Should they jump in the expectation that any upturn will boost the survival prospects of minnows or stay put in the hope that their job might be becoming more secure?

This week we highlight the case of a formerly disaffected employee who developed a

successful business after discovering that relatively small moves could produce big results.

 

Name: Neil Barr

 

Age: 38

 

What is your business called?

Alienation Digital

 

Where is it based? Glasgow

 

What does it produce, what service does it offer?

Web design, web development, digital marketing/search engine optimisation and graphic design. We also do e-cards and maximise clients’ profiles through social networking sites like Facebook.

 

To whom does it sell?

 

About 50% of our work is for the public sector, including most Scottish councils, many enterprise agencies and the Scottish Government. We work with colleges and universities and charities such as the Children’s Hospice Association Scotland. Our private sector clients include large organisations such as Gazprom, British American Tobacco and the Somerston Hotel Group. About 25% of our work is for clients outside Scotland.

 

What is its turnover?

 

This year we’re forecasting around £700k.

 

How many employees do you have? 12

 

When was it formed?   1997

 

Why did you take the plunge?

 

I’d always known I would start my own business, from the days when I used to sell stamps to my fellow pupils at school.

When the internet came along I started dabbling with web design but it was still in the very early days when most websites were built by people from a technical background.

Having studied fine art at art schools in Scotland and in Louisiana, in America, I could see what I thought was a large gap in the market. It seemed little thought had been put into how sites looked and how usable they were.

Most web developers were more interested in showing off to other developers than in building sites that looked well and had real commercial objectives attached to them.

I was unhappy in my job at the time and decided to quit without having anything to go to. Whilst I was looking around for something to do I continued to study everything I could about web design as it was clear to me this was the route I wanted to go down.

I put a small test advert in a magazine which resulted in a couple of jobs. I decided then to take the plunge. I wrote my business plan, set up the company and took it from there. In the beginning it was just me, working from home, doing the design and the  development work. But one became two, became four and so on.

 

What were you doing when you took the plunge?

 

I was IT manager at Newstel Information which provided weather forecasts and competition lines for the likes of Teletext and national newspapers.

Over five years I’d gradually risen through the company -- despite having no IT training. Around 1993 I took an interest in the internet as I saw it as a good marriage between my

creative side and my interest in technology. I started programming on my ZX Spectrum at the age of 13 -- so I’m one of the Generation X’ers!

 

How did you raise the start-up funding?

 

Apart from some small assistance for six months from the local enterprise agency, which amounted to £30 a week, it was all self funded.

 

What was your biggest break?

 

The first was securing retainer work for Melville Craig Group -- which became part of Monster Europe -- in the first couple of months. That came from my speculative ad and gave me a steady income and some security.

The second was meeting Ken Beattie. Ken is a non-executive director in the company and he holds a number of other non-exec positions in the Scottish IT and marketing sector. Ken co-founded Initiative Software in 1990 and its US subsidiary Syntelate Corp.

His advice over the years has been invaluable and I can honestly say that the company would not be here today if it wasn’t for his advice and help.

What was your worst moment?

When a member of staff was given a raise but left because he thought he was worth more money and had it on “good authority” that the company could afford it. Unbeknownst to him, I hadn’t paid myself for six months in an effort to cut costs at a difficult time.

 

What do you most enjoy about running the business?

 

For me, and I suspect most business owners it’s being in control, even if it is sometimes an illusion. There’s no denying there is a bit of a control freak in me, but that comes from a confidence that I can make the right decisions.

You can only make right decisions if you have the right information and the right people around you so ultimately the most enjoyable part is the people. There is some pride and altruism in knowing that you’ve built something up from scratch that is giving people a satisfying and enjoyable career.

I also love the fact that I can decide to put something back. We had a good year last year, so we decided to commit the entire agency’s total resources to providing a free day’s work for charities.

We had almost 200 applications from all over the UK and are currently working out how we can best help the maximum number of charities.

 

What do you least enjoy?

 

The red tape and being stuck behind a desk for large parts of the day.

What are your ambitions for the firm?

I would like to double the volume of business that comes from outside the UK from 25% to 50% of turnover.

I would like to see the business grow whilst keeping our creative streak.

 

What are your top priorities?

 

My number one priority is to develop the business strands that produce regular and sustainable revenue streams. Web design is all peaks and troughs.

A client commissions a website then you don’t hear from them for five or six years.

Fortunately more and more companies are investing in digital marketing, which means that we constantly fine-tune websites to keep them at the top of ratings on Google and other search engines.

Another objective is to see more local authorities and support agencies adopt our FORT online referral tracking product, which we developed with Fife Rights Forum.

Some 200 agencies in Fife, including local GPs, social work departments, housing associations and citizens advice offices, use the system to keep track of who is referred where and what the outcome has been.

What single thing would most help?

More risk taking by business support organisations, and the financial institutions including the banks.

If I wanted to grow the business quickly by a significant amount, would I really want to spend six to 12 months writing business plans, filling in endless forms, talking endlessly to banks or public/private funders whilst all the time taking my eye off the ball? No. But that’s what would happen now.

 

What could the Westminster or Scottish Governments do that would most help?

 

They could get their act together and reinstate construction of the Glasgow Airport Rail Link. It’s incredible in this day and age that a major airport like Glasgow doesn’t have a rail link, and unbelievable they are scrapping plans to build one.

We travel quite a lot and often the longest part of the journey is getting to the airport and then you have all the hassle of parking. Compare that to the likes of Birmingham or the London airports where you step off the plane and straight onto the train. 

 

What was the most valuable lesson you learned?

 

It’s all about the people. Get the right staff and you’re half way there. With the greatest will in the world, you’re not going to get anywhere if you don’t have the right people around you. It makes all the difference and I see it as pivotal in our success over the past few years.