Conscious Solutions: Reflections on 2016
For you, is NYE a time of reflection on the year gone or planning for the year ahead? For me it’s both.
Our financial year is to 31-Dec and this year looks like being our best yet from a revenue perspective. We’ve made some additional people investments in our business in the second half of the year in preparation for more growth in 2017, so profits have not (quite) followed revenue growth, but that’s OK. We have not completely finalised our 2016 P&L but it looks like we will have achieved 10% revenue growth and are planning for at least that in 2017.
Planning for the future is obviously important but it’s also important to look back on the last year and reflect on what allowed our business to function so well. In no particular order we :-
smashed our sales target of 40 new website clients (52 actual) with a big shout out to Rich Dibbins.
helped two team members survive cancer challenges
improved our retention rate to 89% (85% in 2015)
supported four team members through relationship breakups
increased income from our Marketing Services (PPC, SEO, Social Media) by 42.6%
helped two team members realise that they were not enjoying what they were doing for us and that a more enjoyable future laid elsewhere
lifted our income from new website builds by 30.3%
one team member decided all by themselves that their future lay elsewhere and having joined us as an apprentice got themselves a place on a degree course at UWE
continued to develop the Conscious Platform as a strong alternative to open source content management systems that do not have the range of law firm specific modules ‘ready to go’
added 8 new team members (net difference of +5) over the year. Mostly back end loaded in the year
gave away/lost another five orange dogs 😉
had a blast with a Valentine’s Day marketing campaign
attended 61 separate legal sector networking events throughout the year. This year’s currently planned schedule is on our On The Road page.
introduced a policy allowing staff two days paid leave a year for charity work
Overall, Conscious has had another great year. Could things have been better, certainly. Does the legal sector have it’s challenges, of course. And, as a ‘single sector’ business, we have to be mindful of that and help our clients respond to those challenges – but I am confident that 2017 will be a year of further progress.
The thing I am most proud of? The team Andrew and I have assembled around us many of whom I hope will be with us for a long time. Who knows, perhaps some of them will go on and work together for as long as Andrew Gray and I have. We celebrate 25 years as friends and colleagues on 2-Jan.
