Celebrating five years in business

We’re celebrating five whole years of the Backroom!

Way back in 2016, when we had this crazy dream of going it alone, I don’t think either of us could have anticipated what the next five years would hold.

Those were the good old days, you might say. No one had ever heard the word ‘Brexit’, Trump was still just that orange bloke off American telly, David Bowie was still alive and wearing masks was something people generally only did on Halloween.

(I mean, we’re not saying David Bowie was the glue holding the universe together, but the evidence is there…)

Anyway, we hastily set up shop in the back room (hence the name) of a little coffee shop in the leafy Sheffield suburb of Dore, and we got to work. Stephen had just become a dad for the first time (on top of setting up a new business), and was racking up a considerable tab of espressos & flat whites while working on pitches and proposals for prospective new business.

We were lucky enough to have a handful of clients to keep us busy from day one and we nurtured those relationships, as well as creating new ones.

As well as expanding our client base, we were keen to strengthen our network.

Right from the start, we knew that we didn’t want a big operation with loads of staff. As it says on our website, we’re big believers in people working with people, and we wanted to maintain direct, day-to-day contact with all our clients, rather than delegate it to Account Managers.

Instead, we cautiously developed collaborative relationships – with the most talented creatives in the city. So when our clients started asking for print, photography, copywriting, animation and more, we had a trusted network that we could call upon to deliver. It’s a strategy that’s worked for us ever since.

By year two, we felt more established as a business and we’d settled into our roles. Stephen naturally drives forward the creative, while Andrew revels in developing new and existing client relationships. We felt ready to raise our profile to become more outward-looking, so we put together our first big marketing campaign.

We devised a direct mail campaign, targeting our top 100 prospects in the South Yorkshire area. Once they’d been sent out, Andrew did what he does best – he got on the phone with every single recipient. And do you know what? They all remembered our creative and its message. Not bad going for a first piece of direct mail. That one campaign resulted in a huge uplift in business for the Backroom, and it’s still paying dividends today.

Fast forward to year three and we fancied a change of scenery.

Although Dore had given our business a great start, we were keen to move things on and we found a new home in Sheffield’s creative hub, Kelham Island. When we started looking for new premises, we knew the space had to fit with the Backroom concept. Happily, that’s exactly what we found. A creative retreat, right above the fantastic Gaard Coffee Hide. Try their sausage rolls and you’ll never set foot in a Greggs again. Seriously.

It was a move that put us right at the heart of the action. There are so many exciting developments in the area, and lots of up-and-coming businesses. There’s a real buzz in the air and it certainly now feels like home for us.

Four years in and so far, so good. But what is a life without challenges?

In March 2020…well, we all know what happened. It seems like such a long time ago now, that we’d cleared the office of everything needed to work at home and were nursing a pint, pondering the first impending lockdown. At that point, it all felt very temporary, of course.

None of us could contemplate anything else and we assumed it would soon be back to ‘business as usual’.

We were luckier than some I suppose. Our set up meant we were quickly able to set up and continue working from home throughout the pandemic…through juggling childcare, Joe Wicks workouts and countless zoom calls just like everyone else.

Staying lean was central to our survival. Not having extra staff meant that our overheads were low enough for us to pull through relatively unscathed. Our strategy of partnering with the best in the business thankfully seemed to pay dividends. We may not have grown our head count but our network has expanded exponentially, enabling us to adapt, be flexible and meet whatever requirement our clients may have.

All of which brings us to year 5. We’ve all been through the wringer and the lucky ones among us have come out the other side. We learned some valuable lessons during the pandemic, which will undoubtedly help us to move the business forward as we all start to find our feet and return to normality.

In some ways nothing has changed since we first started out in 2016. We’re a bit older, a bit greyer and hopefully a little bit wiser. But we still have the same passion and approach to our work, and our relationships with our clients are still central to everything we do. Oh and we still miss David Bowie.

They say that if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life. Well in all honesty, the last five years have been very hard work at times. But they have flown and we’ve absolutely loved every minute.

Thanks to each and every one of our clients, partners, neighbours and extended Backroom family for your support and for making the journey so enjoyable. We’ve met some fantastic people, and been invited to visit some of the most amazing places.

Here’s to the next five – whatever they may bring!