It is quite an exciting month for Geek as we have reached a wonderful anniversary for the company, ten years. In comparison, this may not appear as a long time, but the beauty of our ten years is that Geek began during a time when digital marketing was starting to flourish; for example, Geek would have never considered adding videos to their marketing, but now, videos are dominating our website. A lot has changed within ten years, and the company has managed to keep up with the constant change and a pandemic, so it made sense to get an insight into the directors’ minds and listen to them ponder the evolution of Geek.
CLEO: Okay, first question, and an obvious one, but how did you start Geek?
IAN: Alex and myself started speaking about it in 2013; he was already building a few websites for friends and family. I asked Alex if he could actually build websites, and he was like, ‘yeah, I’ve been to college.’ What he learnt in college has nothing to do with today’s web industry.
C: Yes, it is a hard thing to be educated on constantly.
I: Yes. And obviously, well, not obviously, but I also had some sales experience and marketing background, so I sat down, did some research on the competition, and noticed customer service was the biggest thing lacking in our industry, moving the focus back to people and communication was key. So, that is what we built our business around, communication.
C: Communication is an entirely separate skill.
I: Yes, and it is key, you know, we started picking up yellow pages because you could do that back then.
C: I originally read on Geek’s website Geek started in the pub.
I: Yes, it was thought about during those moments, but we started just after my 30th birthday, looked for very small start-up businesses and took it from there.
C: This is quite interesting, considering we are no longer doing small websites.
I: I think the way our sector has changed now, you can facilitate anyone, so it can be an independent with a big idea because online you don’t need a big production.
C: As long as you look big online, the production behind doesn’t have to be.
I: Exactly; it isn’t about size anymore but about their vision and ambition.
C: What were the main struggles when starting?
I: Money, money, money.
C: Solely money?
I: Yes, entirely; Alex had a PC worth £500 and was using that to build websites on.
C: That goes back to how you spoke about having a large production, and versa, appearing as if you do.
I: Yeah, money was the main struggle. For the first few months, we didn’t pay ourselves.
C: To lean onto this, when did you begin to feel like a business?
I: Never, because there is always a strive to improve. You could call it self-doubt, but there is always the hustle onto the next thing.
C: I suppose whenever you achieve something, you’re thinking: “well, if we can do this, what’s next?”
I: People from the outside will look in and go; you’ve done well. Yeah. But from the inside, we look and go; there’s so much more. We don’t feel we’ve scratched the surface yet.
ALEX: It was for the longest time to be fair; I was like, “mate are we faking this?” I’d definitely say within the last three years we have felt like a business.
C: Why within the last three years?
I: For me, it was COVID. I think the change the mindset was COVID. When everything was falling to shit, we weren’t. We had everything in place, and we were able to continue. Yeah, COVID was the key to the growth of the business because now we’ve got to have a proper infrastructure in place.
C: What is it like being in business as friends?
A: Its is good 99% of the time. We have had our issues, well, I don’t mean issues, but we’re so passionate about it. We used to fall out all the time with our Geek stuff, and you know, what to put on the website. But now, we know what we have, so we are fine.
I: You find your roles. You just fine your roles.
C: You two balance each other well; one of the first noticeable things when starting here is how you guys complement each other.
I: I wouldn’t even say we had disagreements; trying to see each other’s point of view has never been a strain because we have always understood each other. We have known our roles from day one.
A: We know everything about each other. I know what he has on, and he knows what I have got on; even financially, we know each other.
I: Money has never been an issue.
C: So, for you two, it has been a benefit?
I: Yeah, one needs the other.
C: Looking back, what advice would you give yourself?
I: Hire a member of staff sooner and a developer.
A: Yeah, and when we are looking to hire a member of staff, we are like, ‘yeah, you know your stuff, but will you fit in with the team?’
C: You hire off personality, don’t you?
I: Yeah, I don’t care for skillset. If you are applying for the job, you will have a skillset; I look at the person, the character and go, ‘are you able to actually do it?’ are they actually going to be able to work with us?
C: So, how do you do that? Based on CV, how can you determine character?
I: Look at the CV, look at the effort and find the character in the way it has been written, and see if I am able to utilise that character that would best suit Geek. Take you as an example, you came to us for the apprentice role, but I was like, ‘no, you’re better than that, and we will teach everything you need to learn within a year.’ Your degree told me you could read and write, but I am going to tell you how to write, well, not tell you how to write but show you the way you have to write for this role. So, yeah, I look at the character of the person, and I talk to them, ask them about themselves, and people will give you the information you need to make a decision.
C: That makes sense because I left the interview you thinking, ‘they didn’t ask me anything related to the job.’
I: Interviews are bullshit. It is just character; I just want to see what your character is.
C: And what advice would you give to anyone starting a business?
I: Get a job.
A: Yeah, you can’t start a business after finishing school. Get experience.
I: Yeah, get a job.
C: What and learn from that?
I: Yeah, because am I a Content Writer? Am I a developer? Is Alex a designer? A Developer?
Because you need to be more than that to be a business owner, you can’t be good at what you are selling; you can understand it and know how to do it.
A: It is knowledge and experience, really.
I: To run a business is to know how to manage people and know how to manage them individually.
C: It is people skills, really.
I: Exactly that; if you can get the right people, who will run through a brick wall and be in the trenches with you, you’ll be fine. You employ experts.
There you have it, a brief insight into two friends who have managed to maintain and grow a business for ten years as well as maintain and grow their friendship. I hope that through this interview, you are able to have a view into what it is like to work for Alex and Ian, their focus on character is what I believe is the core of the business, and through their keen eye, they have managed to build a digital marketing agency that isn’t reinventing the wheel, but the geek wheel does spin smoothly.