25.11.2009 MAW Comms wins Enterprise Nation Award

MAW Communications was honoured at the Enterprise Nation Awards held at the BT Centre in London in November, as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week. 

Gordon and Liz Maw who set up the PR agency in their home four years ago, beat entrepreneurs from across the UK to be crowned “Home Business Couple of the Year”. 

The awards were sponsored by BT, Regus, Staples, hp, Intel, PayPal and Business Link and the judges’ criteria included profitability and growth potential as well as the use of technology.

MAW Communications client list includes price comparison site Gocompare.com, the Virgin group, HBOS, insurer NIG, law firm Howes Percival LLP, brand expert Simon Middleton and theatre ticket website SeatChoice.com.  Over the years they have worked with the likes of Sir Richard Branson, Head of the British Army General Sir Richard Dannatt, the cast of Strictly Come Dancing, TV presenter Ben Fogle and yachtswoman Dee Caffari.
    
MAW Comms founder Gordon Maw said, “When I first started the business it was just me with a laptop and a notebook full of ideas but no actual clients, so working from home was the obvious solution.  As the children got older, Liz was able to do more and more and we slowly built up the PR agency proposition.  But even though the business has grown enormously, we have been able to continue doing it our own way.  Now we’ve got a client base that any agency would be proud of and we can pick and choose the work we take on. 

“We’ve won over 85 per cent of the business we’ve pitched for over the last four years and regularly beat the top regional firms and London PR agencies too.  It is very satisfying to do that and feel like you are doing it completely on your own terms.  Our lifestyle and family are just as important as our business and I think we have a better business because of that balance. 

“A lot of people say they couldn’t work with their partner but it seems very natural for us.  We were both experienced PR people, but when we started working together we realised that we each loved different parts of the job so we complement each other quite well.  I can’t think of a single time when working from home has been a handicap, but I can think of hundreds of times when it has given us an advantage.  We don’t have to sit in pointless meetings for hours on end or have meaningless conversations with people we don’t really like – we just get on, get the work done and then go and do something even more fun.      

“Hopefully these awards will help inspire other people to start businesses.  Technology these days means it is easier than ever to set up a business without taking huge risks and it allows you to compete against much bigger rivals.  Technology has completely levelled the playing field and we use loads of online tools that allow us to offer a really comprehensive service.”