A small work-from-home business owner is celebrating a significant achievement: her online news website, News from Wales, has been honored as the UK’s Best Community and Business News Platform in the SME News UK Enterprise Awards 2024.
Lisa Baker launched Newsfromwales.co.uk in 2017 from her spare bedroom and continues to run it from home. The website provides news coverage on local businesses, communities, charities, and councils, primarily as a free service to the Welsh community.
Lisa says:
“I started the site to help small businesses with no budget for advertising. When I worked in marketing, I found it significantly easier to get editorial coverage in London than in Wales, and for start-ups and micro businesses a ‘modest fee’ of £200-500 for an advert or an article in offline publications can be out of reach.
“I had recently set up my own marketing business and I ‘was’ my client’s marketing budget, so I needed an affordable way for my clients to reach more customers. With experience in online publishing and experience in writing news, creating my own news site seemed the most strategic option so News from Wales was born!
“7 years and another 40 business news websites later, I never imagined back then that I would no longer be working in marketing and would be running my own online publishing company full time. During COVID I was, like many other businesses, worried about how we would get through it, but I found by helping other struggling Welsh companies get their stories out there, I was able to help my own business survive.
“It’s been a long journey and I still have to pinch myself that one of my sites has won a national award – but more than that, I am grateful that my little work from home business has been able to help so many other businesses along the way!”
With tentative plans for international expansion and more news sites currently in the pipeline, the 57-year-old publisher has no plans to slow down. However, she says there won’t be any change to her working life.
“I love working from home. I have leased a couple of offices along the way, but always seem to go back to working from home. I get the space and comfort I need to work in peace and quiet and can enjoy the company of my pets. It’s a way of life for me now!”