Meet Kaye Symington, Paved with Gold

Kaye Symington

Image by Kaye Symington


Every month on the Small is Beautiful blog, we'll be introducing you to some of our Small is Beautiful partners and delegates and their microbusinesses.

Today we invite you to meet microbusiness owner Kaye Symington.

Kaye runs Paved With Gold, a marketing agency. In her own words: "we build communities and brands for products, events and small companies."

Until November 2014, Kaye had always had a traditional job, and has been working in marketing for nearly 8 years. Most recently she worked as Director of Marketing for an agency called Mint Digital. Before that, she worked at BBC Worldwide for large brands like Doctor Who and Sherlock.

This work was instrumental in her journey to starting a microbusiness of her own, as well as developing the skills and confidence to become self-employed. "I loved my time in my previous role, which involved creating brands from scratch and building digital communities and customer bases around them," Kaye explains. "My experience there gave me a greater understanding of how to run small businesses, and to develop and deliver marketing strategies for a multitude of audiences."

Now, though, running a small business means focusing on particular kinds of work.

"To me, 'small' means working on projects that you really care about," says Kaye. "Being able to create an individual service for each of our clients is important to me and being small gives you the flexibility to provide a service that is tailored to their needs and the needs of their community. It means being nimble and responsive, being able to try new tactics and different directions."

I asked Kaye if the lifestyle matches up with her expectations, and with these pros of working alone. "I love being self-employed," she said. "I enjoy being able to choose the projects that I work on, meeting new people, and working across a broad range of brands. I am also lucky enough to be surrounded by some great friends who run their own businesses, like Hilary Grant, Willa Gebbie and Nicola Balkind. They have always been quite open about the benefits and drawbacks of working for yourself, which really helped me weigh up the pros and cons before making my decision."

Kaye said she feels incredibly lucky to have had so much support, and plans to continue to build her network at Small is Beautiful.

"Small is Beautiful is great for businesses like mine, in so many ways. From learning new skills, building a support network of like-minded people. When you work for yourself, having the confidence and right network of people is essential to grow personally and grow your business."

"I definitely plan on growing the business over the next year. Although I still plan on remaining small, as it's important to me to be able to have a team that work to a high standard, and enjoy what they do. Growth for me is quite dynamic, as I would like to have a couple of freelancers working with me in London (where I live now), and to run an office with a few community managers in Glasgow (where I hope to live very soon)."

Want to join us and meet people like Kaye at Small is Beautiful? Click here to learn more about the conference and buy your ticket today for £99.

 

 

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