A SME is a Small-to-Medium sized Enterprise. The expression isn’t particularly helpful as a SME can be a relatively small company with only 10 employees, whereas it can be an organisation with just under 250 members of staff, which many people wouldn’t consider to be a small business.

Some definitions of SMEs also mean that a company has a turnover of up to around £50m. Essentially the definition is often only important when dealing with Insurance Companies, making grant applications or obtaining matched funding. The term SME generally doesn’t give any indication about whether a company is growing, profitable or give any level of guarantee to creditors. 99% of companies in the UK are SMEs or smaller businesses.

Non-Executive (non-exec) marketing directors are individuals employed regarded as ‘external’ or ‘advisory’, who are not members of the day-to-day running of the company (executive staff).

The benefits of having a non-exec marketing director is that a company can gain top-class expertise from an individual who operates across many different fields, bringing their expertise from multiple industries and other settings, directly into the employing organisation who benefit from top-level advice and guidance.

Non-exec contracts are usually a set number of hours or days per period (per month or year) and non-exec roles are usually on a non-payroll basis, giving companies extra benefits of having the best advice available, without having the additional costs of employing someone extra on their books, with the associated NI and PAYE that accompanies regular staff costs.

Exit can be planned anytime, as early as when the company is formed (some companies have a mission to exit after 3-years before they commence trading) or in some cases, when an owner-managed company wishes to sell out as a retirement plan.

There really is no hard and fast rule about choosing the best time to exit, apart from giving sufficient time to plan and attract a potential buyer, which in some cases can take a number of months or years.

Small business support often involves an external agency or consultant providing support directly to an owner-manager or small Senior Leadership Team who can make quick decisions. Supporting a larger business, often entails working with a much larger and slower decision-making vehicle.

In some cases, sub-committees, corporate governance, compliance and a whole raft of different stakeholders are involved and engaged in the business decisions, which sharply contrasts with the smaller business decision making process.

In some companies, community groups, patient groups or third-party organisations have an important say in changing key business decisions. Thinktank works with small start-up businesses, SMEs and major global brands.

Our understanding of supporting businesses extends to global market leaders and public sector bodies such as The NHS, Ombudsman Services and not-for-profit organisations, each with their own individual dynamics.

The benefits of having part-time marketing support is that you can often get best-in-class marketing help from an individual or organisation who works across a diverse range of markets, but has relevant expertise in your specific sector. They often bring fresher ideas to the table, aren’t involved in company politics and are able to give an unbiased and fresh perspective on the best way to approach problems. Not being on payroll also benefits organisations looking for part-time support.

Plus, many organisations want a top level experienced marketer but either don’t have enough work to justify a full time placement or alternatively, don’t wish to invest in a highly experienced senior level staff and prefer the work to be carried through by a junior or middle management marketing individual to avoid the high costs of a marketing director. Essentially it can be great to have a pay-as-you-go or fixed-time, short-term senior support as it gives you the same level of expertise enjoyed by global leaders, without the associated costs.

The downsides of having a part-time senior level marketing support, is that if you need someone full-time in this position, getting in a part-time member of the team on a high number of hours, can prove to be non-cost efficient. Some organisations want day-to-day consistency and also want to ensure that there is always someone available to work any time on emergency issues – however, in the real world, good planning will help remover 90% of the need for urgent or unplanned marketing activities.

The other downside is that the cost per hour for a part-time marketer is always higher than an in-house individual, although it’s unlikely that without paying a high salary, you will be able to access a senior marketer with global expertise.

Part time can therefore make more sense if you need help for the short term or perhaps over a longer term, with reduced hours.

Helping to recruit a marketing team is what we do for companies looking to employ their first marketing department.

Or perhaps, to replace a small marketing team who have recently left the company. We work to attract, interview and onboard new staff, helping them integrate into the culture of the organisation, whilst passing over work directly with new team members so that a smooth transition can take place to help the team.

Very often, new staff enjoy working with external marketing experts as they learn new skills whilst we help the new team find its feet before we transition full responsibilities to the new team.

Depending on the scope of works, we can work alongside the new team for an agreed period to ensure that everything runs smoothly, quickly and tactfully feeding back information to the senior leadership team for a successful end-result.