Sheffield-headquartered agency Rise at Seven has enjoyed exponential growth while forced to operate remotely during the pandemic, but for chief executive Carrie Rose, the office is still king. Here she explains why.
This piece is published in Prolific North’s Northern Agency Guide – find out more about getting a copy here.
I launched my agency two years ago, grew it to 100 people and we’re on track to turn over £6.8million this year – all from my living room. And despite such success, I couldn’t think of anything worse than continuing this journey remotely.
We had around five months at the beginning building the business from a small office space in Sheffield, surrounded by creatives and young hungry people. But closed up soon after with the pandemic worsening, building the remaining from home.
And in the last few months, we have opened up three offices (Sheffield, London, Manchester) and I am on my way to the US right now to find our next home in the States too. Why? Because that’s what the people want!
We could be £500K more profitable if we don’t do this, but with the average age of 27 and creative freedom, connections and collaboration being core parts of what we do – having an office space to allow that is super important for nearly all of our staff.
I know businesses that are literally saving millions by shutting down their offices, agencies similar to us. But if they think that money will become profit, they’re wrong. That money will have to be put somewhere else to replace what will soon be missing.
