60 seconds with… Kate Plowright, Founder & Director – Selling Savvy

Looking back on 2020, which was your professional most successful initiative/achievement? 

Collaborating with large associations to offer their members free training whilst increasing our traction, client-base and database from small and local, to large and national!

What are your most priorities in terms of planning for this year? 

We are working on more partnerships and collaborations to make sure we are bringing our clients the most up-to-date and relevant information. We are also working on building stronger relationships with clients and other event professionals to ensure we service them the most effective and results-driven way 

With the ending of the BREXIT transition period and new rules being here, what do you think the impact will be? 

I worry for hotels that have a vast amount of corporate accommodation because undoubtedly a lot of these guests will come from Europe. I think that both Brexit and the increase and ease of virtual meetings may jeopardise this business, meaning that corporate-heavy hotels will need to be creative in finding business to replace this mid-week revenue.

The Government has put in place several measures in order to help business owners and operators throughout the pandemic and lockdowns. What are your thoughts on what is available to you? 

As a recent start-up, we were one of the businesses that ‘fell through the gaps’ and have therefore had no support. I am extremely lucky that I don’t have any overheads in the business, and this has really been what has saved us. We should all be massively grateful for the spokespeople of the industry including Kate Nicholls from UKHospitality and Martin Fullard at Mash Media for standing up for us all and pushing for the support that is needed.

As we all know, employees’ and people’s well-being & mental health have been critical points during 2020. How have you incorporated them in your operations, and have you changed your ways of working in order to accommodate different working patterns (flexible hours, working from home…)? 

As a team we have always worked from home and our hours are always extremely flexible with no minimum hours. I believe that as long as the results are delivered at the end of each month, you can work as many or as few hours as you need to. I have tried to cut down on the number of internal meetings as I felt these were getting in the way of the flexibility of working hours. We now have less internal meetings, but they are very structured and have a clear agenda and goal. We also socialise quite regularly which means everyone gets on well and can be very honest with how they are feeling.

What positive lessons do we need to learn from what the industry has been through? 

As an industry we have become very strong and united throughout the last year. I think we have learnt to respect each sector of the industry, including operational businesses, suppliers, virtual event companies and hotels and venues. We have learnt that collaboration is not only a great way to do business, but it is also a lot of fun!

Kate Plowright LinkedIn profile

https://sellingsavvy.co.uk/