Total Guide to Celebrates Third Birthday - Total Timeline

In 2011, we began our online adventure! Three years and five sites later, Total Guide to has established itself as the place to go for breaking news stories, local events, exclusive competitions, and engaging, topical features. So as we mark our 3rd Birthday, we’d like to say thank you ? to you, for being a part of our journey and helping to make the site the success that it is today. As part of our 3rd Birthday celebrations, we’re taking a look at some of our company milestones and personal highlights - we hope you enjoy reading about them as much as we did living them!

01/11/11

On 1st November 2011 Liz Ledger decided to make her ideas and ambitions a reality.  The plan to bring a local online information hub to towns and cities across the UK was hatched…and Total Guide to Swindon was born.

16/12/11

With financial backing in place, Friday 16th December 2011 marked the day that Total Guide to became a registered company. With a strong concept behind her, Liz joined forces with local design agency, H2 Creative and started developing the website’s unique branding and interface.

09/03/2012

After months of hard work, the website was ready to go live. The site launched on Friday 9th March 2012. Many of the core team who were behind the launch, are still with us today.  

19/04/12

On Thursday 22nd April we celebrated the official launch of Total Guide to Swindon! To mark the occasion, we threw a massive party at The Old Bank in Old Town. The invite-only affair gave us an opportunity to thank the many individuals and businesses who have helped and supported us.

09/03/13

By the time our first Birthday rolled around – we already had a lot to celebrate. Exactly a year to the day after Total Guide to Swindon launched, we decided to expand our family and launch a second Total Guide to site, this time in the beautiful Georgian city of Bath.

24/03/2013

And boy did we arrive with a BANG! With a second site under our belt it was time to up the ante and make sure everything knew exactly who we were! Our marketing campaigns went into overdrive and we took over billboards at Bath and Swindon Railway Stations. 

18/07/13

After all of our hard work it was time let our hair down! The gang were out in full force on Thursday 18th July for some belated birthday celebrations at Baker Street, Swindon. A host of familiar faces including clients, friends and family joined us at Baker Street for a bite to eat and a couple of al fresco drinks in the sunshine. 

20/09/13

Less than six Months after the launch of Total Guide to Bath, Bristol became the next city to receive the Total treatment! The team wasted no time getting stuck in and welcomed the challenges that came with establishing in such a big city.

11/11/13

Having seen how well apprenticeship schemes had worked for our clients, we were keen to recruit one of our own and set about employing a Business and Administration apprentice from New College Swindon’s Fast Forward programme. Since first starting with us, Laura Mead has gone on to complete her qualification and is now one of our Marketing Juniors.

01/01/14

With the New Year came a new home for Team Total. Following the launch of the additional sites we needed a brand new HQ to house our ever expanding team. We wasted no time settling in and made Kingsdown Orchard our own! 

20/01/14

Due to popular demand, we added two exciting new sections to the site in January 2014. Sponsored by the CarShop and NSBRC, Property and Motoring became two of the sites most talked about new additions.

11/02/14

From February 2014 we began to offer our customers an all-encompassing digital experience, with the aid of our social media and SEO training sessions. Aimed at local businesses, the sessions utilised social platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, and explained how they can be used in the workplace.

28/03/14

It was all hands on deck in March as the team prepared for the launch of Total Guide to Manchester. After rolling out in towns and cities across the South West, we decided to take the plunge and give our Northern cousins a taste of what they were missing. 

04/04/14

During a glamorous awards bash back in April 2014, Total Guide to Director, Liz Ledger was crowned Wiltshire Business Person of the Year! Organised by Newsquest, the Wiltshire Business Awards aimed to showcase and celebrate some of the most successful businesses from across the county, so it was a huge honour to be nominated, let alone win!

02/06/14

Leading on from the success of our first apprentice, June saw the appointment of our second Business and Administration apprentice, James Goodenough.

04/07/14

Come July it was party time again! We transformed our court yard into the ultimate al fresco hideaway for our first Summer Party at Total HQ. There were games, entertainment and plenty of nibbles plus if that wasn't enough excitement for one evening, James Phipps officially became a Shareholder in Total Guide to Ltd.

12/09/14

Hot on the heels of our success at the Wiltshire Business Awards, Total Guide to Bath scooped the award for Best Business Website at The Bath Chronicle Business Awards 2014.

09/11/14

In October the final Total Guide to site of 2014 went live. Reading was seen as the next step in our takeover of the M4 Corridor. 

09/03/14

As part of our third Birthday celebrations, Total News and joined our ever-growing family. The latest website covers breaking news from Swindon as well as features and opinion articles. The Total News section will be rolled out across all of our other locations over the following months.  Total Sport will follow the launch of News in April and we’re delighted to welcome former Swindon Advertiser journalists Sam Morsehead, Craig Lyus and Andy Warren to the team.

01/04/15

From April, all of our Social Media Workshops will be held in association with Business West and take place in Swindon, Bristol and Bath. 

If you'd like to be a part of the next step of our journey, contact [email protected] to find out how your business can benefit from our continued growth and development.