Paul Hart is the co-founder and managing director of Cargo Creative, a North Shields-based design, digital and brand consultancy agency. The firm has delivered services to SMEs for more than 10 years and employs 14 people.
What was your first job (and how much did it pay)? My first ‘official’ job was at Tynemouth Sealife Centre. I went for an interview when I was 16 in the building which is now the Tynemouth Surf Café. My best mate and I started there together ahead of it opening and were paid £2.75 per hour. We worked in the café, and completed many a course in customer service. Working all day Saturday and Sunday, earning our money for a night out in Whitley Bay each Saturday night. We were literally falling asleep by the end of our Sunday shift. Brilliant times with great memories, learning lots and even the smallest things are still used today. Just keep me off the till, I was never good at that.
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What is the best advice or support you’ve been given in business? I don’t think I could name just one – we’ve had advice from family and friends who run businesses, colleagues and business mentors – it’s all been equally as valuable. In terms of support, it doesn’t have to be mentoring ‘on the business’, whether it’s family helping out at home to enable us to be in the business, family and friends physically helping with an office move (that was a memorable weekend!), or people we’ve worked with over the years who have influenced and given ideas.
You can draw knowledge, ideas and learnings from so many sources, and more often than not it’s not always the latest episode of ‘Diary of a CEO’ or ‘The High Performance Podcast’. I regularly catch up with other business owners and share ideas and experiences – things that work and things that don’t. The interesting thing is, no matter what the differing businesses are – varying in size, different sectors or services - so many discussion points are the same, just on a different scale.
What are the main changes you’ve seen in your business/sector, and what are the challenges you’re facing? It’s a nice problem to have, but growing so quickly has meant we’ve had to think on our feet. When starting out, the main fear is knowing where the work will come from. Once you start taking on staff, this then becomes whether or not the work will continue – and hopefully increase. This is always a priority for any business and one that you should never lose sight of.
Over the course of the last year, our main challenge has been ensuring that the staff we recruit fit into our team with aligned attitudes, ideas and skills. I put skills third because they can be taught, but attitudes and ideas are the most important element for us, and I think many businesses. And for any fast-growing business, when space starts getting tight even the smallest of things, such as room layouts and ensuring a good working atmosphere, simply cannot be underestimated.
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How has the pandemic changed the way you work? Essentially, the pandemic created more work for us and supported our service expansion. Since coming out of Covid, many businesses have reviewed their marketing strategies, which means thinking about their positioning and how they communicate effectively with their audiences. To help our clients do this, we’ve widened the breadth of services we offer. Oh, and we kept our heads down and worked really, really hard.
Who is your role model in business? Too many to mention! I’m a big sports fan, so drawing parallels from sporting mindset and culture – whether this be at elite level or not, I continually find fascinating. I regularly liken our team at Cargo Creative to a football team and the characters that are needed. To this end, I would probably say Gary Neville currently stands out. Absolutely hated him as a footballer, but his journey into business is very interesting and inspiring.
What would your dream job be? Funnily enough, when I went back to college to study graphic design, I always loved the idea of running a ‘little’ design studio based in Tynemouth. So I guess I’m not too far away from it – literally, as we’re based round the corner in North Shields!
What advice would you give to someone starting out a career in your sector? Working in marketing isn’t easy, especially if you’re looking to open your own agency. It shouldn’t be, otherwise everyone would be doing it! There are lots of highs, and you will see all of those on LinkedIn, but what they don’t tell you is that for every high there can be many lows. Spreadsheets, pipelines and forecasts are important, but sometimes you have to trust your gut to stay ahead of the curve. If you have the idea, desire and will to work, you will make your own luck to get through. Never be the loudest in the room, or have the biggest ego.
What makes the North East a good place to do business? I hate to mention it again, but the pandemic proved that we can work from anywhere. That said, there is nothing better than meeting in person and building relationships. The North East is great, as it feels like a real community where there is a lot of support. We also have amazing connections to the rest of the world, so we can travel easily but also make the most of our stunning coastline and countryside when you need to take that all important break from the noise.
How important is it for business to play a role in society? It can’t be underestimated. Not everyone wants to run or own a business. From my days as course leader at Newcastle College on the Editorial Design Course, I know first-hand how important education of our young and upcoming talent is. Certainly in our industry, where practical, creative and vocational skills are essential, businesses really need to support this beyond formal education and inspire our next generation of designers, developers and marketers.
Beyond that, as business leaders we have the opportunity – and dare I say duty - to support society in a variety of ways, whether that be offering work experience (sometimes hard for smaller businesses, but it can be achieved), working with educational institutions to share knowledge, or supporting charities to raise money and help disadvantaged people. In addition to our work with the YMCA here in North Tyneside, the best example I can give of this is a client of ours, Central Employment, who work with Newcastle United Foundation to run mock interview workshops for young people to help prepare them for the world of work.
Outside of work, what are you really good at? With three kids, over the last few years I’ve become a very good taxi driver! On a serious note, this is what it’s all about for us, and it sounds very cliché but family really is the most important thing. It’s something we embrace fully in our company culture; I never want any of our team to miss out on a family event or feel stressed about doing something they need to do for their family. Whether that’s going to the kids’ nativity play or taking the cat to the vets, what’s important to our team is important to us and we’ll always support that.