Wayne
Big Brother, David Beckham, and Planet Earth are all on TV. Maybe the old saying is true; they don't make them like they used to!My last blog post was short and sweet as I was so consumed by the office move – to say I underestimated how much time it would take is an understatement. It’s just like moving house! I’m really pleased with how it went, the team were a great help, all pulling together to make it happen. Moving to Leeds has always been part of the company’s long-term goals. With all due respect to Pontefract, it was difficult to attract talent in our previous location, and you could argue that we weren’t taken as seriously as an agency while not being based out of a city.
We now have a conference room, meeting room, breakout area (equipped with a dart board and foosball table), and an empty space as big as our previous office which we’ll eventually fill with new recruits.
Speaking of new recruits… At the start of the year I worked closely with Jen to agree business objectives to achieve ‘Growth40’. Ambitious milestones were agreed, with the office move and team expansion forming an important part of what will set the company up for the years to come. Those milestones have now been achieved – not without a lot of stress and sleepless nights – and I’m now really looking forward to the end of the year so we can head into 2024 having achieved a great deal.
You may recall that Jen has been working with us as a consultant to deliver our business plans. I’m really excited to announce that Jen will be joining Twilo on a more official basis from 1st November, as a Non-Executive Director. Jen’s experience of working with much larger organisations will be invaluable to myself and the rest of the team. We’ve worked really well together on dozens of projects for almost a decade now, delivering great websites and campaigns for the businesses we work with. Jen will continue working on our business growth, as well as being a trusted advisor on critical decisions, something which can be very difficult when you’re the sole owner of a busy agency. As a result I think we’ll see even greater organisation achieved, which will benefit not only us but our clients as well.
As a business owner you have to wear many hats. This usually involves filling any gaps in the team as and when the needs arise. This month I’ve enjoyed getting more involved in the marketing activity we carry out for our clients, specifically with new product launches, and bringing further organisation and structure to our campaigns and scheduling. It’s nice to be back involved with this side of the business again. Our design and development teams are working really well together and are achieving great things without much input from myself. This allows me to focus on growing the other side of the business which I’ll no doubt achieve in the remaining two months of the year, before hopefully taking a break from recruitment for a little while in the new year!
Speaking of which, we’re heading into crazy season for the retail sector. We’re busy putting plans in place for the Black Friday & Cyber Monday weekend, which roles immediately into Christmas campaigns followed by new year sales. A number of our clients rely heavily on the next quarter, as it can make up 50% of their annual turnover. Therefore it’s critical that our marketing campaigns hit the nail on the head every time, particularly for those looking to drive more sales through their website.
We’ve tackled some complex dev tasks this month, not least an Asset Finance calculator which had a few of us locked in the conference room trying to de-code the most overly complex Excel file ever seen. But needless to say, we cracked it, and we all felt like super heroes afterwards!
Earlier in the month we had the pleasure of attending the wedding of our good friends Gemma & Andy. It was a really nice day at Wentbridge House which is the perfect setting for a wedding. I’ve also been out and about visiting some of my favourite places, including a couple of trips to York, and Halloween weekend in Haworth where they make a massive effort to keep the tourists entertained.
Pupdate! Fred, our fox red Labrador, has been a little terror during the first 4-6 weeks. I’m always wearing long sleeves to cover up the cuts left by his needle-like teeth, and toilet training has been going a little slower than I’d like. But since he’s been allowed out after his 2nd jab, he’s been doing much better, and is now starting to behave like a dog rather than a baby velociraptor! Here he is waiting for his 6am walk, always howling for attention about 2 minutes before my alarm goes off!
And a couple of things to finish, because I’ve blabbered on… I would like to welcome Connor to our development team (you’ll hear from him below), and say a special mention to Andrew on passing his apprenticeship! This will really embarrass him… Andrew is the best apprentice we’ve had a Twilo! I’m a big fan of the apprenticeship route, and we’ve had good success with it in the past, particularly with Developers. We’ve never been the type of business to have our apprentices on brew duty all day, giving them menial tasks to fill the time. I put faith in our apprentices to handle the pressures of working at an agency from day one; they’re given a lot of freedom to think for themselves and to develop in their own way. Andrew has fully embraced this, so well done Andrew, and here’s to the next step in your career with Twilo! 🎉
Andrew
I’ve had a very social month in October meeting up with friends and catching up with family. October is also the month where I have completed my apprenticeship.
I spent one weekend at a friend’s house in Birmingham where we were invited to stay the night and play the Skyrim tabletop game that they were very excited to try. Due to motorway congestion, it took us a few hours to get there. When we did arrive, we piled all the snacks into the kitchen and attempted to open a bottle of wine without a bottle opener. We somehow managed to smash the neck of the bottle but kept the cork completely intact. After giving up with that and trying to avoid someone losing too much blood from broken glass, we decided to take the dog (Mishka) for a walk and pick up a bottle opener while we were at it. Mishka has been ill for the last month, so we had the pleasure of listening to her coughing up phlegm from under the table. With the mixture of KFC, chocolate, wine, and ciders, I also ended up spending the night feeling sorry for myself.
The following weekend, we wanted to have a get together for Halloween, so we organised a meet at a gaming bar in Leeds that I can’t remember the name of. You can hire a seating area that has a PlayStation, Nintendo Switch and Xbox where you can play whatever you want for the duration of the booking. They also had some nerdy themed cocktails such as “Ranni” from Elden Ring or “Heart Piece” from Legend of Zelda. After the get together, my partner and I had organised to meet up with his grandma where we would go for some fish and chips. This was my first time meeting her and it was a pleasant first encounter.
In other news, I got new broadband this week. We switched from Plusnet to BT and ran a new cable up to our flat to grant us full-fibre connection. The difference was phenomenal. I had gotten used to my connection just dropping out in the evening or having content just not load at all. Being someone who uses the internet for a lot of things, this was a great improvement and highlight of the month.
At work, I have now finally completed my Software Developer Apprenticeship. This month I had my final two assessments and heard the news that I had passed. In these kinds of interviews, I always put on a confident voice to hide how nervous I am and I sometimes feel like I might be talking nonsense. I am however, relieved to find out that those two assessments went well and I got through it. Moving forward, I only hope to further my experience and knowledge with Twilo and see where my career can take me.
