This month marks 10 years since Charlotte and I (Michelle) started the business. It feels like a long time and no time at all.
Like most people who start a business, we had a picture in our heads of where we’d be after a decade. Some of those expectations have been met. Some have been exceeded. Others… not so much.
In terms of our own growth, we’re probably not where we thought/hoped we’d be, and that’s a slightly uncomfortable thing to write, but it’s true.
The funny thing is that we’ve spent the last 10 years helping other businesses grow. Our team has supported clients through acquisitions, restructures, recruitment challenges, commercial negotiations, periods of rapid growth and, occasionally, periods of survival.
Over the years, not everything has been linear. We’ve seen some fantastic results and we’ve built relationships that we’re incredibly proud of. We’ve also had clients leave and then come back again later, which has always meant a lot to us. The same is true for some of our team too. People move on, explore other opportunities and sometimes find their way back. We’ve never seen that as a failure on either side, more a reflection of the relationships that sit underneath the work, and the fact that when things are built on trust and shared values, the door doesn’t really close.
Some of our clients have been with us from the very beginning. Most new clients have come to us through referrals. When somebody trusts you enough to recommend you to their own network, that’s about the best feedback you can get. So, this isn’t a story about failure. Far from it.
It’s more a reflection on something we’ve been thinking about recently: why isn’t doing great work enough?
Because for a long time, that’s what we believed. Put your head down and do good work. Look after your clients. Be reliable and honest. Deliver what you say you’re going to deliver. The rest will take care of itself.
To a degree, it has. But only to a degree.
One of the biggest ironies is that our day-to-day involves helping organisations tell their stories. We help businesses explain what makes them different, we help them communicate their strengths and build credibility in their market.
Yet our own story has remained a well-kept secret. A classic cobbler’s shoes situation.
If you know Charlotte and me, you’ll know we often talk about how we met, the agencies we worked at together before starting the business, and what we learned from those experiences. Those years shaped the way we think and the way we work. They also shaped the partnership that sits at the heart of everything we do.
We also often say to new people we meet, neither of us can really imagine doing this without the other.
Over the last decade, we’ve solved countless problems, had difficult conversations, celebrated wins, made a few mistakes, yet managed to keep moving forward. We’ve even won awards. We bring very different strengths to the business, but together we’ve built something we’re genuinely proud of.
We should also state this: none of this is just down to Charlotte and me.
Over the years we’ve been incredibly lucky to work with a brilliant team. People who care deeply about the work, go the extra mile without being asked, challenge us when they need to and help make things better every day.
Like any business, we’ve had team members come and go, but what’s stayed consistent is the standard they set and the culture they help create. A lot of what we’re proud of simply wouldn’t exist without them.
What we haven’t been particularly good at is talking about our own business and its successes. We’ve never been prolific networkers (although we’re working on changing this). We’ve never been especially active on social media (also something to rectify). We’ve always been more comfortable doing the work than talking about the work.
Self-promotion has never come naturally. Partly because client delivery has always felt more important than marketing ourselves.
The problem is you need to do great work and have great visibility. It’s something we speak to clients about constantly. People can’t work with you if they don’t know you exist, they can’t recommend expertise they’ve never seen, and they can’t buy into your story if you’ve never told it.
That’s probably the biggest lesson we’ve learned as we reach our tenth anniversary. The answer isn’t to become louder or turn into something we’re not. It’s to become better at sharing what we’ve spent the last ten years building.
The values and the way we work won’t change. And the commitment to our clients remains as strong as ever. Perhaps we’ll stop being such a well-kept secret though.
As we head into our second decade, that’s the challenge we’ve set ourselves. To keep doing the work we’re proud of, and to get a little better at talking about it.
You’ll be hearing a bit more from us.