{"id":7631,"date":"2020-05-20T18:04:20","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T17:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/?p=7631"},"modified":"2026-01-29T11:31:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T11:31:33","slug":"ramsac-never-trim-business-muscle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/ramsac-never-trim-business-muscle\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramsac: \u2018We are running a marathon \u2013 it\u2019s not the time to trim business muscle’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRamsac: \u2018We are running a marathon \u2013 it\u2019s not the time to trim business muscle’\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"Rob\t\t\t\tRob May<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In our Your Story<\/a> series, we speak to business owners about the challenges they\u2019re facing and the steps they\u2019re taking to overcome them. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Rob May is the founder and managing director of <\/strong>Ramsac<\/strong><\/a>, an outsourcing IT firm that specialises in cybersecurity and is based in Godalming, Surrey. Here, he talks about the challenges he\u2019s faced and how holding steady throughout the adjustment period has resulted in the growth of his business. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the coronavirus<\/a> (COVID-19) disruption, began I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever worked so hard. I think that\u2019s true for all of my team.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve learned that communication is vital during periods of change or uncertainty. I\u2019ve been putting my arm around our staff, and reaching out to clients to try and communicate that it\u2019s business as usual, even though everything has changed.<\/p>\n

And the hard work has paid off. We\u2019ve taken on new staff and when our business year ended recently, we\u2019d reached our targets \u2013 but how did we do it?<\/p>\n

Avoid the knee-jerk reaction to cut back if you can and pivot your specialism instead<\/h2>\n

Many of our competitors furloughed staff<\/a> too early, and too easily.<\/p>\n

How do I know this?<\/p>\n

Well, because we have won business because of it. Our competitors just weren\u2019t able to respond.\u00a0This new business was a happy accident, I should add.<\/p>\n

We certainly didn\u2019t go looking to see which of our competitors were cutting back. Our view was simply that, more than ever, people needed our help.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m seeing with competitors right now is a rapid un-furloughing of staff. They have realised there is work to be done and customers out there.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong. I know it\u2019s essentially impossible, making difficult decisions like these. But it\u2019s important to remain level-headed and make use of your experience.<\/p>\n

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“Our view was simply that, more than ever, people needed our help”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

My business has been going for 30 years. I\u2019ve seen recessions come and go. And I\u2019ve seen that people are often anxious to cut costs quickly.<\/p>\n

Right now there is pressure to run as lean an operation as possible. We are running a marathon, and now is not the time to trim muscle. The knee-jerk reaction from some our competitors has been to do just that.<\/p>\n

Instead, managers within a business need to look at what they do and try to work out how they can utilise the staff they have to deliver an adapted service.<\/p>\n

The new normal affects everything from the operations of the business to how clients are handled.<\/p>\n

This involves rethinking what you do.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, we are cybersecurity experts, but we recently started a part of our business dedicated to business transformation. We have started to ramp that up more quickly than we anticipated given the current situation.<\/p>\n

How can your business be transformed operationally so it can provide for a new normal where a handful of people are in the office, and people are working from home<\/a>?<\/p>\n

We have to adjust, and think: “What is it that I do and what can I do it in this new landscape?”<\/p>\n

\"Rob

Rob May (second from left) and his team have been busy supporting clients<\/p><\/div>\n

Respond to client needs to facilitate long-term growth<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s turned out that, because we are IT advisers and cybersecurity experts, our clients have really needed us to help with the switch to homeworking following office closures.<\/p>\n

I’ve had conversations with clients where they\u2019ve said: “We’re cancelling all of our direct debits \u2013 but we’ve not cancelled yours because you’re a key supplier.”<\/p>\n

From that point of view, we\u2019re really fortunate.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a flipside to this, in that we’ve had thousands of extra calls in the first few weeks from people needing help and support.<\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t receive a penny from that massive increase in work, and that\u2019s where the need for the additional staff came from.<\/p>\n

While the influx of support calls has challenged our business, in the end I\u2019m happy with what we did. You\u2019ve just got to do right by your customers.<\/p>\n

A large part of your resilience during the coronavirus disruption will be about what you can do to make sure the customer is happy and successful. It\u2019s always going to be your customers\u2019 success that drives your own success.<\/p>\n

I never forget that.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been trying to educate clients about the challenges they might be having, because we have the unique oversight of many clients with the same challenges.<\/p>\n

And then we\u2019re trying to help them with that. As they say, sharing is caring \u2013 and if we\u2019re all in this together then sharing any and all information is vital.<\/p>\n

Learn how to be a virtual manager and bring your team closer<\/h2>\n

I record a video message every morning and aim to have it in colleague\u2019s inboxes by 7.30am. When they start their day, they have a briefing from me.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s about staying in touch but also about sharing positivity. It\u2019s a discipline, and people really like it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been wanting to do this kind of thing for ages, to be honest. Even before the coronavirus disruption. But I was always busy with something else.<\/p>\n

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“The irony has been that, as a company, we\u2019re all a lot closer because of the fact we\u2019re no longer physically in contact with each other”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s a bit of a clich\u00e9 but the disruption of recent months has meant I\u2019m working more in the business, rather than on the business. I\u2019m more present in my employees\u2019 work life and this has proved to be a great thing for them and for me.<\/p>\n

When the coronavirus disruption began, my messages were very much around reassurance, because people needed that.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s about making sure they continue to feel connected and in the loop. We\u2019re actually having far more staff briefings than we would ordinarily in the office, and that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n

The irony has been that, as a company, we\u2019re all a lot closer because of the fact we\u2019re no longer physically in contact with each other.<\/p>\n

I did a virtual town hall meeting yesterday, and got a lot more attention than I would\u2019ve done if I\u2019d been in a room speaking to the 70-odd people.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all perfect. What you don’t get in a virtual conversation is energy from the other person. I\u2019m feeling this in particular when it comes to calls with clients or prospects. But it works fine most of the time.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re even thinking about what all this means for our office space.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019re approaching the end of our lease, we had been thinking about expanding the size. But now we\u2019re thinking it\u2019s going to be fine, because we don\u2019t necessarily need everybody in the office.<\/p>\n

My top takeaways<\/h2>\n

Here\u2019s what\u2019s worked best for our business.<\/p>\n

1. Try to avoid a knee jerk reaction<\/h3>\n

The government\u2019s been extraordinarily helpful for businesses with the Job Retention furlough scheme<\/a>, and similar.<\/p>\n

But while taking advantage of grants certainly makes sense, it\u2019s worth remembering some of these schemes aren\u2019t mandatory.<\/p>\n

Some of our competitors made a costly mistake furloughing too soon.<\/p>\n

2. Prepare for the new normal<\/h3>\n

Yes, this phrase is becoming a clich\u00e9. But it\u2019s a useful way of looking at the world.<\/p>\n

For the next few months at least, businesses are going to have to continue operating in a different way. And they might even need to make further adjustments, such as reintroducing some staff back into the physical premises while retaining a remote workforce<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Start thinking and planning for this immediately and continue that planning for as long as required to ensure you retain a competitive advantage that focuses on growth.<\/p>\n

3. Embrace digital transformation<\/h3>\n

The world of business has undergone years of digital transformation in two months, but this is only the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n

Pretty much every business task can be digitally transformed nowadays \u2013 and the coronavirus disruption means people are far more amenable to this, and knowledgeable about it too.<\/p>\n

How can your business take advantage of this?<\/p>\n

It could be something as simple as video conferencing to onboard new customers, for example, rather than visiting their offices.<\/p>\n

Or it could something more complex like connecting their systems to yours to allow more collaborative working, and avoiding a need to manually request and send data.<\/p>\n

Rob May was talking to Sage Advice\u2019s Keir Thomas-Bryant.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

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If you'd like to tell your business story on Sage Advice and share how you've overcome challenges, send us your details to learn more.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet in touch<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n

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Join more than 500,000 UK readers and get the best business admin strategies and tactics, as well as actionable advice to help your company thrive, in your inbox every month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe now<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In our Your Story series, we speak to business owners about the challenges they\u2019re facing and the steps they\u2019re taking to overcome them. Rob May is the founder and managing director of Ramsac, an outsourcing IT firm that specialises in cybersecurity and is based in Godalming, Surrey. Here, he talks about the challenges he\u2019s faced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":518,"featured_media":7625,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[191,34],"business_type":[4,3],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[68,71,73,74],"imagine_tag":[98,165,96,109],"coauthors":[404],"class_list":["post-7631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strategy-legal-operations","tag-business-continuity","tag-your-story","business_type-small-business","business_type-medium-sized-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-gb","author_name":"Rob May","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/05\/Four-Bosses-1-scaled.jpg","imagine_tags":{"98":"Business continuity","165":"Medium business trade","96":"Medium businesses","109":"Small business"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice UK","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/7625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7631"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=7631"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=7631"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=7631"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=7631"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=7631"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=7631"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}