Article 10 of the European Convention for Human Rights guarantees our freedom to hold and communicate opinions and ideas. And it is the inspiration behind an ambitious presentation design company that has set its sights on growing through diversification into other related services.

Co-founders Lyndon Nicholson and Dale Smith launched Article 10, based in London’s Old Street, in 2004. Turnover leapt to £500k over the following three years, and is set to hit £1.1m this year.

‘If you had asked me six months ago how I would describe the business, I would have said we were, first and foremost, a presentations design agency, from doing quite basic PowerPoint work through to doing more advanced animated presentations, incorporating video production,’ Nicholson explains. Clients include blue-chip names such as BP, Unilever and L’Oreal.

‘We were able to do this because we had a very niche offering,’ he says, adding that the company has been able to build good relationships with very senior people in its client companies. ‘But then we found we were being asked to do more things by more people because we were a trusted supplier,’ he says.

They were asked to help design new brands, launch communications plans and to take their presentation work ‘to the big screen’, leading to conferences and events.

Nicholson and Smith did not have the skills required to fulfil these requests for additional services, so employed high-level executives to build these sides of the business.

They have now brought on board three specialists ­ one to help with strategic media, offering end-to-end online advertising, another to provide strategic input into their integrated marketing division, taking a step back from de liverables to address clients’ communications challenges, and a third with events management expertise.

Nicholson believes there are real synergies to be found between the various strands of the group. ‘We have set up three new businesses that can have the same focus as the presentation business, but can also feed back into that business,’ he explains.

As the business has grown, so has the head count. Just 18 months ago, there were five staff, now there are 19, which, in itself, presents challenges for the founders. ‘We don’t need an HR manager, but it takes up a lot of our time,’ Nicholson says.

The same can also be said for their financial operations, which again can be very time consuming. They have taken on a marketing manager, removing an additional headache. IT support has been outsourced. ‘This used to be a big issue for us, especially when you consider what we do,’ says Nicholson.

Looking to the future, acquisitions of other agencies could be a possibility, though probably not in the next 12 to 18 months. The strategy would be to get the group to a size where the founders would then be able to look for a sale of the group in, say, five years’ time.

In terms of financing, the company does not have any overdrafts or loans. ‘We started the business with our own cash in 2004 and have kept it that way since. However, it will be difficult to keep it that way as the business grows,’ Nicholson acknowledges.

He is also mindful of the potential impact of a slowdown in the economy. However, he feels relatively insulated from this as the company has cash in the bank and, perhaps more importantly, he believes they offer services that are used when the economy worsens. Also, by diversifying, he believes that if one area does go quiet, the other parts of the business will be able to protect it.

So as the business grows, Nicholson has recognised the need for careful management of cashflow and people and the need to ensure that the growth does not get out of control. But if he is successful, Nicholson should be able to realise his investment in the next five years.

The main challenges:

Click here to read what our experts from HSBC think Lyndon and Dale should do to move on