What We’ve Been Up To: August 2026

I recently spoke about record months for some of our clients, including Reto Finance. They had their best ever month for loans written a couple of months ago. Well, just last month, we beat that record by 3.5 X. Imagine having your best ever month, and then the very next month having your best ever month by 3.5X. That’s unheard of.

Next… We’ve worked with MS-RT Leasing since the start of 2020, they’re one of a number of clients landed during Covid. I think back to that time and the decision to remain open through it. While most businesses furloughed, we remained visible and available, and we picked up some clients who have gone on to be some of our biggest today.

Over six years working together we’ve delivered thousands of enquiries which has led to them growing their sales team, and integrating Twilo more closely with their business. And we’ve just delivered a new record month of enquiries for them, too!

Google Ads campaigns alone have delivered 21,851 enquiries at the time of writing, 907 of which landed in July. They’re a great bunch to work with and we’re equally grateful for the relationship we’ve formed. Props to Shane and the team for being brilliant to work with.

We’re on a roll with good feedback, and the unprompted kind is the best kind. We recently launched a new website for ABS A Better Way; a project we’re all really happy with. Thanks to David Lees for this unprompted feedback on LinkedIn.

The Weather

It’s been glorious! We’ve had our share of wet summers recently, with that 40-degree run in the middle of them, but there can be no complaints about this summer. It’s reminded me of being back at school when every summer seemed to be a scorcher. That’s probably nostalgia, but this summer has been up there as one of the best I can remember.

I love seeing places busy and making money while they can – it’s much easier to do that when it isn’t raining, which let’s be honest, it is most weekends. The types of places we enjoy visiting, such as independent food courts, cafes and bars, have been booming.

Our favourite pizza joint in Norfolk had a 90 minute wait on food recently, and a local bar in Pontefract, with a huge outdoor space and live DJs, has been packed every weekend. We can hear the music from town travelling over the rooves every Friday and Saturday night. It’s good knowing people are out enjoying themselves and those businesses are making money.

As I keep telling myself, enjoying a few beers and ordering good food from the specials board is just me doing my bit for the economy. It did then rain for a couple of days towards the end of August, and now we’re back to cutting the green grass again.

Here’s a few pics from weekends mostly spent out and about indulging my way through August.

Wrapping Up and a New Role

My month of August has been primarily getting projects wrapped up and getting ready for an exciting role switch at the start of September. This role will allow more time and attention for our development and live servers. This will ensure that in a changing industry where AI is becoming more prominent, we are staying as secure as possible. This is a very exciting change and I’m looking forward to the responsibility shift.

Security Audits and Server Updates

With getting things ready for September, we have had a lot of updates to keep on top of with our servers. Software vulnerabilities are being discovered faster than ever before and so it has been very important that we are installing patches to our OS and server software as quickly as possible. Alongside this, I have been working to keep upgrading our systems like PHP so we don’t become reliant on deprecated software.

PC Troubles and New Game Addiction

At home I managed to get myself absolutely hooked on Sid Meier’s Civilization 7. I played it before, but I have recently just gotten back into it, and it is a total time sink during the weekends where I could spend a solid 3 – 4 hours straight on a Saturday. My recent campaign ended abruptly where I conquered the world with muskets as the Spanish Empire before the game even made it to the modern era. Note for the next campaign is to not play so aggressively!

I’m also now restricted to the time of day I can play games because my bottom fan has decided to stop spinning. I’ve opened up the case, checked cables and even swapped the ports around but I have a bust fan that even the BIOS is not detecting exists. When the PC overheats, you know about it with the deathly sounding siren that comes off it when it does. I was contemplating whether it’s time for a new computer but with the current day prices, I think I am just going to buy a new case and spend a couple hours moving all the parts over. For now, I will have to stick to gaming on an evening.

Visiting Home and Going out for Coffee

It’s been that time again where my brother was planning a trip up north so we both visited our parents where we stayed over for TV and a movie night. Besides that, I’ve also managed to fit in some days to have a few pints at the pub with some friends for a catchup or going to Black Sheep for a catchup over some coffee. Both of which has been nice to get out.

What I’ve Been Building

The standout this month was getting a website live that we’d been building for a cable company, which is always a great moment. Seeing it go live and watching people start to land on it and use it is the payoff for all the work that goes in beforehand.

I’ve also been working on a configurator for a car company. You start with the base model and build it up from there, moving through the different specs and adding parts on as you go until you land on the exact version you want. Getting all those options to talk to each other and update cleanly is a nice puzzle to solve, and that’s the kind of thing that makes it genuinely fun to build.

On top of that, I’ve been adding new sections to a cheese website, which has been a fun one to work on. Building out pages that show off all the different cheeses makes for an enjoyable brief, and it’s the kind of site that’s easy to get into and want to make look really good.

Away From the Screen

The month away from work was a good mix. The best of it was a week in Wales in a cabin, which was super warm the whole time. The place was surrounded by wildlife too, rabbits everywhere, loads of different birds, and barn owls out in the evenings. Not a bad way to have your morning coffee, looking out at the sea with all that going on around you. Plenty of beach days and long walks as well, and the standout was watching the eclipse. There’s something a bit special about seeing that out in the middle of nowhere, away from all the usual noise.

The last week of the month has been taken up with moving house, so the evenings have gone on packing and getting everything sorted. Not the most exciting way to end the month, but it’ll all be worth it once we’re properly in and settled.

What’s Next

Cars, cheese, an eclipse and a house full of boxes. Not a bad way to sum up a month. Plenty to look forward to once the move is done. On to September.

This month has flown by! I started the month with a fun branding project, have spent a chunk of it making improvements to websites we look after, and finished it with a lovely weekend exploring the peaks with my wife.

Rebrand Project

Branding projects are always fun to get stuck into. This time it was for an existing client who was venturing into a new market so needed a name change, and with that, a slightly refreshed look. We stuck with the colours and a similar logo layout to what he currently had, this was to avoid his regular customers thinking that the company had changed owners and was a totally new outfit – he wanted to keep some of the styling his customers had grown to recognise. We then updated his website with the new branding and organised the print of some new business cards so he can approach new customers. Overall a fun, albeit relatively small branding job completed!

Website Improvements

I’ve also spent a good chunk of this month going through some historic websites and making improvements to them. A lot of this UX work ties in with work Wayne has been doing on the client’s Google Ads and digital marketing. Improving user journeys, giving users more options to enquire, and overall just tidying up some of the UI elements to make the overall experience nicer for the customer. These improvements will hopefully start to lead to more website enquiries for this particular customer, the results of which we should start to see leading up the Christmas and into the New Year.

A New Web Project

This month I also lead a website kick-off call with a new client. This one is shaping up to be a fun project, they have a lovely brand and some well-established elements and assets to work with which always makes the job of designing the website much more interesting. We’re currently awaiting the content to be written and signed off and then we will get cracking with the designs.

More Design and Print Work

I’ve also seen a lot more design-specific work come through the door this month. Working directly with the client on these jobs, I’ve created a bunch of assets like van wraps, a case study brochure, updates to logos and brand guidelines and some digital screens that will be displayed around a rugby stadium. Coming from a traditional graphic design background I find it really fun jumping back into jobs like this, they really allow me to flex my creative muscles and the client is a pleasure to work with, which always helps! 

Outside of Work

August has seen less holidays than July, but still some gorgeous weather and the chance to get out in the sun. I’ve been camping in the Lake District, watched the solar eclipse (without going blind), exploring Bamburgh and Holy Island and most recently spent the weekend hiking Kinder Scout and then exploring Marple Bridge with my wife – a huge contender for where we want to live next. All in all a really fun month in and out of work. Next week I go to Montenegro with my wife and then we’re into September (already?!).

Keeping Things Moving

August has been a really busy month on the social media side, with a lot of content going out across all of our clients and plenty of planning work happening in the background to make sure September is set up properly before it arrives.

A big focus this month has been on making sure the content we’re putting out for clients feels right for the time of year and any events that have been taking place. There has been a lot of exciting things going on with all of our clients, so ensuring this is captured and engaged with in the right way is always important.

I’ve also been continuing to get stuck into our new client account, which has been great. Getting to know a new business, understanding their audience and starting to shape their content strategy is always one of my favourite parts of the job.

Personal Highlights

Outside of work, August has been a very busy but fun month. We’ve been juggling the school summer holidays which has been tricky but lovely. We have enjoyed having lots of time with the kids and not rushing around in the mornings, but the highlight was a week in Mallorca.

We went over to see the total solar eclipse, which was an incredible experience. We had a brilliant view from Soller, and while the moment of totality was slightly covered by a haze which was a bit gutting, it was still one of those things you just had to be there for. Absolutely breathtaking all the same and so cool to see everywhere go almost pitch black.

The heat was something else, but it made for a fantastic break and one the whole family will remember for a long time!

New Projects, a New Way of Working and a New Job Title!

Work has been as busy as ever especially with preparing to make the move from our current office to a remote set up with regular office days in Leeds city centre. This is due to happen in early October and there is lots to do in the meantime!

We have new projects to work on and more in the pipeline, particularly increasing our marketing activity along with new websites to design and build.

This month, my role has changed and expanded from Administrator and Project Manager to Operations Manager. This gives me additional responsibilities relating to client involvement, staffing and resource and team management amongst other duties, whilst still fulfilling my previous roles.

Art, Rollercoasters and an Eclipse

The continuation of the school summer holidays provided an opportunity to visit family in London. For me, I was excited to be able to visit the Richard Dadd exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art. Dadd was a Victorian painter best known for his fairy paintings, but his career was curtailed by mental illness which confined him to hospitals and an asylum for much of his life. The exhibition was fairly small but very interesting and it was great to see the originals of his fairy paintings.

For the children, a trip to Chessington World of Adventures, with some terrifying-looking rides and a few animals (the tigers have now moved out to somewhere more appropriate and less noisy!.)

Back in Leeds we enjoyed some dinosaur-themed mini golf and celebrated a birthday, along with viewing the solar eclipse which was something of a non-event compared to the last one in 1999, if memory serves!