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Business News


never run a business or been a senior manager. I was always learning. “I put together some packages


for small businesses, and they paid in instalments, which levelled off the cash flow. That shift in mind set led me to hire my first designer.” Turnover had grown by 2012 with a workforce of six. Expansion meant raising the Lightbox horizons, and the company moved to new offices in John Bright Street in Birmingham city centre. “Our clients were here, and people were not keen to drive to Lichfield.


‘We have changed the way we build websites, we have invested a lot of time and energy in that’


“We started to win more work


with better projects and the team started to grow. We started to do digital marketing, SEO and social media work, we increased our staff numbers and that is when we moved here to Mary Ann Street.” By August 2018, the Lightbox


story had taken a significant new twist when the firm merged with Blake7, a small social media outfit run by Castle Bromwich born PJ


has been a great ice-breaker for me.” PJ’s profile in Birmingham was


raised further when he became a trustee of well known city charities Help Harry Help Others and LoveBrum, which he co-founded. He eventually turned his back on the legal world – “law was very processed, like a factory” – to move into digital marketing, which would eventually lead to his current role as co-director at Lightbox. “My skillset is very different to


Rob. I am not digitally minded, I am more people and processes and it has worked very well. We are very focused on making this a profitable business. I picked up on a business that had no debt and was in a good position to grow.” Rob says Lightbox are well


Poised for growth: PJ (left) and Rob


Ellis, a man with an extraordinary CV by anybody’s standards. PJ, as he has been known from childhood, had always harboured dreams of making the grade as a professional footballer and was good enough to play as a youth team goalkeeper for the likes of Derby County, Port Vale and Shrewsbury before being released by the Shrews. “It was a blow but they did me a


favour. I hadn’t got the shape to be a footballer.” He eventually ended up in law, although his legal career had stalled initially when he managed to win a place in the third series of Big Brother, one of 10 housemates chosen from 150,000 applications. “The experience overall was


brilliant. I was in the house for seven weeks. Jade Goody and Alison Hammond were in there. It


placed to prosper in today’s increasingly digitally-focused workplace environment. “Anyone can buy a computer and set up a website. But we have dealt with a lot of clients who have been burnt because they have taken the wrong, cheap option.” PJ adds: “We have changed the


way we build websites, we have invested a lot of time and energy in that. We are putting a management team in place – we have been in the business rather than on it.” Says Rob: “It frees us up – I love


what we do, digital is a young marketplace.”


February 2021 CHAMBERLINK 21


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