Can you blog it!

Here we go. We finally have our long awaited individual blogs, which I must admit seems a bit daunting at the moment. Will I have enough time to blog? Will my blogs be read? Will I have to blog just to give the impression that we are an uber-cool web design studio that fully utilizes social media tools for self glorification purposes? I hope not.

Pompous self glorification has its place – usually at a speed networking events, however we have always relied on our portfolio and actual results to do our talking for us. We’re confident that we have one of the best portfolios amongst our peers, our prices are very reasonable and our service is second to none. We have been through the business blender a few times and survived intact which makes us uniquely placed to offer valuable hindsight’s to the businesses we work with based on personal experience.

I would like to use this first post to enlighten you on how we got to where we are today, so you are familiar with the back-story and heritage of Sizzle Media and maybe put up some sign posts for up and coming designers and studios. We were formerly known as Reach BCS and were the crown jewel of regional business success. Business and ICT awards were a monthly occurrence and I grew the business from myself to 26 people in just 2 years, It was super quick growth and full of valuable learning.

I had the misfortune or good fortune in hindsight, of partnering with someone who I didn’t bother to do my due diligence on. Regardless of his questionable history, horrendous credit rating and lack of focus, he was an amazing sales person, again all those experienced business people out there will be chuckling to themselves at the error of my ways. Well what can I say; I was wet behind the ears and excitable, and a sales person was the key I was always missing, so I jumped on the opportunity. As many designer will appreciate its difficult to go out to find business and also design, a challenge that had stopped me going in to business sooner, that was until I met this fellow.

Our sonic growth was unfortunately build on a house of cards, my Partner began to go rogue and began to over-promise to Partners and customers alike; to the point where it came to a head and I could no longer bear the weight of his bullsh*t. After some key advice from James Sommerville from the Attik, who is in my opinion a savior for our business due to his words of wisdom based on his own vast experience, I decided to act and deal with the problem and part company with him.

Unfortunately as it was a partnership and as I was the ‘credit worthy’ guarantor I was left high and dry with the mother of all messes. We promptly regrouped and went about salvaging the situation through the many attempts of my former partner to poach staff. We started by cutting out all the dead wood and carving off the fat, and wringing out every problematic drop that had found its way in to our business.

After I had put down my axe – what was left was the Best of the Best, a loyal, skilled, trustworthy team armed with the vast experience of a big hectic studio and well versed in dealing with challenges. Together we have seen it all grow, crack and eventually crumble.  We decided to pick ourselves up and this time to do it properly, ethically and with some genuine passion and concern for our clients, something I can honestly admit was sadly lacking in our previous business, purely because we had grown so big so quickly.

So here we are – a talented team of designers, developers, SEO peeps and sales execs. Of all the things we hold most highly is our ‘Customer First’ Policy. Our primary objective is to make sure our clients get the best service, advice and after care possible within our capabilities. So don’t be fooled in to thinking we are a small inexperienced studio – hardly. We have developed sites from a Rochdale startup to a Stateside Social media Site and back again. We have managed and delivered massive mind mashing projects, we have endured collectively through horrendous personal and professional challenges that would have felled many an organisation, but I am proud to say that we have a fantastic network of friends and business peers, and are now going from strength to strength.

So peeps, this is my first blog and a bit of background information on to how got to where we are. I hope you come back and read some more of our insights and appreciate a little better the History of Sizzle Media. Don’t forget to check out Stefan‘s and Ben‘s blogs also.

Not bad for a first attempt at blogging, I might just get used to this, it’s almost therapeutic.