It was brewing for 3 years…
For some time I’ve been writing this post.
In fact, I’ve written this about 4 times in 2014.
Lost it twice, and re-written it twice.
This is the 5th attempt…
I work full time at a web agency in Kent working with national and international brands, household names and big companies serving their web requirements and finding awesome solutions to sometime the most complex of problems. 3 years ago… I ventured out in my own mind to solve the most simple of problems.
3 years later we’ve just about finished brewing the ale! (or stage 1 at least!)
In April 2014 I launched a new website called localroomhire.co.uk to venues in Kent. Its a new venture, aimed at supporting local venues (big or small) get their bookings up, promote smaller venues who perhaps get overlooked, and ultimately when it goes live to the public later in 2015, we’ll release a site that allows users to find exactly the room or venue they want in the perfect location. Thats the vision!
It all started in 2011.
In September 2010, Jo (my wife) and I bought Sing and Sign East Kent, a franchise running a babies workshop for signing classes. In Jan 2011, we looked to expand into Canterbury area.
With the expansion and to allow us to run the workshops, naturally we needed an appropriate space to run the workshops in.
The search couldn’t have been more manual!
“local rooms for hire in Canterbury”
“small spaces for hire in Canterbury”
“rooms in Canterbury with baby change facilities”
And MANY more…
All we were getting were venue listing websites that we then had to trawl through each and every listing, looking at the poor, limited quantity information, then if potentially interested, we’d then call up, go and visit and realise its not for us.
It literally took about 2/3 weeks to finally find a venue that was suitable (and available!) and within budget. Out of my frustration, and working in the design & web industry, decided I needed to do something about that, and here is where Local Room Hire was born.
We spent literally 2 years defining, exploring, designing and redesigning various elements of the site, running email campaigns, Twitter and Facebook campaigns, user research, venue engagement and more.
We’re now signing up venues at a great pace, getting the shop ready for our grand opening later in 2015 and getting everything all setup.
In many ways it feels like a well-brewed ale that needs that last bit of time to add the strength of flavour making it simply the best it can be, before releasing it to the world!
I look forward to 2015 with great anticipation!
