Comments for Alison Bradford

Comment on Why and what you need to outsource by How to outsource effectively (especially for control freaks)

How to outsource effectively (especially for control freaks) — Tue, 07 May 2013 06:46:27 +0000

[...] This follows on from the post on ‘Why and what to outsource’. [...]

Comment on Why and what you need to outsource by Carl Croft

Carl Croft — Sun, 05 May 2013 08:01:28 +0000

Look forward to it

Comment on Why and what you need to outsource by Alison Bradford

Alison Bradford — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:05:32 +0000

Hi Carl,
I’ve written a 2nd part to this article on ‘how to outsource’ which is published next Tuesday – it covers some of these points you mention but watch out for it as I’m sure you’ll have some useful input to add which I (and others) will appreciate.

Comment on Why and what you need to outsource by Carl Croft

Carl Croft — Thu, 02 May 2013 12:52:35 +0000

Hi Alison,
Glad to be involved
From my experience you need to think carefully whether being a ‘one-stop shop’ is worthwhile for your company. Will this give you a competitive advantage or could the risk of undertaking be too great or problematic when assessed against the benefits?

For our clients, taking responsibility for their team and the delivery of that team (which is something we would naturally do) is a huge benefit to their ease of procurement.

However there are several things we need to consider before jumping in…

Cash Flow
While it’s great to get a big contract, if yours or your supplier credit terms are not viable, or your client delays or queries payment (which could be due to one of the team members) then you could end up funding the project, at least in the short term. Make sure there is enough cash to cover this, or that your supplier’s terms allow for this situation.

Agreement
Get a sub-consultancy agreement set up to define the payment terms, delivery dates, non-performance etc. These should mirror obligations to the ultimate employer.

Insurance
If like in Architecture, you are required to carry professional indemnity insurance, make sure you have enough to cover the activities of the team, not just yourself.

Lines of communication
This varies greatly between different types of businesses. It is worth highlighting however to all concerned, what the parameters of for the service that they are to provide, and who they are to communicate directly to. An additional consultant project brief to the main brief could do this just fine.

Programme
Produce and communicate a programme for delivery to the team. If you can, allow some float time to allow for the unforeseen, and some time to review the output from a quality control perspective. If you don’t use that time, you deliver the project early and the client is happy.

There will no doubt be some things applicable to certain disciplines not covered above, and I’ve assumed that everyone has vetted the consultants ability to perform. This is a general starting point for people who are considering this type of approach.

Comment on Why and what you need to outsource by Alison Bradford

Alison Bradford — Thu, 02 May 2013 08:22:59 +0000

Hi Carl,
Thanks for your comment – it’s great to hear another perspective on this. I agree with you that outsourcing can also be used as an opportunity to offer more services to your customers. As a business, becoming a ‘one stop shop’ is a great service to be able to offer and a way to differentiate your business. It’s especially important in this situation to make sure you have the tools and processes in place to do this effectively and I’d be interested to know if you have any tips to pass on re. this.
I appreciate your input to this article.

Comment on Why and what you need to outsource by Carl Croft

Carl Croft — Wed, 01 May 2013 08:22:55 +0000

Hi Alison. This is a really interesting article which got me thinking…

We often outsource aspects of our projects to other disciplines within a consultancy team, and then act for our client’s in project managing the team. Typically structural and cost consultancy. This enables us to bring together a complete service to deliver the project.

Business owners should give serious thought to outsourcing to specialists whether they suffer the problems that you mention or not. The focus should be: what are the problems faced by our clients, and how can we provide additional services to deliver more of what they want? This puts the business in a much stronger position with the client as the business becomes the ‘all-in-one’ solution.

I’m interested to read other peoples take on this…

Comment on How to save time and money on marketing by Alison Bradford

Alison Bradford — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:08:57 +0000

Hi Nigel,
Thanks for your comment. Re. measuring the benefits of breakfast networking I agree that you need to allow a reasonable amount of time to realise the benefits. Most of these groups require a minimum membership of 1 year so I would suggest that during the intial year you review the benefits during the year and make any adjustments necessary. For example, if by 6 months you have recieved little or no business, then you may need to change your approach or it may be at the end of the year that a particular group is not the right fit for your business and doesn’t give you any benefits. Talking to other people in the group will help you to understand what can work well and what doesn’t.
Excellent point re. PR which can of course form part of an effective Marketing plan and I again take your point about bring a long game. The important thing here is to measure the result of what you are doing and take considered action, not knee jerk. I see too many people who decide on a plan upfront and then never actually check back to see which parts are working and which aren’t.

Comment on How to save time and money on marketing by Nigel Howle

Nigel Howle — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 12:00:57 +0000

Great article Alison, and I agree with 99 percent of it. But how do you measure the longterm benefits of (say) breakfast networking at any one given point? I’ve found the benefits don’t really flow until you are many motnhs in.
Also, you fail to mention PR – again a long game as it raises reputation rather than immediate sales.
Best wishes, Nigel.

Comment on Work with me by Do you have your winning team in place?

Do you have your winning team in place? — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 06:54:43 +0000

[...] Work with me [...]

Comment on 6 steps to easier selling by Alison Bradford

Alison Bradford — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 14:14:58 +0000

Thanks Cheryl. Good luck with your pitch tomorrow – let me know how it goes.