So much for being only a three-week job.

When Mark Lawn first invited David Baldwin to cast an eye over City’s commercial side, it was only expected to be a short-term thing.

Baldwin, having retired from the day-to-day work of running his own business, offered to pop in and give his own thoughts on where the club could tighten up in the sales sector.

The three-week stint that Lawn had predicted quickly became a month. And two years on, keen City fan Baldwin is still there as the head of operations.

“My role has taken a very fluid movement,” he explained. “The emphasis for the first nine months was very much about resurrecting the marketing side of the business.

“In January last year, I took over a more operations role and got involved in the monthly board meetings.

“It’s all about efficiencies and making sure that we save every penny we possibly can and streamlining the roles we had. In my opinion, my job has been to tidy up the business.”

Baldwin has stressed the need to see City as more than just the football club. It is vital to maximise the usage and cash generated from the 1911 Club, which has developed into a conference base, and the business centre in the main office building that is rented out.

Baldwin said: “We are a football club and we’re all fans but behind the scenes you still need to make sure you are running an efficient business, especially in a very difficult economic climate.

“That was my remit during the last 12 months.”

Baldwin has also made sure that City will reach their commercial goal for next year after finding a buyer for the pitchside advertising rights.

He has struck a deal to franchise out the boards around the ground – with himself!

Baldwin insists City have made a profit, as they did when he trialled the third-party plan with the 1911 Club last season.

“I came up with the idea of an extra revenue stream by running it as a conference centre on a non match-day basis.

“The club sold that area to my company for a profit and then it was my responsibility, wearing my “other hat”, to run it and generate income.

“Bradford City made a decent profit and I proved it was an effective tool to generate income for the club. So that’s now been sold on to a secondary business.

“Now my company have bought the rights to the stadium advertising in the same way. The club are therefore not exposed to the risk of who will and won’t buy the boards; that has become my problem.

“And wearing my director of operations hat, when we drew up the budgets we knew clear guidelines of what income was going to be guaranteed.”

Two full-time marketing jobs at City have been axed as part of the “streamlining” process. The adverts have effectively already been sold to Baldwin.

He said: “The offer made to the club was a sizeable one and at least equivalent to what they received this year without the added-on salaries that go with it.

“People might say it’s a risk for me but I’m happy to do that because I’m a fan and I have belief in my own ability, having run my own company since 1997.

“I have a vested interest in Bradford City and want to help them steady the ship and know where they stand.

“If it does work, and I’m confident it will, it becomes a more sellable tool to a third party next year. You can sell this as a franchiseable item and prove that it is a successful one. Most importantly it does mean the running costs for Bradford City are now at the lowest they can possibly be, allowing the maximum amount of income to go into the football budget.

“This takes the pressure off the club themselves. The more people you involve in a situation, the more complicated it becomes.

“You don’t have that in this case while still guaranteeing that Bradford City have hit their commercial target.”