A Sheffield-based psychologist, who uses his knowledge of neuroscience to help his clients make better decisions has seen demand for his services boom after securing help from the South Yorkshire Digital Innovation Grant scheme to move his burgeoning business online.
Glenn Mead launched his business Face Value Performance in 2017 after calling on help from the Launchpad business support programme. Since launching his own company, the Sheffield-based entrepreneur has kept himself busy helping a wide range of senior business executives to learn how to improve decision making and their communications skills.
Glenn is no stranger to dealing with stressful situations. He served as an officer in the British Army for nine years, before going to forge a successful career in leadership and management where he worked across Europe. In recent years, Glenn developed a particular interest in understanding how being placed in stressful situations can impair judgement.
Drawing on his background in occupational psychology, over the past six years Glenn’s coaching businesses has successfully built a loyal client base, where he has supported lawyers, self-employed workers and senior executives. His business even counts the NHS and MOD amongst his growing client base.
With plans to scale and develop his business further, the experience of delivering his training sessions remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic inspired Glenn to expand his online support services. He recognised that the key to unlocking a digital training package was being able to help his clients enjoy a similar experience offered in a face-to-face setting, and to achieve that he needed to invest in new technology to improve the way his presentations were delivered.
To help him achieve his goals, Glenn decided to apply to the South Yorkshire Digital Innovation Grant scheme, a match-funded ERDF funded initiative designed to help businesses across the region to improve productivity by embracing new forms of technology. He decided to apply to the programme to help him fund the vital presentation equipment he needed to move more parts of his business online.
Glenn’s successful application helped him to invest in the vital new camera equipment needed to grow and develop his business. Unlike the web camera which he had relied upon previously, the new technology enabled him to improve the way in which his presentations were delivered. The new camera allowed Glenn to zoom in on specific areas, allowing him to display a digital screen, but crucially keep other areas of his workplace out of view.
Since implementing the technology, Glenn has been able to expand his online offering, helping him to secure a number of new contracts, which he would not have previously been able to support.
Glenn Mead, Founder, Face Value Performance Psychology, said: “Our body language can be just as important as the words we are speaking. Research has consistently shown that when a presentation is delivered in person, more information is retained. I realised that to expand my digital offering, I needed to invest in a system that could allow me to share the information I wanted to communicate in the presentation slides, but also show my face at the same time.
The funds I received from the Digital Innovation Grant scheme have been a genuine game-changer for my business. The technology I invested in has not only helped me to achieve greater flexibility when it comes to presenting information, but it has also given me the opportunity to record content and training sessions, allowing my clients to revisit the themes discussed outside of the sessions. It has helped me to secure and deliver work to businesses across the UK, something that would not have been possible previously. I am now hoping to grow the business further and gearing up to recruiting my first employee in the not-too-distant future.”
Christina Lima-Trindade, Business Growth Adviser, Business Sheffield said: “I’ve been working with Glenn since he first decided to launch his business and it’s been great to see how his business developed during that time. Like many businesses, Glenn was forced to adapt to a different way of working during the Covid-19 pandemic; however, he recognised that the technology that had helped him to navigate that difficult time could also provide a golden opportunity to open up new markets for the business.
The Digital Innovation Grant scheme was created specifically to help businesses harness new forms of technology to increase productivity and drive growth, and in Glenn’s case this has enabled him to service work that would have previously meant long journeys and lost working hours. Overcoming those challenges has enabled Glenn to maximise his working day, as well as using the technology to record new videos, and has generated additional sources of income for his business.”
The Digital Innovation Grant scheme was launched in July 2021 and helps SME businesses across South Yorkshire to access match-funded grants to help them embrace new ways of working to improve productivity and growth and enter new markets. The scheme is now closed to new applications.
The programme funded up to 50% of projects with costs totalling £2,000-£10,000. It is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund and is delivered across South Yorkshire by Enterprising Barnsley, part of Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council.
