Member Article

North East festive focus with: Sarah Callender, Bdaily

Bdaily MD Sarah Callender discusses the year in retrospect and looks ahead to 2017 in today’s North East Festive Focus.

Your business

If you had to choose one thing - what are you most proud of your company achieving this year, why?

2016 has been a turbulent year for business with political upheaval and economic uncertainty directly impacting the SME marketplace. For us to still achieve growth, increase our subscribers by 70% and see sales rise by 27% we have to be really proud of ourselves.

What was the single biggest challenge faced by your firm in 2016?

The uncertainty brought about by Brexit was by in large a challenge of 2016 because a lot of clients were waiting to see what impact leaving the EU would bring and therefore, some business decisions were put on hold or delayed.

We showed growth because of our sales strategy and approach, reassuring and encouraging our clients to push forward and not stand still.

Can you tell us one thing your business is doing in 2017 that really excites you?

Next year we’ll be exploring new ways of sharing our expertise in house, as part of our commercial offering.

I’m also excited about new opportunities around live streaming and webinars as video continues to rise as a prominent news and marketing medium.

Your region

Which North East firm has impressed you the most this year, why?

Despite the turbulence brought about by Brexit across most industries and sectors, we’ve still seen companies in this region enjoy much success throughout the year.

Sage continues to act as a real beacon for the North East and has to be commended for its subscription rate increases in particular this year.

In terms of smaller businesses it’s been great to see the leaps taken by Wylam Brewery this year. As well as the firm’s new venue, its doing a lot of work with businesses across the region and played host to the Digital Union panel earlier this year, which Bdaily featured in.

Are there any emerging businesses in the region that’ve caught your eye this year that you’ve been previously unaware of?

As a daily reader of the Bdaily bulletin there’s almost too many to name! It’s been fantastic to see our team continue to report on startup stories at the rate we do. The entrepreneurial spirit existing in the region seems to only be getting stronger and we’re proud to be a hub for emerging business news.

Is there an industry or sector of the North-East business community which you expect to really take off next year?

We’ve seen particularly strong growth in the North East’s tech industry this year, as reiterated by the latest ONS figures released earlier in the month. I expect to see this develop further in 2017 with more collaboration being visibly apparent of late.

I’m also really intrigued to see what happens when more emphasis is placed on scaleup businesses as we enter a new chapter in British economic strategy.

Yourself

What was your first job?

Outside of weekend and holiday waitressing and retail jobs - my first role was a graduate trainee manager for Jane Norman.

They were opening their first ladies clothes outlet outside of London in Newcastle (the first of many new stores) and I was recruited on to the management team just before they opened.

If you weren’t doing what you do, is there a job you’d love to have?

That’s a tricky one but probably something to do with fitness and wellbeing. I love the idea of helping people lead happier, healthier more balanced lives.

What do you do on Christmas day?

Most of my family live really close to each other so my husband and I head over there for 3 day. Christmas day is basically spent visiting, eating and drinking. This year my brother is having a BBQ Christmas eve which will be fun.

Bdaily will close today (December 23) and reopen Tuesday January 3, with all bulletins resuming as per usual. We look forward to seeing you in 2017.

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