As one of the UK’s 5.5 million small businesses (sub 50 employees), 2024 wasn’t the easiest of rides. However, in the spirit of looking ahead with positivity, it is worth reflecting on the unexpected benefits of navigating such conditions. Adversity might not be comfortable, but it can be a catalyst for much needed change.
Running a small business in the UK in 2024 was challenging, thanks to a cocktail of economic headwinds; an unexpected NI hit in the new government’s budget, the high cost of living and poor market confidence. For a small sustainability communications firm like ours, the pressures of last year required adaptability alongside a bucket of resilience. Yet, as we wake up to the first business day of 2025, we look ahead feeling confident that good communications is vital for the dawning realisation that sustainability is not a moral imperative, it’s a strategic imperative for organisations seeking long-term success.
Resilience is what powers progress when budgets tighten and clients grow cautious. In practical terms, resilience means improving processes, building a team that’s both adaptable and skilled, and fostering a culture that embraces change rather than fears it. Events of the past few years have forced many businesses to scrutinise their foundations. For some, this has led to painful cuts. For others, it’s been a chance to identify the inefficiencies that creep in during easier times. For us, 2024 was the year we certified our whole group as a B Corp. Just going through that process is extremely helpful in making you question long held practices, challenging yourself to do better on governance, people and the environment.
Being independent and debt free means that we do have the agility to introduce the changes we need with speed, not all businesses have that level of freedom. Sometimes difficult decisions can be painful and a handful of our team made sacrifices to ensure that no redundancies were made.
Resilience isn’t just about endurance though. It’s about learning from adversity and turning lessons into advantages. In our case, this meant being much more proactive in seeking out like minded partners with complementary skills to joint bid with, broadening our geographical reach with projects completed in LATAM as well as seven countries in Africa, alongside the UK and US. It’s meant being a little less modest about the impressive work our team does, shaking off that imposter syndrome and being braver about what we think, even if it might be contrary to popular opinion. And of course, we are looking increasingly to new technologies to streamline our operations and finding values aligned firms to work with on this.
As a certified B Corp, we’ve committed to balancing profit with purpose, requiring regular reassessment of practices—from sustainability to governance—so we’re always striving for better. Noone wants to go backwards when it comes to recertifying. That mindset has proved invaluable during economic uncertainty.
Our core focus on supporting earth and society positive innovation, technologies and business has enabled us to appeal to clients who share similar values, creating a deeper sense of partnership even when budgets are under pressure. The certification also reinforces trust with stakeholders, who see our commitments as a hallmark of credibility. We had one new business meeting with a financial services firm which only wanted to work with B Corps. So yes, it’s a foot in the door. The very process of drafting our annual impact report helps keep feet to the fire on commitments as well as providing a moment to give ourselves some credit for all that we have done. For us 2025 will be the year we measure our scope 3 emissions, and we’ve started reviewing and refining our digital presence to reduce energy-intensive data usage, teaming up with Ecosend, for example, to monitor the carbon footprint of our email campaigns. Additionally, we’re launching ‘conscious contracts’ for both employees and clients—clear, values-driven agreements that emphasize transparency while staying fully compliant with legal standards.
The B Corp framework also encourages long-term thinking. In turbulent periods, it’s tempting to make decisions that solve the problems staring you in the face but that can create tomorrow’s issues. Instead, we’ve focused on developing a new service innovation which is aligned with both our values and our strategy and will be launched soon.
So, if necessity is the mother of invention, perhaps it’s equally true to say that adversity can be the mother of innovation. Bring on 2025!
