Sowing the seeds for growth

Here we are in March with Spring just around the corner and we’ve been getting ready to send out seeds to those who want to take part in our Great Giant Sunflower Grow-Off 2023 and also talking about what we are sowing in our gardens at the moment.

And it got me thinking about the growth of Pro-Development, from the little seed that was planted back in 2011 to how we have grown to become the business we are today.  I thought it might be worth sharing some of my journey and the lessons I have taken from growing our business.

I left the corporate world back in 2011 to set up the business and it was through some coaching I was having myself, that I spent time thinking about my values and what mattered to me.  It may sound quite strong but coaching literally changed my life!  It helped me to find the passion, confidence and belief in myself.  From day one I had very strong values and I started to work on a vision of where I was heading to.  I did this initially through a vision board and it never ceases to amaze me how powerful it is to create a vision for success.  At the time my vision had felt like a hugely ambitious one but within a year, I had achieved everything on that vision board!

Lesson one:  Don’t be afraid to get help and advice. 

There is so much support out there if you are open to it.  And if you haven’t experienced coaching, you might want to invest some time in yourself as a leader – it literally was life changing for me.  And if you haven’t got a clear vision and values, then we can help with this – it is key to recruitment, retention, and engagement of your people.

In our early days we were approached to work on a significant 12-month change project with the Cabinet Office.  We were blown away to be asked and it took us across the UK delivering a ‘Train the Trainer Programme’ for electoral services managers. We were even nominated for an award.  However, it took the business in a direction we hadn’t intended, and it was only really when we looked back at our vision, that we realised the impact!

Lesson two: Have a clear vision and purpose and know what matters.

It will help you to keep focussed on where you are going and ensure you don’t stray too much off course!  We had definitely been wooed by the bright lights of the big city!  But the impact it had on the business that year and our pipeline activity was a hard but good learning!  So find a way to bring your vision to life – I can highly recommend a vision board 😊 but find ways to keep it alive too!

From the back of my garage, I worked like crazy to get Pro-Development out into the world (well, Yorkshire and the Humber anyway!).  And I networked within an inch of my life!  You need to get to know people, identify who you can work with and then build trust with them.    When I won the Business Personality of the Year award in 2018, I was asked why I thought I was such a popular choice … of course, I very eloquently said “I don’t know!!” but was then saved by someone who shouted “because she’s awesome”.  It reinforced that I knew many of the people in the room.  I have met so many wonderful people who I have since built strong relationships with.  And for me, that’s what it is about.  People and relationships.  It’s people that matter.  Many of us here would not be here without the support of some great people and it is too easy to forget to make time for and be grateful for the people in our lives.   And, 11 years later, I am still networking, and it has paid dividends.

Lesson three: Always make time to network and build relationships.

Find the networking groups that work for you and stick to them so you can continue to build strong relationships.  You won’t always find your client out networking but you might find some great partners, suppliers and referrers!  And that takes time so put in the effort and be in for the long game with this one.  And, whether it’s your clients and customers, your suppliers, your team, your peers, your manager, your family, your friends, surround yourself with brilliant people – people who are add value, bring something to the table, who are positive and make a difference.  Then, make sure you let them know how much you value them – after all, its people that matter in life.

And talking of people, I always had in my mind that I wanted a team of 10 people – a team of like-minded, creative and talented people who all brought something different to Pro-Development.  And I worked really hard at finding and attracting the right people.  People who were closely aligned to the values that I treasured so dearly from those early days.  This also led to me securing a business partner last year which was the best decision because of the difference it has made.  And for me, I had a real moment at our 10^th Birthday party last year when I realised I had achieved my vision of 10 amazing people (and had actually just recruited our 11^th!).

Lesson four: Recruit the best people who fit with your values first.

Now more than ever, this is so important – to find people who fit the culture of your business – who have strongly aligned values.  Skills can be developed and learnt but values are inherent in who we are.  We always say that nobody is better than the wrong body!

And this leads me onto another key part of our journey.  And that is about developing people.  And, as you would imagine, we have done oodles of that with our clients over the years but also with our own team.  Whether it’s on the job training, support for development, qualifications, apprenticeships, training from others, team building, developing your leaders, we do it all.  And thankfully, so do many of our clients.  Many business leaders say they lose their people because of pay, but we know from the research that in the majority of instances, this is just not the case.  Most businesses are losing talent because they don’t invest in them, and they don’t think they have opportunities to grow or feel valued.

Lesson five: Invest in your team.

They are the key to everything.  Losing talent is not something we want to risk.  Do you?

Running a business is a rollercoaster of a ride!  It has the most incredible ups but can have some challenging downs too.  But I would not change it for the world.  It has been the best part of my work journey to date – the last 11 years have been a whirlwind and sometimes I have to pinch myself when I look at what we have achieved.  And, I love every minute, even when its tough!

Lesson six: Enjoy the journey, wherever it takes you!

Be open to new ideas and always challenging yourself.  And most importantly, as you might have read in February’s blogs, do what you love!

Whatever you take from this blog, please remember, we are here to help in any way we can.  We can support you with coaching, we can help you retain your talent with employee engagement projects and we can help develop you, your leaders, your people or your team.  Just get in touch and we can discuss your challenges or what you are looking to achieve and take it from there.