Its been another crazy week at JAK Inc as we push forward with more growth plans in line with the Goldman Sachs business growth program we completed last year and this week we welcome two new employees to the business.
Terry Cella is our new Business Development Manager operating from our central London office and Kevin Thompson has started as BDM for our new Exeter office. Both Terry and Kevin started off as print partners with fullcolourcards.com and have over 50 years combined experience in printing and design. I look forward to spending time with them at our office locations and also welcoming them to our HQ in the North East where we will be lifting the bonnet on the culture and visions we have at JAK Inc. It will also give them the opportunity to meet our rock star graphic design and development team who can show examples of work and put faces to names.
Monday to Wednesday of last week was spent in London inducting our new guys and formulating an action plan to launch the new offices and raise awareness of our web, design, social media and printing services. We also managed to squeeze in a BNI (Business networking international) meeting in Holburn, London where I met 26 professional businesses over a nice breakfast at the Kingsway hotel just off Covent garden.
Heading back to the North East on Wednesday evening I reflected on a great few days in our Moorgate, London office and felt pretty confident about the new guys who have joined the business and can’t wait to help them launch the JAK Inc brand into new UK locations. Where next is the question?
I also changed my accommodation on this trip to London which was a great call (and recommended by friend of the business Myk Baxter). So instead of staying at a pretty bland and budget hotel chain I opted to stay with Carlos Munoz in Whitechapel not far from Aldgate East Tube Station. From the moment I met Carlos I knew we would get on and the first night we sat up and talked about business, family, health and fitness plus of course the best places to get a coffee in London. What a difference it made engaging with another human being. I guess I’m just not made for my own company.
Back at Chester-le-Street on Thursday I had a great catch up with the team and caught up on the progress of some ongoing website design projects. Again I have to mention it but the design creative leaving JAK Inc at the moment are absolutely top drawer. Every website is given thorough research into UX so we can understand how the customer can get from a to b very quickly but we are also improving UI so that the user interface is easier to navigate for the client. This in addition to our design team maturing and gaining more experience fills me with confidence that JAK Inc is becoming a ‘go-to’ multi-disciplined agency as planned for in the business growth strategy.
We also signed up a new print partner on Thursday and I feel it could be another success story as this person has a wealth of marketing knowledge especially within the SEO side of things.
This week JAK Print has been taking plenty of print and design orders that is keeping our creative team busy in between some of their jak inc website and digital projects. Here are some examples of the print jobs we have been working on this week:-
• 20,000 flyers designed and printed for an estate agency in Tynemouth
• Design work for a charity in Thames Valley, London
• 10,00 business cards for an exhaust centre in Darlington
• 10,000 Business cards, flyers designed and printed for a landscape company in Brandon
• Brochures designed and printed for a residential company in Langley Moor, Durham
• Business cards designed and printed for a car and body shop in Exeter
I’m not sure if you read one of my last blogs where I mentioned how much I enjoyed getting interviewed for the Entrepreneur Way podcast, well that went live last week and I’ve had some very positive feedback from friends and business associates who listened to it. If you have some time spare, here is the link.
On Saturday the sun was shining so we decided to pack up a picnic and head for one of our favourite places in Teesside, Roseberry Topping, but not before stopping off at Marton in Middlesbrough for some decent coffee at No.34 and getting Harvey’s hair cut ready for school on Monday at Wayne Paul’s the second.
When we arrived at the car park at the foot Roseberry Topping I could sense it wasn’t going to be an easy climb. There was quite a lot of mud around and we had just had a downpour that wouldn’t have helped. Obviously my choice of converse shoes wasn’t going to pan out to be my best decision of the day. That and my grand national choices as it turned out.
So the walk up to the summit was pretty difficult and the mud made it very challenging but all four of us made it and were delighted to enjoy the views across Teesside where we sat down and ate our picnic and Kelly and I shared a small glass of bubbly and reminisced the place where I proposed back in 2003.
What a fantastic day we had and even bumped into some pretty inspirational people along the way facing their own challenges and raising money for charity. Great effort.
So next week I am heading to Exeter to spend three days with Kevin and I look forward to understanding the opportunity we have in that part of the country. Devon is somewhere I haven’t ever been before so I will report back next week.
Anything is possible,
Andy Knowles
Managing Director
