In May 2020, Anneka Hicks teamed up with two other colleagues to create ExcludedUK with a goal of creating a long-term supportive community of like-minded individuals who were all passionate about supporting one another through the Covid crisis, having been excluded from the same support as other taxpayers. In this episode, Anneka talks openly about the challenges being excluded has had on her, her business, and those in her community too.
About Anneka
Anneka Hicks runs a small account-based marketing and lead generation consultancy for companies in the IT sector, and is based in the Midlands just outside of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire.
With an extensive background in all aspects of marketing from creative, to digital, to traditional, Anneka started her career in the advertising industry working for local newspapers, before doing a management buyout of a radio station at the age of 23.
Spending the next 10 years or so as a freelancer covering interim marketing director roles for companies in IT in Telecoms, whilst being the landlady of a small village pub, in 2016 she launched Cloud10 Marketing as a limited company, looking after three full-time contracts with a small team. On 23rd March 2020, Cloud10’s core clients suffered significant losses in turnover due to the lockdown and all external contracts were frozen, resulting in loss of monthly income for the company of over 95% overnight.
Having found herself with lots of time on her hands, and excluded from support, she initially joined the ForgottenLtd campaign group on Facebook in order to assist with building group numbers and awareness of limited company directors who were falling through the cracks, and discovered a love helping people through the toughest of times.
Having realised a much broader audience needed support across so many other groups experiencing the same ineligibilities from the Government’s Covid-19 support schemes, she teamed up with two other colleagues with a goal of creating a long-term supportive community of like-minded, determined, driven, tenacious and extremely talented individuals who were all passionate about supporting one another through this crisis, having been excluded from the same support as other taxpayers, and ExcludedUK was born!
You can find Anneka on LinkedIn and her profile page on her website.