Jack Allan

Edinburgh-based Today assists independent businesses with creative content creation and social media management, while offering students the opportunity to gain essential practical and paid for industry experience.

Founder Jack Allan started the business whilst at university and, during the 2020 Covid lockdown, completed Business Gateway’s five-week programme ‘Gateway to Investment’ designed specifically to help start-ups grow and secure investment. The programme provided him with advice on securing funding, covering aspects such as investor research, financial readiness and pitch presentation training.

Through this course, Mr Allan identified funding routes which included securing over £20,000 in grants in 2021 and £40,000 investment ‘in-kind’ which covered operational expenses and enabled the business to grow internationally.

Today Agency has since opened offices in Manchester and Newcastle, with clients across five UK cities and secured a partnership with The Challenges Group, opening offices in Kampala and Accra with plans to open three more throughout Africa.

Mr Allan also accessed regular 1:1 support from his dedicated business adviser as part of Business Gateway’s Growth Service. He received a strategic review of the business plan to identify new opportunities and priorities, advice on PR and marketing, as well as specialist support in international expansion.

Jack Allan said: “Business Gateway gave me, as a leader, the opportunity to speak to mentors and think critically about the business. This helped greatly in assessing our next steps and has provided us a platform to successfully expand our business operations worldwide.

“There is a significant opportunity for our business to grow internationally over the coming years. Across Africa, we’re seeing dynamic ideas originating from the likes of Rwanda, Ghana and Uganda which is exciting. Businesses and young people across the UK and further afield are ambitious and we want to work with them.

“We have our sights set on becoming the world’s first global student-driven media agency and thanks to the clear advice and direction given by our Business Gateway adviser, we were able to develop our business and are well on our way.”

Lindsey Sibbald, adviser, Business Gateway, added: “It is wonderful to see how Today Agency has taken such an innovative concept and scaled it up with offices not only in the UK, but across the world.

“It is rewarding to see how Jack has achieved his goals, despite the pandemic, reaching a new market in which they are thriving by working with our team. We would encourage all businesses to get in touch and make use of the services we have at Business Gateway, if there are areas where support is needed.”