Yorkshire festive focus: Doug Main, The Bigger Boat

As Christmas is less than a week away, and the businesspeople of Yorkshire are preparing to hang up their stockings, Bdaily is catching up with the region’s business leaders to reflect on the highlights of 2016 and how they plan on spending the holiday period.

For the series’ next instalment, we are speaking with Doug Main, creative director and one of the founders of Mirfield-based digital marketing agency, The Bigger Boat.

Your business

What were the three biggest highlights for your business in 2016?

Moving into our fantastic new office space, which has given us a really creative staff environment, a stunning place in which to work with our clients, and the room to grow even further next year.

Winning Little Tikes, our first household name client, which was one of our goals for 2016

Designing all the material for the Halifax Comedy festival earlier this year – it was great for the team to walk through the town centre, on our way to the James Acaster gig, and see all the work we had done.

What are your business’ goals going into 2017?

To bring yet another household name onboard, and to hit our £500,000 turnover target.

Anything you/your business would have done differently over the past year?

I think we should have made some pivotal staffing decisions sooner. I also wish we had listened to our gut instinct with regards to a couple of clients that deep down, we knew wouldn’t work out for us.

Your region

Why do you think Yorkshire is a great place to do business?

Having worked in London, I prefer the more rural setting we enjoy in Yorkshire - and just because we’re outside the capital it doesn’t mean we can’t work with the best clients or do great work.

Any other company/companies in the region stand out for you?

We have had lots of help with the new premises from an interior designer called Desk Office Interiors – they were really fun to work with, and do a brilliant job.

What does Yorkshire want to see happen in the future/next year?

There is a lot of talk about Leeds becoming the digital capital of England, but why not Yorkshire on the whole? There are some fantastic digital agencies in and outside of Leeds.

Yourself

What individual goals did you achieve personally/professionally in 2016?

This year was dominated by one personal goal, to ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats in just 7 days, which I successfully achieved along with some of my cycling buddies

Professionally, our team goal of acquiring a household name was also a personal one for me – having worked in London and Sheffield it means a lot to be part of a small rural team that can compete with big city agencies.

How do you unwind after a stressful day at work?

I swim, cycle or run and will hopefully be competing in next year’s ITU Triathlon in Leeds and putting all that exercise to good use!

What would be the perfect Christmas gift for you?

A totally work free couple of weeks with friends and family. Plenty of food, fun, drink and exercise and no emails (although if there are any I’ll obviously be quick to respond as always!)

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