Harborough Hustle Podcast

Martin [00:00:00]:

Hello. I’m your podcast host, Martin Robson. Harborough Hustle proudly sponsors local charities. Check us out on market harboroughbiznetwork.co.uk/podcast, where you can find a transcript of today’s podcast, all the links that I mentioned, posts that you can share on social media to spread the word, and everything you need to know if you’d like to help our local charities Find out more about our lovely sponsors. Today, I am going to be speaking to Mel from MWC Business Consulting. But first, before we get into that conversation, let’s hear from our lovely sponsor. Sponsor shout out. Don’t wait for the January tax deadline.

Martin [00:00:42]:

Get your return in now with the friendly professional help of your local Tax Assist accountants in Harborough, Lutterworth, Blaby, Kettering, and Lincoln. See how they can help your business to thrive. TaxAssist also provide accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll services and gives a free consultation. Check them out now on taxassist.co.uk and Paul Simpson TaxAssist on LinkedIn. Welcome to this episode of Harborough Hustle, where I’m delighted to be chatting with Mel from MWC Business Consulting. Hi, Mel.

Mel [00:01:19]:

Hi. How are you?

Martin [00:01:21]:

I’m not too bad. Thanks. I’m just regretting having to cut out all the sunshine, in order to get the lighting for this right. But there we go. What about yourself?

Mel [00:01:32]:

I’m good. Thank you. And I’m I’m too doing the exact same thing.

Martin [00:01:38]:

Oh, well. That’s England for you. Alright. Let’s let’s, let’s get into it. 1st question, just a little bit about yourself. Just a nutshell version because we’re gonna dive deeper, obviously. So a little bit about who you are, what do you do, where do you live, and what’s fun in in life besides work.

Mel [00:01:55]:

Well, as you say, my name is Mel, and I’m the founder of MWC Business Consulting. So we are process improvement and procurement specialist based in Kibworth. And, originally, I’m from Birmingham, although I have been told I don’t have a strong accent. So, I’m hoping that is the case. And I guess what’s fun, I absolutely love to travel, and I’m about to tick off Country number 40 this December.

Martin [00:02:25]:

I’m very impressed because that’s right in where I like to do as well. And I I haven’t got to 40. Not that far off, but brilliant. Which one’s gonna be number 40?

Mel [00:02:34]:

So I’m off to book in Romania.For the Christmas markets.

Martin [00:02:39]:

Oh, lovely. Yes. Romania’s on my list as well. So I’ll be catching up with you when you get back from that and trying to get all the gen. Brilliant. So tell me, Mel, how’d you get started in in this business?

Mel [00:02:53]:

Honestly, a complete accident. So in 2022, like most people post COVID, I decided it was time to have a career change or just to change it up and, you know, do something different. I’ve been working at this point for about 10 years in the fashion industry, working my way up from an admin buying assistant all the way up to head of buying, Kind of working with some of these big corporate companies, some smaller founder led companies, and, honestly, I just fancy The change, 10 years is a long time. So amazingly, me and my then boyfriend Decided to go traveling, and we had 3 months traveling, which was amazing, and then came back engaged and married, Which was, probably a story for another time. But when we got back, it was quite interesting because A friend of of ours said to me, what are you doing now? And I said, oh, you know, not not a lot. Still on my sabbatical, you know, enjoying my free time. And they actually asked if I could help them with their business, and I kinda thought, yeah, you know, why not? I’m not really doing much. I’m sure I could be of help.

Mel [00:04:03]:

And that’s how I started. I started helping friends and then friends of friends, and then kind of by the end of that year, which was end of last year, I thought, right, I think I’ve started a business. And as all, you know, good things start by accident, I decided to do something a bit more intentional about it, and that’s when I went limited in February of this year, and the rest is history as they say.

Martin [00:04:30]:

Fantastic. So the the business, like you said, you’ve got procurement and process improvement. Do you just wanna tell us a little bit more about what that actually is?

Mel [00:04:39]:

Yeah. Of course. So in terms of process improvement, that’s really looking at processes and how you can make them more efficient, How you can save time and potentially money by working smarter, not necessarily harder. One of the key things that I do do with lots of clients is documentation of processes because that is really vital if it’s, a case of training new members of staff, Trying to take that burden off of yourself if all of your day to day tasks are stuck with you, whether that’s, you know because if you’re, You know, a one person band, you can still document your processes because potentially in time, you might want to outsource to a VA or take a new member of staff on. So it’s really important, to have that part of your business down really. The procurement side’s slightly different. So that’s looking at strategies behind the product you have in your business, how you’re going to grow that product, or whether you just got the right product mix. You know, is it working as hard for you as it should be? Do you have the right processes behind procurement? It could be a deep dive into your supply chain and looking at, Are you cost effective? Are you getting the best prices from your suppliers? The best lead times and the best service.

Mel [00:05:52]:

So it’s a real kind of, A culmination of my skill set, essentially. I basically picked 2 things I’m really good at, and I offer that out to, other businesses and other business owners and

Martin [00:06:07]:

help them along their way. Fantastic. Because, I mean, obviously, the the procurement, logistics, all the rest of it around that. You know, it’s gonna depend very much on on the nature of your business. But, certainly, for process improvement, I mean, every single business needs to have some processes, in order to to survive, I would suggest. Do you have a a a typical size of customer?

Mel [00:06:31]:

It it really varies. I’ve worked with a lot of, like I say, 1 person bands. So, you know, just Solo entrepreneurs who are, you know, leading their way in their field. But then I also work with, companies that have teams, and we’re talking kind of teams up to the size of, you know, 2 people up to 25 plus, really. And this is where it gets interesting because when you have a team, it’s So paramount that everybody’s on the same page when it comes to process improvement because it only takes a couple of people not following that process that it all falls apart. And there’s a huge education piece within this in terms of making sure from the offset, the team understand why we’re doing process improvement, What it is, because not everyone’s familiar with it, and also how we’re going to do it and how, most importantly, it’s going to be of benefit to them. Because this is the whole thing, you know, it boosts efficiency, you have cost savings, it aids business growth, but most Most importantly for the people actually doing the work, it enables fewer mistakes, which is gonna save them time, and that’s, You know, something that I think most employees can really resonate in and would benefit them on a day to day basis.

Martin [00:07:46]:

Yes. Some really good points in there. I mean, you mentioned about, you know, and the education, the the buy in, some mistakes and things. Do you think there’s something that that people don’t think about enough, you know, if if they’re starting to to engage someone like yourself, to to help them.

Mel [00:08:03]:

Yeah. Definitely. I think quite often, Business owners don’t think of processes as a necessity. They almost think of it as a nicety. You know? Oh, you know, our processes, they work. They’re fine. We don’t really need to improve them. And, you know, I I understand that mentality, but what I would really say is, You know, they don’t really appreciate how much time they could be saving or how much easier their team could be working.

Mel [00:08:30]:

Also, there’s a whole consistency thing there Because as you can imagine, if you have a team and they’re all working in slightly different ways, you’re gonna get slightly different results. By having a, you know, Strategic, consistent process that everyone follows, you’re gonna get a very consistent result. And that’s the aim of the game here, isn’t it? It’s making sure that you get the best from your employees, best from your business, and very importantly, the best for your customer.

Martin [00:08:58]:

Yeah. No. I think everybody would, would agree with that. So is this something that you you wish you’d known earlier in your journey, you know, kind of And a note to a younger male, so to speak.

Mel [00:09:08]:

Oh, yeah. I mean, there’s plenty of things, but one that probably sticks out the most is you you don’t have to be perfect in order to get started. And I think this is, something I, as a perfectionist, Yeah. I just struggle with. It’s one of those things where I always wanted to make sure it was perfect before I kind of went to market or before I launched. And the honest truth is, as long as you’ve got a minimal viable product or service, get out there and get instant feedback because that’s what I found most valuable and helpful. We’re just going and talking to people at networking events and finding out from them, would they be interested in this service? Would that be a benefit to them? And it’s amazing how helpful people are. So, yeah, it doesn’t have to be perfect to get started.

Mel [00:09:54]:

Just get out there.

Martin [00:09:56]:

That’s a good message, and, I I kind of launched this podcast on, excuse me, on that kind of, deal. I’ve got a friend who’s interested in in launching 1 as well, trying to get everything absolutely just so. Alright. Well, if you get a few episodes out there, you’ll get feedback from people, and and they’ll give you, you know, some things that perhaps you haven’t thought of. Oh, actually, that’s more important than that. So, yeah, if you can, minimal viable product as they say. Just just get going, all the rest of it. And it’s interesting you mentioned networking meetings there.

Martin [00:10:26]:

I think Mark Harper Business Network’s probably the 1st time that that I met you. So, you know, it it does work. You meet some interesting people. I’m talking about me meeting you there, not the other way around, by the way. Did you have a mentor at any point on your journey?

Mel [00:10:43]:

Yeah. I’ve been really fortunate actually, And I’ve had a few mentors along the way, one in particular who’s been really helpful. I think one of the hardest parts of starting a business is going from working in a team environment Where there’s always someone above you to kind of soundboard off of or to kind of go to and just check you’re on the right lines to then having to do it All for yourself, because you are the top of the chain when you start a company. So it’s been really helpful actually just to have some like minded people who have been happy to offer advice and to kind of steer me in the right direction. So, yeah, it I I would definitely say, Mentoring’s been great for my kind of start in this business world.

Martin [00:11:23]:

Yeah. I can absolutely identify what you’re saying there because, yeah, I used to work in a, well, I think the biggest bank in the world, JPMorgan. And, again, like you say, there’s layers and layers and layers and layers, and then all of a sudden, there’s just you. So, yeah, there are some challenges to that for sure. So that’s like talking about, the the past, but the recent past for you. In the present, right now, anybody you particularly admire? Any reason for that?

Mel [00:11:54]:

Yeah. You know what? There’s, there’s a lady called Mel Robbins, and a lot of people refer to her husband, Tony Robbins. They’re a bit of a dynamic duo. I really admire Mel because of her resilience and her honesty. So she came from Quite a troubled background where she had some addiction issues, and she really changed her life around. And she came up with this concept Which, is brilliant. It’s so, so simple, and it’s something that I regularly use and I’d love to share with everybody on the podcast today Because I’m a firm believer in this, method or this concept, and it’s called the 5 second rule. And it’s as simple as this.

Mel [00:12:33]:

Whenever you have an intention or a thought, so for instance, it might be, I really need to get my expenses put through the system, you know, as simple as that. Rather than just kind of letting that slide and, you know, thinking, oh, I’ll do it I’ll do it in a little while, you use the 5 second rule. And you count backwards from 5, so 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Before you get to 1, you do something that is an intention towards moving, towards getting that done. It could be as simple as setting a reminder in your calendar, you know, jotting it down in your notepad, or actually doing it, you know, maybe just getting the receipts out and start doing it. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as you move. And by move, I mean make an intentional step towards getting it done. And I think, you know, she’s a great one for For someone to admire because that’s how she changed her life around.

Mel [00:13:21]:

That’s how she stopped her addiction. That’s how she, you know, created and now if you you Google her, she’s, you know, got this huge successful career, all centered around the 5 second rule.

Martin [00:13:33]:

Amazing. That’s really interesting. It’s great to to have a tip. I mean, regular listeners We’ll know that we, do a transcript of this podcast. And so, obviously, you know, we’ll have that in there so people can look back and and just, think again now. Why exactly was it that Mel said about the 5 seconds I have to do something after? We’ll have it there so you can follow-up. Give it a try, and and and, hey, let us know, dear listener, if it’s working for you because, quite clearly, it’s working for a lot of people. Thanks for that.

Martin [00:14:02]:

It’s always good to get a a good tip. Thanks, Mel.

Mel [00:14:05]:

No worries.

Martin [00:14:06]:

So, is there anything? You you’ve obviously got followed, Mel. You’ve got your mentors. Anything anything left in life for you to to learn?

Mel [00:14:19]:

Oh, I’m a firm believer there’s always something to learn, and I’m I’m always into learning and to, You know, self development. I guess one thing that I would like to do more of and that I have recently been ramping up is mindfulness. I think it’s so important to be active in your mindfulness, especially when you’re working in an environment like, being a founder of a business where it’s so easy to get sucked in and it’s so easy to kind of lose your mindfulness because you kind of think, I’ll just keep going. I’ll just get this done because Because you know it’s benefiting yourself and your business. But I have learned that it’s really important actually to kind of take a step back and say, And you know what’s also really important? It’s really important I rest, and it’s really important that I I have that balance. So, yeah, I would say probably keep developing My knowledge around mindfulness.

Martin [00:15:12]:

That’s an interesting one. Do you have any any tips on on how to improve on concentrating on your mindfulness.

Mel [00:15:20]:

Yeah. Definitely. Boundaries is a great one. So For instance, when I first started on this journey, beginning of this year, there was so much to do. There was so much to kind of learn and to get to grips with, And I did find myself working quite long hours, and that was never the intention when I started the business. It was it was always to enable me to help others, to live the lifestyle that I wanted to live and do something I truly enjoyed working with people that I like to work with. And, I had to really set myself quite hard boundaries and say, okay. You know what? After 6, you need to log off.

Mel [00:15:58]:

Like, you know, that that’s enough. You can come back to it tomorrow or, you know, if it’s a case of working, you know, less less days a week, that’s okay too. So, you know, if if I want to work Monday to Thursday and work really hard Monday to Thursday and then reward myself with a Friday off, that’s okay too. So, yeah, I would say setting boundaries that work for you, and that you’re comfortable with are really great ways of keeping mindful.

Martin [00:16:28]:

Some really interesting points there. And, again, things that I can resonate with, a, in terms of the intention, but be probably not very good on the execution, in the you know, working slightly less hours and slightly less days is again something that I would like to, achieve. I I aspire to it. Not doing it very well at the moment, so maybe we need to talk further off it. So confession time then. Tell me, what what’s one of the the biggest mistakes you’ve made in business? What did you learn from it?

Mel [00:17:03]:

Oh, this might actually link back to what I was just talking about, and I’d probably say it was not prioritizing work life work life balance. It’s probably one of the biggest mistakes I made because it’s very quick, well, you’ll quickly find out it’s not sustainable And it’s quite quick to burn out when you don’t have that balance, and I think that’s probably my biggest mistake, and that was probably early on in the journey. So, you know, beginning of the year, where I was just absolutely knackered. And I was thinking I mean, I’m sure everyone can also, resonate and and kind of, you know, appreciate this comment of When you start a business, you really are on a roller coaster, and that’s something that people don’t necessarily tell you. And in my head, I was like, yeah, I’ll start a business, You know, or I accidentally started a business and thought, yeah. I’ll do it with some intention. You it’s a roller coaster and, you know, there’s highs and there’s lows, and that’s Great actually because you learn quickly, and you, you know, you get you get to where you want to go. But I think in order to do that in a sustained way, You’ve got to make sure you prioritise your work life balance.

Martin [00:18:14]:

Yeah. No. That’s that’s a good good message there. Let’s flip it around then. What about your proudest business moment?

Mel [00:18:22]:

I’d have to say, actually, that happened this week. So I actually ran a process improvement workshop at the Market Harbour Innovation Centre, and it was completely free to local businesses who could take the time out to come along. And one of the things I’ve always said I wanted to do when starting this business was being able to give something back, because I fully appreciate not everyone can afford to pay for consulting services, but I still want to be able to help people. And I’m still very passionate, As passionate as you can be about processes, as I appreciate they are boring and not everyone’s cup of tea. But for me, I’m passionate because I know the value of Improving processes and what that can mean to people’s day to day lives in their business, to their teams, the benefit that that can bring. So, yeah, I would say leading that workshop this week, doing the first of, you know, a series of workshops that I plan to do next year, And being able to offer that first one for free, was a really proud moment.

Martin [00:19:24]:

Fantastic. Oh, it’s really nice to hear. And, As we both know, I I actually did attend that that workshop. And one of the things, you know, you you’re obviously looking for feedback, as part of your processing improvement Was the the the passion really came across. And it makes such a difference when you’ve got a subject that, like you say, maybe Not everybody’s going, oh, great. I’m going to a process improvement workshop. Fantastic. You know, it’s maybe not the first thing you think of when you wake up, but, you know, having someone who can deal with it, Deliver it with passion, and, obviously, get the benefits across there.

Martin [00:19:57]:

Makes a world of difference. So, yeah, thank you very much for for running that for us, and, I’d encourage people to to take advantage of the next one, you know, when when that’s available, which will obviously be advertised on on Mel’s website, which we’ll reference in the show notes. One of the things that that one of my previous guests sent is, can I ask a question for the next guest, whoever it might be?

Mel [00:20:21]:

Oh.

Martin [00:20:22]:

Yeah. Why not? So, this is a question that that came from, Carmen Harrington, and it was, could you tell us about a book that’s helped you with your business?

Mel [00:20:34]:

Oh, interesting. I Love to read, and I’m always reading, and I’m actually a member of a business book group. And the last book we read, Actually, would probably be a great book to recommend, which was called The Minimalist Entrepreneur, and it’s by Sahil Lavinia, And it was a great read. It’s one of those books where I kind of wish I read it at the beginning of my journey, but it also It’s good I read it now because there’s so much I could kind of look back and go, oh, actually, yeah, you know, that that’s really good point. And Not no spoilers, but in terms of, the kind of the kind of essence of the book, Sir Hill goes through His journey and his business experience. And he says he tried to chase the unicorn, that, you know, $1,000,000,000 business idea, You know, really make it, sell that on, make his money, retire, whatever. And he realized actually quite quickly that it it’s great To have that ambition and to have that kind of, goal, but, actually, you know what’s really great? Having a viable business that makes money. And he kinda gave up that chasing that unicorn because, you know, it wasn’t for him.

Mel [00:21:50]:

And he realized he actually had a really good business that Ticked all the boxes for him and it enabled him to go on to do lots of other projects and, you know, to kind of work on lots of other things and It made me think, actually, you know, that’s really smart and really clever, and it’s not about all the unicorn chasing.

Martin [00:22:10]:

Okay. Well, that that’s a book that I wasn’t aware of. So, so thank you for that. We’re going, Check that out and and see what we can, can gain from it. It’s a relatively new book

Mel [00:22:23]:

because he actually talks about things like Slack and, you know, like modern, things that we all use in day to day kind of work now. So, yeah, it’s it’s probably quite new, which is why you haven’t heard of it.

Martin [00:22:34]:

Okay. Alright. And like you say, I mean, it’s it’s always good to continually being updating yourself on on what’s the latest thinking is, etcetera. So, Definitely one to to go and check out. And as I said with the other thing, you know, we’ll reference that in the show notes, obviously. So I know you haven’t been doing, your business particularly long, but you’ve been in the industry and and in in the, you know, area that you’re working in for for more than 10 years, you said. If you weren’t working in that, is there another career that that you might like to do or wish you had done either?

Mel [00:23:12]:

I’ve always said from a really young age that I wanted to be a teacher and That probably has flipped on its head a little bit these days now that I’m a bit older and a bit wiser because, as lovely as kids are, I don’t think I want to teach them. But but what I would still potentially maybe one day like to do is be a lecturer. Especially with my wealth of knowledge In, you know, this industry, I think it would be great to be able to share that with the younger generation. So yeah, potentially a lecturer.

Martin [00:23:45]:

Interesting. Interesting. I I used to teach English as a foreign language and, taught kids, teenage and and business people, and and majored, eventually on on the business people. And it’s interesting. When you spend enough time with them, you find that that There’s an inner child in them as well, and they like doing the same sort of things that the kids do. So, who knows? Maybe you could still get into teaching at some point in your life and just just find the right audience to teach.

Mel [00:24:14]:

You never know.

Martin [00:24:15]:

Yeah. So, I mean, talking about, you know, things that you might do, you might not do. Any other things that are that are on the the so called bucket list?

Mel [00:24:27]:

Yeah. I guess so. So As as I mentioned earlier, I love to travel, and, I actually set myself quite a a a kind of big challenge, which was to achieve 30 well, visit 30 countries by the age of 30. Now I don’t wanna give my age away, but I have managed to achieve that. So I’ve set myself another goal now, which is, to visit 1 new country every year Up to country number 50. So I’m doing alright. As I say, I’m visiting country number 40, and that is not reflective of my age, FYI. I’ve just managed to cram quite a few in in, in a short amount of years.

Mel [00:25:10]:

But yeah. That’s my that’s my bucket list. I I’m really keen to try and get 1 new country until I hit 50 countries, 1 per year.

Martin [00:25:19]:

Yeah. Well, that that’s great. I mean, I’m a particular fan of of what they call slow travel. So, We were looking my wife and I were looking the other day about how many countries have you been to, and she’s like, well, you went to Luxembourg. I’m like, yeah. I was there for 20 minutes. So, technically, I’ve been to it, but I don’t think you can really count it. So I hope that your your fifties are kind of actually experiencing the country rather than, you know, passing through it.

Mel [00:25:47]:

Yeah. No. Definitely. We me and my husband have this argument all the time where, I I say if you haven’t kind of, you know, actually slept over or been there for an extended period of time. It shouldn’t count. You can’t count passing through. So, yeah, we we we still have this debate all the time because he seems to think, Oh, it’s fine. We had an ice cream there.

Mel [00:26:07]:

We can count it.

Martin [00:26:11]:

Well, I hope you enjoy going to to other countries together and and and debating whether they count or not. Is there or can you show us a hidden talent to Mel that maybe not people don’t immediately realize.

Mel [00:26:27]:

I’ll show you one, but I guess the Only one that comes to mind, is and it’s a bit of a strange one. My husband always says that my sense of direction It’s my one kind of useful superpower. So if we’re kind of, you know, in a new city or in a new place And we’re wondering around. If I’ve walked it once or been been on a route once, I can normally get us back without without the map or without Relying on Google Google Maps. And it’s always funny because he’ll always go off in one direction and I’ll be like, no. No. No. It’s this way.

Mel [00:27:02]:

And even to this day, he’ll still go, are you sure? And I’m like, are we really gonna test this? And then he’s like, don’t know why I asked. You’re sure?

Martin [00:27:12]:

Brilliant. You you’ve actually just described my sister and brother-in-law as well. She’s she’s like you, and my brother-in-law is is is as you describe your your husband. And, he’s given up just like, yeah. Okay. If you say it’s this way, it’s this way. That’s it. Brilliant.

Martin [00:27:28]:

So talking about finding things, How can we find, you online, social media, etcetera?

Mel [00:27:36]:

Yeah. So, I am all over LinkedIn. So MWC Business Consulting, we have our own page, or Melissa Wright, you’ll be able to find me, and I’m always happy to connect with any like minded people. So, yeah, please please join me on LinkedIn. And I post regularly whether it’s tips or, you know, what what we’ve been up to, if we have any of our workshops and things like that, it’ll all go on there. And then, obviously, we have our website, which is ww.mwcbusinessconsulting.co.uk, And that’s recently had a face lift. We’ve had, a redesign. So, yeah, it’d be great for people to go on and have a look at that.

Martin [00:28:14]:

Fabulous. Okay? Brilliant. Thank you very much for that. Just before I let you go, is there anything that I should have asked you, but I didn’t?

Mel [00:28:26]:

No. I don’t think so. I guess Last parting words for me would just be if anyone is interested in improving their processes or procurement strategies, then please get in touch. We do offer a free initial consultation, and we’re always happy to help.

Martin [00:28:43]:

Fantastic. Well, that’s that’s brilliant. Thanks, Mel. I’ll just have a quick word with, with our listener now. Hey. Let’s now show some love for for Mel. Check out all the show notes.

Martin [00:28:54]:

The links to the socials and everything else that that Mel’s mentioned, the books, the techniques, all on marketharboroughbiznetwork.co.uk/podcast. And even better, why not join in? Leave a comment, any questions or suggestions. We really appreciate learning how we can make this podcast better for you. And, hey, if you’d like to be a guest on the show, then there’s an application form via the website as well. And also, if you’d like to sponsor the show, we’ve got some really good, early adopter deals running at the moment. Talking about that. I’d like to thank our sponsor for this episode, taxassist.co.uk.