After a couple of weeks back in the flow of things, we have taken some time to think about the three words that culminate our strategy and goals for the next year. This is something that Joanne has done for years, after a business coach encouraged her to fit all her goals for one year, into just three words.
Last year saw so many changes to the identity of the business – for starters we got a whole new name! So, as it’s the time for resolutions, now feels like the perfect opportunity to reflect on our experiences and look ahead to where 2025 could take The Indispensary.
As you can see in the blog, “My three words for 2024″ our words for last year were Impact, Identity and Anchored.
Impact:
We wanted to change the way we think about success as a business, to start measuring our achievements through our impact. This is cemented in two key questions: Who could we be supporting? And what are our values? During our rebrand, there was plenty of opportunity to reevaluate the values of the company, and to consider what is most important to us, in running a successful business.
Working with people that ‘do good’ has become a priority for the business and has helped us focus on the reason behind the work that we do.
The Indispensary wanted to make a personal ‘Impact’ by bringing on students at the University of Exeter as interns, to show students what working for a great employer is like.
Last year, we bought on another intern, Katie, who, alongside Maddy and Joanne, have developed marketing strategies including weekly newsletters, blogs and social media plans, with a focus on supporting charities through this particularly grueling time for the sector.
We’ve also donated to charities that are close to our heart, including supporting Maddy’s charity The Lusaka Eagles, a football academy in Zambia, by providing school uniforms for 5 children last Christmas.
The value of doing good has become an integral part of the company’s mission, something we now continually integrate into our strategy. That’s why we are including it in our 3 words for 2025 too.
Identity:
We rebranded! New name, new fonts, new colours, new identity.
Encapsulating our mission to make a big impact and support more charities, we have worked to form a new identity that reflects these values. Working with Kayleigh Lloyd, Maddy and Joanne began developing the new company brand in early 2024. The official rebrand launched in June with a new website, name and set of core missions and values. We’re so pleased with how this rebrand went and how it’s been received (people tell us they love the name – credit to Jodie Newman for this one!) and can’t wait to see how the identity will continue to strengthen throughout the coming year.
Anchored:
After internal discussions, it’s clear that this word ‘Anchored’, is the one we didn’t quite reach our goals on. By focusing on reimagining the face of the company and who we want to be working with, there is still lots to consolidate when it comes to setting the foundations of our processes. We wanted to be in a strong position technologically, with more of a focus on automation and the use of AI within our processes.
This is something we have already begun to pick at in the last few weeks, and we’ll be thinking back to ‘Anchored’ throughout the year.
So what are our words of 2025?
Intention:
In the next year, we will be looking forward intentionally. We’re planning to spend more time making strategic decisions and developing our understanding of our values, into actionable decisions and progress. The word ‘Intention’ encapsulates how we want to be more logical, organised and practical in our decision making. We want to reach out to more charities who we think may benefit from our support, and to champion their messages and values within our social media and communications. We will be continuing our work with a business coach, to learn more about strategic marketing decisions that could help our business grow and utilise this in our support of our clients.
Impact:
In the last year, we have realised how important our ‘Impact’ is. From choosing to work with more charities, to our impact in the Virtual Assistant community, we know that this is something that we need to continue focussing on.
That is why this year, we have renewed our membership of The Good Business Charter, and the Living Wage Foundation, and we are already bringing on more charity clients, and thinking about our impact on the wider community. We are aiming to make more donations to the charities that are important to members of our team by supporting charities alongside client work and perhaps doing some fundraising ourselves.
Aligning The Indispensary with this value for a second year is crucial in our goals in working with, and helping to develop, charities and small businesses who ‘do good.’
Creativity:
Now that we know who we are, and what we want to achieve, it’s time to find creative ways to increase engagement and share the word about the fantastic ways Virtual Assistants can benefit organisations. We want to make more strategic use of AI and automations, we want to be creative about how we reach out to potential clients and share the essential work that virtual assistants do. And we want make sure we are making most of the tools we already have access to.
These are the three words which will guide us though 2025. We will reflect on where the business is again in a year’s time, hopefully by then we’ll be working with intension, creativity and a bigger focus on our impact thanks to this year’s 3 words.
How do you reflect on your year? Maybe you have three words for your personal or professional development in 2025? Do share those with us.
