What We Learned In 2020

The year no one will forget is over and as a relatively young business it’s fair to say that we’re always learning in one way or another, but in a year that has been unlike any other we’ve ever experienced here’s what we’re taking with us into 2021

Goals are great, but so is being able to pivot

December 2019 and we were making plans, we’d already engaged with several events and had based our Q1 strategy largely around our involvement with those events but come February 2020 those plans were evaporating FAST, within weeks we brought on and lost event partners as a result of COVID-19 and with the UK wide lockdown on 23rd March we had to do things differently. We’ve always aligned ourselves with live events but our product is a platform – it can be used anywhere, we didn’t need to be in-person to support these events, in fact, no one was there in person! And so began our professional pivot into virtual events, it’s changed our offering as a business and we learned the true flexibility of our product.

Investing in knowledge – will always move your business forward

When things are tough, it’s not the time to let your trusted advisors go – and we know that’s easy to say when the bottom line is healthy, but hear us out, like a lot of businesses in 2020 we’ve seen a bumpy bottom line at times but took the conscious decision to keep investing in knowledge from the people that we work with to the networks that we’re a part of. It can seem that when times are tough, that the best idea is to close the door for a while and just plough on and survive, time might seem better spent at the desk than on yet another zoom event, but we’ve found that with the right knowledge it is possible to thrive – yes even in 2020!

Community is everything

Our sister brand Female Tech Founder was created to provide a place for founders just like our Founder Chi-Chi, to come and share stories, advice and make connections but if we are honest prior to 2020 it probably felt more like an event that we ran – which was really great. Let’s just say we underestimated the impact it could really have. 2020 has shown us that the strength in community can be a hugely positive force in our lives. Having moved our event to virtual from March 2020, so many amazing people continued to join us and our community grew even bigger but most importantly in a year where many of us felt isolated, we were able to create connection and a truly safe space for people.

It’s fine to take time for yourself

2020 has been a hard year, for everyone, through our events we’ve met so many different people this year and heard so many different accounts of how 2020 has been for them but a common theme from almost everyone has been that 2020 has taught them to take time for themselves – and to know that, that’s ok!

COVID-19 actually gave the gift of time, even in the midst of running businesses or home-schooling, some things simply got erased from our lives and our calendars and forced us to stop. For some of us those stops may have been sitting in a chair and reading a book in the hour you may have commuted to work, for others, it’s a been a huge full stop in a chapter of their lives, always wanted to move to the country? 2020 might just have been the year you upped and did it!

And so, as we start 2021, we are feeling grateful for what we’ve learned but also looking ahead and taking those learnings with us. So Thank you 2020 you were a challenge for sure but we made it!