A Week in the Life of Sophie Spencer-Stephens, Commercial Director at chiliapple

My role at chiliapple is to oversee the running of the UK team, with a strong focus on the growth of the business. At chilliapple, we operate with our team split between the UK and Delhi. Our client-facing teams, including design, sales, marketing, account management, and project management, are based here in the UK, while our development team is based in Delhi. This is a short insight into my week managing our UK business, balancing client relationships, strategy sessions, and day-to-day operations.

Monday

9am
Monday morning kicks off with a train journey to meet Jack, one of our Project Managers, to drive to Surrey for a meeting with one of our newest clients, Laughology. Laughology are a fantastic business, working with some of the worlds leading brands to empower their teams through the use of laughter and humour. chilliapple were lucky enough to be chosen to design and develop their new website. 

11am
Jack, Lewis and I meet with the two Stephs from Laughology and have a really productive meeting where they give us some fantastic feedback to implement as well as discussing what’s next for the business. 

12pm
The rest of the Laughology team joins us for a gorgeous lunch in the garden. I sit next to Steph (CEO) and spot her Oura ring. I’ve been eyeing one up recently as I’m a terrible sleeper and always have a million things running through my head. Steph gives me some great advice on how to increase my serotonin and decrease my cortisol by exercising first thing when I wake up. Steph founded Laughology 20 years ago after working as a stand up comedian and she’s got a huge amount of knowledge on promoting well-being in the workplace so it’s a really interesting conversation.

1pm
After a team photo, Jack and I head back to the office, leaving Lewis to assist with some interviews Laughology are holding to find their new Digital Marketing Manager. Back at the office for a couple of hours, I catch up on emails and chase payment for a new project we are starting this week. 

4pm
Lokesh, our Director and Founder, arrived from Delhi yesterday for a week of meetings and we head to Bristol together. Our Tunbridge Wells office is strategically placed less than 5 minutes from the train station which makes travelling to see clients and partners very easy. We’ve got some important strategy meetings lined up over the next two days with Smarter Capital, the investment company who recently partnered with chilliapple. 

7pm
We arrive in Bristol, check into our hotel and have a quick dinner (Indian of course!), and have an early night as I suspect the next few days are going to be full on!

Tuesday

7am
Taking Steph’s advice, I head out for an early morning walk and see some of the sights of Bristol. I’ve not visited the city since a school trip 20 years ago and I’m really impressed with the city, especially how many fab looking restaurants there are. I make a mental note to find a weekend for a longer trip. 

9am
We arrive at the Regus office in Broad Quay House, Bristol. Being based in the Tunbridge Wells Regus, it’s a great perk being able to access office space all over the UK. Today is the start of a two-day planning session with Smarter Capital led by Dominic Bridgman who was instrumental in the growth of Amdaris, a Bristol based tech business. Along with Smarter Capital, Lokesh and I are looking to supercharge our growth, and these meetings are all about setting that foundation.

1pm
We work through lunch, ordering from Pho on Deliveroo (delicious!) to keep the momentum going.

5.30pm
After a productive day, we head to Root Bristol, a really cool small plates restaurant in an old shipping container, to meet the rest of the Smarter Capital team. We’ve been working with Smarter Capital for a few months now and it’s a great opportunity for us to find out more about the group’s acquisition plans. We have a delicious dinner of small vegetarian plates and a well-deserved drink afterwards to unwind.

6.30pm
I get a text from Jack, letting me know that he has delivered Rahul our Solutions Architect from our Delhi office safely to Heathrow so that he can fly home. Although we’re a 9 hour flight away from each other, we promote visits between the two offices as much as possible and Rahul has spent the last 3 months in our UK office, working with the team to provide technical solutions and meeting our clients. 

9pm
Another early night before another full day tomorrow.

Wednesday

9am
Day two of our strategy sessions. Yesterday was all about how we drive serious growth, who we target and what chilliapple brings to the table. Today, we dive deeper into the tools, teams, and processes that will help us turn our vision into reality. 

1pm
Lunch is another Deliveroo delivery to allow us to keep talking, this time, sushi from Kokoro. 

5.30pm
After wrapping up a fantastic couple of days of planning, Lokesh and I catch the train back to London. Needless to say, the train journey home is busy with lots of discussions around what happens next. 

Thursday

8am
I’m back in the office this morning to catch up on emails and prepare for a busy day of meetings.

9am
My first call of the day is with a new business we are supporting with our dedicated developer model. This makes a lot of sense for businesses who already have a plan in place for their development and just need someone to execute it. We hire out our own trusted developers who we use for our own projects, to clients on a flexible basis. This call is all about them meeting their developer as well as their UK based account manager and agreeing how often they would like updates and how we will communicate between us. 

10am
The rest of the day is filled with internal meetings, including a one-on-one with Lokesh to discuss how we can implement the strategies we’ve mapped out over the past couple of days. 

4pm
I drive Lokesh to Heathrow for his return flight to Delhi and then head back to Kent. 

7pm
Arrive at the gym to squeeze in a quick workout as this week has involved a lot of time spent sitting in cars, trains and meeting rooms!

8pm
Get home just in time to see the Lionesses win against Sweden in the Euros quarter-finals!

Friday

9am
Fridays are one of our work from home days at chilliapple so after our morning meeting with the team, I catch up on emails and admin that I haven’t had time for this week.

12pm
Time for a 121 with our Head of Growth, Lauren. We’ve got our first apprentice joining the sales team on Monday and we want to use this as an opportunity to implement some of the learnings I picked up from Dom earlier in the week. 

1pm
During my lunch break on a Friday, I like to get to a pilates class when time allows. It’s a good opportunity to stretch after a long week. 

4pm
The team benefits from an early finish on a Friday afternoon so I finish off some final emails and set out a plan for next week before logging off and heading back to the gym for a Bodypump session and pizza for dinner. I managed to snag an Aldi special buy pizza oven last weekend and I’m excited to test it out.