Commercial skills
Alongside the technical work, my employment has built skills that carry into any commercial role: accuracy with numbers under pressure, spotting where a process wastes effort, and a working grasp of pricing and margin.
Numeracy and compliance under pressure
As Assistant Manager at Betfred (November 2022 to present) I calculate odds, stakes and returns by mental arithmetic, under high-volume pressure. The role covers cash handling and reconciliation, hourly till and safe checks, and banking. I work to Gambling Commission requirements, including identifying vulnerable customers, Think 21 and proceeds of crime obligations, and I train and supervise cashiers, with opening and closing responsibility.
What carries over: fast, accurate work with numbers, day-to-day regulatory compliance, and responsibility for cash and for training staff.
Spotting a manual process and specifying a fix
As a Customer Service Representative at Farm and Garden Supplies (2023) I handled order processing and fulfilment across multiple sales channels. I noticed that sales data from four separate platforms was being reconciled by hand, and specified an API-integrated dashboard to consolidate it. I submitted this as a written process improvement proposal.
What carries over: looking past the task in front of me to the process behind it, and setting out a fix in writing.
Pricing, sourcing and margin
My commercial skills include margin and pricing analysis, sourcing and resale, stock management, and sales reconciliation across multiple channels.
Scalewise, one of my technical projects, puts this into practice. It turns a wholesale unit cost into a full resale price list, supports fixed-price and target-margin pricing, and reports the margin actually realised after rounding.