STAYING ahead of the curve has been the mantra of Redhead PR’s founder, who is celebrating 15 years of business this week.

Sara Tye, originally from Swindon, set up Red Head PR in London 2003 after a career in corporate communications, working with global brands and going on to pioneer the very first company website for The Body Shop.

“I’ve always been entrepreneurial, and I’ve been heavily involved in technology,” said Sara. “Having got the Body Shop online in 1992, I thought I could do this with other clients who aren’t doing it brilliantly.

“Because I knew what the trends were, it meant I could help steer strategy at quite a young age, and I had a confidence to communicate that to senior executives.”

Soon after Sara set up Red Head the crash of 2008 forced her to leave London and move back to her home town.

“At the time never in a million years I would come back to Swindon, however, it was the best decision I ever made,” she said.

“The reason I was in London was because I wanted to network and be with people who thought the same things as me. Swindon is like that now. There are entrepreneurs here, there are techies, we’ve got a technical growth area. We didn’t have that before.”

Sara now runs Red Head in Swindon, working for around 35 clients from SMES to global businesses covering the full spectrum of industry, but works collaboratively at Desk Cowork in Old Town.

“I got rid of the offices a year ago and we went collaborate instead,” she added. “We’re not there all the time but we never were in our old office. The future is that people will be working more collaboratively and won’t need to have offices.

“I hate meetings unless they’re really structured, and they don’t take too long. Meetings will be over soon and we’ll be doing virtually and using technology.

“My whole thing is about working as smartly as possible, and that means continually improving every day. It’s a frustration of mine if I can’t improve it anymore.”