The Jewellers Guild sells high-end, new and pre-owned jewellery and watches, out of their two shops in Morpeth and Whitley Bay. They initially approached NBSL to help with implementing new systems in their business, to make it more efficient overall and to help the Managing Director better manage his ADHD at work.
The project was a perfect fit for our Better People Management programme so we approved 12 hours of support to enable Smarta to carry out the work.
The client’s needs
The original scope of work was to provide people management technology and systems support to the business and, in particular, one of the directors who has ADHD. He wanted to set up an alert-based system for business planning, enabling him to visually see important events in the business and be reminded about those events at relevant times. One of his challenges was that he was just fire-fighting on a daily basis instead of looking ahead, planning properly and working on the important things.
Support provided
Damian Baetens, neurodiversity coach at Smarta, helped Matt with a number of areas relating to his ADHD diagnosis. Firstly, he helped him improve his knowledge of neurodiversity and understand his strengths in the business. Then they worked on reframing his negative self-perception and reducing Matt’s masking behaviours at work, before moving him into a role in the business that is better suited for his personality.
The broader work around creating efficient systems and processes in the business was done by Smarta consultant Ian Straker, who specialises in process optimisation, streamlining, and enhancing productivity and profitability. He started with a high-level view of how the business was structured, different roles in the team, and how information was shared and communicated.
After understanding The Jewellers Guild’s objectives in detail (e.g. managing staff holidays, trade shows, team meetings, and shop events), Ian worked with co-directors Sarah and Matt to research various software tools before arriving at Google Workspace.
They set up accounts for each team member, enabled shared calendars and alerts, and Ian trained the team on permission settings, invites and attachments, and made sure all the Google Workspace tools were set up on the iPads in each shop so that all team members had visibility.
Following that, Ian also helped The Jewellers Guild implement Monday.com to manage customer repair jobs, and spreadsheets to take the guesswork out of pricing, manage stock and sales targets.
Impact
Essentially, the business is much more organised and efficient now. Information is stored in one central location meaning team members are less reliant on the directors for retrieving that information. Everyone can see what is going on so communication is clearer.
Pricing on all products is now more consistent, meaning profitability is up. The team now makes more conscious decisions on buying stock and they know what the profit margin will be. Access to sales takings sheets and management accounts means the directors can now monitor profitability with ‘live’ figures.
The mindset of the leaders and the team has changed too. How the company used to be run is no longer sustainable, so everyone has adopted a different approach. They now question the standard of everything they do and time isn’t wasted on pointless tasks. All of the team are also now doing professional qualifications, which was never of interest previously.
In terms of Matt’s development as a business owner, he now very much plays to his strengths and has learnt how to delegate and pass responsibility to others, which is a common problem in small businesses.
Summary
The initial scope expanded from a personal planning system for Matt to a full business overhaul led by Sarah, who assumed the MD role.
New systems, such as Google Workspace, Monday.com and custom spreadsheets replaced ad-hoc tools, and centralised communications.
Matt’s coaching with Damian changed his approach to running the company, understanding his strengths and delegating the tasks that were better suited to other members of the team.
A new analytical mindset now drives all decisions, from buying stock to pricing jobs, ensuring profitability and professionalising the business.