Alive with Ideas – outsourcing instead of employing
Background
Alive with Ideas is a creative communications agency based in Basingstoke. While they have many big public and private sector organisations among their clients, they are a small business with two directors, ten employees and a team of freelancers.
Challenges
Founder Alex Mead and his team work very hard to deliver effective, dynamic marketing campaigns for their clients. However, as a small business with a varying workload, he and his fellow director can’t always find time to react to unexpected pressures.
Unpaid client invoices were a particular problem, with Alex and his co-director Alan struggling to find time to follow them up. Equally, as a small business, Alive with Ideas cannot afford to let invoices go unpaid and still deliver the fantastic work they’re known for.
Invoices were going unpaid not because of any disputes about the work, or clients trying to avoid payment. Alive with Ideas has many public sector clients – huge organisations with very complicated finance systems. If Alive with Ideas issued an invoice with no purchase order number on it, for example, the public sector client would be unable to pay it. Finding the right person to provide a purchase order number was very time consuming for Alex, meaning that he struggled to get round to addressing the problem.
Alex and Alan toyed with the idea of taking on a part-time employee to chase unpaid invoices and review the details that were causing the problems, like missing purchase order numbers and inconsistent invoice numbers. However, they knew they were already at capacity and the recruitment process would eat even further into their precious time.
Solutions
Alex reached out to Get Ahead. Our approach appealed to him because he liked the flexibility we offer, and was glad that he’d only pay for the time and support needed. By contrast, he would have to continue to pay an employee the same salary even if the number of invoices they dealt with varied from month to month.
Get Ahead listened to Alex’s needs and shortlisted a number of possible finance experts from our extensive team. After introduction phone calls with a few of our experts, Alex decided bookkeeper Charlotte would be the best fit for his business.
Charlotte began her new responsibilities with Alive with Ideas almost immediately. She began by following up unpaid invoices and spending time addressing the reasons for the delay. In most cases, the delay is caused by public sector admin which takes time and attention to detail to solve. However, Charlotte has the experience and capacity to do the work required to get every invoice paid.
Outcomes
Charlotte quickly slotted into her new role and the ongoing working relationship is now in its fourth year. She is a great fit for Alive with Ideas and they quickly saw an increase in the number of paid invoices. Charlotte and Alex meet fortnightly to review progress, and because she’s so proactive, she doesn’t take up Alex’s time in between.
As Alex got to know Charlotte, he discovered she has additional finance admin skills that would benefit his business. Now Charlotte deals with the day-to-day accounting and invoice reconciliation for Alive with Ideas, as well as supporting their payroll process. Alex still has an accountant who handles corporation tax. As Charlotte happens to be a trained accountant too, she understands how Alex’s other accountant works and the two have become a strong team.
Working with Get Ahead has been a real success for Alive with Ideas and we’re delighted to be supporting such a dynamic creative communications agency.
Alex Mead says, “I would highly recommend working with Get Ahead. Their proactive approach means you’ll be matched with an expert that perfectly fits your needs. The ability to flex on working hours is a huge benefit and means you’re only paying for the support that you need.”
