In the latest of our Turning Point series, Shout Digital managing director Gary Boon explains what led him to start his new venture in the teeth of an economic downturn.
ALL business owners have a memorable turning point in their business, whether that is growing in size, moving into new markets or taking a completely new direction.
For Gary Boon, technical whizz behind the introduction of chip&pin and the large-scale BBC licensing website, his biggest turning point after leaving a secure job in the middle of a recession to set up his own agency, Shout Digital, was in securing a high-profile board and investment and advice from ex-chief executive of Sage, Paul Walker.
This ‘dream team’ of business and technical acumen has catapulted Shout into the next phase of development, after a successful first year in growing the company into a 10-strong team of high-calibre digital specialists.
Q: When was the major turning point for you and your business?
A: Initially, to make the decision to leave TH_NK (the Newcastle-based digital media agency) as a board director in the middle of a recession to set up my own digital agency was a massive turning point for my career.
I have been lucky enough to be joined by a creative team of technical and design experts who I believe are truly the best in the North East at what they do. They are also people I have worked with for four or five years previously, so there is a bit of a sixth sense between all of us in the way we work and they all buy into the quality of what we want to achieve long term.
The first turning point for the business itself was that very quickly Shout began attracting a strong board of directors based both in the North East and in London who were keen to join us so I knew we had something exciting ahead. What better way of taking the agency to the next level than being surrounded by highly successful people who have already made their mark with their own businesses? We have been extremely fortunate also to have the former chief executive of one of the most well-known plcs in the software space, Paul Walker, as a company investor and business adviser.
Q: What sort of issues did you initially discuss with the board and what did you get out of it?
A: We initially discussed a business plan – how to build a successful business in terms of growth, what type of people we need to bring into the business, what are the services we are going to offer that will stand us apart.
Our main aim initially was to create a successful business that would combine web design, strategy implementation and e-commerce with what I wanted to do in the mobile space in application development.
We also needed to figure out how we generate IP (intellectual property) and products from our development work, and turn those into a business proposition.
Our business model has three strong pillars; projects, products, and research and development. Everything we do for a client complements this and out of projects and strategy work we can then look at product development, some of which we already have in development at the moment.
Q: What is the best piece of advice you have received from the board?
A: The best piece of advice was probably from Ian Baggett (founder of the Adderstone Group and co-founder of Shout) who believes that although you can win the business it is imperative that you ensure high-end delivery to clients.
There is no point in winning the business if you don’t exceed clients’ expectations – that is why we ensure that it is our primary focus. Word of mouth is invaluable and we get most of our business this way so delivering an excellent service is our top priority.