How frustration over organising time off work grew into a successful Manchester business, Timetastic

The founders of a Manchester business which aims to make sorting out time off work for staff easier have shared some of their tips and secrets of success.

Timetastic was founded by Gary Bury and Matt Roberts in 2014 and now has a team of six full-time employees and around 8,500 clients on the books.

The idea arose from working at a company where organising staff holidays was a time-consuming and tricky business, with Gary and Matt becoming convinced that there had to be a simpler way of doing things.

They developed the app that became Timetastic and have enjoyed years of steady growth since striking out on their own.

How did Timetastic start?

Gary, who is now 47, and his Timetastic co-founder Matt, 44, were both working at a text message delivery company and having problems with just how hard it was to organise staff holidays.

Gary previously worked as an accountant while Matt was a software engineer.

Gary said: “We were struggling with spreadsheets and bits of paper being passed round the office. We had to work out what time off people had left and it all seemed a palaver. We thought there had to be a better way.

“Timetastic was a side project we built for our own purposes because we needed something internally.

“It was our answer to the problems. It’s a very simple app, it does one thing very well.”

When the text message delivery company went under Timetastic effectively became Gary’s severance package, and Matt quickly decided to come on board as well.

How did Timetastic develop?

Gary says that the business has enjoyed steady growth over the years, saying this is far more common for start-ups than the few which rocket to sudden and spectacular success which often grab the headlines.

Thousands of companies are now using the app all over the world while the team’s base is a shared office space at Canada House in the middle of Manchester.

Timetastic allows employees to book time off and see what holidays everyone else on their team has, and when choices are made sends emails to bosses and automatically updates the system once they approve the days.

Gary said: “In the olden days you would be sat with your partner trying to book a holiday and you would have to check if you could get the time off when you went into work.

“Now you can just fire up the mobile and sort it there and then.”

There have been a few bumps in the road but largely Gary says growth has been smooth, with peaks of business coming in January and April.

However, Timetastic did feel something of the hardship that business in general went through with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gary said: “You can leave a message when you leave Timetastic and quite a few said it was because the business was closing down because of Covid. It was quite sad to see that really.

“We put a notice up saying that if anyone was struggling they could have their account free for a while.”

The firm has also just enjoyed a strong January performance after the emergence of the Omicron variant led to some hesitation and uncertainty among businesses at the end of last year.

What tips would Timetastic give other start-ups and entrepreneurs in Manchester?

Gary says one of the most significant things for him in running a business is reducing its administrative burden.

That means every one of Timetastic’s clients has to pay by credit or debit card, with no invoicing as a result.

This has partly been achieved by the business becoming a customer of Starling Bank, which it found while searching for an ethical bank.

In addition, the firm does not have a phone line, with customers being given a demo to show them how to use the app.

Gary says, especially when first starting out, businesses need to be firm with their customers about the terms of conditions of trading.

He said: “There’s often a scramble with start-ups to get your first 50 or 100 customers, and you can get very flexible.

“Some people want to pay by invoice and you agree, and then some want to pay annually and you start to make exceptions.

“We’ve been really strong right from the start on saying we won’t negotiate on price or mechanisms or paying. The terms are on our website and hopefully it will fit with our customers.

“We invest heavily in websites and online presence, and we are focused on product development and marketing.”