We Love Creative celebrates 10 years in business

The owners of Lancashire-based marketing agency We Love Creative celebrate a milestone anniversary this week.

Directors Claire Hodson and Fiona Ritchie feel extremely proud of their 10 years in business and are ready to tackle the next decade with gusto!

The business was originally set up as We R PR when Fiona, then a mum of a baby and a toddler, decided it was time to fly the corporate nest and go it alone.

A few months later, former colleague Claire took the same step and they found themselves passing work to each other.

Fiona said: “It made no sense carrying on that way and as together we were able to offer a full PR, marketing and creative service, we decided to join forces and haven’t looked back.”

“We share the same family values and strong work ethics and can tell what the other is thinking without having to say a word!

“Running a small business can often feel like an uphill slog, but by supporting and leaning on each other, we have made a success.

We Love Creative is recognised within Lancashire for its promotion of corporate, public sector and charity clients in both the B2B and B2C arenas.

Claire said: “Much of our work comes to us via referrals, which is a great reflection of our capability.

“Over the years we have become key figures in our clients’ in-house teams and pride ourselves on the fact that many of our original clients have remained loyal to us throughout our whole journey.”

As with any young business, We Love Creative has endured bumps along the way, but the positive duo considered these bumps valuable lessons which have only helped make them stronger and wiser.

Fiona said: “Five years ago we found ourselves having to make redundancies, which was upsetting for all concerned, and, of course, we later found ourselves faced with a pandemic which saw work drop of a cliff when the third lockdown was announced.

“In periods like this it would have been easy to throw in the towel, but we didn’t; we dug in and worked even harder to ensure the future of a business we both feel extremely passionate about to this day.

“We enlisted the help of a mentor, Victor Giannandrea, who is constantly encouraging us to push boundaries and

Claire added: “If you’re currently thinking about setting up a business, my two top tips would be to get a good mentor and a good accountant.

“Our mentor Victor Giannandrea is constantly challenging us to push boundaries and Martin Horton, from Rivington Accounts, makes sure we always have a close eye on the figures.

“We would like to thank clients new and old for supporting our small business and look forward to the next 10 years!”