James Lancaster

A year ago, I spent seven months coaching rugby back home in Cheshire, at The King's School in Macclesfield. Then I packed a bag and spent three months travelling around Southeast Asia. Somewhere in between the two, I worked out what I actually wanted to do with myself.

I've always been drawn to people — to conversations, to figuring out what makes someone tick, to helping them get where they're trying to go. That comes from rugby, and honestly from my childhood before it: you don't get anywhere on your own, and how you communicate with people matters more than almost anything else.

A month before I was due to start university, I changed my mind. It wasn't a decision made lightly — it was a choice to back myself and pursue a career I actually cared about, rather than default into a path I didn't.

I took a job in sales with an outsourced sales company — not because it was glamorous, but because I knew it would sharpen exactly the skills I'd need: listening properly, reading people, and closing. It's given me a grounding I don't think I could have got anywhere else.

But the whole time, what I really wanted was to build something of my own. Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with web design — not just the craft of it, but the small businesses behind it. I kept noticing how many good, hardworking businesses were being held back by something as fixable as a website: no time, no design skill, no one to help them look as professional online as they are in person.

That's the gap I decided to fill. I design and host websites for small businesses that don't have the resources or the know-how to do it themselves — bringing the same communication, care, and determination I built on the pitch and in sales into every project I take on.

This is just the beginning. My vision is to grow this into a full digital agency — a place small, ambitious businesses can come to for whatever they need to grow online, built by someone who knows what it's like to bet on himself.

— James Lancaster