Interview: Meet the entrepreneur behind one of Newcastle's fastest growing digital agencies

“Working for yourself comes with many challenges, but the freedom to work on your own terms and create something from nothing is very fulfilling.”

Meet Greg Miles, a 25-year-old entrepreneur and founder of digital marketing agency, bumbl. The firm works with various businesses across the country, from London to Birmingham and everywhere in between.

Originally from Wakefield but now residing on Newcastle’s Quayside, Greg graduated with a journalism degree at Northumbria University in 2014, but life post-graduation wasn’t easy (as is the case with most people, right?).

He set his sights on a freelance career quite early on because finding a job was difficult. Full stop. After much rejection from employers and having already speculated the hugely criticised world of free internships and placements, Greg took on the industry solo.

Thus, bumbl was launched in February 2015… And no, I’m not talking about the dating app (Greg admits he had to remove the E from ‘bumble’ to avoid copyright issues).

bumbl is a marketing agency, partnering with startups and national companies to “help them find success in the digital world”. At first, there was only Greg to do, well, absolutely everything.

But after investment came his way, Greg was determined to build an entire new platform… With no experience in web building or running a business, it sounds troubling but the entrepreneur has been successful ever since.

He explained: “The only funds I received was a £2,000 loan from Virgin Startup Loans.

“That paid for a new laptop and a website when I was first setting up, but as it was only enough to afford a budget website, I ended up building that myself. I had no experience with web design so had to learn as I went along, which was an interesting experience.”

When he received his first few clients, Greg managed to save up sufficient funds to move into a flat with his girlfriend, his dining room table was literally his office. Nothing more, and it was a challenge - but building his foundations from nothing paid off.

He admits that getting clients to trust him was one of the hardest parts: “I think most agency founders usually have a few years of experience and a portfolio to show prospective clients, but I didn’t have that as I was fresh out of university.”

But after much persuasion from Greg and a whole lot of relationship building, investors were beginning to take notice: “I had to get quite creative to show prospects what I could do for them, and invested a lot of time in creating content examples.

“It was quite full-on in the beginning but it hasn’t calmed down since. Every day would involve client work, meeting potential customers, creating proposals, bookkeeping, looking for potential employees…”

Now, bumbl is a team of four but Greg still admits to ‘wearing several hats’, guises, and working overtime because, well, no two days are ever the same in the industry.

But the business has been actively growing since day one, making a small profit little by little because, remember, there was no outside investment whatsoever - unless you count Virgin’s significant funding at the very start.

Evidently, Greg now flies the flag for young people across the North East when it comes to starting a business from zilch.

It is possible: “I was a graduate with no money - literally, I was probably in my overdraft - when I set up, so growth has been completely organic.”

So what’s on 2018’s agenda? The company has just secured a deal with a multi-million pound business and they’re always looking to expand the team, it seems.

Overtime, bumbl became RAR recommended in December 2017 after being spoken about by digital marketing clients, meaning three or more of its clients gave “sterling reviews”. And moreover, revenues and profits have doubled each year since Greg set up the business.

For a graduate fresh out of university with “little experience”, Greg has made quite a name for himself, right? If you want to get in touch, find him over at www.wearebumbl.co.uk or on Twitter @WeAreBumbl.

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