Keep it simple

Newsletter - What form of advice?
Last week's survey about free advice generated an interesting conflict. Most of you (about 85%) thought that small businesses should pay for advice - even if there was some subsidy - and that people generally take more notice of advice if they've paid for it. On the other hand, the vast majority of people offer free advice at least occasionally! I think some of the confusion is probably down to different definitions of what constitutes advice - after all an article published on a website is a form of advice, but so is a 3 hour meeting at which you explain possible approaches to the client and they then decide to take your advice but do everything themselves!
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Client Newsletter - Getting an objective view
By the time you read this we should all have some idea of what kind of government the UK will have for the next few years. Whether or not you like the election result, as businesses we have to deal with the world as it is which often means re-assessing your direction and making changes to adapt as the situation changes around us. Sometimes though, identifying the right changes can be difficult if you're fully stretched by day to day activities.

One of the benefits of bringing in an independent consultant is that they see things from a different perspective and can help you question ideas or processes that seem set in stone.
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Keep it simple

In this week's newsletter:

Does language get in the way?
Keeping it simple
This week's projects
All tenders are not equal

Does language get in the way?

I've come across a few blogs and discussions this week where people have been discussing how they should refer to themselves and their business. Critical issues such as 'do we talk about training or learning' or 'are you a mentor coach or a coach mentor' seemed to have assumed a life of their own. It's true that the language we use makes a difference to how people react to us, the idea behind 'learning and development' rather than 'training' being to help the recipients of the service feel more in control, but I do wonder sometimes if we sometimes agonise too much about how we describe ourselves.

Keeping it simple

Clients generally come to us with a very clear idea of what they want done and very rarely use complex language to describe it. They are much more likely to ask for 'help' rather than 'coaching' and for a 'training course' rather than a learning experience. Of course, some special language or jargon is essential in getting the precise nature of a requirement across - and we quite often have to resort to looking up some of the more technical requests we get - but in general I think it's worth sticking to plain and simple language whenever you can. If you're not sure if your profile or website has veered too far from simplicity why not ask a friend to review it or take a look at the Plain English website for guidance. I particularly liked their before and after examples of management gobbledegook.

This week's projects

Last week's flow of private projects has kept up this week, with a distinctly urgent feel to some, which have already expired. The range of disciplines remains very wide so even if none of these fit you perfectly there's a good chance there are others on the site that do.

IMechE Direct Client Coupled building and ground systems modelling
Opportunity Associate Consultants required , England
Arts Evaluation (Portuguese)
Italian-speaking Telesales/Marketing Consultants Urgently Required
Social Media Trainers & Consultants
PR and Marketing Specialist
Direct Client HR documentation
Client Website Transport System Study Behavioural Change Study, North West England
Marketing and Promotion for Spring Ball , North West England
Art Resource and Research Website Developer , Scotland
Course Brochures, South East
Short term consultancy for "People First" policy implementation, London
Client Website Power Network Design Consultancy Service, Scotland
Research into Sports Market Segments, Wales
Review of potential legal structures and business models, South West
Development of Business Plan, South West
Filmmaker, North West England
Training for Short Breaks Workforce, South West
Client Website BREEAM Assessors
Innovation Centre Feasibility Study,Yorkshire and Humberside
OJEU Virtualisation environment - provision and support,Sussex
OJEU Wide Area Network Reprocurement ,Yorkshire and Humberside
OJEU Policy modelling support ,Greater London

All tenders are not the same

Checking through this week's projects reminded me that although projects that we label as 'tenders' are public notifications they don't all involve a complicated and lengthy tender process. The ones marked Client Website are below the European threshold which is currently 193,000 euros or about £150,000. Many of these opportunities are of quite low value, with some in today's list having budgets of as little as £5k, and often will require just a proposal letter or CV rather than a full tender package.. We also find that even some OJEU EU procurements have relatively modest budgets, so don't be put off by the label, wherever possible we identify the budget in our project summary so if something looks interesting why not take a look? Remember that as a Guest you can buy individual tender details for £20 and if you decide to join Skillfair within 2 weeks we refund the money - so you've nothing to lose!