3 months ago, Creative Tourist approached HackMyBusiness for support developing the business: addressing some practical business structure and process issues with the aim of enabling it to become more efficient, scale effectively and grow in a sustainable way.

Manchester-based Creative Tourist Limited is a successful publishing, events and communications agency that helps put cultural destinations on the tourism map. Two key elements of the business are Creative Tourist Consults and CreativeTourist.com. The business is run by a core team of cultural tourism specialists working alongside a pool of talented associates.
 
Creative Tourist Consults specialises in cultural tourism strategy and digital communications. With significant experience in the tourism, cultural and digital sectors, it helps its clients to market the places they live and work as credible cultural destinations.

 
creativetourist.com is an art and travel site. It began life in Manchester and is expanding across the North; it uncovers the best art and cultural events, and publishes insider guides to some of the UK’s most creative destinations.

What we did: CT Business Hack

To prepare for the hack, we engaged with CT customers, directors, staff, and associates to elicit feedback about the business, identify opportunities for growth and key areas requiring attention.

Sorry … we can’t publish details about most of what was explored during the hack day as it is confidential to Creative Tourist, but here is a flavour …

The hack day consisted of several distinct but linked elements:

• Making sense of the homework and feedback
• Vision and purpose
• Business Model exploration (simultaneous creative & analytical approaches)
• Making sense of the models
• Key strategic decisions
• Practical actions

The feedback from CT customers, staff and associates provided some valuable insights that became the starting point for a creative and rigorous exploration of the business.

Identifying and committing to actions to enable sustainable business growth

CT Business Hack: Outcome & Next Steps

The hack day enabled CT directors to gain a clear focus on their business purpose and vision, what the business needs to do to grow sustainably, and prioritise key decisions to enable that growth.  

 “It’s now approaching 2 months since our Hack Day and we are really noticing the impact.  The day allowed us to put our company under a microscope and we found that the things we needed to focus on became really clear. We are now delivering the necessary changes and not just talking about them. As directors we feel energised and empowered to take some risks. That’s exciting. The next step is to the pass the benefits of that on to our staff and clients — and that’s all in the pipeline. Do I think the impact will last another 2 months – most certainly.”
Alex Saint, co-founder & CEO of Creative Tourist