Building a consultancy from nothing to a fully operational brand in four months
As a co-founder and director of Arx Nova, I played a central role in building the business from a standing start into a fully operational consultancy within four months. We began with nothing more than a strong founding team and a clear mission, but there was no brand, no name, no identity, no digital presence, no systems and no commercial infrastructure. To succeed, the business needed an entire marketing and commercial engine built from scratch, designed to look credible from day one and capable of supporting fast, confident growth.
The Challenge
The challenge was ambitious and uncompromising. We needed to create a consultancy that looked and felt established, authoritative and ready to serve mid-tier businesses navigating crisis and transformation. This meant defining the business strategically, articulating a compelling narrative, designing a brand that carried weight at board level and building the full commercial platform to support lead generation, sales and long-term growth.
The work required much more than visual identity or messaging. It demanded the creation of a complete business foundation. As a co-founder, I was responsible for every part of that engine, ensuring that each decision supported the next and that the entire system functioned cohesively, scaled cleanly and could operate without friction. It was a level of integration that goes far beyond a traditional marketing brief.
The Approach
The first stage involved defining the strategic foundations of the company. I established the market position, clarified the audiences we were targeting and identified the competitive space Arx Nova would occupy. This included shaping the value proposition and creating a service architecture that explained clearly how we support organisations both during moments of crisis and through longer-term transformation. This strategic definition set the direction for the entire brand and commercial model.
Once the strategic foundations were clear, I created the name Arx Nova, drawing on the idea of a “new fortress” to capture the strength, stability and sense of renewal the business represents. I then developed the full brand identity system, including the logo, colour palette, typography and a visual framework that unified both digital and print environments. This system was designed to feel confident, modern and entirely fit for a board-level consultancy.
Alongside the visual identity, I built the entire verbal identity for the business. This included the brand narrative, tone of voice, service descriptions, leadership biographies and a structured messaging framework that could be used consistently across web, social, sales and PR. The intention was to give the founding team a clear, coherent language that articulated who we are, what we do and the value we deliver.
With the identity system in place, I designed and built the website from the ground up. I shaped the UX, created the visual layouts, wrote all of the content, optimised the structure for search and designed conversion paths that supported early lead generation. I integrated all tracking, analytics and behavioural tagging, ensuring the site could support operational reporting and future optimisation. The end result was a website that looked significantly more mature than a typical early-stage consultancy and communicated our proposition with confidence and clarity.
Beyond the digital presence, I built the full commercial and marketing infrastructure needed for the business to operate. This included the CRM setup, lead capture forms, automation workflows, attribution models, reporting dashboards and email nurture sequences. This ensured that the business could capture, track and act on opportunities from the moment it launched.
Alongside this, I designed and built Arx Logic, a proprietary system that identifies businesses showing signs of distress. I created the underlying data model, the scoring logic, the red flag categories and the structure for future automation and integration. This system became a significant differentiator for the business and an asset that strengthens our commercial proposition.
I also created all social media profiles, visual assets, templates and early content, ensuring that the brand had a consistent and credible presence across all channels. Finally, I established the content and SEO strategy and grew organic traffic from zero to around 180 visits per day within months, creating a sustainable inbound channel unusually early for a consultancy of this type.
The Outcome
Within four months, Arx Nova moved from concept to a fully operational consultancy with a complete brand identity, a commercially driven website, a functioning CRM and tracking system, an automated lead engine, a proprietary intelligence tool, a consistent digital presence and growing inbound traffic. Every component of the brand, system, website, content and commercial infrastructure was built by me as a co-founder.
This was not simply the creation of a brand.
It was the creation of a business.
Project Summary
I co-founded Arx Nova and built its entire strategic, operational and marketing foundation, including the name, identity, website, CRM and analytics setup, lead engine, collateral, social presence, content structure, commercial pathways, and the Arx Logic intelligence system, while also driving early SEO performance to generate strong inbound traction. The work created a scalable platform capable of supporting the consultancy’s long-term growth and credibility in the market.