Usually the 12th birthday of a business wouldn’t be the number you’d choose to celebrate, however, honouring a decade of GRIT in 2010 wasn’t possible, we can’t quite remember why?
Pandemic aside, in true GRIT fashion we’ve decided to focus on the positive, and the fact that things in our hometown of Norwich – the City of Stories – are returning to their previous sociable glory, therefore we can have an almighty bash to commemorate the occasion. Not only is Her Majesty The Queen the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee in 2022, Peter turned 40 in January on the same date Sonia turned 30. It’s party poppers all round!
Peter set up GRIT in a basement office on Thorpe Road, with one employee – Tony – and many trips to the Coach and Horses pub next door. All great start-ups are fuelled by beer, right? In all honesty pub meetings were needed, the office was on the small side and there was barely enough room to swing a cat (no cats were harmed during GRIT’s time on Thorpe Road).
In 2011 GRIT moved into a bigger office on St Gregory’s Alley, sharing with another business, and our second employee, Jordan, joined us. Emma, Peter’s partner, finally started to get paid as she officially joined the business as co-director/owner after working behind the scenes for some time. Note to Peter, Emma is still owed some time in lieu!
A year later GRIT was on the move again, this time to Europa Way, again we shared with another business and our team increased to six people. After another year we moved back to Thorpe Road, this time to our very own space. The move to the first office of our own was a triumphant moment – and we returned to our Coach and Horses friends, by now we were a rowdy bunch of 14.
After five happy years back on Thorpe Road, we had outgrown our first GRIT-only space and found our current office on lively, arty St Benedicts Street. We fell in love with how light and airy it is, and the fact everyone would have their own window, including the table tennis table.
GRIT has become known in Norwich for not only approaching each client with fearsome drive and enthusiasm, but we’re also proud to have partnered with, past and present, more than a dozen other agencies, both local and national, including Havas, Omnicon Media Group (OMG), TRO, Further Search Marketing, Fountain Partnership, borne, Creative Sponge, Creative Giant, The Armoury, Farrows, The Point, The Click and Four Agency.
We’ve helped hundreds of businesses with their website, app and software needs and produced over 200 websites, inherited dozens and dozens more, and helped to maintain, support and improve – too many to count! Peter says: “we’re honest, fair, hard-working and don’t over promise. We’re proud of the reputation we’ve built and are repeatedly recommended by nearly every client we’ve worked with.”
“Our first ever award is a stand out moment. All the hardwork and dedication being recognised. The fact that the award was based on client feedback and results made us feel like champions as we were crowned The Drum Recommends Web Development agency of the year for under 40 staff.”
“In the same year we also scooped two awards at the UK Digital Experience Awards (The UK Digital Experience Awards is one of the most important events in the calendar for customer experience and digital professionals across the UK). We had to deliver a presentation at Wembley Stadium and had an IT failure the night before and lost half of our presentation, but still went on to scoop the award for the Not For Profit/Charity category and went on to win the ‘Overall Winner’ award, a big surprise and we were unaware of the category, so a real privilege to win it.”
Emma is particularly passionate about the team’s wellbeing and works tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that the business runs smoothly. If Peter is the technical and business brain, Emma is the heart and soul, it’s the combination that makes GRIT a special place to work. When Emma was asked what’s the best advice you could give, she replied: “look after your staff as well as you look after your clients…”
GRIT’s winning formula is simple, the values are at the core of everything we do, we are fiercely loyal and uncompromising. We always put our clients’ interests first. But it wouldn’t be a good and proper celebration without some thank yous.
Our incredible team – without them, none of this would have been possible. It may sound cliche, but we really care about one another. We’ve seen team members become parents, been to each other’s weddings, and other big life milestones, too. We’ve also helped one another when life isn’t going quite so well. We’ve even arranged blind dates, complete with a picnic!
Our clients, who trust in us, value us and make us feel appreciated. That’s what makes us give even more, and why they stick with us. So thank you, cheers and here’s to many more.