This is part two in my series about starting a digital agency (Purr Digital).

The story so far

I’ve covered in a separate article how I’d haphazardly started my agency. Armed with little more than a name (and logo), a basic website, phone number and a laptop I now needed to build some momentum behind the agency and build it to a level where I wasn’t just pretending that it was bigger than a bedroom coder.

From adding customers to taking an office

I reached out to old customers from my freelance business and expanded my network by reaching out through friends. This resulted in some enquiries, some of which turned to new projects. These were days of accepting any work I could get my hands on, taking on too much work and a fair share of all-nighters. …

This is going to be the first of a series of articles about the checkered history of how I started and scaled a digital agency in London. Whilst the end of the story is far from clear, I thought it would be useful to get some of the detail down before more time passes and I begin to believe my own hype about its murky origins.

Spoiler: it was an accident!

To understand the slightly roundabout way in which I began a digital agency, it’s worth clarifying how I came to be in the position to do so.

In early 2013, I was approaching the end of an eighteen month period of indecision about my future career, following the early sale of my first business (Choose a Challenge). …

The conversation about mental health awareness has been picking up pace considerably in recent years, ranging from the new Royal generation’s decision to drop the stiff upper lip, to Stormzy’s war with NME over their highlighting of his experience with depression.

Most notably, the discussion about mental health has reached the workplace, until very recently the definitive last bastion of reserve about such things. Seeing a Linkedin post about mental health, suicide, grief or depression was a rarity; it seems to have become not only accepted but encouraged.

Mental Health and Employers

It’s hard to deny that employers are certainly now more aware of the stresses and strains on their employees’ wellbeing. Flexible working now seems to not just be a benefit open to a few but is quickly becoming the norm. Breakout areas and bike to work schemes encourage a healthier lifestyle and getting away from your desk where possible, whilst the dialogue and professional development amongst bosses and company owners increasingly focus on mental health awareness. …

As an agency that specialises in web and app development services for design and branding teams, we’ve heard our share of horror stories from designers working with developers. It seems like nearly every creative has had their fingers burned at some stage. Projects have gone south. Clients have been lost. Money frittered. Some sufficiently so to put them off technical projects entirely, and at the very least to change supplier or approach.

Having heard these horror stories, and full disclosure, having gone through a small number ourselves, we believe the biggest underlying trend is communication. But it’s part of a wider collection of problems that occur throughout a development process, from scoping and planning phases, through to development, testing, go live and support. …