THE PARK TURNS 5

As The Park turned five years old yesterday I thought it was a good time to reflect, here are five things I have learned since we started the business on February 5th 2018.

1.????Cashflow is king. When we started the agency we spent lots of time speaking to other people who had made the leap and started a business themselves, some of these were people from different industries to us but the one thing they all told us was that cashflow was a potential killer. We kept an eye on this (obviously, we were running a business) with little issue until last year when we had to wait a long time to get approved in a new client’s financial system before they could pay us for a project we’d already completed (and paid all the suppliers who worked on it). This caused us some serious sleepless nights, we never set out to set up a bank but sometimes in business you feel like you’re running one.

2.????You’re never truly in control. As we headed into 2020 we thought we had cracked it, revenue was growing, we had loads of brilliant projects on the horizon, we were recruiting for new team members and we had built a good reputation in the industry. Then Covid struck and our world stopped turning. Our inboxes suddenly exploded with clients putting projects on hold (permanently), 90% of what we did was fundamentally impossible. We sat down as a team and worked out how long we could survive based on the small amount of work we could still deliver, luckily we made it through, it was a good time to be small and have low overheads.

3.????Team is everything. It might sound obvious but it’s the people that make this industry great, I am so lucky to work with smart, creative and practical people on a daily basis and I love hanging out with them. Some of the best hires we’ve made were when we met people who were brilliant, even though we weren’t sure they were right for the role we were recruiting for. Trust your gut, if you find someone amazing who wants to work with you get them on board and shape the role around what they’re great at. With the right team all pulling in the same direction anything is possible.

4.????Business development never stops (and can’t be outsourced). The first time we got busy on client projects we threw ourselves headfirst into them, making sure we delivered an exceptional service to our clients seemed like the best way to grow the business. When those projects ended we realised we’d been neglecting new business outreach and our pipeline was totally empty. It took us a few months to build it up again and we’ve not made that mistake again. It doesn’t matter how busy you are with client projects, you need to be thinking a few moves ahead at all times. Also, no one cares about your business like you do, while there are many exceptional agencies out there focusing on helping you win new business they are never going to give it the same passion and tenacity as you, the people who need to find the revenue to make sure everyone is getting paid next month.

5.????Ask for help. We’ve never been afraid to ask for help and have been amazed by people’s generosity with their precious time, we know what we’re good at but we’ve never been too stubborn or arrogant to realise we don’t know everything. People are on the whole happy to help and without some of the free advice we’ve received over the years I am not sure we’d still be here looking forward to the next five years and beyond. As such, if I can help with anything please feel free to get in touch.