Goho Turns 3
The Story of How a Boutique PR, Marketing & Events Agency Managed to Survive COVID.
Well, another year older, uglier, wiser and downright smarter. I have learnt a lot this year, both as an individual, and a business owner, and I’m also sighing with relief at completing another year. I love working for myself, but boy it’s stressful.
According to a survey by CBInsights, over 60% of all businesses fail within 3 years. And yet, we’ve managed to survive, in spite of Covid, Brexit, lockdowns, me moving house (super stressful), a few storms, and god knows what else.
I read my blog from our birthday last year, I made a pledge at the end, it read
“My pledge is we will be in the 40% of businesses that survive, I will keep investing in my people, with training, learning, team-building, coaching and mentoring, We will keep growing, both in terms of clients and personnel, we will stand up for what we believe in, working with clients that fit our values, and ensure our workforce is representative of those values, we will keep pushing ourselves, and all without losing the essence of what makes us Goho.”
Now I don’t want to sound smug, but we absolutely bloody nailed it. I once had a boss who declared she had never missed a target, before missing every.single.one. (How’s that for egg on your face). And I must confess, I was wary I’d pledged too much or got too big for my boots, but alas, it was all alright. We did it.
I’m not going to tell you it was easy, and we sailed through. There were some hairy moments. And there again was a period when I stopped paying myself so I could ensure cash flow was strong enough to pay the teams salaries etc. But I stuck to my gut, stuck to our brand values, kept pushing for what I and we as a team believed in. I invested in coaching and training for the team, I closed the business for 2 weeks at Christmas so they could all switch off properly, I ended contracts with some (mostly our largest) clients as they treated my team unfairly and with disrespect, I implemented a new bonus scheme for all staff, not just sales, and everyone got a pay rise. We still came out on top. Lots of business coaches and more experienced business owners would tell me I was mad, closing a small business that provides a service is suicide they told me. It wasn’t. By putting my people before profit, we’ve actually managed to grow, and grow successfully. Clients want to work with us, and employees want to work for us. Goho is slowly getting there, and becoming one of the top boutique PR, Marketing and Events Agencies in the UK.
This year’s turnover is up almost 300% year on year, our profits are healthy and we have a strong, stable, educated team that are supported by continuous learning opportunities. We’ve proactively reached out to clients we want to work with, that fit our values, that we can be passionate about and that we enjoy being around. (No-one wants to rep a brand who they can’t stand being in the presence of). We’ve particularly enjoyed working with brands whose founders come from under-represented groups, only 14% of small and medium sized businesses are led by a woman, and only 8% of UK Small business employers are led by those from minority ethnic groups. That means an awful lot of white men are running business in the UK. We’ve set out to support the minority with affordable packages that can help them grow and get them a seat at the table with the rest of the pale, stale brigade. We proudly offer a minimum of 20% discounts to these businesses and if we are able, will even provide our support free of charge.
We still have so much to do, I’ve been working on our strategy and have enlisted the help of a few absolute superstars to help me with that. But the future right now feels exciting. Don’t get me wrong, I’m worried, the world seems to be falling apart but I’m quietly excited to see the small victories and positive impacts myself and the Goho team can successfully have on the planet. Watch this space.
