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How we built a business out of recession — chapter 46 — go get ’em Jack
The story of CitNOW*
This is the 46th chapter about CitNOW, the company started from a kitchen table in Winnersh, Berkshire. If you’d like to read from the beginning, here’s a link to chpt 1. Each chapter is a 5-minute read. It’s an early draft of a book.
CitNOW was founded by Andrew Howells and Donna Barradale in 2005, although the company was only registered in 2008. In February 2018, we sold the company to Tenzing, a UK private equity company. It has been sold again since.
Claudia rounded off our horribilis annus by collecting all of our financial woes and writing them off in one go. Nearly £1 million went down the paper toilet. The good news was being able to start the following year in much better shape, much closer to a cashflow positive situation.
Costs had been cleared out that we couldn’t afford. I was sad to lose people, but delighted that we got rid of the ego-oriented trappings, such as the Manchester office and the chauffeur, even if he was a lovely Liverpool supporter.
It also meant we could focus our attention and limited resources on some of our biggest opportunities, supporting growth in the largely untapped European markets.
