As digital marketing agency Art Division celebrates its 20th anniversary, founder and MD Nelly Berova talks about the changes she’s seen since launching her business - from a garden shed - two decades ago.
What did you do with your time twenty years ago? There was no Facebook or Twitter - there was certainly no Instagram and the first smartphones were the best part of a decade away.
If you think of the early 21st century as the recent past, you’re showing your age - Y2K fashions are considered vintage these days. But really cast your mind back to the early 2000s, and you’ll realise just how fast the pace of change has been.
Keeping up with the times and adapting her business model has been key to Nelly Berova’s success despite the ups and downs of the period. She set up Art Division in 2001 with her original business partner Natalie. “We started from a shed with great ambition and very little experience - and some furniture from a car boot sale,” says Nelly. “At the start, every moment was magical; our first client, first pay cheque, first advertisement.”
It was a time when Google was in its infancy and the leading search engines were Yahoo and Ask Jeeves. There was internet - but you had to dial up - and the fax machine was still a part of office life.
To begin with Art Division was very focused on website building and graphic design. Says Nelly, “It makes me laugh to think about the types of websites we used to create back then, everything was much more basic.”
Networking was different too. They joined a local BNI (Business Network Intonational) group, made contacts and got noticed. But doing the rounds of face-to-face meetings took time. “It was very labour intensive, you would meet tens of people just to get one lead. Now almost all our networking is done through LinkedIn.”
Art Division grew steadily through personal recommendation. But the client base was very broad - everything from a till roll manufacturer to health and safety consultancies. Then came 2008, a pivotal year for the business.
As Nelly explains, “2008 was a particularly difficult year for us. My business partner left and I was diagnosed with a tumour, which put me out of action for several months. To top it all, the financial crisis hit us hard. Nobody prepared us for this, and it was incredibly tough, but giving up wasn’t an option. And we survived without any help or loans.”
Nelly made time to take stock, rethink and restructure. But during that period something else was going on. Google, which had existed for a decade, had been growing; changing the way people researched things online and, with it, the relationship between businesses and customers. This would be the company’s new focus - a mission is to help clients grow through clever digital marketing.
In 2009 Art Division acquired its first property client and hasn’t looked back. It seems obvious now - property was a personal interest of Nelly’s. She was already an established buy-to-let landlord and investor, who loved the challenge of a refurbishment - not to mention a property makeover show.
According to Nelly: “We decided to specialise and it’s one of the best things we’ve done. You can’t be an expert on everything. You need the strategic knowledge about digital marketing and what it can achieve, but an in-depth understanding of how to apply it to one industry really helps.
“Now our clients are estate and letting agencies and suppliers to the industry - developers, surveyors, we even have a skip hire and window installation company.”
There have been changes in the way people market houses since Art Division’s early days in the sector. “Property hasn’t changed that much but technology has impacted on it massively. It used to be about adverts in the local papers, pages and pages of them. The appearance of Rightmove and then Zoopla revolutionised how properties are sold. When we moved into property in 2009, we really tapped into that, which was all about digital.”
More recently change came again, when the first coronavirus lockdown brought unprecedented challenges for businesses everywhere. The property industry effectively shut down in March 2020, followed by the busiest period for sales in recent history.
“With Covid we had to change a lot,” says Nelly. “We all went home and had to rethink our processes, to work remotely, and do everything online. But even after 20 years, when you have an established business with a good track record, you can still change - you can see it as an opportunity. And we didn’t lose a single client.”
One secret of the firm’s success is the people who’ve shaped it over the decades. “Each member of the team, and each client, has left an imprint, which either helped the business grow, or taught us a lesson. I honestly believe that Art Division wouldn’t be celebrating 20 years in business if it was not for the team and their hard work.
“And it’s our clients that make us want to keep going, no matter what. Despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic, we hope and believe that we’ll be helping them achieve their potential for many more years to come.”
As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, founder and MD Nelly Berova talks about the changes she’s seen since launching the business - from a garden shed - two decades ago. Watch now
To learn more about Art Division, head over to their Kerfuffle page, click here
To find out more about Art Division’s Special Celebratory Offer, click here
[WEBINAR] Do not miss Art Division's LIVE webinar with Nelly Berova on Tuesday 15th June at 11am, where Nelly will discuss Art Division and the journey to date, including ups and downs - click here to register now
