Tag: Founder

Growth, no matter what

I was making more than I had dreamed of, but I was tired, unhappy, and resentful of my business. 

D-list people and upsetting spies

I’ve had some projects that have landed with a bang, but nothing close to nuclear. 

Trusting people to run my agency

When I realised that staff had lied, been lazy, and we were losing accounts left, right, and centre, it sent me into a spiral of anger...

I thought I was going to have to eat grass

There were times when things did get hairy for me when I had no clients, and I wondered about where the money was going to come from.

Taking on business partners and ego getting in the way of inclusion

Twice in my journey, I took on businesses partners. I took an easy option to put more money into my business, and it bit me in the butt.

Burning through cash for zero output

On a personal front, I felt cheated, hurt, and maybe also lost a bit of faith in humanity because I really thought they’d offer to stay till there were results.

All the names above the door were creatives

Before long, we were having secret chats about what a creative agency for the new millennium might look like.

The marketing industry’s no barrier to entry and why you should be choosy with clients

The sheer amount of blagging and bullshit in the digital marketing world has been pissing me off on a daily basis for nearly 20 years.

Losing your life savings and where it can lead you

Immediately after my MBA at Manchester Business School, I joined a tech startup as an investor employee, investing £50k into the business.

The pressure to grow, cherry-picking zealots and proving yourself wrong

If you tell someone you run your own business, the next question they ask is, ‘How big is it?’. This creates a lot of social pressure to make the business as big as possible (regardless of whether that’s the right thing to do). 

Losing respect, unethical advertising and the wisdom of age

I would like to see more media owners taking a stronger stand on whom they’re affiliated with through their advertisers.

Bad career moves, social media snake oil and content writing tips

I was literally getting calls from the Group FD who was now running the business, as my wife went into labour.