‘From small town Dewsbury to big city London’, how Yousaf Shah built his marketing empire

During lockdown In 2020, Yousaf left his job at a marketing firm in Dewsbury to build his own marketing and design agency, now known as The Discovery Agency.

After a string of unimaginable successes, Yousaf now has an international team and works with some of the world's most respected companies from their office in Dewsbury, their headquarters in The Shard, London and their co- working space in Dubai.

Yousaf, who now has a team of 11 people working for him, said: “I am proud of the journey, from going from small town Dewsbury to big city London, that's the exciting bit.

“I went from £0 to £35,000 in my first month, which was more than I was getting in a year, So, I knew I was onto something.

“About a year or so in I decided it was time to make a jump into the big city.

“We were looking at locations originally in Covent Garden but then the Shard got in touch and it was very difficult to say no.

“It's nice to have an office in the Shard but what's even nicer is the people who you work with get to sit there, they take just as much pride in it as I do. And the view is amazing.

“The office in Dubai, we have had for around eight months. Everything is happening in Dubai and it's nice for us to be a part of that.

“The impact of it as well influences the business, if we have an impact in London, the North and Dubai then that is a great way to establish ourselves.

“We are the movers and shakers within the areas of the world that most eyes are on.”

Over the last two years The Discovery Agency has worked with companies like Marriott Hotel, Virgin, The Hilton, Simply Be, NationWide Building Society, HSBC and L'Oréal.

Yousaf added: “In the past two years we have generated around £50million for our clients across the board.

“We don't work on a project basis with people, we build long term relationships. We are very open and honest and we always do what's right for the client, even if it means losing business for us.

“One of the things that's really important to us is that we set expectations throughout the whole thing so that people feel like they have got someone who has joined their business, not just someone who is working with the business.

“Our contract renewal rate is almost 96 per cent, whereas the industry standard is around 25 per cent. The reason we are able to do that is because we build such good relationships with people.

“Another thing we do is that we are not just there to make the money and land the cheques, we are here to make marketing accessible to smaller businesses.

“The little companies that can't afford to spend as much we are just as available for them as we are for the big companies.”

For more information, visit https://www.thediscoveryagency.com/