SME: Spike Digital, Marvellous Glow; R1DE; BePro
MARKETING agency to the ecommerce industries, Spike Digital, has been able to expand to 10 employees following a move to new offices last year, and is now expanding into Manchester.
The Headingley-based business was founded in 2010 by Duncan Colman, who started working from home before moving to Headingley.
In April 2015 the firm moved to Escher House on Cardigan Road to accommodate a growing team.
The business is now jointly owned by Mr Colman, who worked for 10 years in the digital marketing department at Mercedes Benz, motors.co.uk and LA Fitness, and Rob Powell who has worked for Groupon and SEO agency WMG, before he joined the Spike Digital team.
Now the business has just opened an office in Manchester , in the Northern Quarter in Manchester city centre.
Mr Powell said: “We wanted to build an SEO and PPC consultancy where all of the employees could consult and ‘do’ the work that makes companies more money online. We wanted to demonstrate transparency in our costings, be flexible to accommodate all shapes and sizes of organisations and lead on customer service. Leading on customer service in the SEO industry is quite rare; a back breaking task in fact but something that we focus on first and foremost.”
On the move to Manchester, Mr Powell said: “The reason for opening Manchester is we’ve seen a need for small and medium sized businesses who want to deal with a “local” supplier for their SEO and online marketing services.
“Having a regional office which can facilitate regular face to face meetings can really help improve the client relationship – for us to understand their business better and also for them to have a clear understanding of what we have been doing and speaking directly to the people who work on their account.
Mr Powell continued: “The market as a whole is very saturated and often the “SEO” sector comes with a tarnished reputation with varying levels of service and work carried out. Spike always try and set ourselves apart by delivering exceptional levels of service along with great results.
“There isn’t any issues with the required skill sets in the North, in fact Leeds and Manchester are fantastic hubs in the online marketing space with some of the best agencies in the country.”
LEEDS entrepreneur Paul Panayi has launched his second business supplying giant carnival letter lights for events and weddings across Yorkshire and beyond.
Mr Panayi launched his first business Prints With Feelings, which creates personalised prints and gifts, in 2013 and now has an annual turnover of £180,000 handling more than 10,000 orders over Christmas 2015 alone.
With latest research revealing the UK’s wedding industry is worth more than £10bn and the average wedding day costing over £12,000, recognising a gap in the market, Mr Panayi commissioned more than 50 giant letter lights to be handmade in a combination of letters, numbers and ampersands, launching Marvellous Glow.
He said: “I recently became engaged and loved the idea of adding real theatre to our own wedding day with giant letter lights. I couldn’t find what I was looking for and thought; why don’t I start making these? I’m a firm believer in turning ideas into reality and that was when Marvellous Glow was born.
“As well as visiting wedding shows across the UK, we’ve launched a showroom in Leeds as we’ve discovered that if people see the letters for themselves, they see the wow factor they’ll add to an event. We’re delighted by the interest we’ve had so far, having only launched in February we have already supplied lights for a number of weddings, parties and large corporate events, and are now getting bookings across the UK.”
:::
R1DE, a high intensity indoor cycling studio, is gearing up to open its doors at Rokt in Brighouse this weekend.
Inspired by the success of the Tour de Yorkshire, the privately owned studio was created by local gym enthusiasts Liz Carroll and Emma Leonard, and combines cutting-edge technology with the latest fitness trends from London to create a boutique gym with a range of classes to suit all levels of abilities from beginners through to serious road riders.
Ms Leonard said: “Cycling is the third most popular sport in the UK and has undergone a revival in recent years thanks to world-class cycle races like the Tour de Yorkshire. Spin classes have also exploded in popularity too with everyone from road cyclists to gym enthusiasts loving the whole indoor cycling experience. We’ve spent time researching all the latest trends from America and London, and have substantially invested in the latest high tech equipment to create a spin gym that offers our members something different.”
R1DE will be open for visitors on Saturday from 10-6pm with live spins throughout the day. The studio will be fully open for business on Tuesday May 3, with 20 sessions a week on the timetable.
:::
A PROFESSIONAL training company run by a mother and daughter has secured two major contracts as the business continues to grow and plans to expand into new locations.
Bespoke Professional Development and Training (BePro) provides tailored and flexible professional development qualifications and is celebrating its second year in business. The company was set up in 2014 by Georgina Selmi, from Great Broughton. Her mother, Val Swales, joined the business last year as it grew faster than anticipated.
BePro, based at the Terry Dicken Business Park in Stokesley, has now secured two new contracts to deliver its training services to organisations on Teesside and in North Yorkshire.
In Middlesbrough, the company is working with Applebridge Construction on Cargo Fleet Road to deliver CMI-accredited leadership and management programmes and supervisory training.
In addition, BePro is also working with North Yorkshire County Council to deliver a number of business administration qualifications throughout the North Yorkshire area.
More articles in
