The business was experiencing steady 100%+ growth in years 1 and 2, but capacity limits and founder dependency were constraining further scale. Critical operational knowledge was held by the founder, and processes were largely undocumented.
Operations were extracted, documented, and structured, and mid- and senior-level hires were recruited and onboarded with clear responsibilities. Focused systems and workflows were implemented to support client delivery, finance, and team management while freeing founder capacity.
Deliverables
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Comprehensive project budget template and trained the team to a uniform process
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Communication and reporting flow to remove bottlenecks and reduce founder dependency
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People processes: weekly 1:1s, annual reviews, and promotion pathways
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Repeat retainer contracts
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Templated key operational processes, including installation guides and compliance packs
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Defined and resourced the marketing strategy
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Long-term supplier partnerships to drive marginal gains and operational consistency
Seen Studios
Unlocking scalable growth for a creative studio
Seen Studios was growing quickly through a steady flow of project-based work, but the model created a natural ceiling to scale.
With a small team, the founder sat at the centre of everything – holding critical operational knowledge, with ways of working that had evolved organically rather than intentionally.
As demand increased, this limited capacity and reduced time to build meaningful, long-term client relationships, keeping the business in reactive delivery cycles.
The growth unlock:
To unlock growth, we built capacity and capability into the business while it continued to deliver – documenting, structuring, and delegating how the studio operated:
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Restructured the organisation into specialist delivery teams aligned to project type, improving ownership, quality, and scalability
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Introduced middle and senior leadership layers to distribute decision-making and reduce reliance on the founder
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Developed operational playbooks and financial KPIs to create consistency across delivery, budgeting, and margin visibility
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Strengthened commercial foundations through renegotiated client and supplier agreements and a global partner network
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Organisational structure and recruitment across 12 roles building a middle and senior management layer
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Introduced insight-led marketing as a value-add, using trend workshops and reports to build authority and unlock earlier-stage briefs
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Built skills capability and people infrastructure, including onboarding, performance development, team training, and communication rhythms
Select pages from new credentials presentation illustrating strategic creative partner positioning;
Select pages from new credentials presentation illustrating strategic creative partner positioning;
The impact
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Stronger operational capability enabled the delivery of larger global projects and expand key client relationships.
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This restructure unlocked revenues, growing from £450K to £4.5M in 18 months while maintaining 60% gross profit and 25% net profit margins.
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Client account size increased significantly, including Nike exploding by more than 9000%.
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Improved creative and strategy capability led to greater recognition with award-wins and exclusive collaborations with London Fashion Week and Buckingham Palace events.
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These foundations have supported the agency to grow 10x from 5 project managers to a multidisciplinary team of 50 without the need for further restructuring or repositioning.
900%
growth in18 months, from £450k to £4.5 million in revenue.
10x
growth from a 5-person projects team to a 50-person award-winning multidisciplinary agency.
60%
gross and 25% net profit maintained throughout restructure and continual growth.
Lucy has a considered, focused and effective approach, with a real ability to support, build and develop leaders. She’s deeply committed to helping people and businesses realise their potential. Highly organised, structured and incredibly reliable, she never missed internal board deadlines or financial targets and is always laser-focused on delivering the right outcomes.
Chloe Ellis, Seen Studios Board Director
