An honest account of setting up a business in the wake of a global pandemic…
Why us?
It’s rare in life you meet a colleague in the workplace and recognise that the working relationship you’ve formed could be one which would go beyond the realms of chatting over the coffee machine and having too many wines together at the Christmas do. Saying this, we are certainly not suggesting our eyes met across the photocopier and we knew we were destined to one day go into business together. In fact, being two determined driven females at varying levels in a competitive environment – what could possibly go wrong?! Although we soon recognised our similarities, we were certainly aware of our differences. Safe to say one’s idea of a day well spent would be some retail therapy and a makeover, while the other’s would be cycling miles through the countryside. So, regardless of our differences and conscious of our similarities, the relationship was formed. We’d like to say that our relationship was really established as a result of our joint professionalism and expertise, but in reality our common ground was discovered in the sharing of disastrous anecdotes of meetings hosting in odd shoes and handbags left on trains. But, nevertheless, the relationship was formed and has certainly been challenged in these last weeks and months – turns out setting up a business isn’t perhaps such plain sailing as we first would have anticipated.
Please note, picture above was taken pre-covid!
Why this?
Before we answer that, we should probably address what ‘this’ is! ‘This’ is Charity Horizons, our third sector consultancy recruitment business. ‘This’ is our business that has been born of our joint love of our sector and the people that make it so incredible. It has also been founded in our desire to want to do things a little differently and more creatively, and in such a way that the needs of the charity or individual are always at the fore. This much we knew from the off, this much was incredibly clear in our minds… The bit that wasn’t perhaps quite as clear was how the hell you build a business from scratch and prepare it for public launch! And so we embarked on our largest and most interesting challenge to date… What does it take to build a business?
So yes, as the above would suggest, wine was consumed, discussions were had, runs were needed, and countless sleepless nights were endured. We certainly didn’t tackle this alone and sought help from many (largely willing) sources along the way. We will always remain so grateful to those that answered our daft questions and entertained some of our wilder ideas. We believe our branding guy is quite simply deserving of a knighthood for his patience as we deliberated every millimetre of his designs – who knew there were so many shades of orange? If there is one thing this process has taught us it’s that we care – we care about getting it right (whether that’s the type of laptop, the colour scheme on the website or the best database to protect your information), we also care about the sector and we care immensely that here at Charity Horizons we can offer you that support you need, that new beginning, that new horizon. And it would seem people need that now more than ever.
Why now?
I’m sure it came as no great surprise to our friends and family, with our history of disastrous luck and track record of hilarious catastrophes (cast your mind back to the odd shoe anecdote), that we would be thrown a further curve ball as we came to launch our business. But I think the severity and magnitude of that curve ball none of us could have anticipated. This situation we now find ourselves in has made those sleepless nights all the more confusing and upsetting. Of course we felt the impact of Covid-19 on a personal level, and as days went on, the devastation to the sector we love and know so well also became apparent. To ‘launch’ during this global pandemic at times felt as though it could be perceived as somewhat self-indulgent or naive to the situation. Yet simultaneously we felt it to be our only option – an opportunity to provide support to the sector we love and respect so greatly. So launch it is… certainly not in the early days to make a profit, perhaps not even to do recruitment, but instead to be there to support our candidates and clients when they need it the most. We certainly don’t have the answers when it comes to combating the challenges of Covid-19, and we can’t provide the solution for how to grow and develop your career in the current climate. But what we can provide is a listening ear, an insight into what we have learnt from working in the sector, some assistance with the re-integration into ‘norm’ (whatever that might look like), and our unrivalled commitment to supporting you with whatever you need right now.
The majority of our ideas and notes for building our business have been written in a book with a cover that reads ‘In the end we only regret the chances we didn’t take’ – this couldn’t be more poignant. Not to launch, might be one of those missed opportunities that we’d live to regret and here at Charity Horizons regret simply isn’t in our vocabulary.
