In short, they are one of our products!
But we thought we’d share a bit more about why we have created them and who they are perfect for. Background Have you been to an amazing training course, really inspiring, motivational or even just practical and useful. Then when you return to work, you notice it is not as clear in your mind anymore, your notes are confusing or you have a particular situation that didn’t quite get covered in enough detail so you are stuck again? Or even worse, it’s back to the normal to-do list and you just don’t have the time to take it any further! Or maybe you have invested in Coaching but realise that Coaching itself is not normally about your coach giving you the answers, it is about helping you find the answers yourself. And although it is extremely important and useful for some things, sometimes you just want an expert to give you advice or show you how something is done? Here at Pyramis, we realised we needed a different way to work with our clients that are not at the stage of requiring a full outsourced solution and just wanted a one off session to get the job done. The ‘Working Session’ was born. What is it? Our ‘Working Sessions’ are just that, a specific amount of time to ‘Work’ on the task at hand, the one thing that you might need some expert advice on, to get it done and ticked off your to-do list. It’s a 2-hour session with one of the team where we focus solely on achieving the pre-defined objective. Why 2 hours? From our experience, 1 hour is not enough to get really stuck into achieving something significant however any longer than 2 hours, it can feel overwhelming for some, especially if the session is around providing information. We also find that 2hrs gets the task well underway and then it’s useful to take it away and give it a go for a while. This is especially true for setting up a new reporting system or cash flow, once the initial setup is complete, you need to just use it for a bit before it can be stress tested. Typically, the session involves a balanced mix of sharing information about your business numbers, digging deeper on those assumptions, querying any concerns and practically pulling it all together so you have moved forward. It therefore feels like a healthy blend of training, coaching, mentoring, advising and ‘doing’. All the while, being totally focused on you and your business. The session goes deep enough for you to delve into the specifics of how you do things and therefore avoids much of the ‘getting stuck’ mentioned above that you can experience after a more generalised training session. The aim is to save you wasted hours of uncertainty, trial & error and endless ‘googling’. Who and what is it for? The beauty of our 1-2-1 Working Session is it is all about you, as long as we have the expertise to help, you can pick our brains, it’s your time. You set the agenda for the session. At first, that can sound a bit daunting but really it’s about what is causing you pain and keeping you up at night worrying or what is still on that to-do list that you don’t know how to tackle. We have some standard topics that keep popping up though, so here are some examples:
As long as we have the right people to help (we assess this before booking), we can design a ‘Working Session’ that specifically helps you. Once you book with us, we will get in touch to discuss what you want to focus on and ask for some information before we get started. For Start-Ups & Charity’s To help even the newest businesses, we have a discount scheme for Start-Ups. If you are younger than 12 months old, we will offer a 25% discount for the first 12 months you work with us, helping you set good foundations and develop some useful tools that can support your growth plans. In 2021 we are launching a new scheme for Charities, if you are a registered charity within the SME brackets, you can apply for a one free session to help you get started. We only have a limited amount of these sessions available each month and it’s limited to one session per charity, sessions are first come first serve and we will hold a waiting list and will help you make the most of the 2 hour session. We hope that has provided some insight into our ‘Working Sessions’ and if you would like to book a session, please check our availability here.
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I’m sure I’ve spent my Christmas like many other business owners, taking some time out of being in the business and thinking about what the coming year might look like.
And although I wrote this before the country was plunged into another Lockdown… It’s still relevant and at Pyramis we will be doing what we can to support business owners. Although we are not out of the woods yet with COVID, and as businesses we are going to have to continue to be pretty sharp, determined and resilient to see the storm through. At least we can think about what the new normal might be for Pyramis Solutions and how we can continue to help businesses. Here are some upcoming projects we have planned for the year- you heard it here first! ‘Tech’ Brand Most of our clients know that we have a particular niche in supporting early stage Tech companies, especially if they already have a large grant or investor funding. This year we are looking to launch a new website and brand specifically for this sector. As I love experimenting with new Tech solutions, don’t be surprised if more hints and tips show up in our content showcasing some tools we use in Pyramis, as I am writing this I’ve just found Trello’s new views...awesome! Team Expansion Last year the team expanded just before lockdown, I’m so proud of how we have all embraced the technology which enabled us to come together weekly as a team. Excitingly, we hope to expand again this year, part of my first quarter projects will look at preparing the business to be a welcome and productive environment for Apprentices. Pyramis Accountancy It has been nine months since we launched our sister company and we are so happy that the brand has continued to grow, so again we will look at growing our online presence and resources for Pyramis Accountancy. Charitable ‘Working Sessions’ I have always wanted an element of my business that gives back. Many business owners know that at the beginning, you have more time than money so I have often fulfilled this goal with some volunteering, but this year Pyramis Solutions are launching our Charitable Working Session scheme. We will allocate a certain amount of ‘Working Session’ capacity each month to charitable causes, so if a registered charity is looking for a helping hand, they can apply for a free one-off ‘Working Session’ from one of our team members. This could really help a new charity get going or help a more established charity prepare for growth and expansion. New Packages One thing I’m very proud of is that we are super adaptable and can build a package that’s right for your specific requirements but understandably, that can be a bit daunting especially at the start of business. So this year, we are looking at some more ways that we can build packages for the small business in mind, one which combines coaching, mentoring and finance to create a light touch monthly ‘Finance Director’ check-in or management reporting package. We’ll share more about this once we have the details. New Training Materials The concept of our ‘Group Working Sessions’ have been around for a while but COVID made that a little more difficult to get underway. Our sessions need to be structured but interactive, which is a little harder to achieve on Zoom. Remember, you don’t just listen to a trainer for the entire session; we work with you to achieve the task at hand. This year, we hope to get back into the office to deliver group sessions in ‘Cash Flow’, ‘Reporting’ and ‘Costing & Pricing’. We are also looking at developing sessions on ‘DIY Book-Keeping for Business Owners’, ‘Using Integrations’ and ‘Reports from your Software’. As Xero partners, we will be launching sessions in Xero, however if there is a demand, we can look at other software so please get in touch if interested. New Resources Last year, in response to the initial impact of COVID we shared a free mini course for creating and managing your Cash Flow Forecast. This year we will look at other free resources that we can create in other areas of financial management that will help you get to know or develop your numbers. That’s a flavour of what we’ll be up to over the coming months. If you want to hear more about any of our upcoming projects, get in touch. For now, I wish you a Happy & Prosperous New Year from all the Pyramis team. |
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