Profici was founded by former athlete turned entrepreneur, Anthony O’Brien, who had previously founded Beneficial Marketing

Liverpool marketing agency Profici says it has quadrupled its staff to six and now gives work to 60 freelancers just one year after its launch.

Profici was founded by former athlete turned entrepreneur, Anthony O’Brien, who had previously founded Beneficial Marketing, a business which he ran for five years. However, when he was returning to work after his honeymoon, he realised that sales at his company had dipped slightly while he’d been away.

So he set out to launch a new venture that was less dependent on his skills to bring in new business and set himself a mission to find the right people who could share that load.

It took Anthony 18 months to find all of the leaders in their field who he wanted to work with, and to put the systems in place to launch Profici (which takes its name from the Latin word: Proficio, meaning to assist, to advance and to make progress).

In October 2018, the business was launched, offering clients the option of working with a full service marketing agency with a strong digital offering and a far broader range of experts on hand.

He said: “The people we have on board are all specialists in their field, and we have the right people for the job. For example, we’ve got six different photographers, so whether a client needs food photography, music photography or architectural shots, we’ll use exactly the right professional to get the best possible result.”

Given his background in athletics (Anthony was a sprinter in his youth and has retained a keen interest in the importance of physical fitness) he sees parallels between the world of sport and business.

He added: “I’m a great believer in building a team of people who are much better than you are. I look at it like building a football team – finding the best people and putting them in the right positions and bringing out the very best in your team.”