Only Human
Meet Scott Anderson
He might be ‘just a dad with his phone’ but he’s helped to make memories for countless families with his Facebook page I’m Bored. North East.
Ten years on, Scott Anderson takes a look back at how it all began and how he’s managed to get comfortable with the idea of making money…
I was always out and about as a kid – constantly on the go.
I grew up in Millfield in Sunderland with my two older sisters and we were lucky enough to have parents who did so much with us.
I would often lose myself in drawing, crafting and Lego but what I liked most was to be out and about. My brain didn’t stop. I remember always saying “I’m bored!” My parents must have been absolutely knackered.
This phrase would come back to me years later when thinking for a name for the business.
My love of being out and about was perfect for one of my favourite jobs as an activity support assistant for the North East Autism Society.
My role involved supporting kids out into the community with educational or meaningful activity whilst providing respite for the family. Every day we needed to come up with something different that was suitable for each service user to do based on their abilities and needs.
Members of the team would take us to amazing places that I would never have known about. Some were qualified instructors so swimming, kayaking, rock climbing or gorge walking weren’t out of the ordinary for a day at work.
The clients absolutely loved it and so did I. It was such a rewarding role and seeing the benefit for the service users and their families led into me pursuing my career as a mental health nurse.
Then family life came about and I took on role as step dad and we were always out and about too.
I would often take my family back to the places I had visited in work, uploading the pictures on my personal Facebook profile. People were always asking things like, “where’s this?”, “how much is it?” and “how do you book?” Whilst I loved helping others discover the places, there was sometimes a LOT of questions.
I remember once after visiting a brand-new climbing wall I had over 30 messages asking about it. This got my brain ticking and I thought about the idea of creating a profile to put the places on with all the information to save the questions and help people discover new places themselves.
The day I decided to go and do it was after I drove past a sign advertising an event that I never knew was taking place and was gutted that we missed it. I suddenly realised there was an opportunity to bring the two things together to get the word out about what’s on in the area for families to go and make some memories.
So that’s how I’m Bored North East started. I set up a dedicated Facebook page in my spare time and it just took off!
I knew what I wanted it to be from the outset. I set down some ground rules for posts to keep things positive.
The internet is full of negativity and I didn’t want to add to that. I wanted to share some little parts of my family life to keep things real and relatable.
I wasn’t setting out to become some massive organisation with multiple staff. It would just be me and my phone and the family. Nothing too serious, just for fun really.
But then it took off! Every time I refreshed my page, I’d have another couple of hundred followers. Within a month I had 10,000.
It was absolutely nuts and so exciting but also a little bit scary as it was becoming so much more than it was intended for. Businesses were reaching out asking to feature and I was engaging with the people on the page.
Pretty quickly into things, I realised I needed to start thinking differently about the page if I was to continue running it.
It was distracting from my nursing studies and taking over my life a bit.
It had started as a hobby and whilst we were so thankful to be invited to so many places, it was costing quite a bit to do everything. I never really switched off and it was exhausting.
That’s when I got in touch with Ron, a business adviser at the BIC at the time. He helped me to consider how to make the page pay for itself while staying true to what I’d set out to achieve.
It was never about wanting to make money – I just wanted to help other people to make memories and support local businesses.
Ron very quickly helped me realise that I had an asset that businesses could utilise for their own benefit but most importantly he made me realise my time had a value. I didn’t have a clue in the business world and Ron was amazing in getting me set up with everything you need as a business.
That’s when we looked at a way to charge businesses for being featured.
I didn’t want to outprice small businesses and only promote expensive things that not everyone can afford. I wanted to cover the whole spectrum of options – so there’s something for everyone.
Pricing remains to this day, my biggest challenge, because I want to be inclusive.
But I’ve learned I have to value my time and the value that being featured on the page has. I got to grips with affiliate marketing and began supporting businesses to run their pages and more recently became eligible to monetise my content with Facebook.
These additional methods were thanks to support in the early days from other business owners particularly Darren Williams and Laura Middleton. I will never forget the support and advice they gave me.
The money the page does make, helps to pay for Making Memories FREE days out, where we pay for followers to enjoy a day out of their choice, and enables us to develop the content.
More recently, the ability to monetise my content with Facebook has allowed me to reduce my hours working as a community psychiatric nurse.
This gives me a bit more time for my family and for the business, making a huge difference by giving me a better balance that I’m truly grateful for.
One of the things I am most thankful to the page for, is the support it allows me to give for a yearly campaign with my friend Chris from NEoffers. Together, we’ve raised what is fast approaching £1million to support our local homeless.
The page has been going for 10 years and currently it has 153,000 followers.
I love to see some of the same names from day one still popping up and it’s really become a community that I love.
It’s like they’ve been on this journey with me and I am truly thankful because without the followers I wouldn’t have a business.
I haven’t always got things right over the years, I’ve even hit some of the lowest points during this time, making some big mistakes.
But I’ve learned from those mistakes, and I’d like to think I’m a much better version of myself today because of them.
The time I’ve had available to dedicate to I’m Bored has fluctuated over the years but it’s always been such a positive in my life.
Looking back, the page has become so much more than I could ever have imagined.
I created it to inspire others to get out and about making memories. What I didn’t expect, is the memories and opportunities it’s created for my own family.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who have supported me over the years including the BIC and most importantly the page followers. I am truly grateful for each and every one of you.
#Gomakesomememories