Spotlight Series: GROWTH ANIMALS

Legacy Club goes under the hood of some early stage entrepreneurs, to see what makes them and their businesses tick!

GROWTH ANIMALS Co-FOUNDER JEN BAYFORD

Please tell us a little bit about you the person (not you the business owner): I've left this question to last as it was the hardest bit to start! I am Jen. I am a dolphin personality profile (Myers-Briggs ENFJ), and it’s a perfect match as dolphins are friendly, cheerful and have bundles of energy and I believe that is me! I love people. So I am the extremely relational member of the Growth Animals gang.

I've recently started to learn how to play the piano. I have run three marathons and continue to love running but for the fresh air, exercise and mental health benefits. I also enjoy yoga and can be found practicing in my lounge with my eight year old son and my cats. I love cooking and have a trailer tent!

Describe your business in less than 30 words: We enable businesses to apply effective marketing to accelerate growth and achieve aspirations. Providing both Growth Planning (traditional consultancy) and Growth Hacking (agency approach), to basically help sell more!

What industry or sector does your business fall in to?: Marketing

What did you do before you started your business?: We all worked at Goodwood, a country estate in West Sussex, marketing the headline events such as Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival, as well as the 365 products and services including entertaining and hospitality across the business. Prior to that, I spent nine years managing luxury beauty and fragrance brands, whilst CEO Chris worked globally growing brands at Carlsberg.

What have been the biggest struggles that you have encountered, and what did you do to overcome them?: There are two parts to the Growth Marketing that we do - the Growth Planning (for long term goals) and the Growth Hacking (i.e. finding scalable, swift growth). However, we weren't comfortable with the traditional methods of 'Growth Hacking' which can be exploitative and not necessarily ethical (watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix for the full story!) so we gave ourselves the challenge to find ways to grow our client's brands sustainably and humanely, which is easier said than done with AI being the go to everywhere, and there was born our Ethical Growth Hacking manifesto!

Have you had any external investment to date?: No

What has been the impact of COVID-19 on your business and did you make any changes, or pivots?: Our business was born during and thanks to COVID-19. Growth Animals has been long in the making, but recently came into fruition thanks to the strange environment Covid-19 has thrown up. Co-founder Chris always had in the back of his mind that consulting would be a route well suited for him and on top of that, the fact that he'd like to run his own business, but it had never been more than a not particularly well-formulated pipe dream. Chris said "Then Covid struck and I asked my partner in crime, Jen, to help the charity that I’m a Trustee for, Dementia Support, as she was on furlough and had the spare capacity to provide some marketing consultancy to them. After playing back her work to me, the penny dropped that this might well be the enjoyable and rewarding work we’d been waiting for. So we chewed the idea over for a couple of months and then took the decision that we’d co-found a consultancy that could help other SME’s to grow and the rest, as they say, is history."

Do you have any business hero's, if so, who are they?: We at Growth Animals are avid users of LunchClub and week on week are blown away by the spirit and passion of the entrepreneurs that we meet every week. I, Jen, have met several like-minded, strong and clever women who I've met individually but have actually then gone on to introduce to each other to share their projects and passions. They have been my heroes (heroines!) through COVID, speaking to each about our ideas and progress for Growth Animals, and getting solid constructive advice from these cheerleaders.

Financial Rewards or Business Awards?: Business Awards

What was the last book you read?: The Source by Dr Tara Swart

Tell us something totally unique about your business: We have a very distinct, humane ethos about 'growth hacking' as Chris puts it "We believe in ethical and sustainable business growth, in which everybody wins" unlike traditional Growth Hacking that can be exploitative and forced.

Finally, please tell us what we can look forward to with your business as we head in to 2021: Ah ha! Well, amongst other exciting projects, we have just taken on the challenge of helping a sustainable flower grower encourage the British public to buy local flowers (as 90% of the flowers bought in the UK are from overseas) #britishflowersrock. We are working with a tech start up from Tel Aviv to be their UK marketing arm. We are helping small businesses to get back on their feet post-COVID through our Brand Healthcheck and coaching sessions, and our beautiful Vineyard client, Ashling Park, opens its doors as a destination in the Spring, so we are going to be driving brand awareness and footfall to the Estate, as well as encouraging long term loyalty through their new Wine Club. Anyway, we are doing lots, so I could go on so this is just a snapshot.