Multiply helps businesses think of the everyday challenges
Sophy Moynagh, Operations and Marketing Director at 43-year-old self-adhesive printing firm Anglia Labels talks to us about her experience with the Multiply Suffolk programme. View the video here.
Tell us a bit about you and your small business
My name is Sophy Moynagh and my father, Rowland Grindell, started up Anglia Labels about 43 years ago in 1980. We are a small self-adhesive label printing firm, we create sticky labels for many different products from animal health care products to drinks and food.
How did you hear about the Multiply Suffolk programme?
We have been working closely with many local business support groups, like the new Anglia Growth Hub and the Council. In one of our chats, we were put in touch with a lady called Lisa from the Suffolk County Council Business Connector Group, she was the one who told us about the Multiply Suffolk Programme and that it was something available to all businesses. It was inspiring to know that there is a lot of help and support in the Suffolk area.
How did you hear about the Multiply Suffolk programme?
We have been working closely with many local business support groups, like the new Anglia Growth Hub and the Council. In one of our chats, we were put in touch with a lady called Lisa from the Suffolk County Council Business Connector Group, she was the one who told us about the Multiply Suffolk Programme and that it was something available to all businesses. It was inspiring to know that there is a lot of help and support in the Suffolk area.
Why did you decide to get involved with the programme?
I thought it was absolutely brilliant. The scheme really encourages numeracy amongst the workforce.
Whilst everybody in my team of 21, a lot of whom have worked for us for a really really long time (one chap who has even worked with us for 40-odd years), is really capable of doing their roles — I am a great believer in that there's a lot more to be learned.
Numeracy skills are something that often gets overlooked. I am the first to admit I have forgotten a lot of my times tables, so, just having a service that provides some support to work on, not just the basic numeracy but also the everyday numbers that none of us have that much time to delve into (but would like to learn) like how to look at our bills and things, is really valuable.
What have you and your employees gained?
We had a great couple of sessions from Peter Wood and he was absolutely fantastic. He came in, first of all, to meet with me and talk about our different business needs. As a first step, we decided to conduct a kind of two tier financial wellbeing discussion for all of our staff. It was optional of course, but we got really good turnout.
During the sessions, Peter went through a lot of things about what we can look at day to day in our personal money management matters – how to look at your bills or even how much it costs to keep your phone charger plugged in at the wall – all of those sorts of things that you just don't think about day to day. Then we moved into a lot more detail around things like mortgages, loans, credit cards.
Obviously, we've just come out of a financial crisis in the country, and it's really nice to be able to provide our staff with some additional resource to help them where we might not be able to, everything helps. Everybody came away with something that they learnt.
The next thing that we hope to do is work with the team on the way our processes work which requires quite a lot of mental arithmetic and calculation. It's something we take for granted, so it would be great to provide some support for perhaps the newer members of staff where they may not have had the qualifications that support it to the same extent.
So, there was lots to be learned on the personal practical side and also the work related side.
Was there any initial hesitation to for your staff to join the programme?
In that first stage, I think there was that fear around maths and especially for the people that have worked in their roles for a really long time. There was a bit of a ‘why do we need to? We all know how to pay our bills’.
I think it’s important to find a way to begin the conversation in a non condescending way then making sure the delivery follows. So, I really appreciated that the programme delivered everything in an engaging and sensitive manner. Everybody came away with something that they had not thought and even just that one small thing makes a difference.
A message to other businesses to explore the business support available…
I would say jump at the chance! There's a huge range of opportunities out there through the different courses that are offered and it's just really about starting that process of talking to somebody to find out which ones can help you and your business.
I think the other thing to say is there is a lot of support around tailoring it your specific company or dynamic and groups, if you do have that resistance. I just think it's a fantastic resource and it can benefit any business definitely.
