New Year and a New Name for JP Gardner & Associates
On the 15th of January 2015 JP Gardner & Associates was born. It was a little by chance but here is the background story:
Jane Paula Gardner, a director at Sewell & Gardner Estate Agents in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire sold her lettings business to Countrywide at the end of 2014. Having been in the property industry since 1987, and being very well known in the industry, it wasn’t long before businesses came a-calling, to ask Jane to assist with their agencies. At that time she was also asked by the Sunday Times Lettings Awards organizer, Peter Knight, to be a headline speaker at the 2015 conference, to talk about the success of her agency Sewell & Gardner Lettings, and how she walked away with the title of ‘Best Overall Letting Agent in the UK’ in 2013. So pretty quickly a company needed to be formed, and with very little thought at that time, she picked her own name JP Gardner and added ‘Associates’ as her son was also on board along with 2 team members, content writing and social media manager, Katie Gillingham and website & SEO manager, Matthew Cooley.
Over the last 8 years, the company has seen a lot of changes, as has the property industry! After a few years of working primarily as a consultant for lettings businesses, Finders Keepers and Breckon & Breckon in Oxford, Lawrence Rand in Ruislip, X1 in Liverpool, Oasis Estates in Staines, and Northfields Estates in Ealing, to name a few, it became apparent that Jane’s forte was not only in lettings processes, systems, staff training, and compliance but also heavily in marketing. Weirdly that was how Jane had started her working life, before going into property, as a marketing manager for Beecham Products (now GSK), working primarily for Macleans and Aquafresh toothpaste brands! Marketing was clearly a passion of Jane’s and it was now really coming to the forefront of her career again, this time in the estate agency industry.
By 2018 JP Gardner & Associates was becoming very well-known for its digital marketing and was now running the social media platforms for many estate agents across the UK. Jane was also very involved in website design, creation, and content writing, having already built some amazing websites for clients, including Northfields Estates (sadly now defunct as the company was purchased in 2021 by Gibbs Gillespie / Leaders Romans), Maxine Lester Lettings, Rowe Property Services, Austin D’Arcy, Regent Property London and the property industry charity website AgentsGiving.Org.
By 2020 there was a growing team of digital marketing account managers running social media accounts and this really was the area of focus for the company. Jane started to cut back on the number of lettings consultancies she was managing, as she was spending so much of her time on the road and with a pet Beagle at home she was reluctant to spend so much time away. At this time Jane had already started working as an examiner for ARLA Propertymark, Level 4 Certificate in Residential Lettings & Property Management, and was writing a lot of content for articles and blogs, along with her writing-buddy Katie Gillingham. Social media marketing was really taking off across the property industry, and that was the area of specialism for the company.
And then along came COVID-19 and everything changed again! Initially, a number of clients were worried about finances and thought they should cut down on their marketing outlay, but it very soon became apparent that social media marketing was the way to stay afloat, and in fact, thrive during the lockdown and everything which followed in the coming few years. At this time Jane also revamped her consultancy method, and the introduction of the Zoom platform, allowed Jane to start working with more companies without having to actually be in their offices. Enlightening, and Jane has continued to work with some amazing businesses, including Grange London, Ashington Page, Allday & Miller, Grisdales, John Roberts, The Wilkinson Partnership, White Knights, Jones Robinson, and the list goes on.
However, at the end of 2022, with 2 bouts of pneumonia coming one after the other, Jane decided it would be a good time to rebrand the company and remove her name from the spotlight. Jane continues with her passion for lettings, website building, and content writing and allows her team of digital account managers to take to the stage and push the business forward, under the new name of Social Angels Limited. Now offering some fantastic bespoke social media packages, which Jane still has a lot of input in, as well as template packages for those who want a presence, but not the additional work involved in bespoke content.
The Social Angels are (left to right) Sarah, Hattie, Lydia, Jo & Jane.
We look forward to working with you!
Jane Gardner
I work all over the UK with various business owners, dedicating my creative and expert property knowledge from 35 years in the industry. I am a Level 4 ARLA Propertymark examiner, I sit on the board of Agents Giving Charity and I love everything property related! I can be contacted on 01923 627777 or by email to jane@social-angels.co.uk
