2022 Round Up!
We’ve had a whirlwind of a year! It’s crazy to think we’re headed into our 8th year of Black Nova next week!
For us 2022 has been a year of continued growth, refining infrastructure, firsts and exciting new client launches! We very much hope that 2023 keeps the pace and with website projects booked in from day one of 2023, it’s looking likely!
Black Nova at Badminton Horse Trials
One of our biggest highlights of the year must be exhibiting at the one and only Badminton Horse Trials in Gloucestershire this summer. The equestrian world is close to our hearts here at Black Nova Designs, not only are Danielle and Holly (our newest team member) horse lovers and avid riders at heart, but a large percentage of our clients are based within the equestrian and rural sector. Both Holly and Danielle have been visitors to Badminton Horse Trials for years and so to experience the event from an exhibitor’s point of view, and for the whole 5 days was unforgettable!
Speaking on the experience, Managing Director, Danielle said; “this is a huge stride forward for the us as a website design, hosting and IT solutions company – the only exhibitor of our kind at the event! It was such a special experience to be able to meet so many of our clients, but also friends in person at one of the most prestigious International Horse Trials in the world. We’re already looking forward to returning next year!”
In addition to Badminton Horse Trials, we also had stands at The Festival of Eventing, Gatcombe Horse Trials and the BusinessExpo in Swindon too. In person events give us the opportunity to get in front of our customers and showcase what we offer but more importantly, it gives you – the clients the opportunity to meet us in person, ask any questions you might have and get to know us on a personal level before entering a working relationship – something which we believe is invaluable and key to a successful partnership. People buy from people after all, right?
Hosting with a difference
Hosting has always been one of our strongest services, and 2022 saw this continue to evolve as we invested more into our infrastructure. Black Nova Designs are one of only a few companies locally to be providing our own hosting, and not reselling the service from other businesses. This means we are involved and on-hand to support the client at any time, with our human, friendly and in-house team, through every stage of their experience with us.
Talking of hosting, we’ve published a YouTube video talking about what is website hosting, why you need web hosting and the different hosting services we can offer:
Our Black Nova Designs YouTube channel launched earlier this year and is definitely still in its infancy but it is something we are super excited about developing in 2023 so watch this space!
We even became an authorised cPanel partner this year. We use cPanel as our website and server management software to maximise the user experience for our hosting clients ensuring we are providing our clients with an out of this world service that is superior to the rest.
One of our Founder Kyle’s goals when he first launched Black Nova was to become a trademarked brand and this year, in 2022 we successfully registered the Black Nova trademark in 6 different classes!
Charity challenge
In 2022, on top of running a total of 9 charity Build a PC Days in support of local mental health charity: Wiltshire Mind, Kyle trained for and conquering the gruelling Three Peaks Challenge raising over £1,000 for the RNLI with his friend Danny Parsons after losing his best friend, Anthony (Ant) Miller to the sea.
“It was exhausting but exhilarating and I’m so thankful to my partner in this feat, Danny,” Kyle said. He is already looking into taking on a new challenge in 2023 but is yet to decide on what that will look like!
New beginnings
This year we waved goodbye to Tom and Erykah and wish them well in their new adventures, we’re pleased to be able to stay in touch with both. At the beginning of December, we welcomed Holly to the team as Head of Marketing and Business Development just in time for our first ever Christmas Open Day which was a big success and saw us welcome lots of locals as well as clients past and present and delicious food and drinks from local businesses Fluffy Puffin and Little Grazey.
In her first two weeks, Holly increased our Facebook has seen a 63% increase in reach, a 275% increase in Facebook page views and a 290% increase in Instagram profile visits already! We can’t wait to move forward with Black Nova Designs in 2023 with Holly onboard.
We will be looking to hire another Developer in 2023 too!
Saving the best until last…
Ending 2022 on a high, we have just launched our exciting new website ready to kickstart 2023 in the best way possible.
Talking on the launch of our impressive new website (if we do say so ourselves!), Kyle said: “During the first few years of the business, I coded the company website myself. We had a few different versions over those years; however, I was the only developer available at the time as it was just a team of Danielle and I. However, we have developed our brand-new website as a team, pulling in thoughts and suggestions from our designers, developers, marketing and sales team.
The new website totally encompasses my love for space, which you will see is now becoming part of our brand as a whole AND inspired the name Black Nova Designs initially. As well as being fully responsive, the website is fully bespoke with lots of added special touches like the moving team astronauts!”
With the launch of our brand new website, we officially became Nominent approved domain registrars with our own IPS tag for .uk domains only! This is big news! More on this later. We’re also .gov registrars too so you can register domains for local parish councils and schools.
In 2022 we launched 42 client websites and welcomed 73 new hosting clients, here’s to a bigger and better 2023.
From us for now, it’s over and out. We wish you all a very happy Christmas and we’ll see you in 2023.