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03
Aug
Harrogate founder with ‘zero staff’ reaches £1m revenue mark
A Harrogate entrepreneur has surpassed £1 million in total revenue - with the help of AI and zero staff.
Ginny Nicholls founded Interim Digital in 2021, a digital agency that connects freelance marketeers and businesses.
Four years later, Ms Nicholls has seen year-on-year growth of 130% and generated more than £400,000 in revenue over the last 12 months.
But the business is based entirely on a "freelance-first" model, Ms Nicholls said, and does not employ any staff.
She added:
There’s incredible talent in this region, we just chose to tap into it differently.
You don’t need an office full of people to build a national agency from Harrogate. You need great people, great tech and a willingness to do things differently.
Interim Digital uses AI to develop its systems, which Ms Nicholls said allows more time to find "great people":
The real power comes from combining great human relationships with slick automation. We use AI to develop highly efficient systems and processes, allowing us more time to focus on finding great people.
It’s a modern way of building a business - lean, agile and designed for how people actually want to work today.
Interim Digital recently partnered with Paul Muggeridge-Breene, founder of agency Thrive, with the hopes of scaling the business model and exploring investment opportunities.
Ms Nicholls added:
We’ve shown that it’s possible to hit seven figures with zero employees. The next step is helping more freelancers, and more clients, benefit from this model.
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