DIGITAL CONSULTANCY SERVICES
Helping small businesses and charities navigate the digital world through consultancy.
The Smart Bear is your trustworthy guide through the digital business jungle ensuring you spend your budget wisely, get what you pay for, and with the right people for you
At The Smart Bear, with our years of experience owning a digital business, building websites and running marketing campaigns, we can offer advice to other businesses on a consultancy basis. Our goal is to give you a helping hand when you need it.
We’ve been working with businesses just like yours, for a long time, by helping them build a new website, improve their SEO or social media and implement social media strategies. But you may not want someone to do it for you, maybe you just need some advice along the way…. and so, we’ve introduced several business consultancy services which are at an affordable rate for charities, freelancers and micro/small businesses.
WHAT AREA ARE YOU INTERESTED IN?
BIDS AND TENDER REVIEW CONSULTANCY SERVICE
Helping businesses get the most from the budget
Writing a brief
If you’re looking to hire a web developer, an app developer, a branding specialist or a marketing guru, you’ll probably need to provide them with a brief. And, writing this when you’ve not done it before is daunting. Have you included everything? Does it make sense? Is something important missing? Will they understand what you need?
After an initial consultation with you to find out what you’re looking to achieve from the brief, we’ll help you structure and word it in a way to make sure it’s understandable and that you’ve included everything you need. We can also help you find suppliers or help distribute your brief to relevant parties, if required.
Reading bid tenders
After you’ve sent out a brief to various potential digital suppliers like website designers, marketing agencies or brand specialists, you’ll then have to pick one to move the project forward with.
And, it’s not always dependent on the quote price – for example, are they providing good value? Have they understood the brief? Have they provided solutions for any potential obstacles? Have they even noticed there could be potential obstacles?
We can read through all the tenders/bids for you, organise the data into a spreadsheet to compare the main points, and then consult with you and your team to discuss the pros and cons which should help to make your decision easier.
Writing a bid/tender proposal
If you’re the business writing the pitch proposal document, you may need a professional second pair of eyes to run over the brief, especially if you’re new to producing these type of quotes, to make sure you’ve covered everything.
We understand that bid proposals can be very time consuming and often leave you with eye strain unless you’ve stumbled upon a secret winning formula that guarantees you’re the bid winner!
If you’re not there yet, let us help you! As an unbiased third party, we’ll be honest about the good, the bad and the ugly about your tender document. We’ve seen a few in our time and we can look at it from the client’s side to give you a fresh perspective.
Frequently Asked Questions About Digital Bids and Tenders Review Service
I’ve never written a brief for hiring a digital supplier before – how much help do you actually provide?
We’ll work with you through the entire brief-writing process from start to finish. It begins with an initial consultation where we’ll discuss what you’re trying to achieve – whether that’s a new website, a rebrand, a marketing campaign, or an app development project.
During this conversation, we’ll ask questions to help clarify your goals, budget, timeline, and any specific requirements or concerns you have. From there, we’ll help you structure the brief logically, ensuring you’ve included all the essential information suppliers need to provide accurate quotes: project scope, deliverables, technical requirements, branding guidelines, target audience details, success metrics, and budget parameters.
We’ll also help you word everything clearly so there’s no room for misinterpretation – vague briefs lead to vague proposals, which makes choosing a supplier much harder. If you’re unsure about what’s realistic or what questions to ask, we’ll guide you based on our experience working with digital suppliers across various projects. We can also help you identify and distribute your brief to relevant, reputable suppliers if needed, saving you time researching who to approach.
What’s involved in your tender review service, and how does it help us make better decisions?
When you receive multiple tender proposals or bids from different suppliers, it can be overwhelming trying to compare them fairly – especially when each one is structured differently, uses different terminology, and varies wildly in price.
Our tender review service takes this burden off your shoulders. We’ll read through every proposal thoroughly, extracting the key information and organising it into a clear comparison spreadsheet that highlights the main points: what’s included and excluded, pricing breakdowns, timelines, technical approaches, potential risks they’ve identified (or missed), relevant experience, and any red flags or standout features. Beyond just organising data, we assess each proposal against your original brief to identify which suppliers have genuinely understood your requirements and which may have missed crucial elements. We look for suppliers who’ve thought ahead about potential obstacles or challenges and provided solutions, versus those who’ve simply responded with a generic template. We then schedule a consultation with you and your team to discuss our findings, highlighting the pros and cons of each proposal in the context of your specific needs, budget, and organizational culture. This isn’t about telling you who to choose – it’s about giving you the comprehensive analysis and insight you need to make an informed decision confidently.
How much does the bids and tenders review service cost?
Our consultancy services are priced individually based on the scope and complexity of what you need. For brief writing support, pricing depends on the type of project you’re recruiting for (a simple website brief requires less work than a complex app development or multi-channel marketing campaign brief) and how much structure you already have in place.
For tender review services, the cost varies based on how many proposals you’ve received and how detailed they are – reviewing three straightforward website quotes takes less time than analyzing ten comprehensive proposals for a major digital transformation project.
To get an accurate quote, simply get in touch with details about your situation: what type of digital project it relates to, whether you’re writing briefs, receiving/ reviewing proposals, how many documents are involved, and your timeline. We’ll provide a clear quote based on your specific needs. Many clients find that the investment more than pays for itself by helping them avoid costly mistakes – choosing the wrong supplier can cost thousands in wasted budget and project delays.
Do you work with businesses outside of Manchester or the UK?
Yes but there are different laws and regulations for each country and we may not be an expert in these areas.
While we’re based in Stalybridge, Tameside (Greater Manchester), our consultancy services are delivered entirely online, which means we can work with businesses, charities, and organisations anywhere in the UK and internationally. We’ve provided bid and tender support to clients across the country and beyond. All consultations take place via video call, documents are shared digitally, and our comparison spreadsheets and recommendations are delivered electronically, making location completely irrelevant to the quality of service you receive.
Whether you’re a London-based charity reviewing website proposals, a Scottish business writing your first development brief, or an international organization comparing SEO tenders, we can help. Our experience spans working with UK small businesses, charities, social enterprises, and organisations of various sizes across numerous industries, so regardless of your sector or location, we bring relevant expertise to help you navigate the digital procurement process more confidently and effectively.
DIGITAL REVIEW AND ADVICE CONSULTANCY
Making your business more digitally efficient
We are passionate about transforming businesses by making them more technically and digitally proficient, especially in a post-pandemic world where more and more businesses are working online. Perhaps you set up some systems in a rush at the start of lockdown and now you’re wanting to review them, or perhaps you’re just testing the waters of moving everything online.
We can also offer advice for Online Business Managers and Tech VAs on how to improve their client’s systems and digital automations.
Whatever the situation, we will work with you to consider your vision and create a plan to reach your goals.
Some of the things we can help with are:
Finding the perfect Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool for you and your clients
Researching tools and software for you, in-line with your brief
Find an e-commerce solution or platform that will work for your product, your clients and your bottom line
Choosing invoicing software
Finding and setting up automation or AI tools
Deciding on where to host or build your website
Picking an email provider
Selecting webinar or online training tools
Where to learn more about technical subjects like SEO, and HTML/CSS
With our help, you can transform your business into a successful business using time saving digital tools.
Frequently Asked Questions About Digital Review and Advice Service
I know my digital systems aren’t working well, but I don’t even know what needs fixing – can you help me figure that out?
Absolutely – this is exactly where many businesses find themselves, and it’s one of the most common reasons people come to us. You don’t need to diagnose the problem yourself; that’s our job. We’ll start with a comprehensive review of your current digital setup, looking at how you manage customer relationships, process orders or bookings, handle invoicing, communicate with clients, store data, and run your day-to-day operations.
During an initial consultation, we’ll ask about your pain points – what tasks take too long, what frustrates you or your team, where things fall through the cracks, or what you’re doing manually that feels like it should be automated. From there, we’ll identify inefficiencies, gaps, and opportunities for improvement. Perhaps you’re using five different tools that don’t talk to each other when one integrated solution would work better. Maybe you set up systems quickly during lockdown that were never properly optimised. Or perhaps you’re still doing everything manually when automation could save you hours each week.
We’ll create a clear picture of what’s working, what isn’t, and what changes would have the biggest impact on your efficiency and bottom line. You don’t need to understand the technical details – that’s what we’re here for.
Do you recommend specific tools and software, or help us use what we already have?
We do both, depending on what makes sense for your situation. If your existing tools are fit for purpose but underutilised, we’ll help you get more from them – showing you features you didn’t know existed, setting up automations, or training you or your team to use them more effectively.
However, if your current systems genuinely aren’t right for your needs, we’ll recommend alternatives that better suit your business size, budget, industry, and technical confidence. Our recommendations are always unbiased – although we do have some affiliations with some software companies or platforms, we will genuinely only suggest what’s best for you rather than what earns us commission. We research options based on your specific brief, considering factors like cost, ease of use, integration with other tools you use, scalability as you grow, and support availability.
For example, if you need a CRM, we’ll consider whether you need basic contact management or sophisticated automation, whether you prefer cloud-based or desktop software, what your budget is, and how technical your team is. We’ll present options with honest pros and cons for each, helping you make an informed decision. Once you’ve chosen, we can help with setup, configuration, and training – or refer you to an expert if it’s not something we’ve used before – so you actually use the tools effectively rather than just paying for subscriptions you don’t fully utilise.
This sounds expensive – what does digital consultancy actually cost for small businesses?
Our consultancy services are designed to be accessible for small businesses, freelancers, and organisations working with limited budgets. Pricing varies based on the scope of what you need – a quick review and recommendation for a single tool (like finding the right invoicing software) costs significantly less than a comprehensive digital systems audit with implementation support.
We typically work on an hourly consultancy basis, which means you only pay for the time you actually need rather than being locked into expensive packages or retainers. And we can work within a budget as well.
Many clients start with a one-off consultation to identify priorities and get recommendations, then decide whether they want ongoing support or prefer to implement changes themselves using our guidance.
We’re completely transparent about costs upfront – once we understand your needs during a free initial conversation, we’ll provide a clear quote before any work begins. Importantly, investing in digital efficiency almost always saves money in the long run.
If we help you find automation that saves you or your team five hours per week, or identify that you’re paying for three tools when one integrated solution would work better, or set up systems that reduce errors and missed opportunities, the consultancy typically pays for itself quickly through time savings and improved efficiency.
We’re also happy to work with Online Business Managers and Tech VAs who want to improve their skills for serving their own clients, offering mentoring and advice at rates appropriate for fellow service providers building their expertise.
SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS OR CHARITY GROWTH WITH A DIGITAL STRATEGY
Turning a Digital Strategy into a Reality
Planning a digital strategy
At The Smart Bear we try to make the digital world accessible and understandable. We know how important it is for business owners and those running not-for-profits or charities, to focus on running their own organisation, so we will work with you to help you achieve your digital goals – with as little or as much input from you as you choose.
We understand the challenges facing organisations in the digital era, and how daunting it can be to get started with a digital strategy. From taking your customers online, to having more efficient data storage, or help with websites and social media.
We can help you plan a digital strategy, advising you on the best options along the way. And then, we’re here to help you take your digital strategy from a great idea into a reality that works for you and your budget.
Project management and liaison
If your next digital project needs direction and someone knowledgeable to take the reins then The Smart Bear can help. From full project management to liaison between designers and developers, we can help you get the job done.
We have experience of managing our own projects and those of our clients – liaising with many different sub-contractors to ensure a smoother process.
We can help plan a strategy, implement project management tools or just facilitate regular meetings to keep everyone up-to-date and on the same page.
Frequently Asked Questions About Digital Strategy Solutions
We know we need a “digital strategy,” but we’re not even sure what that means for our organisation – can you help us figure out where to start?
Absolutely, and you’re not alone – many small businesses and charities know they need to “do more digitally” without understanding what that actually involves or where to begin.
A digital strategy isn’t some mysterious corporate document; it’s simply a clear plan for how your organisation uses digital tools and channels to achieve your actual business or charity goals.
We start by having an honest conversation about what you’re trying to achieve: Are you looking to reach more customers or supporters? Improve internal efficiency? Take services online? Reduce administrative burden?
From there, we’ll help you understand which digital elements matter for YOUR specific goals – not a generic list of “things all businesses should do.”
For some organisations, that might mean finally getting your services bookable online. For others, it could be connecting your scattered tools (CRM, email, invoicing) so they work together instead of creating extra work. For charities, it might be building better systems for volunteer coordination or donor management. We’ll assess where you are now, clarify where you want to be, identify the gaps, and create a practical roadmap that matches your budget, timeline, and team capacity.
You don’t need to have the answers before you contact us – figuring out the right questions and priorities together is exactly what this service provides.
How much involvement do we need to have in creating and implementing the strategy – we’re already stretched thin?
You get to decide your level of involvement, and we’ll adapt to what works for your organisation and capacity.
Some clients want to be deeply involved in every decision, learning as they go so they can eventually manage things independently. Others prefer to hand over the strategic planning entirely, just reviewing and approving at key milestones. Most fall somewhere in the middle.
At minimum, we’ll need your input on understanding your goals, budget parameters, and any constraints or preferences you have. Beyond that, we can take on as much or as little as you need. If you’re time-poor, we can research options, make recommendations, manage suppliers, coordinate implementation, and just bring you in for key decisions and approvals.
If you want more involvement to build internal knowledge, we can work collaboratively – showing you how we make decisions, teaching you to evaluate options, and gradually handing over elements as your confidence grows.
The strategy we create will also be realistic about your ongoing capacity. There’s no point recommending a sophisticated social media strategy if nobody has time to actually post content, or implementing complex tools if your team won’t use them.
Can you help implement the strategy, or do you just create the plan and leave us to figure it out?
We offer both – we’ll help you plan your digital strategy AND support you in implementing it. That implementation support can take different forms depending on what makes sense for your situation and budget.
For some elements, we might do the work directly ourselves – for instance, if your strategy includes building or redesigning a website, we can handle that as part of our website services.
For other elements where specialist expertise is needed (like setting up complex e-commerce systems, developing custom software, or managing large-scale digital marketing campaigns), we’ll help you find and manage the right suppliers, coordinating their work and ensuring it aligns with your overall strategy.
We can also provide ongoing consultancy support during implementation – being available to answer questions, troubleshoot problems, review supplier work, and help you make decisions as things progress.
Many clients start with us for strategy development, then engage us for project management through implementation, then transition to occasional consultancy support once systems are running but they occasionally need expert guidance.
What we won’t do is hand you a 50-page strategy document and disappear, leaving you wondering how to actually make it happen. Implementation is where strategies often fail – not because the plan was wrong, but because organisations struggle to execute without support.
We’re committed to helping you turn strategy into reality, whether that means hands-on implementation, managing suppliers on your behalf, or providing the guidance and problem-solving support you need to implement things yourselves.
ADVICE ON STARTING A DIGITAL BUSINESS OR A DIGITAL DEPARTMENT
We’ll help you get your ideas off the ground
Start-up advice
If you want to start a digital business or go self employed, ditching the corporate rat-race, we can help you decide if it’s a viable option. We offer mentoring services to help you reach your goals.
From writing a business plan, to deciding on a pricing structure or working out cash flow projections, we’re experienced training providers and business mentors; we’ll guide you every step of the way, so you have all the information you need to get started.
If you’re ready to start – with all your documentation at the ready – we can check it over, help look for funding options or even assist you in choosing the right office space and finding the right employees and suppliers.
We’ll walk you through your first day of business—and beyond. We’ll talk about what your first steps should be, and we’ll be there if you need us for advice along the way, as you focus on getting your business off the ground.
Digital vacancy job spec and role
If you’re looking to employ staff or freelancers like tech VA’s or marketing assistants for a digital position within your business, we’ll find out what you need help with, before working out what skills will be needed – and then we can help you spec up that role to ensure you get the best match.
We can even provide assistance with the interview process so you can source the best talent who will help grow your business.
Frequently Asked Questions About Starting a Digital Business
I’m thinking about going self-employed in digital services but don’t know if it’s realistic – can you help me figure out if it’s actually viable before I quit my job?
Absolutely, and this honest viability assessment is one of the most valuable things we can help with.
Too many people leap into self-employment without properly evaluating whether their idea can actually support them financially, or whether there’s genuine market demand for what they’re planning to offer.
We’ll work with you to reality-check your plans before you take the leap. This includes looking at your proposed services: is there demand for them? Who are your competitors and how will you differentiate? What can you realistically charge? How long will it take to build a client base?
We’ll help you work through cash flow projections that account for the reality of irregular income in the early stages – calculating how much you need to live on, how much runway you have (savings to cover expenses while building the business), and how many clients at what prices you’d need to become sustainable.
We’ll also explore the less obvious questions: Do you have the temperament for self-employment? Can you handle financial uncertainty? Do you have the self-discipline to work independently? Is your idea something you can start as a side project while employed, or does it require full-time commitment from day one?
Sometimes our honest assessment is “yes, this is viable, here’s how to prepare,” and sometimes it’s “not yet, here’s what would need to change first,” or “this particular business model won’t work, but this alternative might.”
Our experience working with digital businesses for over 12 years means we’ve seen what works, what doesn’t, and what the realistic timeline looks like for different types of digital services.
What does business mentoring actually involve, and how is it different from just getting advice from friends or reading online?
Business mentoring is structured, experienced guidance specifically focused on moving your business forward, which is fundamentally different from well-meaning advice from friends or generic online content.
Your friends might be supportive and encouraging, but unless they’ve successfully built digital businesses themselves, they’re often giving advice based on assumptions rather than experience.
Online content is typically generic – written for everyone, which means it’s not specifically applicable to your situation, your market, or your constraints.
Our mentoring service is personalised to you and your specific business idea or challenge. We start by understanding your goals, skills, resources, and constraints, then provide guidance tailored to your actual situation. This might include helping you write a business plan that’s realistic rather than overly optimistic, working through pricing structures that balance competitiveness with sustainability (many new business owners dramatically undercharge), reviewing your cash flow projections to identify potential problems before they become crises, and helping you navigate specific challenges as they arise.
We bring over 12 years of experience running a digital business – we’ve made the mistakes, learned what works, navigated quiet periods and busy periods, dealt with difficult clients, worked out what to charge, and built sustainable systems. That practical experience means we can spot potential problems you haven’t considered, suggest approaches that actually work rather than sound good in theory, and provide honest feedback when your plans need adjustment.
Mentoring is also ongoing rather than one-off – we’re there as your business develops, helping you make decisions, troubleshoot problems, and adapt as situations change. It’s accountability and support, not just information.
We need to hire someone for a digital role but don’t really understand what skills they should have – how do you help with that?
This is surprisingly common, especially for small businesses or charities whose core work isn’t digital but who recognize they need digital expertise. You know you need “someone to handle the website” or “someone who can do social media and marketing,” but translating that vague need into an actual job description with the right skills is difficult when you don’t fully understand what those roles involve.
We start by having a detailed conversation about what you’re actually trying to achieve. What tasks are falling through the cracks or taking too much time from other team members? What digital goals do you have that you can’t currently meet? What’s frustrating about your current digital setup?
From these conversations, we identify what you genuinely need – which is often different from what you initially thought. For example, you might think you need a “social media manager,” but actually what you need is someone who can create content, schedule posts, respond to enquiries, and track analytics – which is more of a digital communications coordinator role.
Or you might think you need a “web developer,” but actually you need someone with WordPress administration skills and basic troubleshooting abilities rather than full development expertise. Once we’ve identified the actual needs, we help you create a realistic job specification that includes the right skills, appropriate experience level, realistic salary expectations or budget, and clear responsibilities.
We can also help you understand whether you need a full-time employee, part-time staff member, freelancer, or agency relationship – and what the cost implications of each option are. If you want support with interviewing, we can help you develop questions that actually assess whether candidates have the skills you need (rather than just sounding impressive), and we can even sit in on interviews to help evaluate technical capabilities if that’s outside your expertise.
Website Designer Mentoring
Step by step help and advice from a seasoned professional
Help when you need it
If you’re starting out as a website designer, and you feel like you’d like someone to hold your hand through your first big project, or you’d like mentoring on how to make your work and business better going forward then mentoring might be the answer!
You choose how much mentoring, training or hand-holding you want; from regular one-to-ones, ‘as and when’ how-to-help and videos when you get stuck, or a one-off deep dive into your processes and work-flow. We can build you a package of on-going help, or quote for one-off ‘on demand’ sessions.
Whatever your skill level
Whether you’re just starting out, going it alone after working for an agency, or whether your business has been around a while but growth has stalled, we’re able to help you with our experience – over 11 years in the industry working with small businesses across the globe.
Your preferred website building platform
We are obviously specialists in WordPress but we have worked with a number of other platforms over the years, including Kajabi, Shopify, Squarespace, Laravel, Drupal, Magento, Wix, Webflow, FEA Create, Godaddy Builder and a number of others – if we don’t already know the software, we’re happy to study it and we’re quick to learn new software!
Investing in your future
Having a senior designer on hand – and a self-employed veteran – gives you knowledge at your fingertips which will help your skills continued development without having to stop the business to go on lengthy courses. Learn as you build your next project and continue to bill for the services you’re providing your clients.
Women in tech
We’re particularly keen to work with Women designers to help increase their tech skills. You may have already got the design side down but your tech skills are leaving you with imposter syndrome, you want to apply for a different job to boost your career, or you want to be able to offer more services to clients but lack the confidence. If this is you, get in touch as we can definitely help you build on your skills and gain confidence.