Trapeze Media celebrates its sixth birthday

In June 2016, I started Trapeze Media. Six years later, we're going stronger than ever, and our digital marketing agency has taken on a whole new life. I couldn’t be prouder or more impressed with myself and my team.

This will be a good read if a. you’re a fan of ours (who isn’t?) and b. if you’re freelance and wondering how to get to the next stage of your career, or are feeling anxious or doubting your current choices.

Here’s a glance at the highs and lows, mistakes and wins of the last six years.

I started off freelancing on my own

I kicked things off with one client — enough to pay the rent!

Cold calling as many companies as I could to try to pitch to them.

Winning work and feeling terrified about how to deliver it.

Never feeling like I was hitting the mark, and experiencing stress and anxiety.

Losing most work within six months because I was spinning too many plates with not enough hands on deck.

So I brought in freelancers

When I welcomed freelancers into the fray, managing my incomings and outgoings became the new challenge; making sure I had enough money coming in to pay everyone whilst trying to pay myself as well.

I was now bringing in more revenue but giving a lot of it away to pay freelancers. This was difficult, but the relief it brought by freeing me up to concentrate on new business — not delivery — was immense, and I knew I needed to keep this model going for now.

This is also when our retention rate improved. Just as important as bringing on new business! I knew it was important to try to keep everyone as happy as possible, so I found myself taking on an HR role at this point too.

I almost gave up

The tail end of year three was when I started to hit a wall with new business. I couldn’t seem to bring in anything new.

I even started looking for ‘normal’ jobs. I went for an interview at Brandwatch, and did quite well. The guy who interviewed me was impressed, but he emphasised that I shouldn’t give up yet, and that I was doing well. He connected me with some people and I felt spurred on to keep going. I always remember him fondly.

This was a real turning point.

Niching down

Robot Mascot recommended I speak to Dent Global about their courses for business owners. I was sceptical at first, but after one phone call with their team, I was given some great advice. It turned out that, with a bit of direction, I could really smash it out of the park!

The advice from Dent was to niche down — to focus in on one type of client with one clear message. I took this on, built a new pitch deck focused on the hospitality sector, and went out and won our first 12-month contract with a winemaker.

So, that decided it! In our fourth year I paid £6,000 to attend Dent Global’s ‘Key Person of Influence’ course — a HUGE investment for me at the time (and still is, to be honest). I niched down to focus on working with hospitality businesses. The money was 100% well spent.

Year four was 2020.

The year the pandemic started.

The year that lockdowns shuttered hospitality venues across the globe.

Oh…

The pandemic years

This was a stressful time for everyone. What a time to decide to focus on hospitality! But the advice given to me on the Dent course was absolutely brilliant and gave me the focus and structure for the business which I needed that totally shifted how we operate:

• I developed a product — our digital marketing training for the hospitality sector

• I focused on who our customers are, so we could target them more specifically

• I started to write thought pieces to get my name out there as an authority in the sector — these were hugely valuable tools for connecting with new clients

• I created digital assets for our services, honed team member responsibilities, and developed processes to streamline and formalise everything, saving huge amounts of time

Though we lost a bit of work because of the pandemic, we nimbly shifted our focus through the lens of the new training product, broadened our customer base, and grew our revenue streams. It was tough, but everyone was facing the same challenge. We were surviving, and I’m so proud of the work we did during this time.

Bringing in my first employees

Revenue started to pick up again but profits could be better. I kept looking at the money going out to freelancers. Each time we would make a sale we’d need to give a huge chunk of it away to deliver the work. So the question now was: what’s the model I’m building here?

One of the key members of the team at this time was Heather. Heather had been with us for about three years at this point. Heather was the person who fixed the ‘leaky bucket’ issue we had and set the tone for the wonderful culture we continue cultivating at Trapeze Media.

Heather wanted more than I was able to offer at this point so she got a job for the brilliant agency Born Social. I genuinely couldn’t have been happier for her — it was an amazing opportunity at a great company — but boy oh boy was I nervous about what this would mean for us. Heather was ingrained deep in the fabric of the company.

I looked at the figures, and it was going to be nerve-wracking, but I decided we’d be able to take on employees.

I would say to anyone reading this who is questioning what to do: take advice from those who have made these decisions themselves, whose companies you like, and who are happy in their work. I got a lot of duff advice. I listened to some of it for a bit, like, “oh, you don’t want to get too big or you have to pay VAT and that’s a nightmare” – it’s not! This is awful advice and I should have never even let it reach my ears, let alone my mind!

Other people would inhale sharply and say, “oooh, you don’t want to get employees — freelancers have got the hungry mentality to work, and it’s a bit of a risk taking on employees.” In hindsight, I think this was other people projecting their own fears and anxieties onto me.

I have learned before that I make good choices and I felt that to make the business more profitable I would need to have employees and now was the time.

We had incredible freelancers already working for us who were interested in joining the company full-time and now, as we enter our sixth year, we have four full-time employees: Sarah, Dani, Jade, and Tina. We also have Jeeves, who’s a genius creative graphic designer/copywriter/video editor extraordinaire; Ashley, our Google Ads expert and a lovely supportive person; and Hilal, who does vital invoicing/credit control work with me and supports everyone in the team with scheduling content.

Mistakes made, lessons learned

The biggest mistakes I’ve made have been in my ability to get money owed into the business. Stepping away from delivery means I can bring in more revenue, but it does also slightly remove me from the emotion of the work. Asking for money is something I have always found hard — I put it down to the anxiety that what I’m doing isn’t good enough. But now, I see how brilliant the work is (‘cause I’m not doing it!) and it’s easier to ask for that money.

Some clients have twisted their way out of owing us money, which I have taken on the chin, but these are the most costly mistakes I’ve made in the course of running the company.

Right here, right now

We’re now bringing in new work every month with dream clients, working with TV and film companies and a range of hospitality businesses I’ve had on the target list since day one.

We’ve just won the ‘Best Social Media Specialist and Digital Marketing Agency 2022’ award for the UK from the SME Business Elite Awards!

I’ve got a team who are happy at work and a company culture I feel incredibly proud to have cultivated.

I’m raising my profile as a thought leader and successful businessperson, and have been invited to several industry events as a speaker and keynote presenter.

The next five years

Huge thanks to Graeme Cox, who has been helping me get my shit together! I’ve got a plan for the next five years that I think is very achievable, which will get me to my next milestones.

I have loved putting this plan together.

I’ve always been told to have a business plan. I’ve done my own thing with this in the past, creating a ‘Trapeze Media World’ board which had some stars (clients) we would aim for, a galaxy of freelancers we work with, and a product ecosystem. Plus my fairly rudimentary ‘incomings and outgoings’ sheet!

Trapeze Media World is not a business plan, but it is a great company handbook for new starters.

What Graeme has helped me with is figuring out how to really grow the business at a rate we can enjoy. More profits, and a steady pace to make sure everyone in the company stays happy and not overwhelmed.

I want the business to be an incredibly profitable happy company. So far, so good.

Our proudest moments

• Making it six years and still absolutely loving what I’m doing (in fact, ‘still’ is wrong — ‘now’ is more truthful, I didn’t love it for the first couple of years)

• Heather getting an amazing job with Born Social

• Sarah being the first other person than me to sell something for Trapeze Media

• The team telling me how happy they are at work. Dani recently said that after a holiday she wasn’t dreading coming back to work. Someone not connected to the company at all saw team Linkedin posts and suggested I write a blog on cultivating good company culture

• Getting to work with Hakkasan

Most important things I’ve learned

• Some clients will take the piss. You stand your ground

• Put effort in for your team, and give them your time. You need help to grow, so the people you work with are the most important thing

• Everything evolves at its own pace

• Knowing the details of what’s going in and out of the bank account is essential, but being the company accountant isn’t (get someone else to do this if it’s not your thing)

• Never celebrate a new piece of work until the contract’s signed

• If I’m starting to lose my patience, I need a day off

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