Laura lunches with...

Until quite recently, Ed Branch and I used to work together at iSupply Energy. It has now been 28 days since we were both made redundant and we put ourselves out there, with our new business ventures Branch Out Consulting and EA2VA.

I wanted to catch up with Ed and chew the fat, also enabling me to share with you Ed’s journey so far...

How are you?

I’m fine Laura, thanks for asking.  It's been three weeks now since we left iSupply and its taken a little while to recover and re-charge my batteries. We were really working to the wire as I left iSupply and I think obviously the emotional journey of that was a bit of a challenge and took some time to recover from as well as the physical challenges of working such long hours towards the end there but now I am obviously just really excited to get going on the business venture.

Firstly, can you tell me a bit about of how you initially decided to set up the new venture and why?

So when it became clear that things were going to be coming to an end at iSupply,  I considered my future and what direction I could take at this point, considering with the current climate of Covid 19 and the job market being saturated. I looked at some permanent offerings that were available but there wasn’t much coming up and then I thought do I really want to go through that process again or do I want to look at doing something may be a bit different. I did a review of the consultancy’s that offer strategic IT services to businesses here in the UK and identified what I thought was a gap in the market. I think that my background previously working with the likes of Capita and DXC and obviously the knowledge that I’ve gained in my time at iSupply put me in good stead to go out and offer a competing service but maybe a bit more niche or boutique to clients here in the UK. When I was doing my research I interviewed a number of business owners and was told that now could be a really good time to launch a business, so I thought the timing feels right so let’s go for it. You only live once!

What does Branch Out Consulting offer to clients and what is your USP?

So, it is two kind of discreet services one is around interim and fractional work where we provide a virtual CIO or a high-level IT position in a partnership model with the business on a part-time basis. This helps businesses shape and grow an IT function, build technology roadmaps, and help to deliver significant change without the large investment of a permanent employee at CIO level. The service can also easily flex to the businesses needs as well as being able to guide, mentor or coach the existing IT employees.

The other side of our business targets project-based work, delivering one off engagements that we will adapt and change over time to move with market demands. Currently we are focused mostly around data and integration, the associated governance models, and technology selection and also around business continuity planning and disaster recovery. I believe that businesses need to think about how they are coping with its effects on managing a remote workforce and will need to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Employees attitudes have changed, they want to work from home more – perhaps a 50/50 split between home and office – this is no longer a business continuity scenario, it’s the “new normal”, so how can we plan to work effectively, how do we manage performance and what technology do we need to bring to bear to deliver those kind of solutions to businesses and ultimately to improve revenues or control costs?

What type of clients do you want to work with?

So, I wouldn’t want to restrict myself too much, I’d like to work with businesses that are growing, businesses in excess of 150 employees but less than 1000 employees. Where they have real struggles with IT and need support. They could be in any sector and whilst my experience spans in education, healthcare, insurance and obviously most recently utilities, what I’ve learnt in my time is that sector experience isn’t necessarily the most important factor in helping a business resolve it’s IT challenges. The important things are identifying what the businesses goals are and listening to your employees and to your customers. Understand what their challenges are, what is working well and what needs to improve and only then turning to technology, making sure that you can develop a technology roadmap that reflects those challenges and delivers meaningful change and helps the business deliver their goals, whatever those might be.

I'm used to working with IT and tech daily but I’m not an expert on everything yet. Already, you have supported me with some virtual IT support, which I have found extremely helpful and a way for me also to sense check that I am actually on the right track regarding processes surrounding all my new remote IT setup. Is this support something you can offer to any remote worker like me going forward?

I think I would always be happy to have a conversation, it would be obviously a bit different to the work that I‘m targeting but you know if there is any assistance that I can offer I will, or indeed pointing people in the right direction for other services and support. I think longer term when you grow a consultancy you might well look to expand the services you offer, including “micro-business” support.

I think there is a genuine need for it too and sometimes it’s a bit difficult to engage quickly with a third party to deliver that in a way that works for everybody, because you don’t really want to enter into an expensive support contract when you are just starting out. You want to find a model that works for you as a consumer but allows the business to deliver those services. Its kind a like “service as a service” where you don’t or can’t commit to costly support packages and just need to get access to support when you need it. I think there is probably a decent business model there leveraging some sort of pay as you go aspect.

What are your plans for the next 90 days?

So, the immediate plans are to launch the website and to build the content for it. I am very thankful to Aaron Syed of Upwork. I used to work with him at iSupply and he’s helped to build my website for me. I need to start putting some content on there that will hopefully land customers or potential customers. Aaron’s also really keen to work on some digital marketing for me as well, so I just really need to nail the content next. The plan over the next 30 days is to get that content ready, then launch the website and then start to really attack the market, tap up my network and investigate ways in which I can bring customers to me, as well as going out and finding customers. I think if you are passive in this type of market at the moment, you are really going to struggle to find work. Looking toward the end of the year, the target is to secure at least one long-term customer for the CIO service as well as having delivered a few project based solutions.

How do you see your business growing over the next year, 2 years and in 5 years’ time?

Well I’ve written a business plan that shows me growing in fantastic fashion! But obviously a business plan is one thing and it is very different to the actual reality of it. Ideally, it’s a mix of the fractional and the project-based work. I would like to build relationships with the clients and have repeated business. It’s much easier to retain a customer than win new ones. The long-term ambition is to be a real challenger consultancy brand in the UK that can that offer real value for money consultancy. I think that some of the larger consultant firms charge way too much for the value that they bring and that’s a real barrier to businesses wanting to buy or proceed as it presents to much of a risk for them. It would be great to have some significant clients on my books.

Do you enjoy remote working or are you planning to join a co working space or set up an office somewhere in the future?

That’s a tricky question, I enjoy the quietness so that I can focus, and I think that’s really important in any role. It’s very hard to deliver quality when you are constantly interrupted – which can easily happen in a work environment. However, on the colour insights wheel (big shout out to Vicky Kirk for organising that when we were at iSupply), I’m yellowy/red so I take a lot of my energy from people, so that’s a real challenge when you are remote working.

As I’ve already said, I think we are a long way off getting back to normal ways of working. Businesses need to recognise that and figure out new ways of working that are here for the long term and I think remote working is a big part of that. I think its much more important that business focus on ways of working, making sure that you are checking in with people, communicating with them in the right way and ensuring that you are clear about the goals and objectives you set. I think a presenteeism culture must be avoided at all costs – if someone hits all their targets for the week by Thursday afternoon, why not let them have Friday off? It shouldn’t matter where people work, only that they feel safe and can be effective.

When you do need technology to help, there are endless possibilities – but it is also important to try to consider how these can negatively impact work. When we all moved to lockdown working, I found the endless video meetings extremely fatiguing.

To answer the second part of the question, I’d really like to investigate a co working space, so that I can re-charge my batteries and get that physical/human contact that I think is important for everybody and certainly for a yellowy/red person like me. We are also moving house soon and at the new house there will be a dedicated outdoor office that I am really looking forward to having as a place where I can go and focus.

Now it’s your turn – you can ask me anything?

Ed asked me the following questions.

How have you adjusted to life after iSupply?

So, because in March we obviously found ourselves in a home working situation/ predicament it forced me to adapt quickly. I knew that I wanted to set up a virtual assistant business and essentially work from home or from a remote office somewhere but not in a corporate office environment again, so actually I found that I adjusted quite quickly because it was going to be one of my goals. I almost automatically put myself into a routine straight away, I got dressed everyday wearing my office wear, I haven’t worn my pyjamas or gym wear to my home office to make me feel more productive to make me feel that I was going to a job every day.

I’ve made sure that I’ve keep in contact with a lot of people, people that I used to work with, and other contacts. I've made sure that I had planned in some time to speak to a mentor and a coach. Because it's really important at this time when everything is changing, change can affect you in so many different ways and it’s just really beneficial to realise that and feel that sometimes it’s ok not to be ok but you set your self-goals, use your passion, just go for it and see where it takes you.

How do you keep yourself motivated?

I keep myself motivated by having a pyramid goals plan on my wall and every time I hit a goal or a milestone I colour it in, in a pink highlighter but for me it keeps me on track, its on my wall, I look at it every day but I don’t beat myself up if I haven’t quite reached a milestone on it at the exact date I thought I was going to as its all new, it’s a huge shift for me and there’s a lot of pressure on everyone at the moment but I am happy to say that I am being kind to myself whilst also hitting my targets and I have got big plans for the future and my 2021 goal is forever in my sight.

So, we talked offline about a work life balance, you are obviously working a lot of hours at the moment managing a part time employed role and the business you are setting up now as well. How do you intend to get maybe a better work life balance in the future, what does that look like?

So, I’ve been fortunate enough to get a part time employed role, working from home for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust which is 4 days a week and the other day I have managed to be able to pick up my first client which is fantastic and I am so happy and grateful for that but I have realised that after nearly a month of doing both that actually I needed a bit more time for me and my VA Business, so not feel out of kilter by having to work a lot of evenings and constantly always thinking about ‘work’ as I am also finishing off my VA Mastery course and a Diploma in Events Management. I want to exercise in the morning, take our dog Diesel for a walk at lunchtime and I want to spend time with my husband, friends and family but there is only so many hours in the day as we all know. So, I have had to make a really hard decision to scale back on my part time role, my current employer has been fantastic and has supported me on this, because she knows how important employee wellbeing is and feeling rested is paramount to doing a great job. So now I have another day to concentrate on my business, courses and time for me. 

What has been the biggest challenge for you in starting out in this new journey?

One of my biggest challenges in the beginning to be completely honest with you was not having a team around me, as I also feed off people’s energy and presence but on the flip side I now absolutely love working from home being able to focus and get things done on my own not being interrupted constantly, which on some days could be the norm whilst in a corporate office.

The other challenge being IT as I am so used to having the IT team support around me at work in the office, so not even being able to just ask one question, or to run it by someone to see if it’s the quickest way to do something, having that IT support on tap basically. Which I fear many of us have taken for granted for years and it’s only now I’ve really realised it but on a positive note, I have been able to do many more things for myself and learn lots of new skills, so every cloud! 

Ed- Just remember, if in doubt just turn it off and turn it on again!