Jan 12Forget the pizza and ping pong — here’s what staff really wantThere are two answers — far ahead of others, practically in a league of their own — to the question of what employees want. And employers don’t always want to hear them. That statement comes not just from recent research but from learnings from over a decade running a small…Smb3 min readSmb3 min read
Dec 5, 2021What’s happened since we revealed our salary bands“Are you nuts?” That was just one thing I heard in the summer after publishing the salary bands for different roles at our agency. Maybe that comment was a little extreme. But I heard versions of that response from other people who would never follow our lead. …Salary3 min readSalary3 min read
Jul 14, 2021What we pay at Collective ContentI’m very happy. Not just because it’s the morning of the final of Euro 2020. (Disclosure: I’m less happy now.) Or because it’s my birthday. (Hello bad guys! I’m turning 30, by the way.) I’m happy because we’re making more new hires. We have a writer starting in three days…Recruitment3 min readRecruitment3 min read
Jan 14, 2021Run in the rain: Think this way about your businessThis post isn’t about being so hardcore you’ll do things no one else will do. (We see you, winter sea swimmers.) But this is definitely about being different. Maybe not unique — who’s really unique in our world, agencyland? — but doing things your way. I’m a regular runner. Nothing…Interviewing2 min readInterviewing2 min read
Published inThe Startup·Dec 6, 2019Member-onlyPolitics and (my) business — best kept apart?I’ve got a big confession about what I do as me over social media. This is as opposed to what my agency Collective Content does for clients, or what we put out on our agency channels. I (just about) run the Collective Content social media accounts. I realise it’s not…Brexit3 min readBrexit3 min read
Jul 22, 2019Member-only9 sales observations learnt the hard way — by a ‘non-sales’ guyMy official sales experience is limited. Very limited. When I was much younger, I pounded the tabs of a Goldmine database, then called up facilities management contacts at large companies. …Agency5 min readAgency5 min read
Published inThe Startup·May 27, 2019Member-onlyWhen your best employees leave — be happyWhy would any manager be happy when their best people walk out the door? Over more than a decade as an editor and then as an agency owner I’ve had that sinking feeling on a couple of dozen occasions — it wasn’t just someone good leaving but someone great, someone…Management3 min readManagement3 min read
Published inThe Startup·May 6, 2019Member-onlyHow this editor weighs up freelance enquiriesWhat happens when we get approached by a freelance writer? First, the set-up: I usually get an email direct to me (because we post my address on our website and say we’re open to enquiries), and that usually contains a brief note and CV/resumé. …Freelancing3 min readFreelancing3 min read
Sep 23, 2018Not a remote chance of hiring interns?Virtual working? I’m a big fan — so much so that we based our whole agency on such a set-up. But there’s a problem no one is talking about: Hiring junior staff, apprentices and interns. Like companies we admire, including WordPress owner Automattic or Basecamp, we dropped a need for…Internships2 min readInternships2 min read
Mar 1, 2016“Referee!” — Sport’s IoT revolutionThere’s a revolution we might just miss. Any discussions you might have heard about technology and sport are likely to have focused on teams’ and players’ ability to their improve their performances and, secondary to that, how fans benefit from being ‘in amongst’ the action. Rarely do they mention refereeing…Sports4 min readSports4 min read
