It might not be published in time, but as I sit here it’s new year’s eve and, therefore, time to reflect. Traditionally I really dislike new year’s eve. And I mean REALLY dislike it. To me the passing of another year is one less year left in the bank of life and one year less to achieve everything you want to achieve. I also tend to look forwards and don’t like looking backwards too much. The last 6 years have been a bit like climbing a very high mountain in that respect – look down and you’ll petrify yourself with fear!
However, in the spirit of good leadership new year is the one time of year when I do look back and celebrate success. So, no cutting sarcasm or irreverence from me today.
And I have to say 2010 wasn’t that bad! Just like 2009 in fact. At the start of this year I was brushing up the CV. 2009, I thought was a fluke. We had a great year, but if it wasn’t for X and Y we could have been in trouble. 2010 started quietly and I thought that it was a delay from the recession – in 2009 people were still spending as they had a budget from 2008, but in 2010 their 2009 budget would have been slashed. However, it picked up and guess what? In 2010 we grew by almost 20% over 2009 which means we’ve grown every single year since being in business.
More importantly we’ve added more clients this year than ever before, in addition to continuing to work with most of our existing clients. We had more referrals than ever, more enquiries coming in through the website and we even won a tender for a public sector client!! Though most of our clients are now in London we did work in Switzerland and even a little bit for an organisation in Dubai.
One of the biggest differences was the addition of Ruth to the team. Ruth actually enjoys the stuff that us consultants hate – cold calling! And she’s brilliant at it! Mind you she does a lot more than that, she understands the business and is able to engage with potential clients in an intelligent way and it’s this that leads to new business. So this year we added clients from retail, scientific services, public sector, construction, professional services and media. We also did more work with a client from 3 years ago – they needed help and gave us a call.
We also did a bit of personal succession planning and added twins to the family.
So, we end up positive. I feel the business has real momentum now. We no longer talk to clients about what we could do, we talk about what we have done and have good testimonials and case studies to rely on. It’s this that’s generating referrals and I also reckon that we approach clients differently now – more assured and confident.
I hope 2011 continues in the same vein. We’ve got work in the diary up to and including July which is pretty good, but no matter how much I try to uncover the secret to growing a successful business there is only one constant I come back to – keep pushing. However, we really value working with our clients – I see them as our work colleagues so we aim to have a bit of banter in addition to delivering.
Which means all I have left to say is a heartfelt thank you to our existing clients and welcome to our newest clients we hope we can keep delivering for all of you. Also thank you to the team who helped us deliver this year – Dave, Emma, Anna, Steve, Jo, Leszek and Ruth.
Happy New Year!
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