Borntohula Limited

Q: What's your name and position in the company?
A: Michael Austin - Director and All Round Developer

Q: Describe your company in 5 words.
A: Trusted UK Freelancer Consortium

Q: What's your business philosophy?
A: We like to be as open as possible so you understand who and why each team member is being involved (as well as the costs aligned with this). With Michael Austin (an all rounder) being in charge of the projects he can quality control the work from both a client and developer standpoint. Quality Assurance and User Testing is key.

Q: Describe your office environment.
A: Michael works in an open office environment alongside other freelancers and companies, such as web developers, translators and architects. The rest of the UK consortium either work from home, or work in open office environments. A mixture of creative and technical across a wide range of industries.

Q: Describe how your team interact and work together.
A: Depending on the scale of the project, the team either works remotely to each other communicating via Skype, or we work from the same location.

Q: What makes you different from other web design companies?
A: We'd like to think openness. A lot of agencies use freelancers, but you never know who they are. With us, you know who's been assigned to the project as they're involved from the start. Each team member has to understand our client's business.

Q: How do you get the majority of your business?
A: Referrals and online advertising. We are involved with music, so we do have a few bands come along every so often.

Q: What computers do you have use in your offices, PCs or Macs?
A: Both PC and Mac

Q: How was your company name chosen?
A: Two reasons. A song by one of Michael's favourite bands and in turn a metaphor for the amount of web skills Michael is usually hula-ing at one time.

Q: If you were to give your clients one tip on how to get the most from their website what would it be?
A: For start ups, start small and focus on the business model. You don't need a custom design, start with a template and a logo, and build the userbase. SME's invest in localised business adverts. For blue chip corporations, invest and be open to the latest technologies.