Quarterly Overview by Tom Booth

Well, it’s certainly been a busy summer at Forever House.

I’m writing this now at 10pm on a Thursday, to remind myself why hard work is all worth it at the end of the day.

I have often described the Forever journey as a roller coaster of ups, downs and loops, but it certainly feels like we are riding up the Pepsi Max in Blackpool…. Hence why I am pleased to announce we’re on the search for our new HQ in the Northern Quarter, Manchester.

In the last 3 months, we’ve grown at a phenomenal rate and I’m massively proud of the staff, managing most importantly, our current clients and a host of new clients wins too. We have pushed the boundaries launching our first Magento 2 website, hired 2 new recruits in this period and we are now a fully functioning agency of 14 people. Makes me smile to know that the loyalty, dedication and talent of the Forever Team and the addition of key mentors such as Adele and an undisclosed ex-brand agency owner have helped guide the business into a fantastic position leading into the 3rd Quarter of 2017.

With a range of projects from Brand Identities all the way through to SEO & PPC wins, each department is growing at a similar level, which looks to certainly be stabilising the growth in a sufficient way for the business.

With all the ups, there are downs too and I’ve promised to always be honest with all stakeholders of Forever Digital.

It’s sad to say goodbye to Social Media Account Executive, Simon Cooke who is moving on to new challenges. Simon has been at Forever for 1.5 years, originally as an internship, then onto full-time employment. Myself and the rest of the team wish him the best of luck with his career and I know we will all keep in touch.

It’s also extremely sad at the likelihood of saying goodbye to Forever House. We’ve done things differently at Forever from day 1, and our very own building certainly is a good example. Having our own presence on Stevenson Square in Manchester’s Northern Quarter has brought us clients simply by itself and the odd burglary too! But, for a 2-year-old agency at the time, we were extremely lucky to acquire such a unique position with the property. I never dreamed we could be looking to move so fast, it doesn’t seem long ago when me and a few good friends were sanding the floors, followed by a few beers in the evenings throughout the summer of 2015. With so much more that needs spending on the building, we have to spend that money on new premises that will future proof our goal for further expansion.

With all this talk of ambition to grow, I think it’s important to outline that our current clients always come first, we’ve actually had some amazing enquiries over the past quarter with huge brands and turning down opportunities to tender for accounts that we feel would affect our workflow is always a difficult position, but loyalty and trust is key to our continued growth.

Finally, I would like to give a warm welcome to Carl, who joins the development team. It’s always a tough search to find talented developers and we’re excited to add additional capacity to our open-source projects. Also double-delight with the addition of Digital Content Manager James Travis who joins with a very strong background.

And what should we expect for the next quarter? It’s certainly going to be exciting, the run up to Christmas campaigns are always highly anticipated, I’m certainly looking forward to our search for a Digital Account Manager and announcing a string of client successes.

All the best,

Tom