Tim Cameron-Kitchen: A One-Time Drummer Turns His Website Building Skills Into One Of The Largest Internet Marketing Agencies In The UK

by Yaro | Jul 22, 2019 | Podcasts, Startups

Yaro Starak

Yaro is a serial entrepreneur, blogger, podcaster, angel investor and digital nomad.

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Tim Cameron-Kitchen grew up with a passion for music, in particular playing the drums.

The highlight of Tim’s drumming career occurred in a most unexpected place — on stage in a cover-band singing competition reality TV show… in France.

His band didn’t even realize they’d won because everything was in French.

Beyond this brief stint on reality TV, Tim never made much from his music. However, music did lead him towards a much more lucrative career-path, that began with building a website.

Websites For Tradespeople

Tim learned enough basic computer skills to build a website for his drumming. This then lead to a fortuitous moment, when during a random conversation with his neighbor, he offered to build a website for his neighbor’s plastering business.

Tim was not exactly a web designer, but he knew enough about how to set up the basics that he could put together a simple website for his neighbor’s business.

To his surprise, that little website quickly rose to the top of Google local rankings for plastering services, driving a steady stream of new customers to his neighbor.

Word quickly spread within the trade community that Tim was the guy to set up your website, and he found himself in charge of an online marketing business.

Then Tim did something that turned out to be a game-changer: he wrote a book.

Tim’s book was about a simple but compelling topic — How to get to the top of Google rankings.

He used examples from all the success stories he had building websites for plumbers, electricians, painters and other tradespeople. The book was a hit and most importantly, a fantastic source of new customers for his growing internet marketing business.

Forget About Narrowing Your Niche

Fast forward a few years and Tim’s business has grown to over 100 employees, offering a range of internet marketing services including SEO, content marketing and pay per click advertising.

During this podcast we talked about the idea of ‘narrowing your niche’, and why that advice is often dished out as the solution to success in a crowded market.

It’s safe to say that offering internet marketing services is about as generic a service as it gets online, full of competition from all around the world.

Hence I was especially interested to hear Tim justify his choice to not narrow down, and instead offer an entire suite of online marketing services.

I asked him how he can compete and make this strategy work. I’ll leave it to you to listen in to hear Tim’s explanation.

Growing An Agency

Recently I interviewed marketing agency owners including Mike Rhodes and Will Swayne, both from Australia.

Tim’s agency services very much the same needs in the market as Mike and Will — helping other businesses attract clients online.

I also currently have a business using the agency model, InboxDone.com, although we offer email management services.

One of the challenges we’ve experienced growing InboxDone.com, one which I know Mike and Will also went through, is balancing growth. This includes monitoring cash flow, hiring the right people (which eats up cash), finding product-market-fit (with a service you still need this) and attracting more customers, which also consumes resources.

I asked Tim how he managed to grow his agency to more than 100 people, stay profitable, and continue to attract clients. His answer focused mostly on hiring, which makes a lot of sense. When you have talented people you provide above-average service, which in turn attracts more clients.

If you’re running a business in a competitive market, especially if you are starting or already own a services style agency, this interview is for you.

Enjoy the podcast,
Yaro

Topics Covered In This Podcast

Why Tim disagrees with conventional advice to narrow your niche and focus on one aspect of marketing
His hiring process and why he places so much trust and belief in his team
How Tim balances between managing cashflow and hiring new staff
How teaching others how to do online session drumming ended up ruined the market for himself
Why you can become passionate about ANYTHING.