Do what you do best and get help where you need it!

I always have a go at tasks I am not experienced in and do not have the depth of knowledge to do the task in a reasonable time and price. Sometimes I learn some useful knowledge and other times that I need some help. The price of doing it is spending more time on it than I should. Best to get an expert to do it!. I have wasted time, and some money trying to accomplish a task that an expert would have done so much quicker and at less cost in time and money!

It that a familiar scenario for you? I'll bet as a small business owner you have had to learn to do stuff in your business that you would not have considered before you started the business. Book-keeping, marketing, sales, PR, HR, and many more functions that a larger enterprise can hire in or do with people in house.

So what can you do? Well, there are several possibilities. In my last article, I discussed building relationships with other small businesses. This is certainly something I work at a lot. You can also use networking and get insights, ideas and connections to people who can help you. You may have a family member who is an accountant, a friend who will offer services for free, or you could do a barter/trade with someone with the skills/experience you need (I have done this a few times). Another source is services like Fiverr, people who offer their services in areas you have no experience and would not know where to start, such as website technologies, software, graphics design and so on. I have used this service to solve issues I had, and it worked well. Plus, the cost was affordable.

Ultimately, it gets to a point that you need to get someone in to address an issue, or issues that need real expert attention. As a professional chef; I have cooked for many clients and large numbers of guests over the years, building a wealth of experiences. I have built two working commercial kitchens, managed several others. Designed and implemented food hygiene processes for my business and others, advised several other clients, including a bar & bistro, a pub, a cookery school and others. They all needed advice and planning on how to get the kitchens up to the required standard for the Environment Health inspections, meeting Food Hygiene standard, staff training, menu planning, sourcing products from local suppliers, and many other key areas for the businesses.

I have developed a set of consultancy packages that will help both small and large business, ensure that the hospitality side of their business is meeting the regulatory standards needed to operate a food business, the food on offer to clients, training plans for the staff and so on.

The importance of these services in the areas mentioned involves investment and commitment from the management team. By investment, I mean the budget and the will to do what needs to be done, by commitment, I mean that the management team drives the investment to a successful completion. Looking to get issues resolved on the cheap or free is a natural desire, but it is highly likely that you will not get what you need or want, and more likely end up having to pay a second time to get the job done properly!

Because of all the above, I created the services below. I have targeted the service packages at smaller organisations who want to improve the food operations within their business. They include:

• Assessment - of your current setup, what you want to achieve and how to get there.
• Developing the Food Offer - sourcing of ingredients, menu design, presentation, building your brand
• Identifying Training Requirements - current skills assessment, areas to improve, training needed, build training curriculum, train staff, and so on.
• Bespoke Services - specific and targeted to the areas you want to improve.

You can learn more by going to my website. PaulBellchambers.com

Please contact me if you would like to know more or have a project that you think would be of interest. Thanks for reading this article!