as we prepare for our businesses to rise like phoenix from the ashes of lockdown, there are so many things to think about; where to start?

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Managing in these Challenging Times

With the current Coronavirus crisis we want to offer practical help to our fellow local businesses. Having supported our own clients, we realise there are a great number of businesses who may feel isolated and don’t know where to get advice and support. We want to help and have produced an overview of the key steps you can take in order to put your business in the best place to cope with the current crisis which you can access here.

We are in this together and need to pool our resources for everyone’s benefit and the support and help available is changing rapidly, so we will also be looking at other support we can provide online and will post about on these when we can and welcome any suggestions or ideas.

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SA Crunden & Son

A retail greengrocer, coffee bar, market outlet and delivered greengrocer’s business.

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DMS Property Maintenance

A family run property Maintenance Company specialising in repairs, cleaning, grounds care and caretaking.

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Pierce Hill Project Services

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Why doesn’t Cash follow Turnover?

I was talking to a business owner recently who was telling me how he had recently increased his marketing and as a result his turnover had increased dramatically. As a result he was extremely busy. When I asked him if he had any plans to bring some new staff into the business in order that he could cope better, his response was that he couldn’t afford do that. It turns out that although turnover was up, that didn’t translate into more cash in the bank; in fact quite the reverse. When I asked him why did he think that was, he replied, “You know, I’m not really sure….”

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Unleash Your Cash Flow Mojo!

How is it that some businesses manage to flourish and become financially successful, and yet many do not?

How do they accomplish what seems to be magical success? It is a matter of viewing cash flow management with a bit of a different viewpoint, learning that the old tools, while useful for certain things, are not adequate by themselves, and not making the fatal mistakes that many business owners make in managing their company’s money....

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Learn in Just 10 Minutes...How to Delegate

A Step-by-Step Guide to Effective Delegation

Do you want more time in your day to do the things only you can do?
Do you want some time to do the work that you know (if only you had the time!) would get you some great results? You know the type of thing – talking to clients, planning, building stronger relationships with your employees, thinking, getting a life!

Click on the cover to buy the book

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Why holidays are good for your business

So many of we business owners really hate the idea of the summer, because of the holiday season.

Staff want to take holidays, which reduces the workforce across the company. Lack of staff disrupts production and puts more pressure on the remaining staff to get the work done. You as the business owner can’t go away yourself because if you do everything will stop dead while you’re away.

So it is that many business owners take the path of least resistance and stay at home, while their workforce go away and come back tanned and relaxed two weeks later.

But what if things were different?

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Designing KPIs to Drive Process Improvement

Process improvement is all about making things work better, whether this is because a process is deemed to be broken or because we know it could be better. When you use your business’ information to create Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that help you to drive the right kinds of improvement then the rate of change can be so much faster.

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So why should I bother with KPIs?

In my time I get to talk to a lot of business owners, and it isn’t unusual for them to say that they can’t tell whether their business is doing well or not, and they don’t know what they have to do to improve it. Quite often, my first question is to ask what KPIs they have in place? What numbers do they have about how their business is performing? And quite often they don’t have any.....

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The Secret of Selling Anything

The Secret of Selling Anything is not about clichés, empty slogans, the “right” answers, positive thinking, or other ridiculous ideas that coerce the reader into a cookie-cutter mold you must fit into in order to be a better salesman. The author debunks all of those fallacies and describes the proper way to actually get things done and deliver exactly what it is that the customer wants. As an introvert, the book was a breath of fresh air, assuaging the angst that comes with the assumption that all successful salespeople must be inherently energetic, aggressive, and talkative.

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Selling - What's the secret?

“He’s a born salesman; he could sell ice to an eskimo”

“I’ve never been able to sell; I’m not aggressive enough…..”

“This product is brilliant - if only I knew how to sell I could be a millionaire”

There is no doubt that there are natural salespeople, those who don’t have to think too hard about it, but are just very persuasive and always end up landing the deal. But for a lot of us, selling can be daunting, and we find that our sales results never quite match up to our expectations. We struggle to get in front of prospects and then, when we do, we fail to convert them into customers!

So, Selling – What’s the secret?

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Tax – your financial planning tool!

Let’s face it, none of us like paying tax.

It seems unfair sometimes, doesn’t it, that a Government who is put in place to govern the country and sometimes imposes upon us policies, rules and restrictions, is allowed to force us to pay for those policies which we don‘t personally agree with or like?

But to quote Benjamin Franklin, “In this world nothing is certain, except death and taxes”.

So how can we turn something which we can do very little about into a tool to help us in our business?

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Small Business Tax Planning

Effective planning of your tax affairs to help your business save money Every profitable business in the UK has to pay tax, but some small businesses pay more tax than is necessary. This book examines the tax liabilities that the owners or managers of small businesses need to bear in mind and explains how to manage these tax requirements in the best possible way.......

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Philip Pilgrim

Business Advisor, Hythe, Kent

M 07816 257042 | Email

Philip Pilgrim MCIPS, is an experienced senior manager and consultant.

In the course of thirty years in industry, he has gained extensive commercial experience which culminated in heading up the boards of a number of different companies. In these roles he.....

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Chris Bushell

Business Advisor, Wickford, Essex

T 01268 457814; M 07768 636606 | Email

Chris is a business advisor based at Wickford in Essex.

Chris began life working in IT in the motor industry before moving on to an international company as a project manager. His business acumen quickly saw him rising through the organisation to head up.....

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Tim Sheppard

Business Advisor, Alkham, Kent

M 07927 760813 | Email

Tim Sheppard (MCIOB) is a successful senior manager with a wealth of experience and a dynamic leadership style developed during a career which has included facilities and property management, construction and environmental services.

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Leadership - What is it?

We are all leaders whether we like it or not.

But here’s a question: Are leaders born or made? Is leadership a function of nature, or nurture? Can leadership be learned?

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Leadership - Plain and Simple

Leadership isn’t complicated – keep it simple and make it count. This new edition of Steve Radcliffe’s uniquely powerful, successful and practical framework will show you how to develop faster as a more confident and capable leader.

This compact, instantly-applicable guide to developing leadership skills contains practical insights, straightforward actions and plain guidelines to accelerate your growth as a leader.

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The Power of 10%

The choices we make, the words we say, and the actions we take not only impact our lives, but also the lives of those around us. When you aim to improve yourself, remember that your changes will inevitably inspire others to improve.

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The Power of Small Change

“I need to make more money from my business! I need more customers! If I double my marketing spend everything will be great.”

But will it? With grand financial gestures comes greater financial risk; If we spend a great deal on marketing there is no guarantee it will bring in more business and if it doesn’t work we may have sunk a great deal of money into it for no gain; if it does work we create a need for more working capital to service the sales!

So what has this got to do with small change?

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Holiday time!

It’s that time of year again, the one we always look forward to; the summer holidays.

Kids have finished school, the bags are packed, tickets, passports, sun cream………plus for a lot of business owners, mobile phone, laptop or tablet. “Just so that I can keep an eye on the business while we’re away”.

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The One Minute Manager meets the Monkey

How management can effectively rid themselves of ‘monkeys’ – other people’s responsibilities that cling to them and prevent them managing efficiently.

This book explains in simple-minded if abstract terms how to achieve a balance between supervision and delegation for reduced tension and improved productivity in the workplace.

‘There is a high correlation between self-reliance and morale,’ stress the authors. With humour and logic they describe the delicate business of assigning monkeys to the right masters and keeping them healthy, i.e., fed and cared for: ‘… if monkeys are managed properly, you don't have to manage people so much.’

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50 Secrets of Trade Show Success

The 50 Secrets of Trade Show Success:

Everything you need to know to succeed at your next trade show, from maximizing lead generation, through choosing the best giveaways to measuring accurate ROI

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10 Steps To Effective Marketing

The Business Growth Service and Smart Marketing Support are excited to offer this free seminar workshop [More]

The quick buck? Or meeting your customers' needs?

So, you have the appointment to see a prospect. All you have to do now is to close the deal, yes? So why is it that you walk away empty-handed? Do you find selling really, really difficult? If you are, you’re not alone. It isn’t unusual to find that business owners find it hard to sell their product or service even when there is a perfect fit for the needs of the prospect. Why is this?

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The Psychology of Selling

Increase your sales faster and easier than you ever thought possible. The purpose of this book is to give you a series of ideas, methods, strategies, and techniques..... [More]

Double Your Business

THE BLUEPRINT TO DOUBLE YOUR BUSINESS IN TWO YEARS OR LESS

Doubling your business in two years or less isn’t some outlandish aim. It’s a very real and achievable target. We know this because Lee Duncan has used the techniques in this book with hundreds of companies to help them achieve remarkable growth. Many have achieved growth of 100% or more, with the most successful achieving 500% growth.

Now you can follow the same steps to unlock the potential inside your business.

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Tax avoidance - is it good or bad?

Listening to coverage of the pre-election budget has got me thinking about tax.

As you know, there has been a great deal of publicity in the media about individuals and organisations using loopholes to avoid paying tax. I didn’t want to jump on the moral bandwagon, there are enough people doing that, but in one discussion I heard recently on the radio, a participant tried to justify why a certain major coffee beverage provider was not paying corporation tax in this country by saying that they were creating jobs which pay tax and NI, buying and selling products which pay tax and supporting the UK economy through this diverse chain and that the corporation tax was only a tiny element and that they had contributed significantly to the UK economy.

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