We sat down with our latest Business of the Month, Michael James Web Design to find out a little bit more about the business…

What does your business do / offer?

I am a small business offering Website Design, Digital Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation services.

What made you set up on your own?

My previous employment was as a Sales Manager with BMW.

I found I was burning out doing 70 hours a week and knew if I put that same work-rate into my own business I had a good chance of making it work. Needless to say I’m not doing as many hours now!

What have you found the biggest challenge to date?

For me it has been getting used to working on my own. From being part of a large organisation to all of a sudden managing your own time, your own budgets and your own workload is very different to a more structured environment.

The upside is the flexibility, I get to meet clients in coffee shops and I’ve built some great relationships with these outlets.

What do you find most rewarding about your business?

It’s simple, I get a real buzz from solving problems.

Whether it’s a start up business that needs a new website building or an existing company that wants more traffic to their business I can find a solution.

Most of my days are spent designing, writing code and testing so when it comes to launch day for a client’s website it’s great to see the reaction from both them and their customers.

The feedback from clients is also a great part of my business, I’ve built up a Five Star rating through Google and Facebook reviews.

It’s all about that personal relationship that I like to build with my clients.

What makes North Tyneside a good place to run a business?

The support and the people.

The level of support from The Business Factory in North Shields and The North Tyneside Business Forum has been incredible. From the very start I was assigned a mentor who has pushed me out of my comfort zone to really get results.

What one piece of advice would you offer to somebody looking to set out in business?

Do your target audience research and make sure you know your market.

I thought about setting up my business for 12 months before I took the plunge, my only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner!

For more information about Michael James Web Design, visit www.itsmichaeljames.co.uk.

Want to nominate yourself or others for North Tyneside Business of the Month?  Here’s how… 

In no more than 280 characters, let us know about the North Tyneside business you would like to nominate as North Tyneside Business of the Month using the hashtag #NTCBiz.  Examples of great reasons a business could win are increased turnover, new employee/s, winning a new contract, taking on new premises, community support, running a successful event or delivering excellent customer service.

The winner will receive a 3 hour Marketing Strategy session, their story added to the Business Factory website to raise their profile and encourage others, a pinned Facebook post on Business Factory Facebook page, tweets about the business by Business Factory Twitter account as well as our other social media platforms.

Nominations can be tweeted to The Business Factory using the #NTCBiz, posted on its Facebook page or emailed to info@businessfactorynt.co.uk

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