Just when you think the world couldn’t possibly shake any more, up pops a notification on your phone with yet another jaw-dropping headline. Often laden with a dose of fear to incite a quick click to find out more, it puts yet another downer on your day. A sense of joy and peace comes with turning off these notifications.

I had a conversation with a marketing professional last week, who mentioned that she no longer talks about business growth. In these challenging times, she promotes business stability and strives for steadiness in the chaos of the current economic climate. It made sense. Then the lead message on our landing page came to my mind:

‘Your Marketing Team. Marketing consultancy for your growing business.’

How do we respond to market forces considering what is going on in the world?

‘Your Marketing Team. Marketing consultancy for business stabilisation.’

‘Your Marketing Team. Marketing consultancy for 2026 survival.’

‘Your Marketing Team. Marketing consultancy to keep you afloat.’

I was tempted to check in with Chat GPT for a few punchy alternatives but resisted going down that rabbit hole for 20 minutes of my day, preferring to lean into prayer and stand firm on our original purpose for existence.

We are here to support our clients’ growth. Working alongside entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs, we firmly believe that with the right, carefully considered strategy, any organisation can experience growth by seizing opportunities in their industry and investing in the future.

Our fibre optics engineering client is a great example of this. They identified Defence as the right strategic target for business growth and, through a well-executed brand building campaign, expanded their global reach to generate some lucrative leads.

Understanding the market, seeing the bigger picture

I recently had the unexpected pleasure of attending a local round table discussion with the Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade Andrew Griffith, organised by our local MP Rebecca Paul alongside the Reigate Business Guild.

The meeting brought together local businesses across Reigate and Redhill, with an opportunity for us to share our views regarding the challenges we face, covering a number of areas including business rates, VAT for small business, National Insurance and regulation.

Slightly out of my comfort zone, though keen to express our team’s views, I felt able to share our growing concern at the volume of CVs we receive each week from incredibly talented young people seeking employment with us. With the rising costs of employment, training and materials against a flat or declining market across many industries, it’s financially difficult for many SMEs to currently offer jobs or apprenticeships. Many others in the room, representative of our clients, were experiencing the same pressures.

It was a real breath of fresh air to have a listening ear, an encouraging response and a sense that our challenges were not merely acknowledged but fully understood, with empathy and a willingness for positive action. It was great to be there in person and cut through to the truth without the dramatic political spin we so often experience when watching the news.

Back to school

Having spent nearly 30 years (yikes!) executing and developing marketing strategies and campaigns to grow brands, it dawned on me last Spring that growing our own business in a difficult economic environment was quite an overwhelming prospect. I lacked knowledge and had lapsed skills in some of the more general aspects of business management such as operations, policy setting and company financial measurements. Whilst deciding how to approach this, I received a cold call from a representative from Kingston Business School asking if I would be interested in a 12 week ‘Help to Grow’ course starting in May. It all sounded too good to be true and unbelievably timely, so whilst politely expressing an interest, I quickly researched and checked the authenticity of the call, rather delighted by what I found.

Funded by the UK Government, the Help to Grow: Management Course is an initiative designed to help small business leaders take a step back from the day-to-day running of their business and build long-term business strategy for growth.

Shortly into the first module, I realised there was so much more to learn than I initially thought, and plenty I had forgotten since studying for my business management degree. The world has significantly changed since then!

The course includes 50 hours of leadership training covering topics such as strategy, innovation, digital transformation, sales, market expansion, marketing, HR, operations and finance. It comes with 10 hours of individual mentoring and weekly peer-to-peer learning sessions. There’s also the bonus of connecting with like-minded people. A few of us continue to meet regularly to share ideas and support each other.

Overall, this course was just the boost I needed to shape the business growth strategy for Your Marketing Team and prepare a solid plan for the next five years. I remain mindful that it may need to adapt as technology advances and the market evolves.

Expanding the office

Whilst many businesses both large and small seek to cut overheads by moving out of their office premises and working from home, we have always stayed put. I believe the best creative ideas for effective marketing campaigns are formed face-to-face around a table with a cup of tea and chocolate biscuits. The more brains in the room, the better.  

Teams or Zoom do have their place and have allowed us to serve clients as far away as Coventry alongside partnerships in Bristol, yet we wholeheartedly believe in regular face-to-face contact for good client communication and the well-being of our team. We were designed to be social creatures and thrive on human interaction.

With an optimistic sales pipeline in December 2019, I decided to move from a very cramped office, with nine people working shoulder to shoulder, into a much larger space next door, enthusiastically looking forward to healthy, steady growth throughout 2020.

The year began with three consecutive weekends removing an old stained red carpet from the new office floor and excitedly covering the end wall with bright magenta paint… it needed three coats!

Everything seemed to fall apart when, just weeks later, lockdown loomed and all but one client decided to stop their monthly marketing investment. Amid a global pandemic, challenging our clients, the majority of which are small SME’s with families to support, wasn’t an option.

By God’s grace, and with some necessary downsizing and the support of financial investment, we survived and were thrilled to engage with new customers and welcome returning clients once they were able to pull through the situation and realign their business objectives.  

Six years on, our team and customer numbers have surpassed where we were in early 2020, and last year we found ourselves fighting over the one meeting room we had or loudly holding Teams calls at our desks, asking those around us to keep their voices down. With perfect timing, an extra room became available next to our office which was airy, light and carpeted with the same dark red stained carpet, but this time with 1980’s style oak patterned wallpaper!

At the end of Summer 2025, we rose to the challenge and turned it into a second meeting room, affectionately calling it ‘The Break-Room’, complete with a large wall painted with blackboard paint for creative scribbling and fond memories of school days.

Changing our comms to align with the new direction

Last year, we decided to finally practise what we preach and update our website. Our previous website was created eight years ago, when a talented web designer in our team was itching to produce something to outshine the standard templated attempt I had put together ten years ago on a budget of £500.

He didn’t disappoint, and with very little direction or clear brief, he produced a very modern design which we all welcomed. As many business founders do, I clung on to it with the kind of emotional attachment you would show a small child, overlooking some of the dated functionality and design limitations that crept in as we grew.

I found myself saying “I really like our current website” to our new website design partner, who no doubt rolled his eyes at the end of the phone to this irritating answer to the standard question “How can I help? What are you looking for?”. 

We’ve spent over 12 years creating brands and building websites for our clients, which we all love, but when it came to addressing our own Marketing Communications, we found it very tricky – yet we are delighted with the results. Our graphic designer Laura modernised our brand working alongside Mike, one of our website partners from TinyBox, who supported us to bring the vision to life in a modern, fresh way that delivers a strong nod to the old design.

The year ahead

It feels unusual to start the new year with a longer-term vision and equipped with fresh enthusiasm for growth, especially when the economic environment for small business owners seems challenging. Even though times are tough, we firmly believe with that with a tailored researched Strategic Marketing Plan and investment in creative targeted campaigns, our clients can continue to grow and thrive by seizing opportunities in their industry.