Employee training and mentoring are crucial for SME growth. 

68% of employees prefer to learn at work, with 90% of employees saying they won't quit their role if they receive training. 

76% of UK businesses say mentoring has been vital for growth, 60% note a boost in strategy, and 66% improve survival chances. 

Combining bespoke training with tailored mentoring delivers essential upskilling and the supported application for long-term sustained growth.

Here are some of the common hurdles I've helped leaders like you overcome.

➡️The daunting task of keeping up with digital advancements and AI integration
➡️The constant battle to generate new, consistent, qualified leads
➡️A pressing need to empower and upskill your team, especially in the realms of digital and AI marketing
➡️Striving to get sales and marketing aligned
➡️The isolation in decision-making roles, craving for support and guidance
➡️Increasing difficulties in recruiting and retaining top talent 

I'm Emma Ellse (BA (Hons.), PgDip IDM, PgDip DigM, PgDip HE, ILM7, FIDM, FCIM, FHEA, FABM

⭐️Deep-rooted marketing expertise from senior roles across B2B and B2C sectors since 2003
⭐️Trusted, Experienced and Qualified Consultant, Coach, and Mentor since 2015
⭐️Trained over 1100 SME Business Leaders and their teams
⭐️Qualified HE Academic Practitioner & Senior Consultant Business Lecturer

Here's how we can work together:

1. Book a 15-minute Call
For business leaders looking to upskill their teams or education /  business support hubs looking for training for their clients. Book in a chat let's get the ball rolling on your bespoke programme. 

2. Work with me privately 
To work with me directly on AI, marketing and growth strategies send me a message with the title 'Private'  and a little more info about your business and I'll send you some details. 

3. Talk to me about peer facilitation
Does your business support SME leaders? I run engaging peer to peer support circles where peer learning is collaborative, fun and value driven. 

4. Need an engaging speaker for your event? 
Everyone wants to know how AI can help them become more engaging. My talks are fun  engaging, informative amd loaded with value and takeaways. 

Hear from those who have worked alongside me. Scroll Down👇🏻

Emma Ellse

Today's Glimmer moment. 

Sometimes all you need for a reset is an early morning beach dog walk. 

Up and out at 6:30am this morning to catch the peace, tranquility and morning light. 

With so much going on in the world it's good to pause, breathe and make time each day for a glimmer. 

#Glimmer #Peace #MentalHealth #Reset

AI Training for SMEs | Founder, AI Business Growth Academy | AI Adoption & Business Resilience Trainer & Mentor. Workshops, leadership sessions and strategic mentoring for SMEs navigating AI-driven change and uncertainty

5:30am train, coffee in hand, bleary eyes, headed to Liverpool.

Today I’m delivering AI Leadership training to partners and senior leaders at a large law firm. 

My train journey is mostly deer spotting and thinking about the most important message I'll share today. 

AI adoption is not about the latest tools or shiny tech.

It’s a change management process.

The firms that get this right aren’t the ones chasing every shiny new tool…

They’re the ones building the right foundations:

I call it The AI Foundational 4 Ps: 

• People: mindset, skills, and confidence to actually use AI

• Processes: where AI fits into real workflows (not just experiments)

• Platform: choosing the right tools for your business, not just what’s trending

• Policy: governance, risk, and responsible use (especially critical in legal)

Today instead of focusing on “what tool should we use?” we'll work though; 

"How do we embed this into how we already work?"
 
"How do we identify the bottlenecks in our operations work out what's appropriate for AI and then embed AI where it will have the biggest impact?"

"How do we lead our teams through this change and grow more efficiently?"

#AI #AITraining #AILeadership #Leaders #AIAdoption

There are some rooms you walk into and you just know something special is happening.

Today in Liverpool was one of those days.

I've had the pleasure of delivering Day 1 of a bespoke AI Adoption programme created specifically for the partners and senior leaders at MSB, on behalf of MyPD. 

What stood out for me today wasn’t just the strategy…

It was the people.

Genuinely warm. Welcoming. Engaged. And most importantly truly supportive of each other.

As is always my way, we didn’t just sit and “learn AI.”

We talked, shared, listened and challenged ideas because AI adoption isn’t about jumping straight into tools. It’s about taking the time to step back first.

We focused on:

*Leading AI adoption responsibly and ethically
*Putting safety first, especially with teams already experimenting
*Taking a strategic approach before any tech decisions
*Identifying the right tasks to optimise before choosing tools
*Bringing people with you on the journey, not leaving them behind

I left the day feeling really energised (even after a 4:30am alarm) and already looking forward to Day 2. 

Thanks for a great day MSB I can’t wait to come back, hear your progress and build on what we’ve started.

#AI #AIleadership #AIAdoption #AIStrategy #AITraining

No AI Today!! 

Today I'm flying solo, no AI to assist me in this little (massive) DIY job.  

Suns out, drills out, tunes on .. garden makeover is a go go 😎🪛🔨

What’s the main AI platform you’re using right now?

I use ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, each have different strengths and I use them for different jobs.

Until recently though, my go-to all-rounder for running my business was ChatGPT.

But I’m now shifting more of my workflows to Claude (especially for integrations + automation potential).

The Claude outage on Monday was a timely reminder for me to also revisit my contingency planning. 

If you’ve got business-critical workflows running on one LLM, you need a contingency plan for when it goes down.

Before you roll AI across your business, sort the boring stuff:

Who owns the workflow (and who fixes it when it breaks)?

What’s the fallback (second model, manual process, or “good enough” template)?

What’s your minimum service level (what must keep running no matter what)?

Do you have a back up plan for when your favourite AI tool has a wobble?

#AI #AIGovernance #SME #Productivity

If you were a biscuit what biscuits would you be? 

Me? apparently, according to my two lovely teens, I'd be a Jammy Dodger 😂💖

Yesterday was spent mostly eating this amazing cheese cake they made me. 

AI can't make cheesecake (day 2 of my 'No AI weekend') 

#Family #Cake #NoAIDay

Westerby Consultancy

Fractional CFO and Business Mentor

Company Shop Group

Responsible for Finance and IT functions.  After initially joining the business as Head of Finance to ensure robustness and timeliness of financial information I took responsibility for IT and HR. Following successful recruitment of a Head of HR and future growth plans, HR reported directly into the MD. I joined the Board of Company Shop in April 2016 and have played a key role in the development of the Board and SLT.  The role is also responsible for managing external relationships with bankers, auditors, insurance and pensions.

Group Finance Director

Aunt Bessies

The role was initially focused on proactively delivering improvements projects across the business though following a finance restructure I took on the role of Financial Controller (reporting to the Finance Director), responsible for financial, operational and commercial finance along with the improvement projects.  

I project managed an ERP re-implementation and review of business processes.  This is one of the major projects across site and delivered the following benefits;
•	Factory recording of data in a centralised system
•	Reduction in paper recording, resulting in faster, more reliable data
•	Documented and agreed business processes with clearly defined ownership & responsibility
•	Improved reporting for managers across all levels of the business.  Reporting that will deliver drill-downability and flexibility

Financial Controller

Northern Foods

Multi site Finance Manager 

Reporting to the divisional FD, responsible for 10 members of staff across 3 sites and all financial reporting for the sites. Member of the site senior team with cross functional involvment.

Finance Manager - 2 Sisters Food Group

Greencore

Responsible for the commercial and operational reporting and financial support within the frozen division.
Key achievements 
* Re-desgining the weekly sales reporting to provide profitability by product, product group and customer.
* Saved £100k pa on the palletisation of 1 product when reviewing the product costing

Senior Management Accountant

Kuehne + Nagel

Interim position to provide help and support over the year end period.

Responsible for key KPI and weekly P&amp;L reporting along with financial support for the depots.

Accountant - interim

Princes Limited

Initially started as operations accountant responsible for production of managment accounts and factory reporting of 2 sites. 
Introduced a KPI dashboard for the factory that was rolled out across all sites. Set up monthly financial presentations at site level with the senior teams at site and also presented to production staff, including financial training to all managers.

As Operations Accountant was responsible for product costings and commercial reporting including a customer profitability report down to product level. Produced budgets with the commercial and operation teams for several sites.

During the relocation of the soft drinks finance team from Bradford to Liverpool I was involved in the recruitment of the new finance team andthe transfer of the accounts process.

Management Accountant

Are you a business owner and in need of some strategic finance support? 

Is the lack of finance support holding your business back? 

Do you need a fresh voice around the boardroom table? 

You want a Finance Director but don’t think you can afford one. 

Well, I am confident that I can help you and your business, and that support is within your reach.

How can I help?

- Part-time Finance Director support – only pay for what you need! 

A full-time Finance Director can cost businesses upwards of £100k a year and in many cases much more than this.

- Financial Forecasting

You need some help to see what the future might look like, and you don’t want to take time away from running your business. 

Let me take the headache away and produce an integrated forecasting model that will highlight any pinch points. I can run different scenarios to help you with decision-making.

- Finance Department Review

Your business has grown or has plans to grow and you know your finance department needs to change but are not sure where to start. 

Get in touch with someone who has been there before and helped other businesses. 

From looking at automating tasks and responsibilities and looking at how the business and the finance team can grow together to add value to the rest of the business.

- Reporting Review and Insight

Does finance add value to your business? Do you have the right information for decision-making? 
I will review the information you currently get, find out what you want and along with my experience of what has helped business owners before, we will produce a reporting back to add value and improve the information for decision-making in your business


A bit about me:

Having started my accountancy career in an owner-managed business, I went on to work for some large corporates and big brands before reverting to owner-managed businesses again.

With over 20 years of experience, I work with business owners to help them understand finance and grow their businesses. 

I take the finance department's stress away from them and let them concentrate on running their businesses.


Get in touch and have a chat to see how I can help you and your business today.

https://calendly.com/westerbyconsultancy/15-minute-introductory-meeting

If you’ve read this far, well done and I think you deserve a little joke…

What's the fastest bun in the world?
Scone

(pronounced gone) – and there is also an end to the argument of how you pronounce a scone!

Ben Westerby

I just want to be able to go on holiday and not work. 


This is what a business owner told me recently in a business review I was doing of their business.

We stopped the plan we had to map out what it would take for this to happen.  With everything going on in the business this was definitely a high priority.


We planned out what needed to happen and made a list of actions.

That was 12 months ago.


Recently I spoke to the same business owner who had just returned from a 10 day holiday.

"I managed to fully relax after 4 days" he told me and that he had the best time.

He is even looking at booking his next holiday.


It's not all about increasing profits or growing turnover.  Sometimes it's about the difference you can make to someone's life outside work.


When was the last time you had a relaxing holiday?

Helping Fractional professionals and businesses work together. Fractional CFO | Mentor | NED

Video is here again…
  
 
  
As they say... be careful what you wish for!!
  
 
  
If you have a joke that you want to include on Friday Fun drop me a message
  
 
  
Anyway hope the joke makes you laugh and if not, there’s always next week…

What are those hidden benefits of working with a fractional executive?

If you’re honest… You’re tired. Tired of carrying the weight. Tired of being the bottleneck. Tired of knowing the business should be further ahead. Yo

Open article: The Hidden Benefits of a Fractional Exec (That No One Talks About)   by Ben Westerby • 2 min read

The Hidden Benefits of a Fractional Exec (That No One Talks About)

“𝗜’𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲… 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘆𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳.”
  
I heard this again this week from a senior leader exploring a move into fractional work.
  
And honestly…
  
It’s the #𝟭 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲.
  
Because the reality of fractional work is very different from what many expect.
  
Here are a few things experienced fractionals told me when I asked what the job is 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 like:
  
 
  
𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺  Most fractional work comes from referrals and relationships — not job boards.
  
 
  
𝗬𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘄  You’re not just the expert anymore.  You’re also the marketer, salesperson and relationship builder.
  
 
  
𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗮 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝘁  The rest of the time goes into pipeline building, admin and managing the business.
  
 
  
𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝘆 𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀
  
They don’t want a 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘊𝘍𝘖.
  
They want someone who can:  • fix cash flow visibility  • improve margins  • help them make better decisions
  
 
  
𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁
  
Momentum matters more than perfection early on.
  
The best fractionals get more selective 𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝘂𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀.
  
 
  
I’m curious:
  
𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 — 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗷𝗼𝗯 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁?

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