PHEW! That went past quickly!
Andreas here!
It has been 12 months since Matthew and I started the Global Talent 2020 Recruitment agency. Today we celebrate our first year of operations!
And what twelve months it has been! Not just for us but for the whole of the UK and the world at large. I do not want this to be a “puff-piece”, as many people have had more significant journeys, or other impactful events in their lives befall them in the past year. However, I did want to mark this milestone for Global Talent 2020 in some way.
I have had the pleasure of knowing Matthew for a number of years prior to us becoming involved in a business venture together. We formed our association when I became his “client”, and he a recruitment solutions provider specialist introduced to me via a mutual business colleague, (thanks Marcello), who had benefitted from Matthew’s expertise and service to his business.
To be honest, I was skeptical at first about using a recruitment service, as I had stories about recruiters, and also the associated costs. I must say, I was taken aback, and within the space of an hour’s meeting with Matthew, I knew I was in safe hands and my initial reservations of involvement with an externalized recruitment solution provider, were allayed.
Over the course of a number of years, Matthew and I met routinely, his service style was never pushy, always tailored to the occasion, was very business empathic, and knowledgeable on the market. I am proud to say, he focused on the relationship, with or without, business outcomes for himself at these catch-ups. What also blossomed from there was an enduring friendship, and most importantly an innate trust in one another, that proudly continues to this day.
I was going through a complicated, multi-challenging multimillion relaunch of a property in 2019 for my then employer. Sometime during that same year, I started to question whether I wanted to do another one, after a line of past successes and frankly felt I needed a decent break away from what I was doing once I had seen the task at hand completed.
At a social function, I took Matthew into my confidence and explained that I was going to take a break in 2020 and travel for a year. The idea was to complete some of my bucket list items. Matthew was supportive, but also a little saddened, not out of any potential commercial loss, but that our friendship would no doubt be on ice for a while. However, he encouraged me to pursue my decision.
Over the course of a few more social outings and libations, we hatched a plan to initially do “something” together later in 2022, when I had returned from my planned traveling in 2020/through to early 2022.
Of course, things changed come the advent of March 2020 for us, and everyone.
Covid-19 came into the equation of our collective plans in the first quarter of the Year 2020. I had decided on registering a company at the start of 2020, as a statement of intent to one another for the future. So, you could say the company is older, but realistically, we did not start trading till August 2020.
Our plans for the business were brought forwards due to the Covid-19 effects on a number of key factors we had never foresaw happening, brought about by the advent by the effects of the pandemic on the world around us.
My globetrotting travel plans and ticking off my bucket list were now on hold, (and still are regrettably for many people at the time of writing this). Matthew’s part in the company he worked for was also then put on furlough, then made redundant after a period, when the recruitment markets he supported did not look like reopening or being unable to open due to Covid-19 measures.
Like a few people during Covid-19, a redundancy scenario for Matthew was a first, and he obviously was saddened to have ended things in this way with his past employers, and a lot of colleagues he counted as friends. He had enjoyed his time there, like anyone in the same position had formed bonds, and genuinely liked his work duties and environment. However, Matthew understood it was not a personal decision, but a commercial one, for that business to survive the Covid-19 impacts to trading. Over half of the workforce of the company had to go through the same process, like regrettably many others in 2020.
From the ashes of all the aforementioned, we chose then to fast forward our plans to do “something “sooner, rather than later in 2022. As we were both now at a loose end.
We formed a business plan, a strategy, budgets, and a fully formed company idea, ethos, platform, and identity. This was all then supported, designed, in tandem, and coalesced with a talented Marketeer company on our branding, social media channels, and website.
Through that period leading up to the official launch on the 03rd of August 2020, we both learned a lot about design, Website creation, Social media do’s and don’ts, Google Analytics, SEO, heatmaps, formats, branding, legal requirements, licenses, policies, procedures, document writing, legal notices, Employer responsibilities, Payroll, Lawyers, Accountants, I could go on……it was a busy and intense time, and a steep learning curve for all.
We were fortunate to work with some good partners to help us achieve the company set up, and some that still remain, and support us to this day, I will say a shout out at this point to the Morton Fraser team, Thomson Cooper, and Allera Marketing. Thank you all.
We went live as planned – it was not quite akin to actual childbirth, but the same excitement was palpable in the room when everything went live – the website, the social media channels, the domain names, etc, and we were “visible” to the world as an actual business. A proud moment for all involved.
So effectively we opened after Lockdown 1 in the UK. The Tiers were introduced in Scotland where we are based, and they were at level 3, which was not totally conducive to the businesses we were looking to support at the time. These then dropped to Tier two after a time, and it looked like we were turning a corner as a business, but moreover as a society and country.
We were jointly optimistic and confident things were going to pick up – and wanted to grow the team, we added lovely people, but then came Lockdown 2 and the resurgence of Covid -19 infections and transmissions. So, we had to make hard decisions, when we had hoped to grow and had to let people go, or furlough them, as those markets they were operating in were now again closing down.
People had suggested we were mad opening a business in a pandemic. I have to say genuinely, we did not waiver from our goals and ultimate aims for Global Talent 2020 to this very day. We both believed in the long-term objective in the business, and where we wish to both be in the future. I cannot deny it was/has been extremely stressful at times, as we were, (and maybe still are), at the whim of an unpredictable virus, and its effects on the industry, commerce, and people’s wellbeing.
But fast-forward to 12 months later, and Global Talent 2020 is still here, as I can safely report as is Matthew and I, our true friends and families, so we can count our blessings for that, as some people were not as fortunate.
What next?
Well, that depends on a few factors. Like other businesses, in many sectors, we have to be attuned to the decisions by Government with regard to how businesses, as a society, on how we move forwards, adjust, climatize, and adapt to life with Covid-19. and the world it has undoubtedly changed. We also have to, like other businesses, be aware of Brexit and the impacts, and ramifications of that starting to appear in society as of late, and the job markets as a company we supply recruitment solutions to.
We hope in the future to add to the team again when business levels dictate and get back to our master plan with the business. We hope to evolve our Marketing, and social media in the coming months, and making exciting steps with that.
Our overall goals in the coming years are to open other locations for the business, in Europe and eventually in the USA. Again, that will depend on the world economic situations post Covid-19, and the markets of recruitment solutions we currently specialize in.
No one can say our first 12 months, have been easy, or without events! However, I am proud of what we have achieved to date, and the positive steps forwards after Covid-19 effects on the world around us, and that we are here one year later, and ready to go further.
From Acorns spring Oak trees, and I look forward to writing a new blog on our 2nd Birthday in 2022 and updating you all then on our new adventures then.
Can I say a BIG THANK YOU to all our friends, family, clients, colleagues, and everyone who has contributed and supported us to this point and will continue to in the future.
We believe we can evolve your career for you.
Thanks for your time in reading this, and I hope you can wish us a Happy Anniversary.
We made it through!
Best wishes,
Andreas
