Juice Moving Images
Many businesses think they are unique. And generally pretty good at being a business and everything that that entails.
Juice is exactly that – an SME that thinks it’s unique, and took a while to realise it isn’t. We suffer from exactly the same pains that many other businesses suffer from – happily however we spotted it. Whether it’s the realisation that you shouldn’t be doing your own VAT return, or running your own IT infrastructure there comes a critical moment when you need help from someone who actually knows what they are talking about.
Seriously who wants to look after HR and Finance? Isn’t it just better to call in people who actually like these things, or at least claim to like them. OK, so maybe they don’t like them, but they do know what they’re doing. Unlike us – we don’t like them, or know what we are doing – a deadly combination. Where we are like every other SME is that we were looking for a cost effective and pragmatic solution that delivered quick, measurable results – and flexed as our demands and requirements changed.
For us this is where Business Garage came into play, and how pleased we are that they did. Not only did they save us from ourselves (a big job in itself) but they have delivered consistently good advice in what we would describe as a ‘Juice-friendly’ way – no jargon or b*llsh*t. The costs are easy to justify in comparison to doing it yourself (badly) especially when we properly analyzed the time we typically spent on this stuff – time which was not being spent on the bits of the business we really are quite good at.
There’s no question in our mind that on the HR side our team here feel better supported and cared for knowing that we have professionals on call to answer their queries around all things HR’ey. Our recent, and very pleasing, elevation to Investors in People accreditation was without doubt hugely aided by the organization and process they have delivered to us.
On the Finance side we have never been better informed as to the performance of the business or where we can make improvements going forward. It’s not that we have entirely new information – we just now know what it means – or at least the important bits – rather than feeling overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the data.
Finally. Juice is pretty picky about who we partner with. We want people we can trust and who feel like they care about whether we succeed. We don’t want to be sold things we don’t need. We want it on time, and to cost what we expected. And we don’t want to be made to feel like we don’t know what we’re doing (even when we don’t…). Oh, and we don’t write testimonials for money. Just cake.
Chiltern Connections
We are a company of 30 employees and the HR side of the business was becoming too complex for us to handle in house. Business Garage were already providing us with Payroll services, for which we had experienced an enthusiastic and kind natured team. So, we decided it would make sense to approach Business Garage and find out what support they could offer.
We were initially reserved about choosing Business Garage because we were worried that they would recoil in horror over our complex policies that we inherited or adapted over the years. You could liken it to going to the dentist; you shudder with fear about what they may find. I can confidently say though that this was not the case at all. Both Joanne and Vicky put us at ease immediately and were extremely understanding of our situation, being a small company that has grown exponentially over the past 5 years and not having the full infrastructure to cope with this change.
What we found was that Business Garage were incredibly friendly and supportive from the moment we asked them for their help. We consulted with them over coffee, agreed a way forward to assist us with our policies, contracts of employment and onboarding documents.
We have an excellent working relationship with Business Garage, they provide us with answers to weird and wonderful HR questions or issues that arise, they deliver requested documentation and provide invaluable advice in a professional and responsive way. We honestly do not know how we would have coped without their help.
We started working with Business Garage HR not long before Covid-19 took hold of the world. We would not have known where to turn to had they not been helping us every step of the way. During the outbreak of the coronavirus, they have been a paramount extension to our company. Not only do they provide us with advice, write up communications for our staff in terms of letters and temporary changes to contracts but they have also kept us up to date with the changes to the Government schemes, manage our now complex Payroll and taken care of the furlough claims.
We highly commend Becki in Payroll, Vicky and Joanna in HR and their teams for rising to the challenge. I believe that if we had still been running the Payroll and HR functions in house, we would more than likely have panicked and had our heads in the sand.
Business Garage have been our guardian angels and are a pleasure to work with. We highly recommend Business Garage to all companies big or small; we believe you will not find a better HR or Payroll team to support you.
The Folly
I run two small businesses based in Oxford and have been working with Business Garage since 2013. At the time I had been finding it difficult to cope with the demands of the growing businesses and was keen to find a reliable local company that could take some of the business management and administration functions off my hands.
Initially Business Garage assisted with payroll and bookkeeping but over time they have stepped in to help with many other areas such as HR and call-handling. I have always found Joanne, Sarah, Rob and the team very easy to work with.
Business Garage are reliable and reassuring and bring a high degree of professionalism to the business (which I would struggle to deliver myself!). They are always helpful and pragmatic in finding solutions to problems. I would certainly recommend their services.