If We Can, You Can

Author:

Antonia Clifford

Business:

Quay2 Media

Published:

12/11/2008 11:40:00

From day one of starting a career in PR it was always my ambition to either be a freelancer or to own my own company. But I think I needed to learn though managerial positions and the day to day running of departments about the pitfalls of becoming your own boss.

Eventually I got to the point where, rather than becoming a freelancer, I was keen to actually build a company. I then needed to meet the right person who would help me to achieve that.

I do think there’s a big part for luck to play in a successful business. For us, the luck that we experienced was my current business partner, Christian, and I actually meeting each other- a guy from down south and a Lancashire lass ending up in the same agency with the same aspirations, settling in the North East, raising our families and now our business here.

I think my defining moment was working late for our current employer, and it suddenly came over me that I was really ready to do this. There was a throw away comment between myself and Christian that we should really be doing this for ourselves.

I went home and I couldn’t sleep. I just thought this is it, this is the time. I feel ready and I just needed to ascertain if Christian felt the same way.

The next morning we sort of skated around each other a little bit; a few shy comments and a few delving questions and then that was it- we decided to jump in with two feet.

The hardest part of leaving employment was actually handing our notice in- passing that piece of paper over the desk and telling our employer that we were effectively about to go into business in competition with them. But once that was done, we’ve never once looked back; we’ve never once regretted that decision.

I think the public perception of an entrepreneur is that they’ve got the right connections; they know the right people or they’ve got something that others haven’t. After fifteen years each in the industry what makes us stand apart is simply that we understand our industry and we know how to service clients. That’s what got us started.

We both love what we do, we love being at the forefront of PR and being hands on; we’re not just a running a company that offers PR. I really think that anyone could set up their own business if they have a passion for something, they believe in it and can find the right support.

In getting Quay2 off the ground, we first put a business plan together. We sat down and worked out what we would need financially to maintain the kind of lifestyle that we had as we both had young families and being financially stable was important.

We looked at what it would cost us to run a business, the overheads and what kind of fees we would need to charge clients in order to make it a viable business.

Then we went about figuring out how we would fund the initial set up, office equipment etc, and looking into the kind of help that’s available for new business start ups.

We were directed to Business Link, Starting Up Business and Building Up Business and we also did quite a bit of research on the net. We also attracted the interest of a personal investor.

Also, through the careers that we’ve had we’ve met quite a few successful business people. We’ve picked their brains quite a lot and it was amazing how many of them have been very willing to help us. So many people over the past eighteen months have said, “I don’t know why you didn’t do this before.”

Financially, we were prepared to take a cut in what we were earning. We both worked out what we needed to survive and maintain mortgages, but actually both Christian and I were very pleasantly surprised about our billings in the first year.

The business has thrived in the past eighteen months and has allowed us to take on two members of staff. On the other side of it, in my personal life I’m much more relaxed. I get to spend more time with my daughter, and if she ever needs me I can go and pick her up from school. If she gets ill I can work from home.

On the client side, I get satisfaction from the fact that I know I’m doing a good job for them. It may not be done during the hours of 9 to 5, but the clients are also able to see the work happening and see the results coming so they’re happy with that.

The fact that we’re able to choose who we work with, both within our organisation and the organisations that we work with, is really satisfying.

When you work for a large agency, there’s nothing worse than being put on an account that you know isn’t “PR- able”. We only work for people who we believe we can do a good job for. We also like to build a relationship with our clients. We’re very open and honest with them; we like to make it fun for them and for them to trust us.

Often the phone will ring and it’ll be a client, but not wanting to talk about their PR account, they just want to chew the fat with us. I think that relationship is very important to the client, and also to Christian and I so that we really get to know our clients well.

I think making my own decisions has been my biggest challenge. Part of the reason why we set the company up was so we could make our own decisions, but you do still question every one you make. It’s very challenging not to have somebody above you to turn to and say, “Is this right?”

In the future, Christian and I both see ourselves moving in very much the same vein in which we started. A lot of our growth has been organic; it’s come from recommendations of people who we’ve done a good job for in the past, and we’d both like that to continue and be in the position where we won’t have to go out and do a hard sell to win clients.

I think the biggest mistake we made was underestimating how fast we would grow. When we were looking at offices, we looked at two and thought it would be sensible to go for the smaller one. Eighteen months later we’re pretty much bursting at the seams so it’s something that we’re going to have to look at fairly soon.

When we grow in the future, I think one of the hardest challenges we’ll have to face will be ensuring that the ethos we’ve built into Quay2 remains and that we don’t drift away and lose sight of why we set the company up in the first place or what we deliver for people.

I’d like to grow organically with the team as well, rather than being forced into a situation where we have to find somebody.

Christian and I both agree that, as well as delivering a service for clients, understanding PR and being good at it, the biggest thing for us is that we want people in the team who understand our ethos, who work similarly to ourselves and want to grow the business with us and be part of it going forward.

When we employed Kirsty, our first employee, we just connected with her. We felt she understood who we were and what we wanted to do, and she could add to that as well.

With recruitment, it’s about the whole person for us- it’s their personality, their attitude towards work and an understanding of where we’re taking Quay2 and a willingness to be part of that.

The way we’ve set the business up means there’s no hierarchy as such. Everybody does everything. We all get involved in everything from organising photo shoots to the financial side to making decisions on where the company’s going. We have very open conversations and it’s very much a hands-on agency.

What’s most important to us is that everything we do is satisfying as well. It’s satisfying to know that we’ve done this on our own, it’s satisfying to know that eighteen months down the line Christian and I still want the company to go in the right direction and we’re still getting work by referrals, but it’s also really satisfying that everybody who we come across in our outside of work lives is really proud of us and what we’ve achieved.

I think if you want to start up in business, you need to involve your family, your friends and as many people as possible who can give you advice. We’ve been very lucky in that we’ve had support in every direction; support that has really made a difference to Christian and I.

I also think you need to be flexible and open minded. If your mind is too set in one particular direction, that could be detrimental. Other than that, just enjoy it! If you take the leap, don’t let stress spoil what is the most exciting time of your life.