Month: January 2026

Partner marketing rebates often look like guaranteed income. In reality, they are one of the easiest revenue streams to lose. 

Marketing Development Funds (MDF) give partners access to funding for impactful marketing, reduced costs , rebates and increased sales opportunities but campaigns must be delivered to strict guidelines, within tight deadlines, and supported by clear evidence. Miss any part of the process and the rebate may be delayed or lost entirely. 

Why rebate income is at risk 

Internal marketing teams are under constant pressure. Marketing development fund campaigns are rarely the only priority and often compete with: 

  • Product launches 
  • Sales support 
  • Employer branding 
  • BAU digital activity 

As quarter- or year-end approaches, multiple partner deadlines converge. Campaigns get rushed, evidence is gathered retrospectively, and reporting becomes inconsistent. 

The result isn’t just marketing stress, it’s commercial risk. 

The hidden cost of missed obligations 

When partner campaigns slip, businesses can face: 

  • Lost or delayed rebate payments 
  • Reduced ROI on partnership relationships 
  • Strain between marketing, sales and finance teams 

What’s often overlooked is that rebate income is usually high-margin revenue. Losing it has a disproportionate impact on profit. 

A smarter way to protect rebates 

Many partnership-led businesses now use flexible specialist marketing support to step in at pressure points. This ensures: 

  • Campaigns are delivered to partner specifications 
  • Evidence is captured as activity happens 
  • Deadlines are met without burning out internal teams 

The cost of support is frequently outweighed by the rebate income it protects. 

If partner rebates matter to your bottom line, protecting delivery is not optional. It’s essential. 

If you’d like to firm up your rebates, you can read more here or contact us today to find out more. 

Marketing development fund campaigns rarely fail because of poor intent. They fail because of capacity constraints. 

Most teams begin the quarter with a plan. Partner obligations are documented and deadlines are noted. But as the weeks pass, BAU activity takes over. 

Suddenly, quarter-end arrives and partner marketing becomes urgent. 

Why partner campaigns are uniquely vulnerable 

Partner marketing comes with challenges that standard campaigns don’t: 

  • Fixed deadlines 
  • Non-negotiable deliverables 
  • Multiple stakeholders 
  • Financial consequences 

Yet these campaigns are often treated as “extra work” rather than revenue-critical activity. 

The real business impact 

When campaigns are rushed or incomplete: 

  • Rebate claims can be rejected or delayed 
  • Partner relationships may suffer 
  • Internal teams experience avoidable stress 

This pattern repeats quarter after quarter because the underlying issue isn’t planning, it’s resourcing. 

Building elasticity into marketing teams 

Rather than relying solely on permanent headcount, many businesses now build flexibility into their marketing model. On-demand support allows teams to: 

  • Scale delivery at peak periods 
  • Maintain quality under pressure 
  • Protect revenue without increasing fixed costs 

If partner marketing consistently becomes a quarter-end problem, it’s a sign that capacity, not capability, is the issue. 

If you’d like to firm up your funding, you can read more here or contact us today to find out more. 

When a marketing lead leaves, the instinctive response is to find a replacement quickly. Businesses want continuity and minimal disruption. 

But replacing a person doesn’t always solve the problem. 

The questions many teams avoid 

A departure often exposes uncertainty: 

  • What marketing activity is actually driving results? 
  • Which skills are missing? 
  • Has the business outgrown the role? 

Hiring like-for-like can embed the same issues for another year or more. 

Why a short pause creates better outcomes 

Short-term expert support during transition allows businesses to: 

  • Review performance objectively 
  • Identify real skill gaps 
  • Clarify priorities before recruiting 

This approach reduces the risk of expensive mis-hires and misaligned marketing strategies. 

Clarity before commitment 

Taking time to reset doesn’t slow growth, it enables it. 

The strongest marketing teams are built intentionally, not reactively. 

If a reset sounds sensible, you can read more here or contact us today to find out more. 

Marketing budgets are under more scrutiny than ever. Every decision must be justified, and every campaign must show potential value. 

Yet many businesses still commit significant spend before they know whether a campaign, market or audience will deliver results. 

Why big bets are risky 

Launching into a new sector, geography or product without testing often leads to: 

  • Wasted budget 
  • Slow learning 
  • Internal scepticism when results disappoint 

When budgets are tight, mistakes are expensive. 

The power of controlled testing 

“Test before you invest” marketing focuses on learning first, scaling second. 

Small, controlled campaigns, often in the £500 to £1,500 range, are designed to answer critical questions: 

  • Is there genuine demand? 
  • Which messages resonate? 
  • Which audiences engage? 

These tests provide evidence, not guesswork. 

Better insight, better decisions 

Testing allows businesses to: 

  • Reduce wasted spend 
  • Build confidence before scaling 
  • Make informed investment decisions 
  • Focus resources where they will have the most impact 

In uncertain markets, certainty is a competitive advantage. 

If you’d like to test us first, you can read more here or contact us today to find out more.

Many leaders can list what their marketer does. Far fewer can explain which activities directly support growth. 

When clarity is missing, recruitment becomes guesswork. 

Activity vs impact 

Marketing output is easy to see: 

  • Social posts 
  • Campaigns 
  • Content 

Marketing impact is harder to measure without proper review. 

Using change as an opportunity 

Periods of change allow businesses to: 

  • Rebuild marketing around outcomes 
  • Align skills to growth goals 
  • Improve ROI from limited budgets 

The result is not just a better hire but a more effective marketing function. 

If this touches a nerve, you can read more here or contact us today to find out more. 

Many SMEs use inboxes, ad-hoc notes or even try to rely on their memory to track holidays, sickness or employee details, and that’s when problems start. 

But a simple HR tracker can dramatically improve your admin, compliance and employee experience. 

Why a tracker matters 

1. No more searching through emails 

Everything is recorded in one place. 

2. Prevents mistakes 

Double-booked holidays, missed probation reviews, forgotten training dates… 

3. Supports better conversations 

Clear data means better discussions around performance, attendance or wellbeing. 

4. Shows patterns early 

Spotting trends early helps you manage issues proactively. 

5. Makes you look (and feel) more professional 

Employees appreciate organised systems. 

What should be included? 

A good tracker should include: 

  • Holiday balances 
  • Sickness & absence 
  • Start dates 
  • End-of-probation dates 
  • Training 
  • Appraisals 
  • Next-of-kin information 

You’ll find all of this in the template included in the HR Confidence package. 

Want a tracker that’s ready to use? 

➡ Explore HR Confidence 

 

In an ever-changing world, business resilience is no longer a simple checklist. But when we look beyond our horizons and develop curiosity about future threats, we can build our resilience and protect ourselves against disaster. 

In this blog, we’ll look at what business resilience is and how curiosity can help us prepare. 

What is business resilience and why does it matter?

Business resilience is the process of thinking ahead and preparing for the worst. Many businesses start with a risk register, identifying the seriousness of potential risks and how to mitigate against them. A SWOT analysis is also a good business resilience tool, helping you identify future problems so you’re well prepared. 

Business resilience matters because it will protect you if or when disaster strikes. Resilient businesses weather the storm, continuing to trade and preserving their reputations at the same time. 

It’s easy to think “it won’t happen to us.” But it’s important to remember that it could. Distracted team members sometimes click on a dodgy link; even the best supply chain can break occasionally. 

How does curiosity help us build business resilience?

Curious business owners look beyond the everyday and make their businesses stronger as a consequence. 

Curiosity about solutions

It’s easy to accept problems and just try and live with them. But thinking more curiously can help us identify solutions and put them into practice. If something’s not working very well, look into alternatives and be confident about pursuing them. 

Curiosity about others’ experiences

A curious business owner might see an article on LinkedIn about a crisis that has befallen someone in a different sector. But by taking the time to read the article, they can digest the information and apply it to their own experience. And if that helps them imagine the scenario playing out in their own business, they can plan ahead and be prepared. 

Curiosity about developments in tech

We’ve blogged recently about developments in tech. New tech is always exciting and brings with it loads of opportunities, many of which can make our businesses more resilient. But being curious about it and digging deeper than the marketing spiel can help us prepare against potential threats. AI, for example, has created opportunities to streamline the way we work and reduce the time tasks take us. However, AI is a good servant and a bad master – as an employee, it needs careful management. Keeping this in mind and looking for risks as well as benefits will help us keep our businesses resilient. 

Curiosity about back-office tasks

Some tasks are accidentally left to chance, like website hosting and SEO. When these go wrong, we leave our business with a minimal online presence, undermining our marketing strategy. 

It’s easy to think these marketing tasks are just running themselves, but when direct our curiosity to what’s involved, we see that they need some proactivity from us. Our proactivity might extend to educating ourselves so we can cover these tasks ourselves. Alternatively, it might show us that these are tasks to outsource (Get Ahead can help, by the way!). 

Curiosity about other people

Our curiosity should most definitely extend to other people. Talking to others, communicating online and building our network is a great way to find out what other people have to offer. It’s also valuable to listen to other people’s experiences and learn from them ourselves. 

Curiosity about others within our network helps us build more resilient businesses. It enables us to build a collaborative team we can call on if we need help. And it also broadens our experience and helps us prepare for the future. 

Outsourced back-office support from Get Ahead

If our blog has made you consider how you can make your business more resilient, Get Ahead can help. Our nationwide team of virtual experts can fill in the gaps in your team, share their experience and make your business more resilient. Contact your local regional director today to find a tailor-made solution for your business.