Sitting at our kitchen table, we planned our company. You can too

It’s been 12 years since my colleague Pam Scobbie and I left our jobs to launch our own marketing agency.

We called it Wire and, with little money in the bank, our office was a kitchen table (shared with Pam’s baby daughter). Oh, and we were in the middle of a global recession.

Our plan? To turn our company into one of Scotland’s most successful creative agencies then scale it up across the UK. More than that, we wanted to build a company that would value good people as much as good work; make it easier to be a working parent; and be impressive, ambitious and female-owned.

By 2020, we were working with some of Scotland’s top brands and had won every Best Agency Award in Scotland (as well as some in the UK). Then, at the start of this year, we announced – from a kitchen table shared with our home-schooled children in the middle of a global pandemic – we were merging with renowned culture agency John Doe Communications to launch the John Doe Group.

We expanded to add offices in London and

Manchester, grew our team to 50 and increased our revenue to £3.1 million.

The journey to this point has been difficult, joyful, exhilarating and exhausting. Over the years, we’ve learned enough to write a book but I’ve only got 600 words so here are a few things we learned that might help other women thinking of starting their own business:

Back yourself

We started as a two-woman operation with no outside investment and no idea how to really run a business. In the early days, people would scoff a bit when we were pitching for work. We were consistently dismissed as “PR girls”. I only share this to say – so what? Really, what other people think doesn’t matter as long as you back yourself.

Don’t stand still

Although we started as a

PR agency, we constantly reinvented ourselves to meet the changing needs of our clients and the audiences they wanted to talk to. Over the years, we added services and skills.

Make decisions

You need to make decisions all the time – small ones, irritating ones, boring ones, fun ones, risky ones and lifechanging ones. We learned early on that making a bad decision is not the worst thing that can happen. The worst thing is, in fact, to make no decision at all. The thing that always worked best for us was focusing on the bigger picture, rather than the short term.

Build around your people’s needs

Organisations can only produce truly great work and retain the best team when flexibility is a core value. We’ve never had a mandate on working location or hours, and we’ve built an open culture of diary entries that include school plays and mid-morning gym classes. Without acknowledging people’s personal lives don’t shut off between the hours of 9-5, women, in particular, will never achieve a semblance of work/life balance.

Look for support

Running a business is hard but the brilliant thing is that hundreds of other people have done this before you. And your problems are not unique. In fact, they’re common. So, ask for help sometimes.

Offer support

Women are still paid less than their peers, they are less likely to be invested in than men and, as result, there are still more men called John at board level than there are women. We’re passionate about empowering and training the women in our team to own their expertise, use their voice and to reach their full potential. We offer regular coaching and mentorship and we’ve built a senior leadership team that is 66% female.

So, if any women reading this need support or advice, email me at lee.beattie@ johndoehub.com