In 2002, after 15 years in the incentives business and the sale of my first company, I was just starting up again with a new one, Oxford Motivation. But getting new clients was tough: we were just too small. Most clients don't want the financial risk of contracting with a very small business.
We were approached by a company broker, which wanted to buy us outright. The money was too good to ignore. So in 2007, we sold out to a £10 million, all-singing, all-dancing communications company with £1 million of shareholder funds, 75 staff and a roster of top-level clients. What could possibly go wrong?
Enter 2009: the year when many UK businesses fell off the cliff. The parent company called in the administrators. Even though our division was making profits, all 75 staff were made redundant. They left that same afternoon. Except for my team of six. I asked them to carry on as normal. Why? We were profitable and had enough traction to take our division forward independently. The next morning, I offered the administrators £18,000 for software and PCs.
Two of our clients had lost £50,000 each as a result of the parent company collapse, so I offered to take that loss on, if they continued to work with us. They agreed.
I approached a small group of the former employees. They joined us, and brought client projects with them.
We met clients by partnering with supplier venues and inviting prospects to "see the facilities". It is a much cheaper way to market yourself than promoting through traditional media. And we could chat in a relaxed environment about their marketing issues. Small companies have an advantage: clients have direct access to the people who do the work. You should be able to turn projects around in days rather than the weeks or months larger agencies quote.
Good people are vital. But the market has moved from incentive events to online communications, especially those related to mobile phones and social networking sites. For us, that has meant making the decision to grow our own talent by partnering with the business faculty at Bournemouth University and other institutions, helping us find recruits with the perfect profile for the company. Over the past two years, we have taken on four graduates as a deliberate policy to gear up for the future.
Growing our own talent has been crucial, as the provision of marketing services shifts even more towards online, mobile, tablet and social networking platforms. The people who live and work in this environment are in their twenties, as are the clients that commission this type of work. Recruiting straight from university means a staff with no baggage: you can encourage creative thinking.
Our aim is £10 million turnover and 50 staff... It hasn't been easy, but get through an episode such as that and you learn two things: it's never over 'til it's over, and people, not money, make businesses tick. So choose people wisely.
John Fisher (pictured) is managing director of FMI Group
