jem smith cv pdf
TRANSCRIPT
Jem Smith
1 Lind Street, Lewisham, SE8 4JE
Tel: 07929336841 Email: [email protected]
Why I want work with a small business
I first started working for my mother as her assistant as a way to pay for a holiday to
America after leaving university before looking for a ‘proper’ job. That was nearly four years ago. I
have since found that in the environment of a small business I was able to develop my talents in
such a wide variety of areas that I now can’t imagine working in a tightly confined role. I feel
confident that the skills I have learned would be of great value to another small business owner
looking for someone to assist them in the tasks vital to running a successful small business but which
are ancillary to the businesses main function, such as marketing, using social media, cash-flow
projection and discipline, website design, event planning, financial management, copy writing and
business development.
Experience and Accomplishments
My accomplishments and the experience I have gained during my time at Appreciating Change
which would be relevant to other small businesses include:
Developing an additional revenue stream consisting of a series of public courses presented
by Sarah firstly as one-day events in the UK but now expanding to a four-day course in
Sydney, Australia, which will take place in November. This leverages her experience as a
consultant by training other consultants.
Successfully marketing all the public courses we ran by creating and maintaining email
databases, setting up an Eventbrite pages, managing potential customer queries, converting
queries to sales and choosing and liaising with venues. I also prepared and collated course
materials. These courses turned an overall gross profit of £8,350 over 5 iterations and led to
several pieces of consultancy work from the participants later on. The Australian trip, for
which I have also performed all these functions, is anticipated to create in excess of £10,000
in gross revenue. I am also exploring the possibilities of sponsorship with our professional
colleagues for this event.
Completing the tendering process for us to become a preferred supplier to the Oxford
University Press, a process which involved collating information from across the business
with regards to it financial viability, professional legal compliance etc. As a result of this
process AC has earned £59,000 (gross) from consultancy work with the OUP this year.
Setting up and creating from longer professional videos a series of short topic-centred video
clips for ACown YouTube channel, featuring a series of videos consisting of ‘teasers’ of the
sort of insight clients would get from our consultancy services. You can see the results here:
http://bit.ly/1s0UNZy. Directing clients to these videos has recently brought in a piece of
consultancy work valued at £3,000 (gross).
Investigating social media marketing options and focusing our social media effort on
LinkedIn as the most appropriate forum for our brand.
Developing a LinkedIn group for discussion of the topics raised in a book Sarah wrote. You
can see the results here: http://linkd.in/1qMlwGX. By encouraging both potential clients
and fellow practitioners to join I created a useful resource and so an audience of over 1,300
people for our marketing campaigns, as well as boosting our brand recognition with both
groups.
Organising and participating in running a stand at several trade shows in the UK over the
last four years, all of which turned a profit in terms of the consulting work brought in over
the cost of participation. This including preparing artwork, liaising with printers, liaising with
stand staff and managing their contributions. I was also involved in collating data, and
coordinating follow- up work.
The preparation for our exhibition involved many discussions about the nature and purpose
of our business and therefore how to appropriately market it. I assisted with the clarification
of the business objective, strapline and strategy, as well as helping to create user-friendly,
non-jargon laden copy.
Introducing a system for forecasting business cash-flow with a reasonable degree of
accuracy up to three months ahead. In particular this has helped create some distance
between personal and business financial systems, which is frequently a challenge for small
businesses, as well as providing a system which allows judgements about possible
investment to be made confidently.
Rationalising the cash holdings of the business to maximise returns while maintaining
flexibility to pay unexpected bills.
Working with designers and printers to create websites and management development
card sets.
I am also currently developing a new website for Appreciating Change using the Squarespace
development tool, although it is not yet complete and so not available online.
Other tasks I have great experience of include booking travel itineraries for Sarah and reconciling
and preparing the accounts for our accountant.
Previous Employment
September 2010 - present
PA to Sarah Lewis, MD and Principal Psychologist of Appreciating Change.
October 2011 – October 2014
Barman and Supervisor at The Vanbrugh Tavern in Greenwich.
Education
University of Sheffield, Sheffield, Yorkshire, MSc. Development Economics, 2009-2010.
University of Sheffield, Sheffield, Yorkshire, BA (Hons.) Economics (2:1), 2006-2009.
Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatchem College, New Cross, London, 1998-2005.
References
Sarah Lewis, MD and Principal Psychologist, Appreciating Change.
Tel. 07973782715 Email: [email protected]
Johanna Shaw, Landlady, The Vanbrugh Tavern
Tel. 07956800226 Email: [email protected]