My Back To Business Strategy

By Emma Tuck, owner of Bulldog Websites. Along with her husband Jamie and father Colin, they design, build, host and manage custom websites for any business type and individual you care to imagine, incredibly affordably. As a family business they have a great relationship, and love the special relationship between local businesses too. You may recognise Jamie from the popular weekly networking event #WiltsHour on Twitter, each Monday night between 8pm and 9pm.

Summarise how Covid-19 has affected your organisation? 

With a varied customer base across many industries, this huge change to everyone’s way of working has thrown several different scenarios at us.

Firstly, sadly, there have been clients who have been unable to pay for services due to restricted income or, in the worst cases, having to close their businesses. 

We have the luxury of having close relationships with all of our clients and have felt it important, now more than ever, to treat each client personally and empathetically to solve a situation that’s alien to all of us.

On the other hand many people have been forced to move their businesses online, which has driven a surge in new clients and new websites flying out of the door.

A lot of our existing clients have also used the lull in their workload as an opportunity to review their website and work with us to make changes, refresh things ready for reopening, add e-commerce options to keep their businesses running, or even create an entirely new business. 

What has been your plan to continue?  

We continue to offer website services tailored to each client’s needs and budget, which is particularly valuable at present, when people have limited resources and need to be seen in a now-virtual world. 

We were also keen to keep running our Wiltshire-based social networking hour #WiltsHour; despite initially fearing there wouldn’t be much to promote or talk about, we’ve seen our busiest weeks ever during lockdown and have had such great feedback that we will keep going and have new plans in the pipeline.

How have things changed over the last few months?  

In simple terms we’ve just had to become more accommodating of both customers and suppliers, things are taking longer on both sides and we’re accepting that we have to put more wiggle room into our project schedule, whilst also managing the increase in demand for our services.

We've also supported a local initiative for teenagers in Swindon and the Cotswolds called The Cotswolds Challenge, giving young people who have missed out on GCSEs, A Levels or equivalents the opportunity to enter a competition, feel valued and perhaps win a cash prize. We sponsored the website and there were over 400 entries, which we are thrilled about.  

As lockdown eases what measures have you put in place to get back to business? 

We are extremely fortunate that we’ve been able to work from home without interruption (aside from kids needing the batteries changing in the games console remote or losing the Monopoly dice under the sofa, again!).

We will continue to favour video calls over face-to-face meetings for everyone’s safety and convenience, but I think this is likely to become the norm for businesses in many sectors.

Our focus is perhaps not on us getting back to business but how we can help others get back in the swing. Many have started new ventures during lockdown and how their brand and website will work when the ‘real world’ is back might need investigating, for example. 

We will be increasing our hours to help as many people as possible. 

What has been the most challenging aspect of all of this? 

The hardest part of lockdown for us has been that precarious balancing act between being business owners and parents - I’m sure many are in the same sinking ship boat!

Whatever version of homeschooling we’ve done, it’s been a fascinating experience (read into that what you will!) and it’s been comforting to speak to clients in the same position - that mutual understanding that the toddler, or indeed teenager, may blow up at any point during your meeting! 

What has been the most positive aspect? 

From a business perspective, welcoming new clients on board is obviously great. Being able to quickly turn around a website to allow a local shop to get back to selling when they weren’t able to open their doors is what we’re here for - solving problems to help ease at least that small amount of stress for them.

But aside from that it’s the sense of camaraderie between organisations, both local and further afield, that has been overwhelming. 

Some have also set up initiatives for good without any aim of self preservation, like ‘The Cotswold Challenge’ which has been a hugely successful way of keeping out-of-schoolers occupied, or the ‘School of Bean’ which voluntarily ran online activities to keep primary-age children (and their grown-ups) entertained and uplifted when everything was a bit grey, and is now continuing to support the wellbeing of families and organisations via ‘Back to Bean’.

Has it made you consider how you feel about other businesses/suppliers/customers/clients for good or otherwise? 

A lot of businesses have shown their true colours through this hardship. I may be biased but smaller firms have really shone through. I think the biggest appeal for us has been those who are communicative and truthful. 

How important is this phrase to you – ‘buy local, supply local’? 

We’ve always been great believers in this statement; it’s this that has been the biggest selling point for us right from our beginnings six years ago. We always make the effort to promote fellow small business owners locally and know that many do the same for us. It helps keep our towns and villages alive, and gives you that warm fuzzy feeling to boot! 

#WiltsHour is the epitome of this; through our weekly ‘meetings’ we’ve seen the real value of this phrase and how so many businesses and people personally are benefitting from buying and selling locally at this time. And I think it will continue far beyond Covid-19.

What are your top tips at this time?  

1. Find out what help is available to your business, financially or otherwise. It may not be obvious at first but doing some research might really pay off.

2. Talk. Everyone is struggling with one aspect of Covid-19 or another. Small/micro businesses and sole traders have particularly felt the isolation during, well, isolation. Keeping in touch with customers, suppliers, staff, peers is really important, and will continue to be as we come out the other side.

3. Keep an eye out for the rainbows. As we wade through the puddles left by the storm small sparks of opportunity may appear - they might look different to the silver linings of old, but they’ll be interesting and unique, and might even lead you to that pot of gold (how gloriously cliched!)

Your parting thought? 

Promote yourself locally, form bonds with other local business owners, recommend each other respectfully (don’t refer business you wouldn’t want to have for yourself), and embrace the inevitable changes as best you can.

Find out more about Bulldog websites by visiting, bulldogwebsites.co.uk