Heard About Sam - The Journey So Far

Mood board for Heard About Sam’s relaunch.

Originally from Portsmouth, in 2013 I decided to move back home after seven fantastic years in London. My partner and I made plans to get married, buy a house and have babies - exciting times!

I was very nervous about moving back to Portsmouth. I wondered how successful my niche business would be ‘down south’ and would the demand be as high as it had been in the city? With lifestyle changes on the horizon, I made the hard decision to put Heard About Sam on ice for a while and concentrate on finding full-time employment. In my head, I made a five-year plan, as this would not only help support my ambitious personal plans but also help me build new relationships in the local area.

In the same month as moving home, I secured a fantastic role as Head of Sales and Events at Southampton Football Club (and I got married six weeks later!). While the commute was challenging (across the M27 for those of you that know it), the role gave me many opportunities and I achieved much more than I had imagined (some of my career highlights can be found on the ‘About’ page).

After five years, I achieved all my personal goals, and I also felt the time had come to move onto a new challenge. While sitting at home discussing options with friends and family, the same conversation came up - was it time for Heard About Sam to make a comeback? I immediately shut down these conversations, thinking it was too much of a risk with a young family.

I then kept bumping into an old friend who has been freelance for over three years. This friend runs her own successful event management company. She had also just started a family, this got me thinking, why I couldn’t I relaunch Heard About Sam? The main problem for me was money - of course! But once I discussed this with my husband, we quickly started to identify all of the positives about relaunching with the main incentive being flexibility!

I finally, made the decision from there that I would relaunch Heard About Sam in 2019 and review where we were as a business by the Autumn. My son would be starting school then, and this felt like an opportunity to spend more quality time with him and his younger sister.

I decided to keep things simple with no website and would register as a sole trader. This then led to me remembering that back in 2014, I made the decision to dissolve Heard About Sam as an LTD company on companies’ house. I confided in my best friend and shared my worries as a new business and my presence on Google as ‘dissolved’ and she quickly pointed out (over a bottle of merlot) that I needed a website and a Google business listing as well as investigating where I stood with Companies House. She then went on Facebook asking for recommendations to find the perfect marketing consultant, and from there a new partnership was formed with a local freelancer of which showed me great kindness and still today is offering me so much support.

Another contact reached out after seeing my announcement on LinkedIn. She was my business coach back in 2010, and she also was kind enough to offer me a free session to help build my confidence. She quickly pointed out that I needed to use the same business model as I would for my clients at Heard About Sam. This is so true, it’s easy to forget your own business needs when you are searching for new clients and to maintain them as a priority.

Six months on, I have used my proactive skills to reach out to as many venues, event management companies and brands as possible. I have secured new clients working on some fantastic projects from Waitrose and Partners to the Ideal Collection. I have further new business clients reaching out.

Heard About Sam continues to go from strength to strength, and every day I'm grateful and excited for the opportunities that are unfolding for my much-loved business.

If you are looking for support in business development and event management, please get in touch - sam@heardaboutsam.co.uk