How do I effectively seek external digital support? | Be The Business | A more productive economy driven by inspired business leadership

For lots of business leaders embracing new technologies and digital services can be an intimidating process – there’s lots of new language, functionality and cost to contend with. One way to overcome this is to look outside of the four walls of the business to external support services. See how existing resources such as your peer network and having a clearly defined set of asks can make this process simpler and better direct you towards the advice and guidance needed to make important decisions.

Ways to help you deal with it:

Action plan

Identifying which digital tasks should be outsourced

Effort: Medium

Impact : Medium

Avoid sapping internal time and resources by identifying which digital tasks could be outsourced.

ACTION PLANS are a structured list of steps designed to help you approach tackling a particular business challenge.

We explain why each step is important
Customise by setting your own completion dates and assign tasks
Helpful tools are provided for certain steps
A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available

Action plan

Develop your digital skills as a leader

Effort: Medium

Impact : Medium

Identify what digital skills are important in your leadership role and find the best learning method, from online resources to training and events.

Action plan

Choose a business process that could be automated

Effort: Medium

Impact : High

Identify the parts of your business where automation could be beneficial and understand where the human touch is still necessary.

Guide

An introduction to effectively seeking external digital support

Whether you’re planning to get stuck into your company’s digital development yourself or call in the pros, here’s what you need to consider.

GUIDES break a challenge down, providing important context and real-world experiences.

Based on SME experiences, not corporate jargon
Filled with real-world stories
Achievable steps every business can take

Other support that's available

Help to Grow Digital

The government's Help to Grow Digital programme gives businesses across the UK access to free advice and money off software and web development to help save time, cut costs, and grow revenues.

How to hire a consultant

Forbes has produced a helpful look at first finding a specialist consultant and then picking the right one that can truly deliver value for money.

How other businesses have tackled something similar

Real business story

External agencies can deliver immediate expertise and fast results

Any good external partner can deliver quick results in an area of your business that lacks expertise. The wrong partner, however, can be a costly waste of time.

Real business story

Do your research before investing in new tech

Adopting technology can drive productivity, improve customer service and increase profitability. Before investing, however, business leaders should do careful research.

Real business story

Develop a process for identifying the right tech for your business

Investing in new technology is a big decision. To get it right, leaders must develop a process to ensure that any outlay benefits the business.

The questions lots of businesses are trying to answer

What issue is keeping you awake at night? A bit of targeted support is often all you need to overcome those challenges.

Select a topic

Digital

How can I improve the digital presence my business has? How can I streamline and automate some of our business processes? How can I understand what digital tools or support my business needs? How do I effectively seek external digital support? How do I know if my technology is robust enough for growth? How do I assess and choose the right technology to improve business operations? How do I work out the best digital sales channels to use? How should I best budget and plan for new technology investments? How should I go about collecting data to improve my business? How should I use the data I have to improve decision making?

Leadership & Strategy

As a leader, how do I learn to trust others within my organisation? How can I balance short-term needs with long-term targets? How can I reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses as a leader? How do I learn to become a better leader? How do I improve the communication in my business? How do I apply learnings from other businesses to my own company? How do I get better at noticing and reacting to warning signs? How do I get staff interested in our vision and values? How do I give my team autonomy and get better at delegating? How should my role as a business leader evolve with the company’s growth?

People & Team

How can I develop career paths for my staff? How can I develop the skillsets of my workforce? How can I improve my hiring and onboarding practices? How can I increase staff engagement and motivation? How can I keep my best members of staff? How can I reduce employee turnover? How can I run a better appraisals process? How do I deal with a challenging member of staff? How do I manage an effective remote workforce? How should I performance manage my staff?

Planning

How can I balance ambition with setting realistic goals? How can I get staff interested in the financial situation? How can I work out what required skillsets are missing in the business? How can I define and communicate my vision for success? How can I get better at looking internally at my business? How can I make my business more resilient to change? How do I ensure my business can navigate a dip in trading? How do I better inform my business plans? How do I know when to invest in my business? How do I know when to scale up my business?

Sales & Growth

How can I get a better return on investment from my marketing? How can I identify new customers to target? How can we better serve our most loyal customers? How can we develop new products and services? How do I create targets and KPIs for my staff? How do I benchmark my business against competitors? How do I build a network to support my business? How do I develop a clear unique selling point? How do I financially plan for new opportunities? How do I make sure my team and processes are ready for growth?

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