{"id":4571,"date":"2018-06-14T10:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T09:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/?p=4571"},"modified":"2026-01-29T11:32:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T11:32:28","slug":"sean-anderson-hoxo-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/sean-anderson-hoxo-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Hoxo Media CEO Sean Anderson on funding and building a great team"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGrowth & Customers<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHoxo Media CEO Sean Anderson on funding and building a great team\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\tStacey McIntosh<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Starting a business can be an exciting time. A spark of an idea is turned into an actual thing that has the potential to grow and change the lives of the person or people behind it, and the customers who benefit from it.<\/p>\n

But what about the challenges of running and growing a business<\/a>? Finding clients? Finding funding? Getting too much work and needing more staff? Basically getting the balance right? Running a business can be a juggling act but with the right vision, planning and structures in place, it\u2019s possible to keep building and keep moving.<\/p>\n

Sean Anderson is living and breathing all the challenges and triumphs highlighted above. He started Hoxo Media<\/a>, a marketing and social media agency based in London that offers services to recruitment agencies, in 2017 with two friends after having a burning desire to run his own business.<\/p>\n

As the chief executive of Hoxo Media, Sean is tasked with bringing the firm\u2019s vision to life and he oversees the company\u2019s leadership, client onboarding and business strategy. And lots of other things in between too.<\/p>\n

But how did he get to where he is now? \u201cI was quite a successful recruitment consultant and I was going to start my own recruitment business because that\u2019s typically what a lot of recruiters do,\u201d says Sean at a Big Youth Group event in London. \u201cIf they work for a firm, they do quite well, they make a lot of money then they spin off and create their own brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeking business advice<\/strong><\/h2>\n

So the desire to create something of his own was clear. But he needed some advice to set him on his way. Turning to his own network, there was someone who could help.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met with a friend who I grew up with who was in marketing to ultimately ask him how he would help me as a start-up business owner,\u201d says Sean. \u201cI already had a business partner set up, so the two of us went to say: \u2018Well, look, what would you do for us?\u2019<\/p>\n

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“I did a lot of research and I couldn\u2019t find another digital marketing or social media agency that was completely dedicated to the recruitment industry” – Sean Anderson<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cHe went through stuff he did with his previous employer where he helped their internal headcount grow from one to 600 staff over five years using marketing techniques. I got really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sean kept that conversation close to his heart, with it fuelling his desire to start his business. He knew he wanted to launch his recruitment firm but the chat had opened his eyes to the possibilities of marketing and social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did a lot of research and I couldn\u2019t find another digital marketing or social media agency that was completely dedicated to the recruitment industry,\u201d he says. \u201cWith the knowledge I had, coupled with the knowledge my partner had, I thought \u2018there\u2019s something in this\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he took a leap of faith and quit his job. He wasn\u2019t the only one\u2026 \u201cSo I basically convinced them both [his marketing friend Mark Priest and his friend\/business partner Amar Chohan, now chief marketing officer and chief operating officer at Hoxo Media respectively] to quit their jobs,” says Sean.<\/p>\n

“I said: \u2018Look if we mash our skills together, I think we\u2019ve got a really unique blend of skills.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding the funding to start the business<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When you start a business<\/a>, funding your operation is a key consideration. For Sean and his partners, they used their own money. He says: \u201cHoxo Media is self-funded, to date. We saved a lot of money, we were in sales for a long time, so we had some funds behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an agency, Sean says the barriers to entry and the financial requirements were low. \u201cWe put a couple of grand in each, we bought a couple of Macs and we got a shared service space and then we went for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Essential tip<\/strong><\/h3>\n

If self-funding isn\u2019t an option for you, there are other ways you can fund your business. You could try asking your bank manager for a loan. If that doesn\u2019t work, try looking at an alternative funding option, such as crowdfunding<\/a> or a venture capital trust<\/a>. You could apply for a number of government grants<\/a>, turn to angel investment or even borrow money from friends and family.<\/p>\n\n

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Learning the ropes<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter whether it\u2019s your first business or your tenth, there will always be challenges to face. For Sean, they have come thick and fast. One of the first ones he faced was due to him not having worked in marketing before.<\/p>\n

He says: \u201cI came from a recruitment background, so to actually communicate with the industry was easy. I knew their business challenges but I\u2019d never actually worked in marketing, so I was relying heavily on my business partner\u2019s knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the face of the company to the client base and the person selling the vision, it was a challenge that Sean had to work with his team to overcome.<\/p>\n

Then there was the problem of being a new company. \u201cEarly doors no one knew who we were and even today, I still think a lot of the industry doesn\u2019t really understand what we do because marketing is often an afterthought in a lot of these sales-driven firms,\u201d says Sean.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a huge education piece that we go through on a daily basis, so you spend a lot of time explaining it \u2013 then there\u2019s nothing at the end of it. But it\u2019s all part of the fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dealing with profits and people<\/strong><\/h2>\n

And there was the issue of growing the business. The company got off the ground pretty quickly but that opened its own Pandora\u2019s Box. The questions consuming the team included \u201care we charging enough money?\u201d, \u201chow do even calculate profit<\/a> in a business like this?\u201d and \u201chave we got the people to deliver on this project?\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sean says: \u201cAfter two months, we\u2019d won so much business, we didn\u2019t have enough staff to do it all.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we had to close the gates of signing clients to find the people. Then we built a team really quickly. Then we had the problem where we hadn\u2019t been selling, so no clients came in. So we just kept having this yin and yang.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately for Sean and the team, they managed to get the balance right between clients, employees and profits: \u201cWe\u2019ve found a steadier space in there now,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Essential tip<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Hiring the right staff<\/a> and getting the numbers right can be tricky. Rather than committing to employing people on a permanent basis immediately, you could try taking people on as contractors or on a freelance basis first.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Sean and his team did. He says: \u201cWe hired people based on contract, based on the work that we won, so we were heavily freelance early on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The outlook is good for Hoxo Media<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Today, the business is in a good place. Having relied on freelancers in the early days, Hoxo Media now has a team of employees and a strong client base. And the business is turning a profit too \u2013 \u201cBut we\u2019re re-investing that money back into the business,\u201d says Sean.<\/p>\n

Sean Anderson on his 3 business advice takeaways<\/strong><\/h2>\n

With more than a year in the business game, Sean might still be new to running his own firm but he\u2019s learned a lot about what\u2019s required to survive and succeed. Here are his top takeaways:<\/p>\n

1. Don\u2019t overthink it \u2013 take action <\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cI know, you hear it all the time, but genuinely like, I probably thought about setting up a recruitment company for two years. Something stopped me because genuinely there was a passion<\/a>\u00a0but something was missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second I knew I wanted to do this, nothing could stop me and I just went for it. And whatever you don\u2019t know, you\u2019ll learn. You learn by taking action, so I\u2019d just say: \u2018Go for it.\u2019\u201c<\/p>\n

2. Surround yourself with good people <\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cUpgrade your environment. If you\u2019re surrounded by people who are negative and don\u2019t have the same drive or the same abilities to push, you\u2019re going to hang around with those but then you\u2019re going to end up being like them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhereas I surrounded myself around great people \u2013 my two business partners have the same drive as me. Everyone who we\u2019ve hired basically came in and ultimately worked for free for a period of time so they showed their commitment. We\u2019ve got an unbelievable drive in the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you surround yourself with other people, even if they don\u2019t work with you but they\u2019ve got a similar mindset, it can massively help.”<\/p>\n

3. Don\u2019t focus on what goes wrong, it\u2019s how you react<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cMy previous owner of a recruitment company said to me: \u2018It\u2019s not what goes wrong, it\u2019s how you react that\u2019s most important.\u2019 And every day, something goes wrong. Every single day. If I don\u2019t get to work with three problems arising, it\u2019s not a normal day, right?!<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have previously flapped and panicked, worrying \u2018what\u2019s going to go wrong?\u2019. When in reality, if you stay calm and you think pragmatically about how you can solve problems, there\u2019s almost always a way out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

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How to start a business - your free guide <\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Starting a business? Our essential guide is packed with straightforward advice on everything from planning to launch.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet your free guide<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Working\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n

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Starting a business can be an exciting time. A spark of an idea is turned into an actual thing that has the potential to grow and change the lives of the person or people behind it, and the customers who benefit from it. But what about the challenges of running and growing a business? Finding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":346,"featured_media":4579,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"sage_hide_published_date":false,"sage_hide_read_time":false,"sage_hide_share_buttons":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[35,12],"business_type":[4],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[73,74,75],"imagine_tag":[109],"coauthors":[353],"class_list":["post-4571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growth-customers","tag-recruit","tag-start-business","business_type-small-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-gb","author_name":"Stacey McIntosh","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2018\/06\/Sean-Anderson-3.jpg","imagine_tags":{"109":"Small business"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice UK","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/346"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/4579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4571"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=4571"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=4571"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=4571"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=4571"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=4571"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=4571"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}