Kyle Holmes of Black Nova Designs is looking forward to a busy 2024!

We’re halfway through January and the temperature has dropped dramatically. This month we’re talking to small business owners about their plans for the month and the year.

Today we’re talking to Kyle Holmes who is the original owner and director of Black Nova Designs and Black Nova Technologies. Both companies focus on helping businesses and individuals with their technology and issues surrounding this.

What big things are you looking forward to in 2024?
I’ve got some big plans for our event stand this year - I want to mix it up and make it even better than before! We put a lot of effort into the events we go to and are rewarded with lots of leads and business. So, I’m looking forward to upscaling that and showing off the tech solutions that we can offer in an appealing way.

We also have new staff in January starting and I know all the staff are excited to get to know him and show him the ropes! Growth is exciting and we’re always pleased to offer a new skill set for our customers.

This year is a Leap Year. Does that mean anything to you?
The leap year doesn’t mean anything to us really - I can imagine being a leap year baby is a pretty big deal though! This year does mark nine years in business for us and– next year will be 10 and that’s huge! We ought to start planning a big celebration, so ideas on a postcard please!

Can you share your business ethics for 2024? How do you want your brand to come across?
Our values are everything, and they form the foundation to all our actions at Black Nova Designs. Lots of tech businesses are pretty faceless, but we’ve always shared our backstory with our audience and made sure people know how and why we’re different from our competition.

We combine integrity and transparency towards our customers and with our services. For our staff, we prioritise teamwork, respect and putting family first. Most of our staff have kids and we want them to know they are supported when they need to prioritise children. We work together to make sure our customers get amazing service no matter what and have created an environment where people can speak up and share ideas. Those are our values in 2024, in the past and into the future.

What are you planning to do differently, or better, in 2024?
We’re growing the business, so we know that internal communication needs to be a focus as we go into 2024. It’s something all businesses need to work on as they evolve, and so we’ll be making sure everyone knows what's going on with each project and that internal processes are always being implemented.

Personally, my aim is to network more. I suffer from anxiety and Danielle has always been the ‘people person’ of the company but I am starting to really enjoy going out more. That’s why I will continue to push myself to go out networking on my own more often - it’s rewarding when I do!

What are you doing for charity or community this year
We will be going back to doing the Build a PC days each month which help people develop tech skills and raise money for Wiltshire Mind. I’ll be releasing the dates and times soon, so keep an eye out if you’re interested. All our marquee and outdoor events will have a racing simulator rather than the VR headset in 2024, and having a go on it will require a charity donation to Wiltshire Mind as well.

This year will be a big year of sport – most notably the Olympics and Paralympics? If you enjoy these events, can you name those moments you watched/experienced which have stayed with you? Why?
I’m not hugely into sport - I’m a tech nerd and love gaming and immersing myself in new tech! I also love my car and occasionally head to the rifle range for target practice, so perhaps I’ll keep half an eye on the shooting disciplines in Paris. However, my wife and business partner Danielle is sportier than me and I know she’ll be watching all the equine disciplines!

There are multiple ‘awareness’ days & weeks & months in January 2024. Could you pick just one and say why you’ll be engaging with it?

January 28 – Data Privacy Day

This is such an important and all-encompassing issue; I don’t really know where to start! I suppose if I could only send one message to people on Data Privacy Day it would be to take it more seriously.

People just still seem to think it will never happen to them, or they have nothing of value and it's nothing to worry about. This couldn’t be further from the truth! If you ask the Cyber Crime police department if you need to take the action, then here’s what they will say -  it's not IF it’s WHEN and anything you can do to prevent data being hacked is important.  Even G Suite, services owned by one of the biggest tech firms in the world, had an issue not long ago where they lost peoples data, and that’s a huge issue. Please keep your data safe, backed up and if you are worried about it contact an expert - like me!

Any special offers for January or February 2024 you’d like to mention?
We’re offering free migration of your old website to our server when you move your website hosting to us in January 2024. Our amazing tech team can do this with no downtime and our hosting is fast, secure and with UK-based support.

Anything else you’d like to say?
Happy New Year to everyone in our business network! We can't wait to learn more about what other small businesses are doing and how we can continue to help current and new clients in 2024.

Find out more about Kyle and the team at www.blacknovadesigns.co.uk