EmBe Works Operations & Strategic Management

Strategic partnership that works for your business

I help creative arts and education-based founders and leaders to streamline systems and build flexible operational scaffolding so that they can prioritise their true values and vision, enabling them to focus on strategic and sustainable growth.

Logo for E m Be Works with cursive green text and a circular design.

Michelle Bird, APM-qualified project manager and OBM

Providing fractional operational management, workflow architecture, and project leadership for arts organisations, creative businesses and education leaders.

Are you feeling as though you are:

An illustration of a person running up a hill on a graph line, with the text "Constantly running up hill?"
Icon of a telephone with an arrow pointing upward and a check mark, with the text 'Missing opportunities?'
Person confused by a signpost with multiple directions and question marks, with the text 'Unsure where to even start?'
Low battery icon with text asking if the viewer's business is at capacity and unable to grow.

Struggling to keep up? Feeling as through you are dropping balls?

You're not alone.

Many arts and education professionals feel as though they spend too much time on the back-end tasks, leaving no room for their creative focus or growth.

That's where I come in. I'll help you identify the friction points which are holding your business back so you can reclaim your valuable time and get back to doing what you love.

Have a look at my services to learn more about how I can help you.

From operational bottleneck to strategic momentum

As a creative arts or education leader, your business shouldn’t stall because daily operations live entirely in your head. When systems are fragmented and communication channels leak, your creative capacity is drained by administrative noise. I step in as your strategic operations partner, building the scaffolding your organisation needs so you can lead with clarity and your business can grow sustainably.

“But,” I hear you say…

A little time invested now will save you so much in the long run.

With my background in performing arts and education, I understand what you do and how I can support you to do that.

“I don’t have time to think about it.”

I get it: this is your business and you don’t want to risk handing parts of it to someone else.

Finding a trusted partner will enable you to take control of the most important parts of your business.

“I won’t be in control.”

"I don’t know what to outsource or how much help I need."

Let me help you to work that out. My extensive experience with the arts and in education means that I can quickly identify ways in which I can help you.

Find out more here or get in touch to learn more about what I do.

Testimonials

  • "From the instant Michelle and I had our first meeting I felt calmer. I found Michelle 2 years into an ambitious startup and was spending 8+ hours per day drowning in admin, dropping balls everywhere and feeling constantly overwhelmed. Her level-headed, empathetic approach makes working with her a breeze, and her ability to bring structure and organised systems thinking is impressive. Thanks to Michelle I can now see a way through and am feeling optimistic and excited again about my business. Highly recommend."

    Kate Valentine

    Founder, Valentine Voice Care

  • "I first met Michelle when she was a director of music in a local secondary school. She was excellent in the role: highly organised, dedicated and detail focused. When I heard she had started her own business support company, EmBe Works, it was a no-brainer to take advantage of Michelle’s expertise in both systems and music education, which is a perfect fit for my company Guitar Teacher Bushey. Michelle has now created a CRM for us to manage our students and tutors on Airtable and has started work on creating more social media assets for us. As a business owner I’ve been working 7 days a week for longer than I’d like to admit, so having someone help with those bits I just never manage to get round to has been invaluable. EmBe works has been a pleasure to work with; organised, responsive and eager to deeply understand the business and its leadership to offer practical solutions to help the company grow. Similarly, Michelle delivered a wonderful presentation to our networking and mastermind group The Tutor Collective where she shared a range of practical and actionable efficiency ideas for our members. I plan to use them more in the future, especially as Michelle brings in associates to help with specialist tasks as they grow into a one-stop-shop for all business support needs. Highly recommended!"

    Peter Elliot

    Founder, Guitar Teacher Bushey

  • "Working with Michelle has been brilliant. Michelle is responsive, knowledgeable and has genuinely helped me navigate things I'd have spent hours agonising over on my own. Contracts, logistics, paperwork - all the bits that make me want to throw my laptop out the window - she just gets it. What I wasn't expecting though was how good she'd be at knowing exactly what I needed to hear in any given moment. Sometimes that's practical advice. Sometimes it's reassurance. Sometimes it's a gentle reminder to put my big girl pants on and stop having a crisis over something that'll be fine. Michelle has that rare combination of being incredibly helpful whilst also being empathetic enough to know when you need a bit of both. If you need support for your business from someone who actually gets it and has the people skills to match the practical stuff, Michelle is your person."

    AW

  • "I found Michelle slightly randomly on LinkedIn. I saw a post she put up on her new page EmBe Works showing different ways working with her could look like: retainer packages, power-hour and one off projects. To be honest, I liked the sound of all of them! As I checked through Michelle’s experience I found that her expertise was perfectly tailored to our needs. I have been building a business over the last couple of years that supports teachers and parents in teaching nursery rhymes to children. Although we have had no problem creating the material for the project, we have struggled to know how to present our ideas. One Zoom call later with Michelle and we felt a wave of confidence and pride in our lovely project all over again. The plan that Michelle has given us, along with the regular guidance and check-ins, has given us an understanding of how to present our work in a way that will reach a wider audience. It’s a plan that shows off our hard work, that is smart and concise. Before working with Michelle, we felt like we didn’t know how to move forward. Michelle has given us clear targets and time windows, all set out on a (beautiful!!) colour coded spread sheet. To someone who does not naturally work like this, I found it very relaxing to look at. I feel confident and re-invigorated to tick off these targets without wondering what to do next!"

    OT

  • "I decided this year that I needed to review how my business operated from an administrative point of view. It's incredible how all those little jobs start to pile up and add to the mental load of being a self-employed wearer of many hats. I was finding the admin overwhelming which drew energy from the things I LOVE doing and need lots of energy for (teaching, voice rehabilitation, workshops). Michelle has helped me see where systems were already working and tweak the systems that were less efficient. She has guided me with clarity and calmness and is always so responsive when I need a faster turnaround for something. It hasn't always been boring admin things either; she has helped me with more creative social media assets and making sections of my website look better. Her skills really are wide-ranging! I'm so glad to have her on my team and would highly recommend her services to anyone."

    Gillian Ramm, Gillian Ramm All Voice

  • Michelle has been an absolutely godsend for me! Her impressive array of skills covers all the areas I so desperately needed help with - website design and updating, installing new booking systems, creating posters and flyers for my advertising campaigns, and just being a knowledgeable and supportive sounding board for my ideas. If you are a freelancer in a creative industry, then you definitely need Michelle in your life!

    Ruth Kerr, Sing Out with Confidence