Enterprise Nation

David Parsley was a little jittery when he left his well-paid job in London to start a business from his new home in Devon. But, phew. One year on he’s happy to be saying it was the best career decision he ever made. See how this suave and urbane city Editor has effortlessly made a transition.

When did you launch parsleymedia?

August 2007

What were you doing before becoming your own boss?

I was the founding Editor of CityAM, London’s daily business newspaper. My career has also included three years as Business Editor of the Sunday Express and five years on the Sunday Times.

What does the business do?

parsleymedia has gathered together an unrivalled team of journalists, television presenters, producers and media trainers to ensure it offers business and publishing clients the most comprehensive media service available. The group’s website was launched this summer.

Whether it’s top-notch editorial, media training, recruitment services or consultancy advice, parsleymedia has the team to provide a carefully tailored package for each individual client.

You have a great collection of expert commentators - what's the revenue model behind that part of the business?

We find our team of leading journalists and celebrity experts writing, broadcasting and media training jobs. For this part of the business we have a straightforward agency fee model.
We also provide recruitment, launch and restructuring advice to publishers for which we charge a consultancy fee. And, finally, parsleymedia offers the UK’s strongest team of media trainers who advise multi-national companies, public sector bodies and charities on their media skills and strategies. Again, we charge a consultancy fee to our clients for this service.

Do you work from a dedicated room that serves as your home office? Can you describe it to us?

Like many others, we’ve launched the business from our spare bedroom. It’s a good sized square room (5mx5m) so we’ve got plenty of space for my wife, a partner in the business, and me to work at our desks opposite each other. We’ve also got a comfy sofa in the room, which I like to relax on at the end of each day with a cup of tea and write down what I’ve achieved that day and what I need to achieve the next day. As we’re dealing with national news publishers and broadcasters all the time, we really do need to have a TV in the office. So we got Sky installed and we have the news channels on all day.

You used to live and work in London and then moved to Devon to start your business. Your life must be very different now ... are you happy out of the city?

I still travel to London for meetings at least once a week, but really enjoy working from the Devon countryside. We’re only three hours by train from central London so I don’t feel disconnected at all. In fact, I’m never as late for meetings in town now as I was when I worked and lived in the heart of the city.

I like London a great deal, but I view it as a place of work and not the best place to bring up children. We have a little boy and Devon offers him so much more than London ever could.

Does your move prove that with the right technology, you can work just about anywhere? What about face-to-face contact with people in the trade? Do you miss that? Is it essential?

When I’m in London I cram in as many meetings as I would in an entire week when I worked there. Of course, it is absolutely essential to have the technology in the home office. With it, I could be in London as far as our clients are concerned. Without it we wouldn’t be able to have the great work/life balance we now have.

We have a ‘virtual office’ in the West End, which we can use for meetings and work space when in town. We also have a London telephone number that’s diverted to our home and a London company address, but we sit at our desks in Devon. It’s the best of both worlds and it works really well for our work and personal lives.

What would be the one piece of advice you'd offer to someone in the media/PR industry who's thinking of starting a business from home?

Gain as much experience of your specialism in as short a time as possible. Build yourself a reputation among senior players in the field you want to work in and ensure your contacts book is crammed to bursting.

Most importantly, believe in yourself. If you can do a great job as an employee then you can do a great job as your own boss. I now wish we had taken the plunge before we did. I was very nervous about leaving a regular employee salary and London behind to set up the company, but it has proved to be the best career decision I ever made.

• David Parsley