Top web design agency thrives in our Milton Keynes Business Centre
After working in a number of agencies himself, Joe Gilbert decided he could do better than what was out there. So he founded Red Giraffe. Ten years down the line, and the proof is in the numbers, Red Giraffe has more 5-star reviews on Google than any other web design agency in the UK. He shared with us his journey and what led him to recently branching out and authoring his own book.
Creating a business different from the competition
To gain a competitive advantage, your business has to stand out, and offer something which isn’t already out there. This is where Joe saw an opportunity for Red Giraffe to differentiate and offer a more holistic approach to website design:
“What makes us different, I suppose, is a few things. Firstly, the expansive skills we’ve got on the team make our offering really strong. We don’t just say, ‘Oh, what do you want on your website?’ we say, ‘We’ll do the strategy for your website; we’ll write the content; we’ll come and do the photography; we’ll film video for it; we’ll create animations; create hand drawn illustrations.’ So the skills we have on the team, that can really bring a website to life, are what other agencies don’t necessarily have.
“We also offer a lot of strategy work behind the websites we create so that they don’t just sit there and look nice. We look at how do you actually get people onto the website? How do we get them to buy from you? How do we get these visitors and traffic that Google Analytics tells you about and actually turn that into someone who’s picking up the phone and calling you?
“Our vision is to become one of the UK’s top ten agencies within the next ten years. So, over the next couple of years, that means really saying, what are the top agencies doing that we’re not currently? We want to get our agency to be matching that, because on a skill and service level, we already are. And then once we’re up there, it’s about just getting our brand known, working with bigger clients, more established clients, and, yeah, just keeping up the good work that we’re doing.”
Sharing knowledge
As an entrepreneur who has learnt plenty of lessons along the way, Joe decided to share the knowledge he has gathered so far on his journey as an entrepreneur in his book: Base Camp to Boardroom, which relates building a business to climbing a mountain. Joe explained why he chose this topic area and how he hopes his book will connect with other entrepreneurs:
“One of my favourite things to do is go mountaineering and I’ve climbed mountains all around the world, you know, from the Himalayas to the Atlas Mountains. And there are so many crossovers between business and mountaineering that you’d never really think about, like leadership, decision making, thinking correctly under pressure mindset. Up in these places, it’s literally life-or-death decisions you’re making and you know, if you get it wrong, you and your whole team could die. Also, when planning a strategy, a lot of it is all about your mindset because you’re pushing yourself well outside of your comfort zone.
“When you are, you know, when you’re struggling with altitude sickness, which kind of feels like the hangover from hell, and then you’re trying to climb a mountain whilst battling with that, and you haven’t slept and you haven’t eaten, it takes a lot of power from your mindset to push yourself through that discomfort to get to the summit.
“I think there’s just so many parallels with running a business and me and my business coach – I’ve had a business coach about five years – we’re always saying, ‘Oh, you know, it’s like in the mountains.’ So I thought; I’m just going to write a book on this. You see a lot of business books written by sports coaches or ex-military people, but I’d never seen one from a mountaineer’s perspective.”
Customisable office space for a creative business
After working in another business park and visiting a client at Capital Space, Joe loved the feel of our workspace so much he decided this is where he wanted his team to be working from. He said that the ability to personalise the space was among the key reasons he was attracted to our centre: “I really love how much they let us personalise the space. We’ve put in hanging planters. And they let us install low-level lighting, in case the team get headaches, we can have the mood lighting on. We painted the walls our brand colours and we’ve even put a boardroom in, which is probably the biggest thing. We love it and we use it all the time. We’ve been able to put our wall graphics up also.
“And aside from the office, we love the whole centre: the reception team are lovely and the whole space just feels bright and airy. When you walk around it feels full of life. In comparison to the last space were at – which felt like a bit of a ghost town, with half the offices empty, and it was dark and smelled bad – this place has a really lovely energy. Like Matt, the centre manager, I’m into sustainability so I love the wildflowers they planted around the space, and the solar panels on the roof.”
As a successful agency, which has been running for 10 years, Red Giraffe has witnessed many of its competitors go under. So we are delighted they are continuing on their successful journey from their new space in our Milton Keynes Business Centre.
