the brand new blog from the Instagram and Marketing Experts
Welcome to the very new, and very exciting Your AJency small business blog. Honestly, I can’t believe this moment has come and I am finally launching the blog for my global strategic marketing agency. Ideas are never the hard part for me, but finding the time to get them all down on paper when I am so busy being a Mum, wife and female founder of a small business can be somewhat challenging so I feel incredibly excited to be at this next step for Your AJency.
So, on the launch of my blog and as the start of many MOMENTS TO MOTIVATE I wanted to share a little more about me - Anna Jones. Mum of 2 kids. Wife. CEO of Your AJency. Instagram expert. Travel addict. Whether you’ve been following me for a while, or you’ve just discovered me, here’s a bit more of my story on how I got to this moment.
Photo by Emily Davis Studio
Your AJency hasn’t happened overnight
In fact growing my business has been the result of many years working across different industries and in different roles. I started my career as an ambitious retailer working for some of the biggest British brands, leading their flagship stores. Think Marks & Spencers and Topshop just to name a few. I was driven. I already knew I wanted to run a fashion retail brand one day and as my parents were both entrepreneurs, I had the support and drive to get there too. For the time being though, I was working and living in London (my favourite city in the whole world). I met my now-husband through work and we got married in the beautiful British countryside in Somerset. After an incredible honeymoon, we returned to London and I took over as the Operations Director at Topshop - my absolute dream job. But despite our plans and contentment in London, our lives were about to change. The exact same day we got back from honeymoon and I started my new role, my husband was offered the chance to move to India with his work. I have always loved to travel and even studied languages at university so we decided to go for it. We had nothing to lose and having seen my Dad work abroad when I was younger, I was excited at the prospect of living and working abroad. Being from the UK, I was also excited to live somewhere hot and sunny for a change!
Moving to Delhi and Growing A Community
We spent 2.5 years living in Delhi and we travelled all over Asia, making lifelong friends along the way. I fell in love with India and all it had to offer us, even though I had had to give up my dream job to move there. I did try and get a job locally when I arrived, but after being offered just $20k to be the Head of Retail for India at a well-known shoe brand, I decided that the prospect of working 6-day weeks and long hours wouldn’t be worth it. Instead, together with a good American friend, we grew a supportive community of expats, the Gugaon Connection. We put together fun socials, huge markets with local artisans, and raised valuable fund for local charities. Our community grew from 50 to over 2000 in less than 2 years, and we supported a lot of local businesses in that time too. I absolutely loved it! It became a lifeline for people arriving as we developed a wealth of resources to help people make the transition to life in Delhi. Looking back, this is where my love of community grew to a whole new level and I fell in love with creating supportive networks even more.
Anna Jones. Mum. Wife. Instagram Expert. CEO
In my personal life, I took on my best role yet after finally falling pregnant and having my first son, Harry in March 2012. He was born in India but we decided we’d move back to the UK to be closer to family. I loved having the chance to take time out to be with Harry, but in the back of my mind, I knew I had more to give. I just needed something that would be flexible enough to give me the best of both worlds. Self-employment gave me that flexibility, even though it’s not always been as easy as people may think - it’s surprisingly difficult for me, at least, to switch off from it, despite being able to choose my own hours.
Photo by Wildwood Photography
My first venture was launching an amazing software product, Wooqer in the UK after discovering it in India. I also retrained in digital marketing with Digital Mums whilst pregnant with my second child. I had being doing a bit of local marketing but knew if I wanted to launch my own small business, I needed to upskill myself when it came to digital! Today, just 7 years later, I’ve used my commercial retail experience of running London flagship stores, my vast marketing knowledge, and my unique global perspectives to create Your AJency.
Your AJency - Instagram and Marketing Experts
In 2020, whilst living in Chicago, and in a worldwide pandemic, I founded Your AJency - a global strategic marketing agency that works with female-founded businesses run by brave disruptors and innovators. We specialise in strategic storytelling and marketing, supporting these businesses’ growth goals and connecting them with a community of loyal supporters and future clients. Our clients are hand-selected based on their ambition, drive, and uniqueness. These passionate leaders are ready to accelerate their growth but need our expertise to make that happen. We believe every business has a secret sauce and an audience they haven’t reached yet. Once we understand the magic, we apply ours.
In 2021, every single one of Your AJency's clients grew both in revenue as well as social presence. They have all got closer to creating the brand they want! Something I am extremely proud of. I love working with ambitious women and quickly recognised the importance not just having a great support network at home, but also in your business. At Your AJency, we become part of our clients’ team and champion them constantly. We take their goals as our own and help make them happen. Launching Your AJency has been the best decision I’ve made.
Community Over Competition
Having always dreamed of running my own fashion retail brand, and seeing the hard work my parents put into their own businesses, I genuinely felt creating my own community-based business was something I knew that I just wanted to do. One of my other ventures before we’d moved to the States was a UK-based marketing agency, quite tied to the local community in the Cotswolds where we lived. I’d done some limited work and knew I enjoyed it but it never really expanded beyond that. Arriving in Chicago I have to admit there was a bit of culture shock and so I prioritised settling my kids into nursery and school, as this was our first international move as a family. During this time, I built a network of like-minded women and it was one of these great friends in Chicago who encouraged me to take the plunge and launch my own business. Honestly, I was a little intimidated. I found that culturally, women are so much better in the USA at celebrating and talking about their successes than in the UK. But with the support of my good friend, and biggest cheerleader, Gillian of Rold Design, I found my first client, decided on a business name, registered and got to work. Gillian had designed Wildwood Studio in Roscoe Village and knew that Sarah was ready to take on some help. Your AJency was born.
So why now, and why a blog? Aren’t blogs dead?
Anyone that knows me, knows that I tend to use a lot of words! My goal on our social accounts is to keep adding value to our followers but I struggle to keep captions short! I feel like I always have more to add but have to reign myself in. I think that’s why I love video so much! The beauty of video is that you tend to be able to get more information in, in a shorter space of time! But in all seriousness, I wanted to launch this blog to start more conversations and have another way of sharing stories, advice and inspiration to fellow female entrepreneurs. Having just moved countries, this will also help you get to know me as I relaunch the new me, the woman who launched a new business in a foreign country and came back a different person. I’ve gone through a whole lot of growth personally in the last 2 years particularly and can’t wait to re-introduce myself to you all over the coming weeks.
What to Expect from the Your AJency Blog
I am so excited to start sharing the content I have been working on for the last few months. I have really enjoyed creating it. The blog will be broken down into 3 different sections; my tips and advice as well as suggestions from other experts in the industry; sharing my life as a female entrepreneur with real honesty about my journey and what I’ve learned along the way; and last but not least, it will be a platform to share the amazing women who inspire me and who I have had the pleasure of connecting with. I have some amazing interviews lined up and they are packed full of life lessons, advice and insights into the running of these amazing businesses. All of these women are at different stages of their business journeys and I know I always feel so inspired after reading them.
I want to bring you weekly tips to help you grow your own small business. I want it to be enjoyable. I want to know what you want to read. If you’ve got feedback, I want to hear it. Above all, I want to ensure I am bringing you inspiration and motivation. So here it is, welcome to the Your AJency blog.
Please let me know if you have any feedback and look forward to connecting and sharing more soon.
Anna