January was a little strange with the year starting with an attack on one of servers which took a day or so to sort out but meant the year got of to a dreadful start. But all was fixed and that problem did not rear its ugly head again that year though there were a couple of days when the data centre in Manchester that houses our server had problems meaning a couple of half days off. This year we're looking at options for relocating our servers to the North East with another company looking after the physical management.
February saw us having the services of two French students from the University of Teesside with both working on separate side projects of ours with mixed results. One of our students did a good job, worked hard and was great, even if the side project is not progressing. The other was a bit of a waste of time and resources but we'll put that down to experience.
March saw the start of a more concerted effort to get involved in networking events to get the business known started with the Middlesbrough Breakfast Exchange at La Pharmacie which has developed a few contacts for us over the year. On a personal note the month also saw my son captain Middlesbrough RUFC under-16s in a Yorkshire Cup semi-final victory in a fantastic game of rugby against Otley on a bog of a pitch - the very pitch where the North of England beat the All Blacks. Proud rugby dad recollection number 1.
April saw a very brief return to lecturing as a (paid) favour to a friend who was stuck for someone to deliver some thermodynamics lectures (yes in a previous incarnation I was an engineering lecturer and I have an honours B.Sc. in Physics). Proud rugby dad recollection number 2. The month started with Matty captaining Middlesbrough U-16s in their 4th Yorkshire Cup final in 4 seasons. Unfortunately with 2 England players unavailable they lost to a great York side in a thrilling game but in 4 years of junior rugby, 3 Yorkshire Cups and one runners-up is a great return. Strangely this was my proudest moment as a rugby dad as the way Matty and the whole team conducted themselves after a heartbreaking defeat was exemplary and shows what a great game ruby is off the field as well as on it. A good post match was had with the brilliant folks from York RUFC who were deserved and gracious winners - and we had a fantastic post match party in Picton which was really the end of an era as the team has broken up for a variety of reasons including a big number of players going onto bigger and better things. Some of them really could be stars of the future and I will always look out for them at a much higher level.
May saw us creating a few Wordpress sites as we switched to using this as a CMS for new sites where there was nothing "unusual" required. The beauty of Wordpress is that it is open source, easy to use and so many web agencies know how it works so it has portability unlike a bespoke CMS. Sometimes clients need more than an off-the-shelf package and it is enjoyable creating something from scratch. May also saw the end of my briefly resurrected teaching career as the academic year came to an end. I was offered a permanent contract but that would have made it rather difficult to run the business.
June started with a trip to Strasbourg, pleasure not work, including the 3rd and deciding cricket match in a 10 year series between our old ICI cricket team and the Strasbourg Strollers. With one eye not really working and not having played for a number of years, I opened the batting with little hope. Unfortunately we lost and modesty prevents me from saying who top scored in the match (ahem!) but a great game and fantastic hospitality by our hosts saw us finishing the game fielding in the rain rather drunk whilst being filmed by local French TV. June also saw the departure of our French interns.
July saw us meeting with people from Redcar & Cleveland Council to begin discussions about moving to the Palace Hub when it is completed. We also had Cameron from Macmillan College in for a week's work experience and he was great, we will be happy to have other school students in next year on the same basis. The month also saw our first contact with Russ and Craig from BNI which has led us to join as part of the core group for Redcar and East Cleveland and we believe this will play a big role in the growth of the business.
August would normally include a holiday but as my wife had recently changed jobs she didn't have any holidays due, so a couple of cheeky days off were had to match her days off and we did a few walks on the North Yorks Moors and Upper Teesdale. The month also sadly saw the loss of a great bloke, Keith, who I had got to know through my son's rugby and he is still sadly missed by all.
In September we verbally agreed terms for a move to the Palace Hub with a December moving in date. We also got involved with Redcar Council's scheme for 'critical friend' support between creative industries in the area where we got paid to help another creative look at their business. It was also the first Bounce event at the Riverside Stadium where regional businesses got together to share the good news about how well the North East economy is doing, to build networks and to help each other. I'm looking forward to the next one. Proud rugby dad recollection number 3. Matt started playing in the front row for Middlesbrough RUFC Colts (U-19s) when his age group should have been U-17s. Some great moments, particularly when a very young Boro front row tipped their much older and massively bigger opponents over the top of the back row to take a scrum against the head and set up a try. Matt also made the North Yorkshire U-17 squad.
October saw Steve joining us as Web Developer and making a great contribution to the company. The month also saw us pitching at a large law firm for a mobile web contract. The pitch went pretty well but we didn't get the contract, losing out to another company with what was in our opinion a very misleading quote on time-scales. Still we'll stick to our guns of being honest with potential clients even if we lose the occasional contract as a result...
... and honesty pays as we got a contract for a mobile site for the same value anyway.
The penultimate month of the year saw a lot of mobile work as we developed OUCH! and also a mobile version of Future Roofs. This is a growing area of the business and a key area for other businesses to have a mobile web presence. We also did some work for one of our neighbours down the corridor in Wilton Centre, now that does make it easy when you need to have a meeting with your client! November also saw our BNI core group starting to grow and we are expecting a launch around Easter.
And so to December. We attended the Tees Valley Skills event in the concourse of the Riverside in sub-zero temperatures all day, not an enjoyable day. We also delivered a day at a school in Shildon as part of the Get Creative project which was hard work but a good day. We launched our new website and the OUCH site. We got a loan from UK Steel Enterprise - for furniture and equipment when we move, which has been postponed to February as the building is not finished.
Obviously throughout the year we did a lot of work on new and existing websites, graphic design, e-marketing, networking and more. We survived, took on new staff (and another one coming in January) and established ourselves. We made a lot of new friends along the way and continued to work with a lot of long-time friends - to all of you thank you for making it an interesting and enjoyable year.
After a few days off over the festive season I've recharged the batteries, which has been great but now I'm raring to go and feel the need to be working again, so off we go. Tomorrow I'll post on what I thinks will be the key issues in the New Year but in the meantime I hope you all have a great New Year's Eve.
