On this week’s episode of ScaleUp Radio, Kevin Brent speaks to Charlotte Holmes, who is the MD of Citizen Communications, who are a multi service creative agency.

Many of the people that we speak to on ScaleUp Radio are the people who founded the company, and were there at the start; watching the business build from the ground up, and hold it’s metaphorical hand during it’s scale up journey.

That isn’t the case with Citizen Communication. The business was started by 3 university lecturers in Video who wanted to, basically, put their money where their mouth is.

Charlotte joined as an apprentice in 2003 and has since worked her way right up through the business, becoming MD just last year. It really is a fascinating story.

It’s also good to hear just how much Charlotte has learned during her time at Citizen, and we cover a lot of those challenges and lessons in our conversation.

Amongst many other things, we cover:

 - The pitfalls of pitching for work. Charlotte also included some great advice for anyone, not just a creative agency like Citizen, who might find themselves having to go through the pitching or tendering process

 - Why there’s nothing wrong in being controlling as a business; wanting to have control over every aspect of a clients marketing needs, rather than working with any third party providers.

 - The process of taking on someone who knows an area of your industry that you know nothing about. How do you hire them and, more importantly, how do you manage them?   

This is a really lovely conversation, and you can hear Charlotte’s passion for both the company and the industry as a whole, coming through.

Charlotte can be found here:

[email protected]

https://citcom.co.uk

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Scaling up your business isn't easy, and can be a little daunting. Let ScaleUp Radio make it a little easier for you. With guests who have been where you are now, and can offer their thoughts and advice on several aspects of business. ScaleUp Radio is the business podcast you've been waiting for.

You can get in touch with Kevin here:

[email protected]