The owners of a Luton-based business have spoken of the invaluable SME support they received from University of Bedfordshire in a new promo video, following the coronavirus ‘slump’.
Founded by Matt Haley in 2013, video production company MHF Creative was proving to be a successful independent business with plenty of client work and incoming revenue to keep the small team busy. However, when the pandemic hit and the UK went into lockdown, Matt and his Co-Director, Ciara Haley, found themselves facing challenges they hadn’t experienced before. Matt commented:
Pre-Covid19, our business was doing incredibly well and we had a large amount of clients in both the events and travel sector. We were lucky enough that we never had to seek out work, which in hindsight was very naïve and a big learning curve for us. We realised that our biggest problem was that people outside of these industries did not know we existed and nor could they find us online as our SEO was non-existent and we had placed no importance on our marketing or PR – ironic given that our audience is primarily those working within the marketing industry.
Matt and Ciara sought help from SEMLEP Growth Hub – a free business support hub which helps local businesses in South East Midlands. SEMLEP then signposted them to the ALPHAS programme, organised through the University’s Innovation & Enterprise Services(IES) department.
