It’s always great when the chance arises to work again with ex-colleagues that you really like, trust and whose talent you admire (and importantly, for me at least, who make you laugh – alot). So yesterday, when friends and colleagues from Cogapp days, Ben Aquilina and Colin Jenkinson, appointed Strange Digital to deliver business development strategy consulting and workshops for their creative studio, Endless (@endless_studios), it was an especially exciting new business win. Bring it on!
“We can’t stress enough the value in business analysis…”
Two workshops, a Business Development report and action plan later, this is what Charlee Cheverton of The Tall Designer and Charlee Says had to say about working with Niki and the value of business analysis for small outfits:
Many freelancers and small businesses probably think they don’t need a business analyst. I mean, with so few people, how complicated can running a business be, right? Er, wrong. I hadn’t realised quite what a mess our business processes were in until I sat down with Niki and actually looked at them closely.
Niki helped us create order from the chaos, without stifling our creative processes or making us feel like we were being pinned down by too many details. Having an action plan has got us back on track, with work in the pipeline, so that we can actually concentrate more on the bits of the business we enjoy doing, rather than shuffling papers and panicking about accounts.
I really can’t stress enough how much value there is in business analysis for small outfits – just as much, if not more, than for larger companies. As small business owners and freelancers have to be major multi-taskers and jacks-of-all-trades, it’s imperative to figure out a realistic action plan to help you play to your strengths and make sure everything (even the dull stuff) gets done. I’m so grateful to Niki for helping us to stop flailing wildly and start being productive again!
Goodbye Big Scream and Hello The Tall Designer/Charlee Says
After a heady year of full-time mothering (and indulgent daytime trips to the flicks courtesy of the rather wonderful Big Scream @DukeofYork’s) Niki is back at work part-time.
Happily, an opportunity came up almost immediately, via an ad on Wired Sussex’s projects board (cheers @WiredSussex). Brighton-based digital companies The Tall Designer (website design @TheTallDesigner) and Charlee Says (copywriting, content strategy and brand creation @CharleeSays) were in the market for some business strategy consulting to help them build on their awesome portfolios and do more great stuff for more people. A coffee and a proposal later, we’d all clicked and Strange Digital won the work (more on that soon).
So it’s goodbye Big Scream and hello to The Tall Designer and Charlee Says…looking forward to being part of the magic of a different screen.