(Returning client & rebrand in progress)

What the business does:
"We make it easy for UK foodies to cook delicious food that they love, in effective and sustainable ways whilst knowing what is in their food."

The business originally started as a food blog known as Royal Foodie Min, before it evolved into a business specialising in hard-to-find and highly-demanded food seasoning products, (e.g. Persian seasoning).

Task:
  • Clarify how the business can grow annual revenue by £35K
  • Solve issues relating to the business outgrowing its brand
  • Solve issues relating to product and brand messaging
  • Reduce the workload required to run the business
  • Position the company to launch new profitable products

Result:
  • Provided a detailed roadmap to grow revenue by £100K
  • One of the new suggested brand names was adopted by the owner (pending announcement)
  • Provided a roadmap for solving issues with product and brand messaging across all touchpoints, which instantly produced noticable results even when partially implemented
  • The workload required to run the business was and will be further reduced by the strategy
  • A product launch formula was provided to remove internal barriers to streamlined and profitable launches
Method:
  • Business strategy development (4th Pilot workshops)
  • Provided with concepts for rebranding
  • Supplementary support and detailed PDF roadmap: (4th Pilot support):
    • Sales funnel refinement, development & automation
    • Sales channel optimisation
    • Product labeling optimisation
    • Affordable team development
    • Business continuity guidance
    • Shortlist of suppliers and professionals
    • Product development process
      • Streamlined process to reduce workload, avoid failed products and boost profitability
  • Production capacity and process review (4th Pilot support)
  • Ad hoc implementation support (4th Pilot support)

Testimonial, role title and name:
"Omg this is cool! You've given me a clear idea of what to do next, thanks for this session and the supporting PDF. It's simplified my next steps." - Minal Vachheta

Company URL: 
www.facebook.com/royalfoodiemin/
Royal Foodie Min imageRoyal Foodie Min image

(Returning client & rebrand in progress)

What the company does:
Helping new and fairly new traders to escape erroneous thinking about trading, by providing accurate guidance that teaches them all the correct elements of trading. It also helps those who have dabbled and are trying to put it all together, by helping them to build the discipline and refined approach they need.

Task:
To assess whether there is a way to preserve the business' focus on:
  • Being customer feedback focused
While enhancing its ability to navigate the toughest challenges of the founder's process of developing, implementing and managing business strategies:
  • Allocating time efficiently
  • Resource management
  • Implementation

Result:
The business saw a 71% reduction in the work involved in:
  • Time management
  • Resource management
  • Strategy management
The founder's ability to incorporate insights from customer (and other) feedback into his strategy, has not only been preserved but also been enhanced as per above.

Because Michael's serial entrepreneur status makes his previous approach some what indicative of what other entrepreneurs will use, the 71% is also indicative of the advantage that he will now have over his competitors.

Put another way, Michael is now able to implement customer feedback and other insights, at faster rates than his typical competitors and in a way that drives and is aligned to his strategy.

This improvement was a crucial step to make it easier to take full advantage of a range of opportunities that have, and continue to be identified as part of our broader work with Entheos Trading.

Such opportunities include but are not limited to tapping into a mechanism that is proven to grow YouTube channels' livestream income from £0 to £480K+, in such a way that allows Entheos to also promote and generate additional income from its pending training courses. This income would be semi-pro-rated due to nuances of the monetization policy on YouTube.

Although the final choice in mechanism to support Entheos' strategy and business model will naturally be down to the founder, we'll work closely with Michael to ensure he has a robust and practical range of options to choose from.

Method:
  • 4th Pilot workshop
  • 4th Pilot after care support
Note: This is part of a much broader project that Entheos Trading is leveraging our services towards.

Testimonial:
"So, yeah, [the framework] helps with recognising what’s the way your efforts should be directed to, and with execution. It helps with how you go about it. Because there are various ways to get something done, it helps with making sure that you get it right, and knowing the required changes to make."

Company URL:
TBC
Entheos Trading imageEntheos Trading image
Task:
After seeing and hearing what I did for another business in his network, the owner asked me to help prepare Garment Source for launch, scaling and growth, by increasing the company's efficiency and helping it to devise a strategy.

Although the owner had already demonstrated that there was a substantial demand for the company and its vision as per the sales for a related event he had hosted, the business owner was extremely concerned with his initial workload being prohibitive to the company's growth.

Result:
Phase 1 of our work increased the company's efficiency by 30% by adapting the company's processes and workflows via a bespoke program called True Zero, and also identifying critical criteria for its online platform and app to meet (in development).

The focus of this process was to remove the company's barriers to scalability and healthy day-to-day operation, which was made much easier due to analysis work done using an early version of my strategy framework. Phase 2 is due to start soon and will focus on the next stage of the company's business strategy (Incremental scaling).

Method:
Specific areas addressed included:
  • Efficient information accessibility
  • Redesigning on and offline workflows for optimal efficiency
  • Redesigning how the business coordinated with suppliers
  • Addressing duplications in processes
  • Advocated for the business to switch to a specific project management solution, that was a best fit for how Garment Source's cost base and feature requirements would fluctuate at key points when it scaled
  • Created a roadmap for one version of the truth in internal reporting and all other instances relating to the processing of information
  • Short and long-term roadmap for business continuity
  • Automating inventory management
  • Automating supplier relationship management
  • Marketing content management
  • Payment processing security (incl. fraud prevention)

Testimonial:
"TrueZero helped me significantly increase both my and my company's efficiency, in a short space of time. To the point, I am now more relaxed and productive. I saved approximately 30% of time completing my everyday tasks using Kris Foye's advice from the true zero program. In turn, this helped to prioritise my day more effectively.

Kris Foye has been extremely helpful in also consulting me on the companies most aligned with my company's strategy, to improve the SEO development for my upcoming website and mobile app. I have saved a further 50% of my time comparing the benefits and features of each individual company." - Jamel Higgins, MD of Garment Source (Online Fashion Website and App)
Garment Source imageGarment Source image
Task:
To increase the number of prospects that the company generates per month, so that the company could make more sales.

Result:
The company's sales increased by 20% within 4 months, when it began to implement a new business strategy. The strategy focused on increasing the number of prospects and adding a new service that would increase the number of sales made.

Method:
  • Improved customer targeting
  • Improved marketing channel usage
  • Enhanced the sales funnel (incl. its ability to convert, reduce drop-offs and mitigate ghosting)
  • Building on the current pricing strategy, while refining it to be more optimised
  • Introduced a new complementary product that enhanced how the business' product range and sales funnel functioned as a whole
Testimonial:
"Kris has helped me grow my clinic’s sales by 20% in the last four months even though I have had to turn prospects away due to time constraints. His effective combination of personable phone calls followed with digestible recommendations in a visual format, was helpful especially because I am a visual person. He explained his points in a way that helped reframe how I thought about my prospects’ needs, and see the value in launching a new service he had proposed. I would recommend him to other companies because of his friendly service, how he took the time to understand my goals and was sensitive to my company’s needs." - Michael Benjamin, MD of BenMeds (IV Vitamin Treatments)

Benmeds imageBenmeds image
Task:
To create a roadmap for the launch of an organisation that gives students early internships with high-profile companies.

Result:
Our work on the company's vision allowed the owners to understand that they had mutually exclusive ideas of success, which ultimately would have cost them hundreds of thousands of pounds. This discovery freed them up to pursue their respective goals separately, while being able to allocate their respective resources in a way that more accurately reflected their goals.

*The £30K-£60K savings were retrospectively calculated based on the average monthly retainer cost of PR in the UK, which would have been expedient for the business to use during the scaling process - while all other costs were excluded to ensure that a conservative estimate was generated.

As such, it can be appreciated that it would be fair to say that the total savings relating to the pre-scaling, scaling and post-scaling phases, are likely to have been higher than this quoted figure.

Method:
  • Weekly meetings with both directors
  • Occasional meetings with a large team
  • Post-meeting support

Testimonial:
"You know what? I would highly recommend Kris. You know, this guy is just very on point, very intelligent. He knows his stuff, and he really cares about you and your business progressing, that's one thing that I really noticed that sets him apart from other consultants. You know, it's that passion and really trying to dig down into, you know, the ways that he can affect your business in a short time frame." - Michael Mettle-Olympio, Entrepreneur (Youth Program Organisation)

(Returning client & rebrand in progress)

Task:
To improve the company's business strategy and finance functions, to improve the company's financial stability. In addition, to help the company navigate a rebranding process from an events company to an agency for artists.

Result:
The business strategy reversed a worsening trend of losses that risked putting the company out of business, by improving the company's; cost base, cash management process, ability to mitigate cashflow issues and testing profitable replacements for loss-making events (both online and offline). The resulting new upward trend in the company's performance allowed it to return to breaking even within 6 months approximately, ahead of launching further offerings based around the concept of profitable social value for the next phase of the process.

The online events that were introduced helped the company to retain a presence and stay afloat during the Covid lockdowns. This was especially true as outdoor events were not always possible to do on a regular basis.

As part of this process I also successfully helped the company navigate its rebranding process while avoiding hidden confirmation bias, trademark infringements and legacy issues.

Method:
  • Provided an outsourced Strategy and Finance Director (SFD) service
  • Monthly director meetings with the MD and 2 other directors (and related recommendations)
  • Supported the other directors to develop and implement effective functional (departmental) strategies for their respective areas (each to be signed off by the MD).
  • Keeping the MD and other directors informed of any external and internal environmental risks, as well as, opportunities for the business and its strategy.
  • Helping the MD via ad hoc project support such as planning how the business could generate extra cash to buy a vehicle, for the transport of equipment to and from events. This in part would relieve some of the logistical strain the MD and events staff bore at various points in time, with the latter playing a critical role in helping to plug a gap during Covid where one outdoor event would not have happened otherwise.
  • Championed the business' focus on solving blind spots around health and safety to help insulate the business from any potential legal issues. Naturally, this was an important consideration to implement the business strategy effectively in a Covid sensitive environment.
  • Ensuring the business meets all legal obligations for reporting its financial performance and meeting its financial obligations, (including tax).
    • Including but not limited to:
      • Championed recommendations as required in the SFD job spec, to substantially enhance the business's ability to raise all directors' and event personnel's remuneration. This was to solve historically low pay levels that were undermining long-term; staff retention, team growth and business viability.
      • Provided recommendations that lead the charge to facilitate the MD's increasingly expressed goal of working full-time in the business, especially due to his need to extract greater returns from the business due to how the lockdowns raised questions over income security. Some key business-level issues were solved almost instantly, while other business and personal impacts had to have a medium to long-term roadmap. The SFD (Kris) provided the MD a range of options for the latter via detailed analysis and other communication, incl. but not limited to:
        • Proposing higher ticket offerings (e.g. ArtJam Version 2)
        • Online event concepts
        • Repurposing its flagship event (e.g. ArtJam) as a lead magnet event
        • Proposing an innovative and nuanced bank sponsorship initiative
        • Proposing new and previously considered agency-orientated elements
        • And a substantial number of other options
      • Managing the processing of supplier invoices and their payment
      • Re-organising and managing the business' financial records for business continuity purposes, traceability and ease of use
      • Recommendations upgrading sales invoicing and credit control processes to further streamline work with larger suppliers such as Boxpark Shoreditch.
  • Weekly/bi-weekly emails and phone calls
  • Introduced financial systems (i.e. Sage One now known as Sage Accounting)
  • Identified and flagged a surreptitious investor scam that was received by the MD, to protect both him and the business against a serious security risk that could have undermined the business's financial stability.
  • As SFD he successfully protected the founder and business from pouring funds into the later discovered misappropriated funds scam that the Black Lives Matter charity had unfortunately been running, due to him advising against making the charity the business's official charity. This was due to identified red flags and grey areas that Kris highlighted early on to the MD, long before these factors were realised by most people or was publicly highlighted in the news.
  • Assisted with in-person venue scouting for new event offerings as per the strategy
  • Assisting with event delivery in person and reporting on observations to assist further growth
  • Created a strategic management process for the business
  • Championing the business strategy and as required providing ad hoc recommendations to help the company stay aligned to it
  • Monthly financial reporting - Cash Flow and P&L
  • Designed and championed online and offline offerings based on the requested criteria from the MD, as well as additionally agreed criteria to further facilitate the business strategy.
    • This included proposing non-event-oriented offerings, to negate the periodic nature of some event series on business income, while aligning with the business' move to being positioned as an agency for artists.
  • Market research including surveys (e.g. regarding branding)
  • Ad hoc tasks as requested

Testimonial: 
"With Kris every time I ask him a question, he always has an answer that's able to break down, okay, this is maybe the issue. This is, like, what we can do now, and this is what the solution would look like over time." - James Childs, MD of DIFFRNT (Art and music event company)

(Returning client)

Task:
To help the client test the viability of two businesses.

Result:

This client was able to save £16K during the towel supply company's testing process due to our work. This saving was identified within our first meeting. I also gave him a roadmap for how to bring that or a dropshipping company to life, which was another venture he considered at the time. This was achieved with the use of an early predecessor to the current one-page system I use today.

Method:
  • Two phone business meetings (one for each business idea)
  • Supporting documentation provided

Testimonial:

"I worked on two business projects with Kris and for both, I started with a vague idea. This is when Kris had to come in and give me some rules on how to work towards achieving my ultimate goals of testing the viability of each business idea. One business project was a towel supply business and the other was a dropshipping company.

Kris was very flexible and time conscious, he starts meetings promptly and always provides 30-minute meeting reminders in advance. He's very confident because he knows his stuff and if he says something to you it's for a reason. I'd recommend Kris 100%." - Ayodeji Agbede, Director at Smith's Fam Ltd, (Luxury Hotel Bookings)
Ayodeji Agbede imageAyodeji Agbede image
Task:
To help the client prove the viability of her diet advice business.

Result:
I helped the client prove her business was viable while avoiding key obstacles to launching her business when she is ready. This was demonstrated through a roadmap she could use to launch her business.

Method:
  • One phone-based meeting
  • Supporting documentation provided

Testimonial:
"Kris was a wonderful consultant to work with, incredibly knowledgeable, skilled and efficient. Very friendly and very attentive, the thoroughness in his work made it easier for me to understand the processes and have a clear understanding of how to proceed. Will certainly reach out to him again if needed and I recommend him to anyone who may be looking for a strategy consultant." - Despina Petkova, Entrepreneur, (Diet advice company)

despina petkova imagedespina petkova image
Task:
To help vet and compare 12 business projects, while producing a roadmap for their launch which needed to meet a range of criteria (including goals for profitability).

Result:
Each business was appraised and ranked according to the opportunities in their markets, levels of profitability, and alignment with the client's ability to make each one succeed despite competitors. Roadmaps were included for the viable businesses, and the client was able to have a clear understanding of how to proceed.

Method:
  • A phone-based consultation (1 hour approx.)
  • Follow up analysis and support work
  • Spreadsheets and documentation provided

Testimonial:
 
"It’s rare to come across someone who has such a lucid insight of strategy, let alone someone who can communicate it as effectively as Kris. I had the pleasure of studying with Kris at university and worked with him on a number of business projects afterwards.

His dependability to do what it takes to get things done has always stood out to me. His positive, enthusiastic and easy to get along with nature makes him a pleasure to work with, and someone you naturally gravitate towards. Kris would be an asset to any team or client." - Michael Asante, Serial Entreprenuer, (E-commerce, Retail and Finance Industry)
Michael Asante imageMichael Asante image