The building is quiet at seven in the morning.
That is exactly how Joe and Jude like it. The co-founders of Solar on Steroids are usually among the first through the doors at Department at XYZ, settling in before the day properly starts, carving out an hour or two of deep work before the team arrives and the energy shifts. Mornings are for focus. Silence. Locking in.
By afternoon, it is a different story. The music comes on, the pace picks up, and somewhere in the office Imogen will be playing house while Sam cycles through what can only be described as an eclectic mix, Spanish music featuring more often than you might expect.
This is what a team in full flow looks like. And it took a particular kind of workspace to make it possible.
Solar on Steroids is a digital marketing agency built specifically for solar installers. The business runs Facebook advertising campaigns and has developed a client list that now includes some of the biggest installers in the UK and Ireland. But the thing that has driven their growth as much as anything is a deliberate, early decision about how they wanted to work.
“A lot of digital marketing agencies go through the debate over: are we going to be fully remote, or are we going to be in person?” Joe says. “Me and Jude made the decision that we did want to build an in-person team, which is why we moved to Manchester in the first place.”
In an industry where remote-first is often the default, that choice was intentional. It shaped everything that followed, including where they ended up.
They first arrived at Campfield in September 2023. Just the two of them. When they asked for a bank of six desks, Samella and the team were understandably curious about why two people needed quite so much room.
Joe and Jude knew something the desk count did not yet reflect.
Within months, the Campfield team had grown from two to five. The co-working space that had given them a base while they were building, hiring and finding their shape had done its job. By the time they hit capacity, the next step was already clear.
Six weeks ago, they moved into a private ten-person office at Department at XYZ.
“We had the opportunity to start in a co-working space, which was also, to be quite frank, much less cost while we were getting started,” Jude says. “And then we had the opportunity to move within the same company to a space that was more appropriate as we grew. It’s just been perfect for our growth and trajectory, supporting us on that journey.”
The ease of that transition is something both founders come back to. When the time came to move, Department came to them. The right office was identified, and within a week they had moved in. No lengthy negotiations, no months of uncertainty, no distraction from the business they were trying to build.
“Logistically, when you’re running a business, you want to focus on running the business,” Jude explains. “Not worrying about where you’re going next, what it’s going to cost, what it’s going to do to your contract. Whereas with Department, you just kind of naturally flow.”
The office at XYZ has a rhythm to it that reflects how Solar on Steroids actually works. Client calls happen in the phone booths. Big team meetings move into the boardroom. On quieter afternoons, there is an outdoor terrace where you can take a coffee and come up for air. The building bends to the day rather than the other way around.
“One of the things we really like about the building is the different areas,” Joe says. “It gives us those options.”
Those options came into sharper focus in November last year, when Solar on Steroids hosted an 80-person event at Campfield, open to all their clients, supported by the Department team throughout. An event of that scale, in a workspace that made it feel straightforward. It is the kind of thing that stays with you when you are deciding where to plant your flag next.
Ask Jude what word he would use to describe being at Department, and he says energising.
“Being surrounded by other startups and small businesses, we’ve actually made quite a few connections just through talking to other people who work here. There are a lot of digital marketing agencies and other small, rapidly growing businesses, just like us.”
The connections have been real. The proximity to other ambitious teams, the kind of conversations that happen naturally in shared spaces, has added something that a standalone office simply could not.
The year ahead looks busy. Solar on Steroids is expanding into the US, with the Manchester base at XYZ serving as the core UK operation while a new chapter opens across the Atlantic. The current ten-person office will see out the rest of the year as the UK team fills out. After that, they will be looking for something bigger, perhaps a sixteen or twenty-person space.
Given how the last six months have gone, they are fairly confident Department will be able to sort it.
There is one more thing worth mentioning. Something Joe and Jude are proud of that rarely gets the recognition it deserves.
Behind the six-person team at XYZ sits a remote team of eighteen people, working full time, spread across locations, largely invisible to the world outside the business.
“They often don’t share the same limelight because they’re not here in person for photos and things like that,” Joe says. “But honestly, we couldn’t do what we do without them. We’ve got people in that team who have committed to the business wholeheartedly.”
A six-person office. An eighteen-person remote team. An 80-person client event. A US expansion in the works.
Solar on Steroids came to Campfield as a team of two with a vision and a desk for six. Everything since has been a matter of growing into it.
From your first desk to your own private office, Department grows with you. Explore workspace options in Manchester.
