Paul Bell

Name:

Paul Bell

Business:

Just Think Communications Ltd.

Web site:

www.justthink.co.uk

Years in business:

1

Number of businesses:

1

Entrepreneurs' Forum member

My dad was and still is a very successful businessman. People at school used to say to me I never had to worry about money or anything and I could simply go into the family business when I left. But I was always adamant that I wanted to do something on my own so I could be my own person and have my own background.

When I graduated from Teesside University with a degree in Design Marketing I worked for a company called Taylor Packaging. They didn’t have a marketing department so I was brought in to look at how they marketed themselves and how they could in the future.

It gave me a good grounding because you tend to learn a lot more than you do at uni and I was getting to meet loads of agencies. But when they saw the connection with my dad and Newman Scott which is the shop fitting company he owns, things got a bit tricky and a bit political.

I went back to my dad and started to work in his marketing department. I was attracted to the role because he wouldn’t be there on a day to day basis. It was something that I could really grab hold of, sink my teeth into and really make my own.

During my time there I completed a Chartered Institute Marketing course but I felt I wasn’t really using it. I had some ideas and soon got the sensation that I could really go out and do this on my own.

My dad and I talked it over and we thought about how I could use the things I’d learnt and my new ideas to their full potential. His solution was to make me redundant from his company.

I contacted a friend who’d been set up on his own for a few years and together we launched Just Think Communications Ltd, a full service design and marketing agency.

One of my ideas was I thought I could offer a better service than traditional marketing agencies. At Taylor Packaging if a customer said they wanted something changing they’d have to go through all these levels of management and hierarchy before that could happen.

The majority of our customers speak directly to Matt who’s our graphic designer; they don’t have to go through an account manager or anything and can just say to him, ‘This is what I want, can you do it?’ and he’ll be able to answer them straight away. I think customers like that and we’ve built up relationships with them which is essential in a hugely competitive market like ours.

In our industry competitors do have quite strong relationships with their customers so it’s quite hard to go and knock on the clients’ doors and say, ‘Break that relationship you’ve had for two years and come and use us instead.’

When I went to an Entrepreneurs Forum event called ‘Life’s a Pitch’ one thing they drilled into us was that to be successful, you’ve got to go that extra mile to outshine your competitors. We became extremely customer focused as a company and made sure we did what they wanted, as resourcefully as possible.

We’re very open as a business and encourage our customers to come and visit us so they can see their project in development. The only part of the process which we sub-contract is the printing, we like to do the rest in house. So flash development and all that sort of thing we do ourselves which is quite unique in the marketing sector. We’re small but very hands on which makes us more efficient.

It’s important to be honest with your clients so you can build up a relationship of trust. We know we can only take on a contract of a certain size so if it’s too big we will be truthful with them.

We’ve grown quite quickly since we started; we’ve got six people working for us and we’re looking for a seventh at the moment. We really want people to integrate well in the team and make sure that they’re comfortable.

Quite soon after we started we got a big contract form Middlesbrough Council. At that time it was just me and my partner Adam and we knew we wouldn’t be able to cope with it on our own. We had to recruit quickly in order to get the job done.

We took Matt on and in order for him to feel at ease we formed an open policy where he could come and suggest anything to us, trying to empower him and make him feel a part of the business. That worked well and as we hired more people we continued that philosophy.

We get together every Friday morning to discuss how the week’s been, what’s happening next week and give them a chance to raise any issues they have. We try to have as many team days as we can, even if it’s just for an afternoon we like to get out because if the team feel relaxed within the business they’re more productive and we get a bunch of great ideas from them as well.

If you’re thinking of starting out on your own, apart from saying you definitely should do, my advice would be to find some kind of mentor who can guide you and held you through the pitfalls. My dad was a great sounding board because he’d been there and done it but if you can just find someone who has a real in depth knowledge of business it’ll really pay off.

It doesn’t have to be someone from your industry, just someone from the business world because there’s loads of common mistakes that people make that they could help you avoid.

As long as you’re really determined and believe that your idea will succeed you should definitely go ahead with it, just don’t take knocks too hard. My dad making me redundant was probably the push I needed but don’t wait for something like that, just go for it.

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