Strategy and Consulting
I’m an experienced, multidisciplinary marketer and business strategist. In addition to roles within retail and education I work with companies to build strategic and sustainable business and marketing solutions.
I have worked for brands and SMEs across B2B and consumer sectors and I believe that a strong business strategy should be supported by a strong marketing strategy to drive both revenue and profit.
My clients include startups, SMEs, educators and consultants who take advantage of my experience across broad sectors to develop and transform their business and marketing strategies.
Specialising in underlying business strategy, brand development, digital marketing and training; I spend my time working with business owners and executives to strengthen their understanding of strategy and their ability to execute strategy.
I volunteer with several not-for-profit organisations, supporting their marketing and communication strategies.
I am working with one organisation at the moment to define a new brand structure for their business, allowing them to better reach their current target market and allow them to grow into new target markets. This involves a large portion of change management, working with the executive team and board to put in place new structures to allow the business to grow. We will then create a new brand, building out the brand promise and the branding and communication direction.
I also work with organisations, training their staff to better understand target audiences, social media, marketing and communications. This is particularly powerful in small NFPs so that they understand the broader market and how they can capture attention and increase engagement without a large marketing budget.
Marketing
My extensive experience in marketing allows me to meet the brand, marketing and sales needs of businesses as a consultant.
I deliver brand and marketing plans against audiences with implementation strategies to allow business owners and executive teams to both grow their understanding of tactics and strategies and how to deliver these – teach a man to fish and all that.
I run workshops for businesses across a range of marketing specialties including customer, content, digital and integrated campaigns.
A particular interest and specialty is the role of digital solutions in marketing.
I am working with a client at the moment to integrate their CRM, marketing and content platforms to enable a single view of the customer and allow them to build better campaigns.
This focus on ROI and outcome is key skill set I possess as a marketing and business professional who is comfortable with delivering aggressive sales and marketing targets and the strategies that underpin this success.
Business
In the business strategy consulting realm I work with start-ups to develop a holistic business strategy and provide advice around go-to-market strategies, revenue diversification avenues and the accountabilities of targets and delivery.
Many start-ups have a great idea and a keen customer base but they don’t necessarily have the stucture or strategies to scale their business while also protecting margin.
My work may include the development of a business plan, targets, risk identification and mitigation and the underpinning work for a go-to-market strategy. I work as a sounding board against which ideas can be tested and fleshed out.
In more established businesses I often work as a key member of a ‘pivot team’, enabling the business to shift direction, brand promise, product strategies and marketing approaches to successfully tackle new markets and new challenges.
My experience across small business to international companies, in a range of industries, means that I can apply solutions from other areas to meet the challenges presented.
I enjoy working with businesses to increase their focus on customer and meeting their needs – solving a customer’s problem through the development of a solution, rather than being a solution in search of a customer.
Mentoring
Do you know where you want to be? For many of us this can be a difficult question.
It could be that we know where we want to be, but aren’t sure how to get there from here. Or perhaps we aren’t used to thinking big, to thinking ahead. Or perhaps we just need a nudge in the right direction – someone to push us to complete tasks that will help us move from A to B; someone to help us update our resume; someone to talk through interview techniques.
Being invited to use my expertise to ask people the right questions to progress their vision is a privilege.
A mentor isn’t your mother. They aren’t there to harass you to complete homework or to complete a task. They might gently remind you, but you are not their responsibility. Your success is up to you. A good mentor recognises this and helps provide a sounding board or a springboard into your next steps.
I enjoy mentoring men and women from diverse backgrounds, seeking different outcomes including how to change jobs, grow their business, increase their management skills, better their time management.