Dezeen was launched at the end of November 2006 and has grown rapidly to become one of the most popular and influential architecture and design blogs on the internet. They receive over two million visits a month, and traffic is doubling every year. Dezeen was included in Time magazine’s Design 100 list of the most influential forces in global design (below), and in Design Week magazine’s Hot 50 list of key figures in design.
With such a rapidly expanding operation and increased workload for its two owners, part of the problems facing Dezeen was that they had limited time to spend on future planning for the growth of the business, creating efficient budgeting methods, as well as needing a structure for dealing with internal administration such as bookkeeping and Payroll requirements. This was needed for the business both in terms of tax efficiency, internal processes, and getting a handle on how they could improve and grow Dezeen as a brand going forward.
Firstly, Ten Forward Finance set about helping to restructure the business into a more tax efficient vehicle. Costs, budgeting and forecasting methods were established to help identify key areas where the business could improve. Next Ten Forward focused on establishing internal administration processes to handle jobs like Payroll, Bookkeeping and dealing with HMRC correspondence quickly and efficiently.
The Results? Turnover has nearly doubled in the last 2 years alone, with this year set to be another bumper period for Dezeen. Working from their own home with just 2 staff, Dezeen Ltd has now grown to upwards of 7 employees and with it the need for their own offices. Ten Forward Finance now handle the monthly payroll requirements, and are successfully integrating a new online accounting system into the business to help aid and simplify the administration workload.
As a result, Dezeen have now been able to diversify and expand their business into yet other ventures. ‘TFF have really given us the chance to focus on what we do best, says one of the Director’s of Dezeen. ‘Their knowledge of the creative industry, along with their accounting expertise has been invaluable. They strive to keep the processes simple and straight forward, and are available to talk to and discuss any queries that we have.’
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