Made In Ely - Episode 15 - Jade Raymond at PA Answer

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Welcome to Made in
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Ely, where we chat to local business owners about what they're building and how they're
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doing it, recorded here at the Ely Rec Collective. So today's guest is Jade Raymond,
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owner and director of PA Answer. Welcome, Jade. Thank you, lovely to be here.
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Oh, lovely to have you. Um, so for folks that don't know about you and
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PA Answer, we'll kick off first of all with So tell us a bit about
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you, where you are, and what you do in Ely. Yeah,
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so PA Answer is an award-winning telephone
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answering and admin service. So effectively what we do
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is we support small businesses, business owners, with things
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such as call answering, diary management, email management,
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and the general kind of day-to-day struggles that most business owners or
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small businesses suffer with. We've got a small team,
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there's 11 of us, and we're based on St. Mary Street in Ely.
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So we're, um, kind of in the centre of town but tucked away a little
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bit, um, so in a little listed building, which is a really, really lovely office.
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Um, yeah, so that's, that's kind of where we are and a little
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brief about what we do. Lovely, lovely, thank you. Um,
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so take us back, do a little rewind.
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Um, so you started at PA Answer back in 2012.
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Yeah. Oh my God, that feels a long time ago now. Yeah, I know.
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Um, as a, as an apprentice there, what, um, yeah, tell us a bit about
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that journey, sort of what, what led you to that particular role and, um,
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you know, what your background was prior to that. As well. Yep. So I,
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um, so yeah, I started, um, in, in, I think it was the summer of
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2012, um, and it was an apprentice role.
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Before that, I hadn't— so I'd not long finished college,
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um, and I was planning on going to university,
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but I was in that dilemma where I didn't really know what I wanted
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to do at university. I had certain things that I thought sounded interesting,
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um, and I'd finished college, all of my friends
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other than, I think, one or two were going to uni. So, it almost
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was the most logical step for me.
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But I think because I couldn't make that decision, I decided
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to defer for a year. So, I still had
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in my mind that that's what I wanted to do, but I wanted to kind
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of decide if I did want to do, I was gonna do like a counseling
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and psychology,
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that kind of course. And yeah,
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decided I'll defer for a year and just see. And then in that
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year, I, um, kind of, I guess,
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similar avenue to that, found a job as like a support worker.
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So it was helping, um, kind of not
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necessarily the elderly people, but mainly people with like learning difficulties
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or kind of physical difficulties, um, that just needed someone to
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support them in their home and out in the community. Um, so I thought that
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would work kind of line up with what I wanted to do.
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Um, so I found a job doing that and, and I got accepted, which was
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amazing. So I started doing that, but the role that I was actually recruited
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for, um, hadn't started yet. So,
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um, it— the contract basically just hadn't arrived and
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it was going to be a bit of a delay. So in that interim,
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rather than letting me go or kind of asking me to wait for
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them, they said, actually, we've got some office um, adminy roles
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that we could have some support with. Um, would you be interested in doing that
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a couple of days a week? Yeah. And I was like, yeah, absolutely.
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You know, I wasn't— I hadn't— I wasn't at college anymore, so I was like,
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yeah, great, would do me good to make sure I've got something 3 days a
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week to go out and work and also get me kind of in the workplace.
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I'd done waitressing and stuff before and I really, really loved that,
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but I'd not had kind of a, a 9-to-5 kind
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of job. Yeah. Um, And I did that and I actually really,
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really enjoyed it. So I was working alongside a lady that
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was doing like risk assessments, emails, phone calls,
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general kind of admin, putting documents together. Um, and I really
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enjoyed that. And then when the time came for my support role to start,
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yeah, um, I was like, oh, actually, hang on
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a minute, um, I've really enjoyed doing what I've been doing.
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Obviously I wasn't employed to do that, so, uh, we we parted
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ways and that's not long after that I found PA
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Answer. At the time, I almost felt like maybe I
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was taking a step back to be an apprentice after I'd finished school,
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college, and then I'd kind of got a bit of a job.
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But I'm so glad I took it because it's
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kind of led me to where I am today. So I joined
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back then and then quite quickly was promoted to a manager.
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After maybe 2 years with being with the business because I just really—
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I took to the role really well and just really enjoyed it. Yeah. Um,
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and then in 2017— 20— yeah, 2017 I
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think it was, um, I was promoted to a director. And then in 2020,
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or just before 2020, I think it was end of 2019,
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the owner of the business, Chris, came to me saying he wanted to sell the
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business. Yeah. And we were able to work out between us that I could to
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take that on, and I bought the business in September 2020.
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Wow, my goodness, quite a journey. Yeah,
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there's a lot to unpack there. Oh my God. Um, so those
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very early days, you're just taking back— so for folks that— I was, I was
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nodding along when you were saying that about the— you'll kind of, um, take a
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bit of a break before, you know, with the whole uni element. And I think
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there's probably lots of people that maybe that resonates with them that had sort
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of a similar sort of, I don't know, um, a bit of a journey,
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that sort of like squiggly career that's all very topical, isn't it, at the moment
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to call it that. But at that point, would you, if there's anyone else in
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that similar situation, would you recommend that, to take that time? Did that, I mean,
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obviously things have worked out amazingly for you that led you to kind of where
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you are now. Do you think that maybe that same thing would have happened
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if you'd gone off to uni and kind of followed a different path? Yeah,
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so, absolutely not. I would definitely not
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be where I am today had I kind of gone to uni and,
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you know, I might have really enjoyed doing that, but who knows?
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But I just think, definitely take your time. We're all,
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like, society rushes us, we need to finish college,
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we need to know what we want to do, we need to go to university
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or we need to get a job in a job that we know we want
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to do. But how do you actually know? You're so young and I
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think even, like, at school, the career
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opportunities seem quite small and I think as you get older and you experience different
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workplaces, you can try things out and think, I do or don't like this.
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And then you've got friends that might be, you know, getting involved in, oh,
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I've got a job doing this, and other things just kind of come into
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your, um, you know, aura, I think, and gives you a better
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idea. But I think, you know, university is obviously amazing, but it's super
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expensive. Um, it's a big commitment of, you know, 3 to 5
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or plus years of your life. And unless it's something you know
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you're gonna do, you know, you're gonna make the most of that, then I
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do think sit on it and take your time and, and really think through that
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decision. Yeah, absolutely. And I think, like you say, that exactly that way,
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um, that you did as well, in terms of like getting that experience as you
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go as well. Yeah, I think, you know, whether it's a work placement or however
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you, however you do it, um, that then naturally can then lead
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you to other avenues, like you say, that you would have never realized, you know,
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by, by the delay of that, that first role that you've had,
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then, you know, sort of naturally pushed you down that the more admin side of
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all of those different, covering those different areas. And then Oh, hang on a minute,
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that's actually something that you're, you're really passionate about. Yeah, sometimes it opens up those
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doors that you're not even expecting. Yeah, I think it's a, you know, it can
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be a really, really good, good thing for people. Definitely. Yeah.
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So then obviously coming to, to fast forward to, to then, um, you know,
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building your way up into, into the business now, um, and then takes
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making the decision to take on buying the business. Yeah. My God,
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that sort of makes me— oh, um, amazing. Obviously incredible.
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What, what was that decision process like? Was it, was it an easy one?
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Were you, um, terrified? Were you, you know what, tell us
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a bit about that. Yeah. Um, so it— I,
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I'm gonna say it was kind of an easy decision,
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but also not at the time. So I, I guess my—
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the, the owner Chris, he'd taken a step back. He wasn't in the office
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most days. He— I was kind of running everything myself,
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and I had another director working alongside me at the time, and she was amazing.
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And she was off on maternity leave, so I kind of was doing things single
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handedly, but with Chris's support, you know, he was
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always there. Um, and, you know, I just hadn't
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got that final say in things, I guess. Yeah.
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Um, to a degree. And the way that I thought is, is,
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you know, he's gonna sell the business regardless. So I
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kind of looked at my, my options, and my options were,
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um, Chris sells the business to someone on the open
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market and they either don't want me because they're gonna
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do that themselves, or they're gonna, you know, it's gonna be a bigger company that,
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that buys it and they just absorb the customers. Um,
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and my team as well, they could be made redundant if they don't want me.
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They might not want them. Um, or they could— someone could buy
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it and use me as, as a man of kind of general office manager,
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that kind of thing. But I'm then going to be working under someone
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that I don't know. I've done this for myself in a way for quite
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a few years, and I know what I'm doing. The customers all have a relationship
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with me. Um, what would they be like? Would they, you know, dictate to me
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things I can and can't do? Um, so that was in my mind. And then
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the other thing was, if I don't do it and
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I get made redundant or whatever, what would I go and do?
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Yeah, I would probably want to set something similar up on my own anyway.
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And I'm like, I've got all of these customers, I've got all of— I've got
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a relationship with every one of them pretty much. I've got a team,
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I've got an office. It's set up, everything's set up, so why
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not take the plunge and just give it a go?
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Obviously, it was very scary. I've had multiple conversations with my husband, well,
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Elliot, who's my now husband, now, wasn't at the time,
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and he is the kind of risk-averse
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worrier in the relationship and even he was like, it kind of
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seems like you should do this. And I think for me, that was like,
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okay, well, if he thinks that, then I should do it.
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No-brainer. Yeah, yeah, that's good. I'd like to say having that support network around
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you then of people kind of being like, let's, let's go through these, um,
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yeah, all the, the kind of pluses and minuses and everything like that of it.
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And then, but also somebody I guess is being a bit of a critical friend
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as well. Yeah, so someone that's not just going, yeah, of course you should just
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go for it, you know, sort of who cares type of thing. Actually having somebody
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there that, that's maybe going to think about some of the other things you don't
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think about. Absolutely. Yeah, like the financial commitment, the, the legal commitment,
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you know, all of that. It's a big thing. But actually, you know,
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weighing it all up and looking at it as a whole, um, rather than
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just, oh, that sounds really scary, I don't think I'm gonna do that.
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Yeah, um, you know, having a bit of faith and going, I can
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do that. Absolutely. No, definitely. Oh no, amazing.
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Um, is there anything, I guess, the, the, um, the current
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date, or if you could, if you could advise somebody now that maybe is in
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a similar situation um, that you know now that you wish
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you'd have known at that, at that point? So when you're making that decision,
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or, you know, at that, that stage, is there anything, um,
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yeah, you wish you'd have known, known at that point? Um,
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I, I think maybe just like
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trust your intuition. Um,
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I think it's quite, you know, we can overthink a lot of things ourselves
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and kind of scare ourselves out of things and say,
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you know, oh, how am I gonna run, you know, how am I gonna own
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a business? You know, I was young, I was, I think,
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25, 26 and
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I was like, oh, it's a big commitment but I think just trust
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that you, you know, you can do things and things
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aren't as scary as they seem, take it kind of step by step. I was
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great 'cause I had a support network around me and also
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at the time, Chris stayed on as part of the business for a while as
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like a, Um, yeah, like a
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mental business advisor, that kind of thing. So also that helped me no
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end because I thought, well, my relationship with him doesn't end here.
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Um, I've got him for support if I need him as the,
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as the years go on until I feel 100%
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comfortable to say we're good here. Um, and that really did
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help me. And yeah, just having the right people around you and knowing your
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strengths and where you need to seek support and advice from
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other professionals. You can't do everything yourself.
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Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a really good point. It's something that, that James and
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I are certainly learning, have learned, I hope, um, here as well, is that,
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you know, you sometimes— that overwhelm of, like you say, when you're taking on your,
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you know, the owner, um, you feel like you have to wear every hat and
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you should know everything. And yes, there are some obviously clear fundamentals depending
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what business you are that you need to know and you should hope you know
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coming into that business, um, But actually, don't be afraid
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to ask for help and actually, definitely ask for help, you know, and find it
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because just from my experience so far as well is people are really happy to
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share, they're really happy to, you know, to either give their advice depending on what
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it is to, you know, to see you succeed and, yeah, don't be afraid
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to ask for that. Absolutely, yeah, I think it's important and like you say,
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people are willing to help and wanting to see
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you kind of do well and support you as well, so. Yeah,
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absolutely. So turning to PA Answer, um,
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obviously the name suggests a certain thing. Yeah. Um, but obviously
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you guys are— so, you know, there's the cool side, but obviously the admin
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side and so much more as well. Um, what, what does
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your— I guess, what does a typical, um, week look like,
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or typical— so in terms of sort of for an offering, so for people that
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haven't heard about what you guys do? Yeah, so, um,
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every day, week, hour is different,
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to be honest. Um, but because we offer such a
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wide range of services. We have some customers that
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use us for, um, just overflow calls, so when they're
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not available. We have other customers that we do outbound calls for,
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um, other customers we do a bit of a whole service,
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so incoming and outbound calls, book appointments,
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respond to their emails, take payments, send invoices,
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that kind of thing. Yeah. Um, so it's very varied, but how we tend to
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work internally is there's 11 of us, and so each team member
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has obviously strengths and weaknesses, so we tend to allocate
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their customers, um, depending on their strengths and weakness.
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With our telephone customers, most of our team can do all of that for
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cover for holiday, sickness, lunches, that kind of thing. But the more
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in-depth, like admin, outbound calls, emails, we have a small team.
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So you could have 2, you could have 3 receptionists that handle your account,
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um, and depending on the tasks that need completing,
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they would have that allocated time in the day to complete your tasks,
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um, and then like catch-ups with the customers as well.
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So, we, we kind of split our day in, I guess,
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each— we know what customers need doing, we know what
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each customer we've got, we know what needs slotting into each day, and then
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we allocate the day depending on who we've got in,
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what tasks need completing, and, you know, if we need extra support,
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then like myself, Bethany, my office manager, and Kez, my team
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leader, we will also support the team with either the phones or any admin
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work that needs completing. Yeah, amazing. Um, and obviously because
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you, you have such a wide range of clients, I can imagine, across, across the
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board, is it, um, how do you, how do you basically,
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I guess, tailor your services to, you know, because you might have, like you said,
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that, you know, um, a veterinary practice, or it might be a builder, or it
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might be, you know, a whole host of different businesses you work with. Is there
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a kind of process or way that you, you get to know them to make
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sure that your, your services is tailored to their business? Because I can imagine,
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I don't know, just sort of one of those always challenges that folks might,
16:16.802 --> 16:19.596
might think of coming to, to somebody like yourselves is, you know, is it going
16:20.096 --> 16:22.118
to sound like me? Is it going to, you know, they obviously have a certain
16:22.618 --> 16:25.330
tone of voice or things like that. Um, yeah, how do you, how do you
16:25.830 --> 16:28.670
get around that? Yeah, I mean, that's a really great, great question.
16:28.782 --> 16:32.058
So because we work with so many different industries, um,
16:32.075 --> 16:35.254
it can be difficult, but I think we've got quite a lot of experience in,
16:36.154 --> 16:39.638
in quite a few industries, so we tend to know, um,
16:40.249 --> 16:44.163
what services suit the customer that's coming to us. So initially,
16:44.195 --> 16:47.882
when you inquire with us, we'll have kind of a brief phone call, just get
16:48.382 --> 16:51.377
to know you, see what, you know, what's made you contact us, how we can
16:51.393 --> 16:54.631
help. And then after that, if you're still keen, we'll do a
16:55.131 --> 16:58.623
more in-depth call. Um, so we will then go through, okay,
16:58.943 --> 17:01.700
what, you know, show us your diary, show us how you use that, show us
17:01.748 --> 17:05.580
your emails, and do almost like more of a training call. And at that point,
17:05.596 --> 17:08.641
we, we can suggest, okay, this would help here,
17:09.026 --> 17:12.296
or, um, we've actually got other customers that do this which
17:12.393 --> 17:16.279
might work quite well for you. So I guess our experience allows us to really
17:16.779 --> 17:20.618
tailor it to the customer. We could have customers in the same industry
17:20.731 --> 17:24.445
and use us completely different ways. For example, we've got a,
17:25.155 --> 17:28.902
um, let's think of one of our customers. We've got a, um,
17:29.193 --> 17:32.387
removals company who use us for call answering
17:32.901 --> 17:36.421
and, uh, booking like into their diary. Um,
17:36.694 --> 17:40.342
and then we could have another removals company that only use us
17:40.535 --> 17:43.731
for lunchtime when they're not available, you know, when people are out of
17:44.231 --> 17:46.841
the office or something like that. So we have to listen to the customer,
17:47.081 --> 17:50.688
understand their needs, and then make our suggestions. All of our
17:51.188 --> 17:54.471
services are like add-ons. So once they join, if someone says,
17:54.535 --> 17:58.158
I kind of want to— for you to take my phone calls and
17:58.238 --> 18:01.572
see how it goes, we tend to build up the relationship
18:02.072 --> 18:05.259
with the customers as we go. So as they get to know us and
18:05.339 --> 18:09.090
trust us more, they then feel more comfortable in handing
18:09.123 --> 18:12.409
over more of their services— also adding on
18:12.909 --> 18:15.860
services and handing over more of their responsibilities to us. Yeah,
18:16.360 --> 18:19.040
absolutely. And I can imagine that exactly that, once they've kind of gone, okay,
18:19.540 --> 18:22.420
great, you guys are great at that. Yeah. Um, okay, there might be other things
18:22.920 --> 18:24.900
that they're sort of like, oh, I'd like to hand that over, but I'm not
18:25.400 --> 18:28.700
sure how. Or that, like you said, that trust element. Um, and I think also,
18:29.200 --> 18:31.800
like you touched on there, I think there's a really important part there is obviously
18:32.300 --> 18:36.560
you guys are specialists in this area, and I imagine probably most
18:37.060 --> 18:39.780
of or all of your customers absolutely aren't. They're doing it as it's part of
18:40.280 --> 18:41.960
their business. Back to what we're saying about, you know, feeling like you've got to
18:42.460 --> 18:45.680
wear every single hat. And actually, like you touched on there, you can
18:45.712 --> 18:49.092
then actually suggest, you know, better ways they can do things,
18:49.156 --> 18:52.649
or, or, you know, from that side. And that's probably really valuable to businesses.
18:52.825 --> 18:56.254
Absolutely. Even, you know, we have a lot of trades,
18:56.750 --> 19:00.643
and for them, normally the customer service is, is normally great
19:00.755 --> 19:04.184
when they're on site with the customer, but as soon as they leave,
19:04.680 --> 19:07.868
um, you know, there can be a bit of radio silence. They might struggle to
19:07.884 --> 19:11.313
get hold of them. And then for us, it's, you know, we're like,
19:11.329 --> 19:14.196
okay, how are we going to increase this customer service level for your customers?
19:14.629 --> 19:18.045
Making sure we're there. We tailor ourselves to our customer as
19:18.077 --> 19:21.529
well, within reason. So if you've already got someone internally,
19:21.915 --> 19:25.464
how do they answer the phone? How do they respond to emails? We can make
19:25.964 --> 19:29.526
sure that we align with them. Obviously, if there's improvements, we will suggest those,
19:29.880 --> 19:33.300
but we want it to seem authentic and that we are an extension of
19:33.573 --> 19:36.624
you and your business rather than, uh, you know,
19:37.090 --> 19:40.558
a kind of nameless call center that is just there to
19:41.281 --> 19:44.760
take messages and pass them on, because we're so much more than that. Yeah,
19:45.260 --> 19:49.220
no, that's, that's amazing. Um, the other thing that I was thinking
19:49.720 --> 19:52.200
as well is, so if, so if someone's listening to this or, or you,
19:52.700 --> 19:55.200
you know, um, see some stuff on your socials and sort of thinking, that sounds
19:55.700 --> 19:58.800
really interesting, um, I'd, I'd maybe like to do it, I'm not sure I'm
19:59.300 --> 20:01.580
ready for that yet, or I'm, you know, depending what size they are, or they're
20:02.080 --> 20:04.400
not sure if, if they're the type of business that, that you can support,
20:04.640 --> 20:07.880
um, what would you say to those people? What, what process should they go through?
20:08.380 --> 20:11.060
What should they do if they're kind of like, oh, it sounds interesting, sounds like
20:11.560 --> 20:15.076
it could help, but I'm not sure? Yeah, so, um, we offer
20:15.108 --> 20:18.619
a week's free trial for all of our new customers, and that is call
20:19.119 --> 20:23.269
answering. Um, so anyone that is in that kind of frame of mind, we tend
20:23.769 --> 20:26.812
to say, look, give us a call, have a chat with us. We're really friendly.
20:27.437 --> 20:30.852
Um, you know, we can, we can be honest with you. And if it— tell
20:30.884 --> 20:33.097
us what you're struggling with. If it doesn't sound like it's going to work,
20:33.225 --> 20:35.293
then we'll say, you know, it doesn't sound like we're going to be able to
20:35.793 --> 20:39.061
help you, or it's not going to be right for you now. Um, if it
20:39.141 --> 20:42.524
is and we think, yeah, actually we could really benefit you
20:43.024 --> 20:46.390
and we could increase your, you know, business and, and customer
20:46.890 --> 20:50.112
service, that kind of thing, then we will say, let us do a week's trial.
20:50.690 --> 20:54.524
Um, we'll set you up. It's, it's really low maintenance. We don't need
20:54.636 --> 20:57.604
that much from you in a sense of once we've got your information, we'll get
20:58.104 --> 21:00.411
it set up on our end. We'll have a— that phone call where we just
21:00.911 --> 21:03.459
go through what's needed and, and the requirements.
21:03.925 --> 21:06.957
Um, and then we'll run that trial for the week. Um,
21:07.534 --> 21:10.921
and it's no obligation. So we catch up during the week,
21:11.001 --> 21:13.586
and at the end of the week we tell you how many calls we've taken
21:14.035 --> 21:17.406
and what kind of feedback we've got. You can tell us how you've found it,
21:18.048 --> 21:20.874
and you can decide whether you want to continue or not. And if you do,
21:21.259 --> 21:24.711
it's monthly rolling, and if you don't, it's no obligation. So you can
21:24.791 --> 21:28.772
say, I've enjoyed it, however, I don't think it's quite right for me.
21:29.045 --> 21:31.983
Yeah, that's amazing. So it gives people that way of being able to kind of
21:32.483 --> 21:35.802
say, let's try it, let's, let's see, but it's not a huge amount work for
21:36.302 --> 21:38.800
them to do upfront. Exactly. And just see— and like you say, you can get
21:38.832 --> 21:41.893
those metrics back. They can, they can really see what difference it's making to their
21:42.393 --> 21:45.468
business. Exactly. And we can, at that point as well, we suggest what package is
21:45.564 --> 21:49.603
best for them. So once we've had their calls for a week— some customers
21:49.668 --> 21:53.563
really over-exaggerate their call volume, others really under-exaggerate. So until
21:53.595 --> 21:56.801
we have that week, it's hard for us to know definitely.
21:57.041 --> 22:00.487
So we like to do that as well to give them— we need to make
22:00.987 --> 22:04.418
sure you're on the right package when you do join us. No, absolutely. I think
22:04.918 --> 22:08.917
that's great. Um, thinking about advice, so for folks
22:09.417 --> 22:12.436
that are— obviously you're, you're dealing with a lot, um, a lot of calls and
22:12.452 --> 22:15.055
things like that. You're also dealing with a lot of businesses from that side in
22:15.103 --> 22:17.690
terms of that come to you, um, dealing with their kind of pain points.
22:17.835 --> 22:21.322
What, what are the biggest, I guess, mistakes that you see businesses, um,
22:21.611 --> 22:24.198
making? So when you, when you kind of step in to support them, or are
22:24.698 --> 22:27.508
there any things that— trends or things that stick out to you that, um,
22:27.942 --> 22:31.535
yeah, people mostly suffering? Yeah, so I think one main
22:31.631 --> 22:34.452
thing is, is the, the missing of the phone calls. So,
22:34.757 --> 22:38.299
you know, I guess a lot of customers come to us because they are aware
22:38.799 --> 22:41.794
that they're missing calls, and that's kind of a huge amount of,
22:41.970 --> 22:45.112
of lost business and lost trust in your brand.
22:45.657 --> 22:49.953
Um, even if it's not a, a new customer or someone wanting
22:50.001 --> 22:53.127
to do business with you, if it's an existing customer trying to get
22:53.627 --> 22:56.654
through and they just can't, they're gonna lose a bit of faith in you.
22:57.215 --> 23:00.645
If it's a new customer wanting to do business, um, it's something
23:00.710 --> 23:04.152
like 73% of callers, or not even callers,
23:04.168 --> 23:08.369
73% of customers will do business with the first company that
23:08.579 --> 23:12.655
they actually physically speak to. So nowadays
23:12.832 --> 23:17.004
everyone wants things instantly. You, you could ring up a plumber and
23:17.020 --> 23:20.767
have a list of 5 recommendations. Now if number 1
23:20.959 --> 23:24.415
doesn't answer, you're not gonna wait, you're gonna ring number 2. And if
23:24.431 --> 23:28.507
number 2 answers or gets back to your email or whatever,
23:28.555 --> 23:30.447
or WhatsApp, whatever method of contact you are using, gets back to you straight away,
23:30.463 --> 23:34.229
you're you're, yeah, like 73% more
23:34.729 --> 23:38.028
likely to do business with them. So it's really imperative to
23:38.092 --> 23:41.522
kind of get— make sure that you're responsive to
23:42.022 --> 23:45.418
your customers, um, and that is exactly what we do. And I
23:45.546 --> 23:48.880
think just not trying to do everything yourself.
23:49.537 --> 23:52.888
Focus on what you're good at within your business.
23:53.000 --> 23:57.072
You know what earns you money, and spend time—
23:57.088 --> 24:00.213
pay other people to do things that they are
24:00.713 --> 24:03.307
good at doing while you can do the things that you are good at doing,
24:03.371 --> 24:06.705
because you will make more money, and your business will be
24:07.205 --> 24:11.111
more effective because everyone is kind of an expert in their field,
24:11.832 --> 24:15.132
rather than going, oh my, um, you know,
24:15.196 --> 24:18.705
my PA can do our accounts. You know,
24:18.721 --> 24:22.038
if that's not what they're trained in, they're probably going to make some mistakes,
24:22.054 --> 24:24.938
and it's probably going to cost you money, and it's probably not the most cost-effective
24:24.970 --> 24:28.191
thing to do. Get someone trained in that area to do that for you.
24:28.335 --> 24:30.898
And also, I think as well, there's that time element, isn't there, as well?
24:30.962 --> 24:33.690
If you're getting somebody to do, you know, like you said, that, you know,
24:34.190 --> 24:36.650
that example there, or, you know, any of the, like, sort of an admin element
24:37.150 --> 24:39.970
that isn't their day job, that isn't— like you say, they're not a specialist necessarily
24:40.470 --> 24:43.470
in that area. It might take them twice as long. And like I say,
24:43.970 --> 24:45.810
all of the other mistakes and things that kind of come along with it,
24:46.310 --> 24:49.350
yeah, which ultimately is costing you more money. Yeah, as well. You know, from that
24:49.850 --> 24:52.930
kind of side, even things like calling, you know, chasing up
24:53.430 --> 24:57.030
customers' quotes. Um, we've got customers that just put
24:57.530 --> 24:59.350
that on the back burner and they never get around to doing it. And they
24:59.850 --> 25:02.350
say, oh, you know, I lose the motivation, or when I do it, it takes
25:02.850 --> 25:05.520
me ages. We can call about 30 people in an hour.
25:06.410 --> 25:09.370
So, you know, give us your list and we will get 30 people called in
25:09.870 --> 25:12.990
that hour because that's what we're good at doing. Yeah, um, absolutely. And you're gonna
25:13.490 --> 25:14.950
pay us for that, but you're only going to pay us for an hour.
25:15.250 --> 25:18.230
With you, it could take you 3 hours. So is that worth 3 hours of
25:18.730 --> 25:21.910
your time? Absolutely. And just headspace, you know, kind of, you know, if it's a
25:22.410 --> 25:25.670
job that you perhaps, um, dread. Yeah, yeah. You know,
25:26.170 --> 25:28.810
kind of like psyching yourself up to getting into that point as well. Um,
25:29.310 --> 25:31.760
and I think there's something as well you touched on there um, a little bit
25:32.260 --> 25:34.740
as well about that trust element. I think in this day and age as well—
25:35.240 --> 25:38.040
God, I sound really old now— day and age, um, but I think where everything
25:38.540 --> 25:41.760
is going online, everything is automated, there's a lot of— and don't get me wrong,
25:42.260 --> 25:45.200
I'm a big, big advocate for, for that in the right place. Yeah. Um,
25:45.700 --> 25:47.680
a lot of— there's a lot of, you know, bots and different things like that
25:48.180 --> 25:51.500
when you're trying to speak, just speak to somebody. I think actually there's a really
25:52.000 --> 25:55.820
good opportunity for businesses, especially local businesses, to stand out and be like,
25:56.320 --> 25:58.240
we want to take your call, we want to have a chat with you,
25:58.740 --> 26:02.271
you know, and actually have of, you know, be, be open and honest about that.
26:02.399 --> 26:05.224
I think that's the really, you know, something that could be a real, real sort
26:05.724 --> 26:09.043
of USP for some businesses. Yeah, you know, I can obviously— I'm going to
26:09.059 --> 26:12.429
agree because that's my industry, but I think we
26:12.590 --> 26:16.409
work with so many industries that the human element
26:16.441 --> 26:21.384
is so important. You know, veterinary practices, medical consultants— sometimes
26:21.737 --> 26:24.690
we have a little old lady on the phone and we're the only person she
26:25.190 --> 26:28.299
has spoken to that day, and she wants to have a bit of a natter
26:28.799 --> 26:31.555
with us. And, you know, you, you're not going to get that with AI.
26:32.068 --> 26:35.532
Um, and that's what we really pride ourselves on, that we
26:36.032 --> 26:39.381
deliver that, you know, personal customer service. We don't
26:39.881 --> 26:43.631
use scripts. We're not AI. We're not— you know, we get— we have information
26:44.131 --> 26:47.689
we need to take from that caller, but other than that, it's a free-flowing phone
26:47.785 --> 26:51.522
call. We listen to the customer's needs, and although we might not
26:51.570 --> 26:55.063
be able to solve their problem. They're listened to,
26:55.095 --> 26:58.220
they're heard, and then they're kind of put in the right
26:58.720 --> 27:02.305
direction, whether that be someone else giving them a call back or booking them to
27:02.805 --> 27:06.022
speak to someone in particular. Um, and I think that's so important.
27:06.070 --> 27:10.028
And for some industries, you know, AI voice is great
27:10.076 --> 27:13.601
and it's efficient and it's quick, but I think there are so many
27:14.101 --> 27:17.366
industries that we still need that human element, and that is where we
27:17.866 --> 27:21.035
really shine. Absolutely. And I think as well, you said there as well, I think
27:21.535 --> 27:24.260
from that, from that customer service element as well. I think, you know, you talk
27:24.760 --> 27:27.420
about kind of obviously the, you know, the lead part of it, the, you know,
27:27.920 --> 27:31.780
um, with new customers, but also there's that, that post part about protecting your brand,
27:32.280 --> 27:35.740
about having somebody that, you know, if people have got, um, a question or,
27:36.240 --> 27:38.380
you know, something they want to follow, or God forbid, you know, they want to
27:38.880 --> 27:40.580
refer someone else to you and they want to have a chat about how they
27:41.080 --> 27:44.480
do that, or there's all these different things, isn't there? Um, and to not have
27:44.980 --> 27:46.680
a way of them able, if they just want to pick up the phone and
27:47.180 --> 27:49.599
do that, I think is a real Yeah, it's a real missed opportunity, isn't it,
27:49.615 --> 27:54.312
for some? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, lovely. Um, so Ely,
27:54.648 --> 27:58.239
obviously we are on the Made in Ely podcast. Yes. Um, you guys,
27:58.351 --> 28:01.846
when you, um, have been in Ely, um, well, ever since you've— yeah, the business
28:02.346 --> 28:05.645
was set up here. Yeah. Was, um, was that an easy
28:06.145 --> 28:08.995
decision for you to stay in Ely wanting the business to be based here?
28:09.075 --> 28:12.057
Was that something really important to you? Yeah, I think it was, you know.
28:12.217 --> 28:15.151
So we, we are still in the same office that I took on.
28:15.648 --> 28:18.870
Um, I, I love it in Ely. I think it's got such a
28:19.370 --> 28:22.752
nice community. Feel. Um, lots of kind of small
28:22.945 --> 28:26.860
businesses that seem to really support each other. Loads of community
28:26.876 --> 28:30.149
events go on. Um, everyone's super friendly,
28:30.566 --> 28:34.562
and all of my team are all local. Um, quite a few from Ely,
28:34.979 --> 28:38.333
uh, surrounding areas. And, you know, I think it's,
28:38.606 --> 28:42.296
it's important for us to keep that. And, um, our office
28:42.796 --> 28:46.035
is lovely where it is, but I, I think the, the community in Ely is
28:46.131 --> 28:50.020
lovely, and you tend tend to get a lot of support from other
28:50.520 --> 28:53.380
local businesses, which I really do like that. Yeah,
28:53.880 --> 28:55.780
absolutely. And I think also, especially as well, if some of, like you say,
28:56.280 --> 29:00.240
some of the businesses you're supporting are based in
29:00.740 --> 29:03.500
Ely, but that for you guys to be there if they need to pop in,
29:04.000 --> 29:05.540
if they want to kind of speak to you, I think that's, you know,
29:06.040 --> 29:09.620
again, that's a really important thing, isn't it? It is, yeah, exactly. You know,
29:10.120 --> 29:13.460
we work with companies all over the UK, but we have quite a few local
29:13.960 --> 29:17.200
companies in Ely and surrounding, and it's nice for them to pop in and see
29:17.700 --> 29:21.257
our team and meet us and, Um, you know, I think that's a—
29:21.757 --> 29:25.318
it almost draws people to us. You know, if there's people locally
29:25.334 --> 29:28.624
that need our service, we're normally kind of
29:29.124 --> 29:33.551
top of the list because we are a local business. And I do find more
29:34.051 --> 29:37.611
so now local businesses like to support local businesses. Yeah.
29:37.724 --> 29:41.479
So that always is a benefit. Yeah, like you said. And it
29:41.979 --> 29:44.657
really— I think it really happened with— certainly James and I have found that again
29:44.753 --> 29:47.740
here with um, you know, with opening up at the office, I think people have
29:48.240 --> 29:51.320
been really, really welcoming, really sort of like, again, you know,
29:51.820 --> 29:55.480
keen to share, keen to see how we can work together. There isn't sort of—
29:55.980 --> 29:59.060
it doesn't feel that sense of competition at all. It's just sort of like,
29:59.140 --> 30:02.080
you know, okay, how— yeah, how can we work in partnership? How can we support
30:02.580 --> 30:05.580
each other as a local business? You're going through sort of similar challenges. Yeah,
30:06.080 --> 30:08.700
I think that's, you know, it's really rare. It's really lovely to have that kind
30:09.200 --> 30:11.940
of feeling, isn't it, in a community? Yeah, I think so. Yeah,
30:12.440 --> 30:15.140
lovely. Um, so I'm just— I just want to touch on a bit of the
30:15.640 --> 30:18.260
business side of things. Yeah, obviously. Um, you know, when you took over, like you
30:18.760 --> 30:21.260
say, you were already, you know, um, sort of running it from, from that sort
30:21.760 --> 30:24.260
of side of things as well. So, um, you know, you've got your, your team
30:24.760 --> 30:28.440
there. Um, how has that evolved over time in terms of like your
30:28.940 --> 30:32.180
skill set? Are there any things that you have now, skills you developed kind of
30:32.680 --> 30:36.000
over that, that time, and they've been super valuable to you as a sort of
30:36.500 --> 30:40.103
owner and director of the business? Yeah, so I think I'm I'm quite keen on
30:40.841 --> 30:45.045
always learning and always kind of striving to
30:45.510 --> 30:49.474
be better and to do more. So, I completed an
30:50.003 --> 30:54.095
NVQ Level, well, I did my customer service NVQs
30:54.175 --> 30:57.609
when I kind of first joined. And then, I think as I
30:58.109 --> 31:01.235
became a director, I did an NVQ Level 3
31:01.251 --> 31:04.348
in marketing. And then, when I was taking over
31:04.848 --> 31:08.231
the business, I actually did a Level 5 in management and leadership. So, that taught
31:08.731 --> 31:12.305
me so much because, you know, on the daily you think,
31:12.449 --> 31:15.511
oh, maybe I should do this or maybe I should do that. And actually to
31:16.011 --> 31:19.358
kind of study something to go alongside what you're doing, I think is super important.
31:20.384 --> 31:24.023
And also, you know, I do a lot of networking, so I meet so many
31:24.523 --> 31:27.694
new people and have lots of conversations and lots
31:28.194 --> 31:31.541
of advice and people to speak with. And my
31:32.041 --> 31:34.859
team as well, you know, I've got a really great team and we're always throwing
31:34.971 --> 31:38.402
ideas out there and they're always giving me suggestions.
31:38.514 --> 31:41.672
And I think we've got such a lovely kind of community within
31:41.784 --> 31:45.295
our team as well. Well. Um, so I guess that's probably
31:45.392 --> 31:48.999
why. And, and I'm always looking for, yeah, like little
31:49.499 --> 31:53.232
courses. So I've, I've done my like mental health first aid training, and I'm
31:53.264 --> 31:56.439
renewing that next week actually. Um, so little kind
31:56.455 --> 32:00.079
of even like short courses like that that I think are going to benefit me
32:00.579 --> 32:04.248
for mainly for my team's purpose. Um, I'm always about that because
32:04.748 --> 32:07.984
I think we, we can't ever really sit still where we are, and we need
32:08.016 --> 32:11.800
to keep learning and supporting my team
32:12.300 --> 32:15.842
especially. Yeah, because they're the ones that are supporting our— my customers.
32:15.954 --> 32:19.370
So if they're, you know, on their A-game, our customers are
32:19.870 --> 32:22.690
going to be super happy. If I've got a problem within my team, then that's
32:23.190 --> 32:26.875
going to impact our customers. So I really need to, yeah, make sure
32:26.940 --> 32:30.548
that that's, um, going well. And they're all doing— most of them are
32:31.048 --> 32:34.718
doing MVQs, um, in some, some form depending on their role
32:35.218 --> 32:38.828
within the business. So they're also kind of always learning as well. Yeah,
32:39.133 --> 32:42.813
absolutely. And you, you mentioned it there as well about the team. Obviously for
32:43.313 --> 32:45.722
you guys, the team is so, so important. I mean, isn't any business, but I
32:46.222 --> 32:48.341
think especially, I think given the type of things that you, you guys do,
32:49.080 --> 32:52.438
um, has, has that been a challenge when it's come
32:52.470 --> 32:55.925
to recruitment? Obviously you have, you know, you, you're looking for a certain type of
32:56.425 --> 32:59.123
person, I guess, to, um, to do this sort of role that you guys do.
32:59.525 --> 33:01.951
Um, has that been challenging at times? Yeah.
33:03.714 --> 33:06.471
Recruiting is always fun.
33:06.743 --> 33:10.061
I'm really lucky that actually my team at the moment,
33:10.125 --> 33:13.315
we've had for almost probably 2 years, so I haven't
33:13.815 --> 33:16.071
recruited anyone for that period of time.
33:17.017 --> 33:20.062
I dread when I have to recruit the next person, to be honest,
33:20.142 --> 33:23.957
because we've got such a good team and they gel personality-wise,
33:23.989 --> 33:27.691
and an office full of 11 women, everyone's like, how on earth do you
33:27.755 --> 33:30.945
survive? But, you know, we do all get on really well,
33:31.025 --> 33:34.789
and Everyone has their moments, but overall, I'm really, really lucky.
33:35.438 --> 33:39.235
And I think as I've kind of, you know, my experience
33:39.267 --> 33:43.180
has grown, I've realized that the skills of the person
33:43.276 --> 33:46.819
that I recruit obviously are important, but it's more their
33:47.319 --> 33:51.141
mindset and their work ethic and are they gonna gel with the team because I
33:51.271 --> 33:55.112
could bring someone in that's incredible at the job, but if
33:55.144 --> 33:58.343
they're not gonna get on with the team, they're not gonna last and it's not
33:58.392 --> 34:01.277
gonna, it's gonna cause a bad environment and, you know, I can't,
34:03.063 --> 34:07.367
afford for that to happen. So I really take their opinion
34:07.415 --> 34:11.140
into consideration, and we do kind of trial
34:11.156 --> 34:14.545
periods for any— anyone we interview to get them to
34:15.045 --> 34:18.158
pick up the phone and see how they even just interact with
34:18.383 --> 34:21.627
the other team members, because that's so important. And also,
34:21.691 --> 34:25.336
the amount of people that I've had come to an interview, and when
34:25.385 --> 34:27.376
I say, oh, would you like to come back for a trial? You know,
34:27.392 --> 34:31.340
we're interested, we think you'd be great. And they're just petrified of
34:31.388 --> 34:34.706
picking up the phone. It's kind of a fundamental
34:35.206 --> 34:38.008
thing you need in your role. Yeah. And I'm like, okay,
34:38.361 --> 34:41.936
well, that wouldn't last very long, would it? So I— yeah,
34:42.000 --> 34:44.420
I think it's the try. For me,
34:45.270 --> 34:49.005
recruiting is, is important, you know, interviews are important, but I
34:49.021 --> 34:52.066
speak to them on the phone first. That's number one. Are they good on the
34:52.566 --> 34:54.919
phone? Are they, you know, have they got a bit of kind of charisma about
34:55.032 --> 34:58.703
them? Are they a good at an interview,
34:58.719 --> 35:02.021
you know, can they, can they chat and, um, kind of
35:02.521 --> 35:05.756
liaise with me? And then also, how are they at physically picking up the phone
35:05.852 --> 35:09.090
and, and dealing with my, my team? Are they, are they kind
35:09.590 --> 35:13.130
of interested in what they're doing? Are they asking questions? Do they
35:13.146 --> 35:16.897
appear that they're bored? Have they got their phone out? Like those kind of things.
35:17.394 --> 35:20.536
And I think, yeah, to watch that and see, I think
35:20.600 --> 35:24.784
that's really important. Yeah, no, it's so true. I think, uh, so spoiler
35:25.284 --> 35:28.807
alert for anybody who hasn't listened to the, um, Tom from Silver Oak, we had
35:29.307 --> 35:32.040
him a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. Um, so when this airs, it will— his,
35:32.540 --> 35:35.020
um, episode will be out. Um, but one of the things he touched on there,
35:35.520 --> 35:38.360
we were talking about recruitment, and obviously it's, you know, similar— there's a customer service
35:38.860 --> 35:41.260
element. Yeah. Obviously with the, um, with the guys there. And he was saying the
35:41.760 --> 35:45.180
similar thing, as in like he actually, to a point, doesn't care what's on
35:45.680 --> 35:47.900
the CV. Yeah. And, you know, James and I will be the same here when
35:48.400 --> 35:51.720
we look to have, um, to recruit folks here. It's, you know, like you say,
35:52.220 --> 35:54.980
it's so true. It's about the, the drive that they have, you know. Do they
35:55.480 --> 35:57.600
want— well, do they want that role? What are they— what are they bringing to
35:58.100 --> 35:59.140
the table in terms of those, you know, the, the kind of some of those
35:59.640 --> 36:03.060
fundamental skills you can, you can teach, can't you?
36:03.560 --> 36:06.500
It's, it's the, it's the personality, it's the, you know, the other, the other things
36:07.000 --> 36:09.970
that sort of the intangibles, I guess, that they're bringing to the table.
36:10.020 --> 36:13.920
That's what people need. Yeah, like 100%. I think we train
36:14.420 --> 36:16.979
everyone in-house anyway. As long as you can write, as long as you can talk,
36:17.040 --> 36:20.320
as long as you can put an email together, and if you've got that ambition,
36:20.820 --> 36:23.720
that drive, and that personality, um, you know,
36:24.220 --> 36:26.500
you'll be great. If you don't want to speak to people on the phone and
36:27.000 --> 36:29.600
you're, you don't want to go out of your way to help customers, and you
36:30.100 --> 36:33.393
know, you're not going to turn up to work every day, then your CV
36:33.893 --> 36:36.507
could be the best CV that I've ever seen, but you're not gonna work,
36:36.587 --> 36:40.712
you're not gonna suit the role. And I 100%
36:41.212 --> 36:44.596
agree with that. I think the person and their personality and
36:44.628 --> 36:48.014
their ambitions are more important most of the time for
36:48.063 --> 36:51.305
our role. You know, some obviously you can't overlook that,
36:51.353 --> 36:54.996
but for the roles that I recruit for, yeah, that's more
36:55.496 --> 36:58.270
important. And that's the thing, and I think I would ever— would always say to
36:58.770 --> 37:01.340
people as well, just like, just apply. Because I think there's a— I don't know
37:01.840 --> 37:03.520
what the stat is off the top of my head, but I remember back in,
37:04.020 --> 37:07.240
um, you know, corporate, corporate world for me, um, a lot of people then would
37:07.740 --> 37:10.680
say, well, and you know, from, from a female perspective, if they didn't tick— was
37:11.180 --> 37:14.340
it something like 98% of the boxes of, of a, um, a job ad— they
37:14.840 --> 37:18.180
wouldn't apply. Um, whereas male, it was sort of the opposite way. They might—
37:18.680 --> 37:21.380
yeah, you know what, I'll, uh, you know, no shade, but you know, absolutely give
37:21.880 --> 37:24.640
that a go. Yeah, exactly. And I just think that's— it's so crazy because like
37:25.060 --> 37:28.250
say, actually, a CV is not, it's not everything, you know. So it's just like,
37:28.750 --> 37:31.150
for those people that, you know, just, just give it a try because you don't
37:31.650 --> 37:34.190
know, do you? You don't know what, yeah, what you might bring to the table
37:34.690 --> 37:37.430
that, you know, you might see in them that, um, you're willing to take that
37:37.930 --> 37:40.610
chance on them. Yeah, absolutely. And even just a gap in the team, you know,
37:41.110 --> 37:44.170
all of my team all have different, um,
37:44.670 --> 37:48.030
skills and different responsibilities. And if I'm kind of missing
37:48.530 --> 37:51.310
almost, you know, I've got maybe a couple of people that can do that,
37:51.810 --> 37:54.730
but I'm, I'm missing that from someone else, if you've got that, then you could
37:55.230 --> 37:57.260
go go to the top of my list if that's an area that I'm actually
37:57.760 --> 38:01.420
wanting a bit of support in. Yeah, so absolutely. And the other thing,
38:01.920 --> 38:05.040
just, just before we wrap up a little bit, I'm, um, I'm intrigued about that.
38:05.540 --> 38:08.160
I think, um, you saying there about obviously they're having a, a quite a large
38:08.660 --> 38:12.380
team of all female, but most people are like, oh my goodness, how? But that,
38:12.880 --> 38:16.220
you know, there is that great team cohesion and that, you know, everyone, um,
38:16.720 --> 38:20.080
happy from that side. How do you do that? Any tips for anyone that's sort
38:20.580 --> 38:22.680
of, you know, from, from that kind of side in terms of from, from a
38:23.180 --> 38:26.546
leadership perspective? Um, yeah, how do you, how What's
38:27.046 --> 38:30.330
the magic? I don't know, maybe you have to ask my team
38:30.830 --> 38:33.776
that question. But I would say,
38:34.241 --> 38:37.912
like, I've got an open-door policy, so I would, I put
38:37.944 --> 38:41.791
my team above everyone, really. If they need support or they just need to come
38:42.291 --> 38:44.244
in and vent to me or they've got a personal problem,
38:44.821 --> 38:47.851
I'll always sit and listen to them, even if I'm busy,
38:48.043 --> 38:51.089
you know, I know it can't happen 100% of the
38:51.589 --> 38:54.022
time, but I will always make sure that that day I will put the time
38:54.070 --> 38:57.324
aside to deal with them. And a lot of the time, me and my office
38:57.824 --> 39:01.508
manager, my team leader, we will drop what we're doing to handle a
39:01.732 --> 39:05.179
team member's issue, even if it's a personal,
39:05.195 --> 39:08.545
completely non-related work issue. For us,
39:08.577 --> 39:12.536
it's really important. And I think, 'cause I do have
39:12.568 --> 39:16.223
that policy, the team feel really comfortable in coming and chatting
39:16.335 --> 39:19.910
to me and knowing that they can just sit and rant, and they're not even
39:19.942 --> 39:23.597
necessarily wanting me to give them a solution. They just wanna come and
39:23.773 --> 39:27.494
get it off their chest and know be listened to, and I
39:27.994 --> 39:32.339
might be able to offer something that might help. I might not, but normally
39:32.371 --> 39:36.302
they go away feeling better because they've got it off their chest.
39:36.767 --> 39:40.329
And yeah, I think that's quite important, especially a
39:40.393 --> 39:42.800
team full of women. I don't, I don't know it would work the same way
39:42.864 --> 39:46.297
with men because they probably wouldn't come in and tell you all of their problems,
39:46.650 --> 39:50.244
but, um, you never know. Um, but yeah,
39:50.340 --> 39:53.730
I the— I think being an open— having
39:54.230 --> 39:57.750
that open-door policy and just listening and taking on board
39:58.250 --> 40:01.530
what their concerns are. And yeah, that's really important. Yeah,
40:02.030 --> 40:04.470
absolutely. Knowing they've got that safe space that they can come and talk to you.
40:04.610 --> 40:07.730
And yeah, even like you say, if they're— they're probably not necessarily always looking for
40:08.230 --> 40:10.490
the answer. Yeah. But they just, you know, knowing that they can— they can come
40:10.990 --> 40:15.090
in and— and yeah, talk about that. Yeah. There we go. That is the magic.
40:15.970 --> 40:18.930
So, um, we are almost at the end, which I don't know how on earth
40:19.430 --> 40:22.653
that has happened. Um, we're gonna go into our quickfire around. Yeah, which, um,
40:23.167 --> 40:26.250
yeah, I'm notorious for it not being very quickfire, but we'll try, we'll try.
40:26.443 --> 40:28.434
I, I, by the end of— I don't know, whenever we get to this,
40:28.466 --> 40:32.063
we will, we will eventually do a quickfire. Um, so first one on the,
40:32.223 --> 40:36.029
uh, first question is for you. Uh, calls or emails, um, which do you prefer
40:36.173 --> 40:39.673
for important news? Um, I would say a phone call because
40:39.770 --> 40:43.334
you can, or you can speak with someone and you know, you physically
40:43.834 --> 40:46.979
know they have received that information. Okay, lovely.
40:47.957 --> 40:51.035
Um, next one. Um, true— oh my
40:51.099 --> 40:54.946
goodness, true crime documentary or feel-good film for
40:55.446 --> 40:58.184
a Sunday night kind of sofa? What would you, what would you pick? Uh,
40:58.457 --> 41:02.000
always a true crime documentary. I am a
41:02.064 --> 41:04.532
lover of true crime documentaries,
41:04.725 --> 41:08.139
serial killers. Nice. People going missing.
41:08.476 --> 41:11.666
Yeah, I love it. That's, that's a bit of a wind down.
41:11.922 --> 41:15.721
Yeah, that is how I relax. I like that though. It's just sometimes just,
41:15.769 --> 41:18.591
yeah, something completely different. Just, yeah, take, take you away.
41:19.216 --> 41:22.807
Okay, right. Um, uh, best piece of advice someone gave
41:22.839 --> 41:25.291
you about running a business? Um,
41:26.365 --> 41:30.100
oh, that's a tough one. Probably,
41:30.694 --> 41:34.845
I mean, um, Chris said to me back in the day, if, if someone's
41:35.345 --> 41:39.174
not playing game, you know, like a staff member or a customer
41:39.674 --> 41:43.357
or anyone, then you need to deal with that as a personal matter because it's
41:43.857 --> 41:47.221
quite easy to allow, you know, someone maybe messing around
41:47.721 --> 41:49.818
a little bit and just be like, oh, you know, they'll come around. Most of
41:49.834 --> 41:53.971
the time they don't come around. And they could then in fact tarnish
41:54.083 --> 41:57.226
other people. And he's like, I remember him saying to me,
41:57.370 --> 41:59.968
you need to take that personally, you need to see that they are affecting you
42:00.193 --> 42:02.887
and the business and they're stopping you from achieving your goals.
42:04.347 --> 42:07.490
And I guess in with that is a bit of trusting your gut. Most of
42:07.990 --> 42:10.761
the time when that's happened, I've always had a bit of a feeling in my
42:11.261 --> 42:14.594
stomach, but my head's been like, no, it'll be fine,
42:14.626 --> 42:18.379
give them another chance. You know, it's a one-off. And most of
42:18.879 --> 42:22.197
the time, it's not a one-off, I give them another chance and it still happens.
42:22.245 --> 42:25.618
So, um, so yes, that I would say
42:25.843 --> 42:29.570
is quite, quite valuable. Okay, well, I love that. That's— yeah,
42:29.875 --> 42:33.473
wow. Um, and last one, um, if PA Answer
42:33.973 --> 42:36.685
had a tagline, so beyond obviously what you guys, your branding at the moment,
42:37.087 --> 42:39.271
and that sums up what you do, what would it be?
42:40.315 --> 42:45.198
Um, um, so with
42:45.698 --> 42:49.084
our name PA Answer it, you know, as you say,
42:49.309 --> 42:53.291
it kind of goes like, well, it, it alludes
42:53.404 --> 42:56.262
to answering the phone. Um, however,
42:57.081 --> 43:00.645
when a lot of customers come to us, we are the answer for them
43:00.709 --> 43:03.969
for a lot of their kind of issues and, and queries.
43:04.627 --> 43:08.818
Um, so I think, you know, PA Answer being the answer
43:09.123 --> 43:13.089
to your business's needs, and because we're so so,
43:13.297 --> 43:17.001
uh, varied and so broad, and we're able to help in so many
43:17.501 --> 43:20.754
different ways. I think that maybe would be something I
43:21.254 --> 43:24.298
would— yeah, I would like to say is, is the— back in the day,
43:24.458 --> 43:28.194
we were pretty much just phone answering, so that's why we're PA Answer. But actually,
43:28.307 --> 43:32.604
we are the answer to a lot of other, um, business solutions
43:32.636 --> 43:35.731
than just answering your phones. Yeah. Oh, I love that.
43:36.485 --> 43:40.429
Very nice. Very nice. Okay, so finally, Um, what's next
43:40.494 --> 43:43.940
for BA Answer? Anything kind of exciting things on the horizon
43:44.440 --> 43:47.642
or anything you want to kind of, um, point folks to? Yeah, so I,
43:48.572 --> 43:51.601
um, so at the moment we've got one spare desk in, in the office that
43:51.617 --> 43:55.769
we're in. So I would, if we do fill that this year potentially,
43:56.346 --> 43:59.615
um, I would like to get a bigger premises.
44:00.048 --> 44:03.158
Um, that would be amazing just to have something maybe a little
44:03.658 --> 44:06.716
bit more modern and somewhere that we could expand the services a bit more.
44:08.047 --> 44:11.641
And also, we work with different industries. So, we've got quite a lot of
44:11.673 --> 44:15.106
veterinary, quite a lot of medical clients. And in the future,
44:15.267 --> 44:18.828
I'd like to branch off. So, I'd like to have kind of set team that
44:18.876 --> 44:22.117
dealt with just vets, a set team that dealt
44:22.166 --> 44:25.872
with just medical consultants, and then a more generic team.
44:26.209 --> 44:30.011
So, you know, we need to make sure that logistically,
44:30.509 --> 44:34.680
the business, I guess, is like 30% in each area,
44:34.696 --> 44:38.227
so to kind of make it work and enough enough business in each, you know,
44:38.804 --> 44:42.400
to justify that. And if we got a bigger space, I think we
44:42.900 --> 44:46.189
would be able to do that easier because we could have teams in,
44:46.413 --> 44:49.030
in different, you know, desk spaces.
44:49.608 --> 44:52.770
Um, at the moment it's quite difficult, but that would be a,
44:53.300 --> 44:56.334
a long-term goal for PA Answer to,
44:56.912 --> 45:00.218
you know, branch into and maybe branch into other areas as well that
45:00.718 --> 45:03.878
we see, we see fit. Lovely, very exciting.
45:04.055 --> 45:07.762
What's going— lots, lots of potential going down the road. Um, so So
45:08.262 --> 45:11.191
for anybody who would like to find out more about you guys, um, or just,
45:11.207 --> 45:14.396
yeah, um, where can they find you and, and how do they do that?
45:14.572 --> 45:18.177
Yep, so we are physically St. Mary Street 46A.
45:18.658 --> 45:21.030
We're next to Poets House. Um, online,
45:21.142 --> 45:25.148
paanswer.com. We're on Facebook, which is PA Answer
45:25.532 --> 45:29.057
UK. Instagram, which is PA Answer
45:29.557 --> 45:32.903
UK as well. LinkedIn. And our
45:33.403 --> 45:37.470
contact number is 0333 8000085.
45:37.970 --> 45:41.370
Love that, just off the cuff. They say you probably say— I say that a
45:41.870 --> 45:45.350
lot. So yeah, get in touch. As I said, we're,
45:45.850 --> 45:49.150
we're very friendly, so we'd love to hear from anyone that's curious,
45:49.650 --> 45:53.350
I guess. Yeah, sounds amazing. Lovely. Well, thank you so much, Jade, for coming in.
45:53.990 --> 45:56.470
Um, and I say, yeah, I can— and yeah, I can attest that you are
45:56.970 --> 46:00.370
wonderful. So, um, yeah, I think anyone that's, like I say, on, on the
46:00.870 --> 46:03.269
fence a little bit, just have a conversation with you guys and, and see,
46:03.350 --> 46:06.142
you know, see how you can help. Um, and yeah, thank you so much for
46:06.158 --> 46:08.498
coming in. Thank you, it's been lovely. Lovely. Thanks,