Not only are we approaching the end of a year, but the end of a decade too. We’ve come on leaps and bounds this year in the way of exciting new clients, refining and improving the way we work, and growing our in-house team.
We’ve taken on new hires
During the year we’ve taken on two new hires – Fernando, our second in-house web developer, and Nick, our in-house digital marketing specialist. That brings us up to a cosy team of five. 
and promoted our team
In addition to our new hires, thanks to a goal-driven personal development plan, our new starter from last year was officially promoted recently into a more senior client services management role. We also continue to build on our strong contractor and freelancer relationships – we have now worked with most of our contractors for over 2 years.
We’re working with exciting new clients
Over the year we’ve taken on several new clients, ranging from the membership body for the North West digital sector Manchester Digital, to the family-run franchise business Heights Farm Pet Foods. These have been a mix of standalone website projects, new users of our intelligent document portal Foleo, and new retained clients who we look forward to working with on an ongoing basis.
and still working with our old favourites
While it’s always nice to meet fresh faces, we wouldn’t be where we are today without our lovely long term clients, from national property consultancy Vail Williams to pet-friendly travel website All Four Paws, and more. We are extremely proud of our client retention rate and continue to enjoy supporting businesses on an ongoing basis, coming up with new ideas, reviewing where we’re at, and looking ahead, to help them drive their businesses forward using the web.
We’ve improved how we work
Not content with sitting still, at Huddle one of our core values is to continuously improve in what we do, and we have embodied that this year more than ever. There’s something about hiring new team members that forces you to scrutinise your processes and identify improvements! We have implemented an innovative credit system for quoting on work, aimed at providing fairer, more consistent and more accurate costs to clients, which has been positively received. We have explored new technologies and updated our “best practice” ways of working to include cutting edge platforms and technologies. We have streamlined our reporting and client communications to make sure we can provide the best service while servicing enough clients to keep our bottom line healthy.
and how we relax
After all, life isn’t all about work! From board games to escape rooms, hiking to after-work food and drink – and even our new Friday morning weekly breakfasts, we’re keen on managing our work-life balance and providing an environment for our team to manage stress and achieve their professional goals.
We’re looking ahead to the next decade
Looking ahead to next year, it is easy to get excited about the things on the horizon for Huddle. Not only do we turn 5 years old, but we already have a pipeline of exciting planned projects to see us well into summertime. In addition, we have developed some exciting strategic partnerships moving forward into 2020, which will not only open our services up to an interesting new audience of clients but also offer exciting new referral opportunities to our existing clients. Beyond this, we are looking forward to enabling our new team members to develop and grow, and above all, we’re excited to see what that means for our service delivery, company culture and value we can add to clients.
while remembering how far we’ve come
Reflection is important, especially in our fast-moving modern world. We’ve come an incredibly long way since the days of Harry and Tom building websites in Harry’s spare room on a desk made of an old door…! Fast forward to this year and we’ve had our most successful year yet – whichever way you look at it. From new hires and financial performance to service delivery and the end value to clients. We’re hugely grateful for all of the clients that have been with us on this journey and look forward to where the road takes us next year.