Office manager at a web development agency based in Stockwell - Part time paternity leave cover

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billythekid
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Office manager at a web development agency based in Stockwell - Part time paternity leave cover

Postby billythekid » Wed Aug 21, 2019 4:49 pm

I own a small website development agency based in Stockwell (https://www.zodiacmedia.co.uk) and we've been running for just over 6 years.  Currently we're 9 staff comprised of 2 sales people, 6 web developers and myself.  We're all based in an office in Stockwell except for one part time remote worker who lives in Leamington Spa.  So far so good.

My wife is about 7.5 months pregnant and her due date is early October.  Initially my loose plan was to take a couple of weeks of paternity leave and then work on a part time ad-hoc basis for a while supporting my other half as needed.  But given that I’ve put a lot of my life into the business over the past 6 years I’d quite like to take some extended time off whilst my wife is on maternity leave and potentially live abroad for a while.  It also occurred to me that this could be a beneficial opportunity to get a fresh perspective on the business from someone else and try and share out some of my workload on a more permanent basis.

It’s difficult to write down exactly what I do on a day to day basis.  I guess I’m a general dogsbody who keeps all the plates spinning!  Being the boss of a small company means you direct everybody, but you also empty the bins so it’s not as glamourous as you may think.  Anyone who’s been self-employed will know what I mean! In any given week I tend to:

Manage the staff
Plan projects
Estimate new work
Handle most of the client communications
Try and guide the two sales staff
Occasionally do some development work if everyone is maxed out (my background is in web development)
Write tender responses for government projects
Either do or organise any facilities management work that crops up
Set the strategy for the business
Recruit new staff as needed


Some of the above could be moved across to various people in the team already.  For example, the developers could own more of the planning and management of projects.  I feel overall that we’d definitely benefit from someone coming in and tying everything together.

About a year ago we did have a dedicated account manager, but there was on average only a couple of hours a day of work needed for this and he ended up filling his day with finding new business.  This, combined with spreading more of my work amongst the existing team, makes me feel that this job would be suited to someone working part time.  The hours our clients keep means that the hours of the role would have to be within normal UK office hours, but there is flexibility as to exactly when you’re on site.  I feel that the role would need to be on site as you would be managing the staff in the office so face-to-face time is important.  There is on-site parking at our office, which is also a 12-minute walk from Stockwell tube, so the opportunity would be very convenient for anyone living in South West London.  So, the net result of penning all this down is that we have a flexible, part time management role which perhaps would be a match for anyone looking to get back into the workplace after their own time out from raising a family etc. Initially the role would last until May 2020, but come May, if everything is going well, then there would be no reason to end it.

Ideal candidates will have experience of running a business and also a good understanding of websites.  You don’t have to be super technical as the developers can cover this, but you’d need to be both capable and comfortable with understanding client requests. The start date for the role would be before October so I can do some work shadowing with you to help you get up to speed.  Salary would be dependent on experience.  The brief for this role is quite open ended so the range of candidate abilities is likely to be wide.  Hopefully someone out there will be the perfect match though.

To apply please send a CV and brief covering letter to info@zodiacmedia.co.uk.

Thanks for reading this far!

Billy (oh, and no agencies please!)
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