ph9 turns 20 years old!!

Today is our birthday!

10th May 2024 marks 20 years since I founded ph9 Ltd.

Rob here, founder and owner of ph9. In this special blog article I talk about why I started ph9, the difference I wanted, why easy is everything, what we've been up to for the past 20 years, and our plans for the future!

Contents

1) Before ph9, and my "why"

2) Brief timeline

3) Our clients are everything

4) Plans for the future

5) How can we help you?

1) Before ph9, and my "why"

Yup, that's me... fresh faced, in front of a big fat CRT computer monitor (remember those!?) in about 2002 at one of my first web design jobs in London, just by London Bridge.

At school I was your typical computer nerd, busy hacking the school computers to learn how they worked, and building websites for friends, family and a couple of small clients in my teenage years when everyone used dial up internet.

However even in my teenage years, there was something that really bugged me about computers and the internet. Something vital was missing...

With my autistic brain looking at things literally, I saw people (my mum especially, pictured below) shouting and swearing at computers when they wouldn't do what they wanted, and I couldn't understand why software and internet companies didn't just put a bit more effort into making them easier.

I was adamant that a little bit of effort from a software developer could save so much frustration for people using computers & the web.

With the fire of making things EASY ignited, I left school at 18 and talked my way into my first job in web development in central London. Bill Gates said he had the mission of putting a computer on the desk of every home and every office. My mission was to make them easy to use!

I spent a few years working for various web development, software development and IT companies gaining a broad range of experience. I worked on systems for BT, Royal Bank of Scotland, Vodafone, Volvo and many FTSE 100 companies. I also spent a few years living in Sweden, where they're very tech minded.

2) Brief timeline

How we've helped retailers since 10th May 2004

I won't bore you with every member of staff we've hired, every sandwich I've eaten, and every client, so here is just a brief timeline of how we've evolved since 2004 to help retailers grow online easily.

10th May 2004

• The incorporation of ph9 Ltd with Companies House; I officially have a business!
• From day one, the motto was "making computers and the web easy"
• Clients find me through word of mouth. Happy clients means more clients!

2005

• We refine and launch our "website manager" allowing clients to easily keep their websites up to date themselves. It sounds obvious now, but back then the amount of website owners that didn't have a facility to easily update their own websites was staggering

2006

• We quickly gain a reputation for designing and building the websites and systems that others just can't. If the "other guy" couldn't build or design it, we usually could
• In order to really make things easy for our clients, we quickly find that we can't do this using the off the shelf hosting products available at the time. So we invest in our own server infrastructure and house it in London's E14 / Docklands area; the heart of the UK internet at the time

2009

• We launch various third party marketplace integrations so that online sellers can push their items out to more places
• Rob moves to Derby to look after his grandma, and starts to lay down roots, shortly after buying a house

2010

• We start a Facebook page for our business. Our reviews consistently average 5 stars!

2011

• Rob moves out of the home office into a "proper office" at Friar Gate Studios in Derby. FGS was setup to house exclusively creative businesses and in our years there we had the opportunity to collaborate and learn from many other amazing individuals; some of which are still friends today
• We then hire our first full time employee!

2012

• We start providing Google Adwords campaign management to help business grow online through paid search and shopping listings

2013

• We launch a new version of our "off the shelf" websites. A relatively new idea at the time, this enabled us to provide feature rich, customisable websites, from a range of editable design templates, without the cost of having to have a bespoke website built from scratch. It also meant we could roll out updates to our platform enabling every client using it to benefit.
• We continue to offer bespoke / hand crafted websites for those clients who need a unique design, or bespoke functionality

2014

• Our new blog launches to provide helpful articles for retailers to get the most out their websites and marketing
• We move our servers from Global Switch in London to a full rack at Node4 data centre in Derby so we can expand our offering to clients
• We launch our business profiles on Google, and consistently have 5 star reviews

2015

• The ph9 logo becomes an official registered trademark
• We launch our sub brands of uporium eCommerce sites and Antiques Web Design

2016

• We launch various new financial and ePOS related integrations such as with accounting software Xero, till system Vend, and others

• We also improve our offering of email marketing platform integrations such as CakeMail, MailChimp, iContact and Campaign Monitor

2017

• We decide to hunker down on what's really important and define some company values. From this point on every decision we make is based on "does it align with our values?"

2018

• With our growing team, and needing better space to accomodate in person meetings with clients we move offices and take up an entire floor at 3-4 Iron Gate, Derby.

2019

• We move our servers from physical servers in a data centre to Amazon Web Servers (AWS) infrastructure. A big investment, but meant that we could offer even faster websites, a super reliable and robust service, and lots of expansion opportunities

• Jed joins the team. Sporting a man bobble, and no relation to the Irish duo Jedward, his "can do" attitude, fantastic demeanour, and technical brain soon proves to be an invaluable part of ph9

2020

• We launch our own online marketplaces; Antiques Boutique and Militaria Zone

2021

• Liv (Olivia) joins ph9. She has had a huge amount of experience in customer service and clients are quick to like her

2022

• Matteo joins the team. Tall, dark, and handsome he's our latest web developer
• Rob launches Derby Computer Museum and founds it as a registered charity to provide work experience for young adults with special educational needs (SEN), a hands on activity for families, and a resource for schools.

2023

• Emma joins the team on customer service and sales. Having previously worked for GoDaddy she brings a wealth of experience
• We launch the Militaria Web Design sub brand to help dealers of militaria and war time memorabilia
• Rob gets to do a client case study video with one of the very first clients that started it all 20 years ago; the lovely Appley from Appley Hoare Antiques.

2024

• We launch a new version of our mobile app to succeed our progressive web app launched a few years prior, to help retailers manage their websites and stock on the go

3) Our clients are everything

It's really not rocket science; look after your staff and they'll look after your clients. Look after your clients, and they'll spread the word and bring you more clients!! Customer service and happy clients have been everything since we started, and that won't change as we'd be nothing without that ethos.

I'd like to personally take this opportunity to thank all clients and staff members, past and present, for their loyalty and dedication to ph9; we would be nothing without you.

4) Plans for the future

We have a ton of projects in the works which we're excited to announce throughout the year on our blog. If you're not already subscribed to our mailing list, make sure you're the first to know by signging up (form at the bottom of this page).

Our plans include:-

a) Continued dedication to our clients!
Most importantly making sure our team look after our clients, and ensure their needs are met!

b) New social media management service

c) New versions of our app
We have several updates in the works which we'll be rolling out throughout the year

d) Improvements to our online marketplaces (Antiques Boutique and Militaria Zone)
We have a number of improvements in the works including some new marketing campaigns, more SEO, a refreshed email mailshot, and some new features including a new delivery and online payment facility!

e) New features on our off the shelf website platform
We have an exciting road map of new features coming to our off the shelf website platform based on feedback from our clients, together with a bunch of our team's great ideas too. Stay tuned!

5) How can we help you?

Call or email us before the end of May 2024 and say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" or "20" and get:-

• An off the shelf website for just £20 / $20 / €20 setup fee (usually £399 / $399 / €399)
• 20% off a bespoke website
• 20% off bespoke website modifications (on your existing bespoke website with us)