Mark Chapman from Concept Fine Wines in Harrogate talks of how RedSky helped him set up his company and advised on finance and marketing.

Red Sky were recommended

I’ve been in the wine trade for the last 10 years. I set up the business in 2008 with the aim to sell wine through our website, telephone and email. As a new business, we knew we needed help with certain aspects, such as opening up new markets, getting the products in front of more people and also with designing a new website. Martin and Claire from RedSky were recommended to me by mutual contact. Having had a chat with them, I knew pretty quickly that I was very happy to work with them. Martin helped us to obtain some funding for marketing and branding, and Claire advised us on the marketing.

It’s so useful to have independent feedback

The website was something of a priority and something I was keen to develop; you have an idea of how you think it should look, but it’s good to have someone looking at it from a different angle. Through Martin and Claire we got an independent, impartial review of the website; the feedback was invaluable and reinforced thoughts I had on what I wanted to do and how the new website should look. They came up with some options of web designers and helped in putting together a proposal for me. The process gave me an idea of the costs that people were charging for the work I wanted doing – there was a massive difference in what companies charge!

Postcards – a cost effective way of marketing

Claire also helped me with the design of a number of marketing materials including some postcard-sized leaflets that had basic information about the company that we could give out at trade shows and so on. We wanted to encourage people to know more about the business and go to our website, but we didn’t want to have to give out a full brochure every time – it gets very costly. The smaller postcards were a much more cost effective way of doing it. We’re still using them now.

RedSky really care about your business

I’d be very happy to work with RedSky again in the future. They were very helpful to me last year. They’re approachable, professional and reliable. I trusted what Martin and Claire told me. We had a small problem with some of the printing that we were doing. The printer had made an error – and Claire was on it straight away and got it sorted out for us very quickly.

I was most impressed with the fact that they cared about what I was doing and did everything they could to help. It’s much easier and more enjoyable to deal with someone who you feel genuinely cares about your business as much as you do, and who is passionate and enthusiastic. All too frequently you have to deal with people who don’t care – whether that’s in customer service or doing things in a professional way – RedSky’s approach is very refreshing.