QubeLondon

"Croydon Enterprise came to our aid at a critical time ? the bottom had literally dropped out of the market and we'd lost nearly £100,000 worth of planned work in just three months," recalls Davina Sellick, Client Service Director of QubeLondon.

Set up in 1999, QubeLondon is a multimedia and full service marketing agency formed originally as a partnership of 10 highly successful advertising executives, who dreamed of setting up their own agency.
 
From its base in Crystal Palace, the company specialises in developing TV ads, animations, direct mailing campaigns and websites.
 
But back in October 2007, Davina remembers how they first spotted the signs of an impending economic downturn.

"Business had become really tough, we'd had some major clients put projects on hold and the signs for the future were of worse to come."
 
Around that time, QubeLondon received an email invitation from Croydon Enterprise partner Business to Business Ltd offering one-to-one business support.
 
"It seemed like a great opportunity ? the advice was free and being one-to-one would be tailored to suit our needs," explains Davina.

For the following nine months, one of Croydon Enterprise's business consultants, Steve Mullins, regularly visited Davina, and Creative Director Simon Bosworth; developing a thorough knowledge of the business, its current position and its future potential.
 
"The whole experience was very useful," says Davina, "because it gave us the time and space to reflect on the business, develop our aspirations and, with Steve's help, come up with ways of achieving them.

"He would keep detailed notes of each session which he'd then send onto us. These helped us identify issues and formulate action plans."
 
Davina says that Steve encouraged them to look at methods of increasing their business that they had never otherwise considered.
 
"Historically we had never advertised our services, our business was based on recommendation and word of mouth. But Steve encouraged us to think outside of our comfort zone. Just having that additional perspective was really useful, particularly for a small company."
 
Davina says they embarked on a proactive campaign of drumming up new business, including 'retouching' - getting in touch with past clients and offering their services. At the same time they also revamped their website.
 
Simon says: "Deciding to make structural changes to an organisation is always difficult, and in the short term can lead to a decline in new business coming through the door.  But once the initial pain is over, the long-term benefits are clear to see, and we have already seen a turnaround in our fortunes. So even though change can often be difficult to manage in a business, with the right support in place, it really can make the difference that is needed."
 
Davina adds: "Now we're busier than we've been in a long time. The jobs we've got on are not necessarily big earners and we find that we're having to pitch for work a lot more than we used to - rather than clients coming to us saying 'this is our budget, do the work for us'. But we're still here and very grateful for every contract we have."

She adds: "Essentially, Croydon Enterprise, through Business 2 Business Ltd, gave us the support we needed at a critical time and helped us emerge stronger and more focused on our goals and how to reach them."

• Call the Croydon Enterprise business hotline 020 8680 6161 to book one-to-one business support.