Welcome to day 11 of Blogmas! As we come to the end of the year I always like to take some time to reflect on both achievements and lessons learnt. Part of our vision for Pro Clerking is to support self-employed Clerks and Governance Professionals, so in today’s post I thought I’d share some of my key business lessons from 2024.
It’s ok to lose clients
I started out the year offboarding a number of clients who no longer fitted within the Pro Clerking business plan. This was incredibly scary and took a long time to put into action for numerous reasons from loss of income to feelings of failure and letting clients down. But here’s the thing, not all clients are right for your business and your business is not right for all clients. Ultimately the process has been positive because it’s given me the confidence to say no, the room to take on new clients who do align with Pro Clerking’s vision and continue to grow the business at a manageable rate.
Creating the right team takes time
Since I started Pro Clerking back in 2019 it’s been very much me, myself and I. But as we all know there’s only so much one person can do (you can do anything, not everything!) and I had to make the decision whether to stick to my own capacity or to create a team in order to grow the business. Much like the first point above, this was hugely scary and it took me a long time to take action but in 2023 I started working with a project manager to help hone my systems. This year has seen another shift in my central team with much more of a focus on fitting people to specific roles. We’re still not quite there yet but it’s good to feel more confident about what the business needs and start building our central team with more focus.
Stepping into a more strategic role
Moving on from both points above, a bit shift this year has been for me to start moving away from all the day-to-day clerking and administration responsibilities and stepping up into a much more strategic role overseeing a team, managing larger projects and forward thinking for the business. I would say I’ve managed about 25% of this with the aim of getting to 75% by summer 2025.
The importance of investing in your business – in time!
When I first started Pro Clerking I aimed to do as much as possible for free or as cheaply as possible to limit overheads as a new business – and this is what I would always recommend to anyone starting a business. And whilst I still use a lot of free systems, this year I made the decision to start investing in certain areas such as project management tools and sales platforms that will ultimately make processes more cost effective.
You don’t always need to change your offer
As someone who naturally likes to push things forward and create new offers I often get “shiny object syndrome” which distracts from what I call the “bread and butter” functions of the business. This year I have really focused on streamlining current processes and offers with the aim to do less better rather than more badly! We have our core offers in place – our clerking and governance support service, members club, clerking with confidence workshops and planners with some ad hoc training and clerking opportunities and I’d like to continue to ensure these remain strong whilst also developing new offers in 2025 (Project X!)
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All our best
Ellie & Becky
In collaboration with Governors’ Virtual Office
